Husband and I are in the middle of a “No Spend Month.” I’ve read that the first week is always the hardest, but so far we are doing pretty well. We’ve cut back on the amount we go out to eat now that little one is getting more of a personality. We never know what to expect out of him so sometimes it’s easier to just stay home so not going out to eat hasn’t really hurt as much as I thought it would. I am trying to liven things up at home in the food department so I decided to scour my pantry for the ingredients I needed to make a tasty treat.
Martha Stewart’s recipe for Slow Cooker Triple Chocolate Brownies has been hanging out on one of my Pinterest boards for a while so I decided to give it a try. The only thing I was missing was eight ounces of bittersweet chocolate, so I substituted with half a cup of Nutella. The brownie batter was very easy to make. The time intensive part came when it was time to cook the brownies. Not what I was expecting out of a slow cooker recipe.
I read a few reviews for the recipe and a majority of them were about the cooking time and the brownies burning on the edges. I checked on the brownies about every half hour and my nose told me that at two and a half hours I needed to take the lid off or risk severely scorched edges. I was a nervous wreck for the next thirty minutes. The middle didn’t look cooked enough (it wasn’t) and the edges still smelled burnt. When I finally took the insert out of the slow cooker and put it on the cooling rack I knew I had to just walk away for the night.
The next day the truth came out. The edges were a little burnt and the middle was still a little gooey. I did manage to find a silver lining. Husband will eat baked goods if they are burnt, he’s not too terribly picky, and the gooey middle was divine with vanilla ice cream. The part between the middle and edges was wonderful. Just the brownie I was looking for!
In the end, I decided that if you really want to eat brownies in the summer the crock pot is the way to go. Our oven is gas and that means that it warms up our house nicely. I like to bake in the winter because of the extra heat the oven generates. In the summer that extra heat is miserable. So if I get a brownie craving in the summer I may try these again. Or I might just venture to the sweet shop downtown.
Nonstick cooking spray
1 ¼ cups flour ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon coarse salt
½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup Nutella
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup walnut halves, coarsely chopped
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Lightly coat a 5-quart slow-cooker insert with cooking spray. Line bottom with parchment paper and lightly coat with spray.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
Place butter and nutella in a medium microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30 second increments, stirring after each, until chocolate is melted. Add sugar and stir to combine. Stir in eggs. Add flour mixture, walnuts, and chocolate chips and stir just until moistened (do not overmix). Transfer to slow cooker and smooth top.
Cover and cook on low, 2 ½ hours. Uncover and cook 30 minutes. Remove insert from slow cooker and run a knife around edge to loosen brownies. Let cool completely in insert on a wire rack, about 2 hours. Turn out onto a work surface and cut into 14 brownies.
Note from Martha - The center may look undercooked when time is up, but it will be perfect once cooled.
Adapted from http://www.marthastewart.com/341223/slow-cooker-triple-chocolate-brownies?czone=food/comfort-foods-center/comfort-foods-dishes
No comments:
Post a Comment