Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 TBSP corn starch
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 2/3 cup milk
• 4 egg yolks, beaten (We’ll get into this, don’t worry)
• 1 TBSP butter
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

To separate your yolk from the white. Carefully crack your egg in half over a bowl. Keep the yolk in one half and let the white drizzle into the bowl.

Gently pour the yolk into the other half to finish removing the egg white. Then tip the yolk into another container. 

Some people advise using a separator, but it’s one of those tools that is nice, but certainly not a necessity. If you have a separator, simply crack your egg and gently pour the white and yolk into the center, the white will run off and the yolk will be caught nicely in the middle. Some cool kids catch the yolk in their loosely cupped fingers, which is absolutely fine if you are good about washing your hands. If you are saving your egg whites for a meringue, always seperate over a third container just in case the yolk breaks. Even a smidge of yolk will drastically affect the volume of beaten egg whites.

Give your 4 egg yolks a quick stir and set aside.

In a heavy saucepan, gently add and whisk together the sugar, corn starch, and cocoa powder. Turn the heat to medium and add the milk.

Stir frequently and cook until the mixture has thickened and is bubbly / frothy. Then keep up the same thing for another two minutes. (Exciting, eh?)

Take your pan off the burner and place it somewhere safe, we’re not done yet. Here is the important part, so pay attention. Ladle about one cup of your chocolatey milk mixture SLOWLY into your egg yolks while giving them a good stir. This is a crucial step, if you skip it, you’ll have chocolate scrambled eggs and if that sounds appetizing to you, I’m not sure we can be friends. 

Once you’ve added your cup of milk to the eggs, dump that mixture into your saucepan, give it a good stir, and return to medium heat until you reach a gentle boil. Boil for two minutes, remove from heat, add your vanilla and butter, then pour into a bowl. Cover the surface with plastic wrap and allow to set.

You can serve this warm or cold.  If you’re a fan of cold pudding chill it for four hours.

Enjoy.

I love making brownies; it makes the house smell so good! I’ve got everything in my cupboard; I’ll try to make them tomorrow.
Got a question for you all, when I make brownies, often the outer edges are done way before the center is; the edges are overcooked and the center is just done. Am I doing something wrong? It happens with cakes in my 9×13 pan, too. Do you experience this, too?

Signed,

Burnice the Baker
Heather says:

Many people prefer the slightly more done texture of brownie edges, hence the popularity of the Edge Brownie pan, but there is a distinct difference between well done and over done. Here a couple of possibilities. Home ovens are not always calibrated correctly, the next time you are out, purchase a thermometer that hangs from your oven rack. Use this thermometer to check your oven’s setting.  

Additionally surface area matters in baking. It’s very important to either use the pan called for in a recipe or to adjust the cook time. The more surface of the batter in contact with the pan and open to the heat of the oven the faster the item will cook. 

Our basic brownie recipe is designed for a 9×13 pan. When checking brownies for doneness the center should be set, but it may appear soft. Use a toothpick and insert it into the very center of the pan. Very moist crumbs are ok, but raw batter is not. When you near the end of the cook time, only return the brownies for two minutes at a time and err on the side of underdone.

Good luck!

Signed,

Cookie Monster’s Sister

Ivy says:

It’s true, some cookies travel better than others. In general, you want to send cookies that are not fragile or delicate, that have some moisture to them, but not too much. And if you are shipping during extremely warm weather, nothing that might get too melty.

In case you need recipes, here’s several that will travel well: chocolate chip cookies, brownies, oatmeal cookies, biscotti, snickerdoodles, chocolate no-bake cookies. (And our newfound ability to print pages without images should make it a snap for you to print them out!)

A word (or 50) on packing them to ship: you’ll want to pack them in tins, bags, or boxes separate from the shipping box you will use. Pack them tightly, because you don’t want them to move much during the shipping process. Then use packing peanuts or lots of paper to keep the boxes or tins from moving as well. I find when shipping cookies in tins, if you put some plastic wrap over the top and then put the lid on, you get a tighter seal and they stay fresher longer.

Hope the Cookie Monster loves his cookies!

Second, I finally learned enough CSS to create a printer friendly format. Now all of our recipes are printable and won’t waste ink or paper with pictures or sidebar information. 

Enjoy!

Thanks to everyone who entered last week’s giveaway. The winner, by random number generation is:

Congratulations Stacy. The e-mail demanding kindly asking for your shipping address is from me, not some crazy stalker. Well, as long as it starts with Heather. 

Those of you who didn’t win can buy the CD for 15% off via their site.

Enjoy!

Brownie

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• OPTIONAL Stir-ins
  2 cups of chocolate chips
  1 cup of roughly chopped walnuts

Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease a 9×13 baking pan. Place your butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. While your butter is melting measure the cocoa, salt, and baking powder into your mixing bowl. Give them a quick stir with a fork to ensure the salt and baking powder are evenly distributed.

Crack your eggs into a measuring cup, add your 1 TBSP of vanilla, and also give this a brief stif to break the yolks.

Measure out your 1 1/2 cups of flour, but just hang onto it for now.

Make sure your thermometer doesn't touch the pan itself.

Has your butter melted yet? Good. Add your 2 1/4 cups white sugar to the butter and stir until well mixed. If you’re nervous about getting the mixture too hot, go ahead and use a thermometer. You are shooting for somewhere between 110°F and 120°F. Whatever you do, do not bring this to a boil. This step is to give the sugar a headstart dissolving, but not to finish the job.

Carefully scrape your butter and sugar into your mixing bowl that has the cocoa, salt, and baking powder. Mix on low until just combined. If you don’t have mixer this one is a cinch to stir by hand as there are no long mixing times. Slowly add your eggs. Estimate about one egg per addition, it does not have to be precise.

Add the flour and stir until just mixed. Use a spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl once while mixing.

Pour into your greased 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350°F for 30 - 35 minutes. Use a toothpick to test the center of the pan. If there is batter on the tooth pick, return to the oven for 2 minutes.

Place the pan on a rack to cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing (use a plastic knife to avoid scratching your pan) and allow to cool completely.

Enjoy

Last week was fantastic, even if I had the mother of all colds that has drug on for what feels like weeks. Whine much Heather? You haven’t heard the half of it.
Today we’re finishing off the leftover creations including a Southwestern inspired creamy turkey soup that I may have to wrestle my husband for. Seriously, I’m going to have to figure out an exact recipe to share with you, but it will be chicken to make things easier.

Remember, unless your leftovers are new dishes made from Thanksgiving, it’s time to get rid of them. No one saves money with a trip to the hospital.  

• Monday - C.O.R.N.*
• Tuesday - Chicken lo mein**, snow peas
• Wednesday - spaghetti with meatballs, garlic bread, Caesar salad
• Thursday - Blackened pork chops, rice with tomato gravy, green beans
• Friday - Pan fried fish, mashed potatoes, peas with almonds
• Saturday - Split pea soup, cornbread
• Sunday - Pot roast, pan roasted vegetables, rolls

So Home Eccers, tell us what is on your menu. If you have a blog, feel free to use the handy Mr. Linky, if not, just give us the run down in the comments. Reading menus helps keep us from getting into a culinary rut and lets us share favorite and tested recipes. Be sure to check out menus complete with shopping list at Blissfully Domestic and head over to Organizing Junkie for an amazing collection of menus.

*Clean Out the Refrigerator Night
**I am very excited, my local grocery store has finally expanded their Asian section.

Let’s hear how your Thanksgiving went! Was it fabulous, or were there some mishaps? Mine was fab, since I went to my mom’s and all was taken care of. We brought a pie, which my cousin had brought down from Indianapolis (sugar cream pie, apparently you can only get them in Indy, unless you make it yourself- and nothing is the same as a Wick’s sugar cream pie), so my hardest job was making sure I took it out of the freezer to defrost in time. And I did remember, so all turned out well.

So, let’s hear it from you home eccers how your Thanksgiving went. Already have a post up about it on your blog? We have a handy dandy Mr. Linky:

It is time to use ‘em or lose ‘em. Here are some guidelines, and recipes for using up Thanksgiving leftovers. Substitute turkey in any of the chicken recipes below.

• Turkey should be frozen or used within 2 - 6 days.
• Frozen cooked turkey should be used within 2 months and should be cooked thoroughly, immediately after thawing.
• If you have gravy, leftover mashed potatoes, or stuffing they should have been used within 1 - 2 days after Thanksgiving. Toss them out.
• Cranberry sauce can be stirred into yogurt, served over ice cream, or it makes a nice accompaniment to pork chops, ham, chicken, or fish. It should be used within 7 days. (The sugar acts as a preservative.)

Enjoy!

Home improvement was the name of the game today at my house. Today we’re dipping into the archives.

Drop cookies refer to the method they are placed on the cookie sheet. Some are rolled into balls, other pressed into circles, still others are rolled out and cut into shapes. These are scooped and dropped onto the baking sheet. Soft and moist, these chocolate cookies are somewhat delicate right out of the oven. Use care when moving to the rack where they will firm up, some. These would be great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

• 1/2 cup butter - softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar - packed
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup Special Dark cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Cream the butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy. This should take about two minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and stir until just combined.

In another bowl mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Add to the batter and mix gently until just combined.

Spoon by rounded tablespoon onto an ungreaesed cookie sheet. Bake for 10 - 11 minutes.

Allow to cool for five minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.