Yes, you heard right...to die for...Here in Indonesia, the term 'brownies' is used very loosely to describe a number of chocolate-y items. Mostly they are chocolate cake cooked in a tray. They are spongey and lacking in taste or flavour. To be blunt, they are vile. I wouldn't eat them personally nor buy them for friend or even foe. They are that bad, probably due to the fact that lots of cakes here are baked using this terrifying substance called 'Blue Band' which I suppose is a type of margarine but tastes synthetic and the other frightful ingredient would be 'chocolate compound' again synthetic-like and tasteless...I like to call it plastic chocolate.
Brownies, should NEVER resemble in any way 'cake' for they are in a category entirely of their own. There is nothing spongey about brownies. Instead there is a crunchy, chewy exterior and a soft, gooey interior. That, to me, is the perfect brownie texture. I chuckle like a snob behind my palms when someone plops a spongey, mildly chocolate square in front of me and dares to be so bold as to call it a 'brownie', the audacity, really! How can they not know? Then whoever has created the spongey square tries to cover up the lack of flavour by smearing some chocolate frosting on the top...no, no, no. The beauty of the brownie is in its spectacular ability to stand alone and yet fully satisfy. A sprinkling of icing sugar on the top is purely for decorative value, the best of brownies needs nothing else.
However, when a friend arrives to visit and brings a bag of pure bliss (aka Reese's peanut butter cups) I find myself trying to find a worthwhile recipe to use them in so I don't just sit down in a quiet corner and devour the whole bag shamelessly. Enter the brownie and not just any brownie but quite possibly the most delicious brownie I have tasted in a long time. I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen blog and it sounded too good not to try. I stuck to it exactly with the addition of the pure bliss (aka Reese's peanut butter cups) being the only change. Oh god...so much for my great idea...when these brownies came out of the tray I found myself wanting to seek out that quiet corner even more and devour peanut butter cup brownies instead. Luckily I work with a number of people and I forced myself to slice up the brownies promptly and hide them away in a tupperware to bring to share, delighting at every piece that crumbled a bit as I cut it and made me have to do some evening out...the uneven bits being entirely for me, of course.
If you make one batch of brownies in your life, it really must be this one. That's all I need to say to you. What? You are still actually reading this? Just go! Do it now!
No comments:
Post a Comment