On Monday, I left you with a cheesecake. I wished mother's a belated Happy Mother's Day. And all of a sudden, it's been three days since I've posted. Huh. Well here I be! I haven't neglected you. I've been tweeting, facebook-ing, taking pictures, and of course, baking like a madwoman. There's a whole lot more that goes into blogging than meets the eye.
Aaanddd I'm now co-administrator of the Sundays with Joy group. Heck yes! This calls for celebration, of the brownie variety. Maybe of Joy the Baker's Rocky Road Brownie variety.
Let me talk to you about these brownies, because I just gotta.
Like any good Joy recipe, we're starting off with butter. A stick and half, chopped up, and covered with cocoa powder. Don't be scared of the coffee, it only enhances the chocolate flavor. No icky coffee-ness, if that's not your thing. Pinky swear!
We're making pretty designs when we add the somewhat lumpy melted chocolate to the sugar/egg mixture. Beauty!
In come the dry ingredients. The flour here keeps reminding me of ice cream.
This batter is from thickety thickville, some squidging (absolutely a real word) via rubber spatula is required.
Once you've squoodged your batter into submission, pile on the chocolate! Because, you know, brownies aren't chocolate-y enough anyway.
We're going for fudge-y here, so bake until just a few crumbs come off of an inserted toothpick.
While your fudge-y brownies are still super hot and fresh from the oven, get your broiler roaring and pile on the marshmallows! Ohhh yes. This is absolutely the best part.
P.S. If you're a fancypants kitchen torch owner, that is an acceptable alternative method.
Now, when that broiler is hot, it's...hot. We've all had the burning marshmallow on the end of a stick, don't recreate that effect in the oven. Mkay? These will brown in seconds, be good to your mallows.
Now, these brownies have been through a lot. So don't go at them with a knife right away, let them rest and cool down a bit! I know it's hard, but let's be considerate.
As for cutting these, you'll need hot running water and a clean, damp cloth. There's no neat way to do this, there just isn't. And that's the beauty of it! There's no beauty in a "neat" s'more, right? You want it ooey, gooey, and all over your face. That's how it is, folks.
Get all up in this gooey marshmallow business.
Rocky Road Brownies
Yield: one 9x13" pan
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks, 12 tbsp.) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons strong coffee, to enhance the chocolate flavor
- 2 large eggs
- 1 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional, but highly recommended)
- 2 cups miniature marshmallows
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan.
Place the butter in a heatproof bowl and sift the cocoa powder over the top. Place over a pot of
simmering water, and make sure that the simmering water does not touch the
bottom of the bowl. Keep it at a gentle simmer only, no boiling! Add the coffee and stir occasionally to help melt the
ingredients. The melted mixture will be lumpy, take a whisk to it and get out what lumps you can, the rest will eventually dissolve on their own.
In a medium sized bowl whisk together the eggs and the sugar. Add the
vanilla extract. When the butter and chocolate have melted and come
together, slowly stir the chocolate mixture into the sugar mixture. Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir to combine, batter will be thick. Fold in the nuts. Pour the batter in the pan, and spread into an even layer. Sprinkle with chocolate chips, if using.
Bake for 18-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs. Remove from the oven and set the oven
to broiler. Sprinkle the top of the hot brownies with miniature
marshmallows. Once the broiler is hot, place the brownies on an
upper shelf close to the broiler heat. Keep the oven open and do not look away. The
marshmallows will brown within 1 to 2 minutes. Remove
from the oven. (Alternativley, this can be done with a kitchen torch.) Let cool to room temperature before cutting.
Use hot running water and a clean cloth to clean the knife blade after each slice into the
cooled brownie. This should help the marshmallow to not stick to the
knife blade. Enjoy!
Sources: adapted from Joy the Baker, who adapted it from Toll House
