Recipe 69 - Supernatural Brownies

I've had this in my recipe bookmarks folder for nearly two years now. I'm not sure why I've never made them apart from having a huge stack of bookmarks. This week I couldn't decide which recipe to choose so I asked a friend to think of a number between 1 and 50. He chose 32. The recipe for Supernatural Brownies, posted here on the Brownie Project and adapted from Nick Malgieri was the 32nd bookmark in the folder so away we go!

We'll need:
226g unsalted butter
226g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
200g granulated sugar
180g firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
120g all-purpose flour

His Results - Sweet Revenge's ''Pure'' Cupcakes & Buttercream

We made some batter

Baked it

Then made some frosting
And piled that on top

And it was good!

The texture on these was great when they were fresh but they went a bit hard really quickly. A lot quicker than most cakes. I enjoyed these but I used really nice Madagascan vanilla. Since the taste of it is so prominant I highly recommend you go for the good stuff!

His Results - Mantecados

I made these in this nice new bowl my Auntie got me for my birthday. I've had it a while and used it quite a lot but I don't think I've shown it off before. It has "Let them eat cake" around the side and is a particularly fetching shade of red. I love using big porcelain bowls for baking. Better than plastic or steel for sure.
The dough was slightly different to make than a lot of biscuit mixes but very simple. It came together pretty quickly. For me at least. She is a lot slower than I am. While she was catching up I cooked up a batch of Tuscan white bean soup and made my packed lunch for the next day.

Then they went into the oven and came out looking rather lovely.


I thought these were yummy. Using shortening obviously means they have a great light, crumbly texture. I wish I'd bumped up the anise flavour a little more. The lemon was spot on though. They're very nice!

Recipe 67 - Mantecados

I wanted to bake these before christmas since they are christmassy treats. Unfortunately we were both mega busy and didn't get much baking time. Never mind, we'll make them now. Better late than never as they say.

The recipe is here. We'll be needing:

• 430g vegetable shortening
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 330g granulated sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 shot glasses of anise (or vodka and anise flavouring)
• 1 lemon peel, grated
• juice from 1 lemon
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 900g unbleached white flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg white, beaten for glaze

That's clearly enough to make about a thousand of the things so I'll make half that I think!

His Results - Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

It seems like a long time since we baked together and made these cookies. I don't remember every detail of them but I do remember that I put the first batch in for longer than called for and they were really over done.

I also remember that they were rapidly devoured at work when I took them in, despite there being a ton of other stuff available with it being christmas.




They were super easy too. I liked them. As with pretty much any cookie or cake a generous sprinkle of nice sea salt flakes does wonders. As does nice brown sugar!

Recipe 66 - Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

It's her turn to choose the recipe this week. She picked this but asked me to put it up here for her. I think she was a little too drunk to be able to see the keys and do it herself.

This recipe is another David Lebovitz one.


We'll need

225 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
150 g granulated sugar
200 g packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
245 g flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
175 g old –fashioned rolled oats (not instant or quick-cooking)
240 g raisins

His results - Jacques Torres' Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is pretty famous I guess. It certainly gets mentioned a lot. Sometimes well regarded recipes like this turn out to be a little bit of a disappointment when you make them yourself. The notoriety seems a little undeserved. Not in this case though.

These were really wonderful cookies. I didn't manage to get a good picture of the finished product sadly. I ate a good proportion of the dough raw and then manage to destroy most of the finished cookes before I took a picture of a baked one. By the time I took this I was down to a single cookie and I wanted to eat it right then. Fancy photography be damned. I wanted a cookie right then.




These are awesome. Bake them now!