TWD: French Chocolate Brownies

Brownies have long been a major weakness of mine. Especially fudgy brownies. gah....heaven on a plate! My hips and thighs are not so appreciative of the brownie induced bliss. So when it was announced that this week's Dorie treat was French Chocolate Brownies picked by Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook, I was quite happy yet a little afraid at the same time. Not afraid because the recipe would be hard...no...I was afraid because I doubted me ability to not eat the whole pan.

However, when I saw that the recipe called for bittersweet chocolate and I had no semisweet to substitute, I felt quite safe. I like my chocolate sweeter. The only thing that remained an obstacle to making the brownies was the raisins. Its not that I don't like raisins, I do. I just prefer to have my brownies either plain or with pecans. Putting raisins in brownies just seemed a little strange and out of place to me. I contemplated subtituting dried cranberries but I was nearly out so they weren't an option. In the end, I just decided to go for the raisins. I was going to get another chance at flambeing them in rum so why not?

Many TWD Bakers mentioned that their brownies had a very crumbly crust. My brownies seemed to have a normal amount of cracks and crumbliness that a brownies usually has on top. I didn't notice anything different. I also noticed that mine baked less than many bakers. They baked for about 30 minutes and were completely done in the middle. To finish mine, I took some frozen raspberries and lightly mashed them to create a chunky sauce.

oh my jeezus! These were so good! The flambed raisins were a nice surprise (arousing according to my taste tester. um..ok.). My favorite part was the raspberry sauce and chocolateyness of the brownie. So good! With out the sauce, the chocolate was to dark and overwhelming for me. I think if I made these again I would use semisweet chocolate so it wouldn't be so much chocolate. They were also a little too cake like for me since I prefer fudgy brownies. Dorie meant them to be a cake so that really isn't a bad thing for the overall brownie.

I decided to freeze the rest of the batch to use in ice cream later on. I think they would be a great add in for vanilla ice cream. I did save one brownie and whipped up so heavy cream to have on top. oh my...

Check out the other TWD Bakers to see all of the delicious brownies. Next week will be La Palette’s Strawberry Tart courtesy of Marie of A Year in Oak Cottage. I've made this one with my youngest sister before and it was delicious! Can't wait!

French Chocolate Brownies

- makes 16 brownies -
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/3 cup raisins, dark or golden
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you're using it.

Put the raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it's better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.

Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.

Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.

Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.

Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they're even fine cold. I like these with a little something on top or alongside—good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!

Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.