Staying grateful and healing through chocolate
Baking is a ritual and rituals are healing. Whether it's your coffee ritual or skincare ritual or spiritual ritual, it brings you comfort. The process of measuring, cutting, and pouring is simple, but a ritual nonetheless. We're all just trying to find comfort in simplicities these days, right? I guess for me that looks like reading a million different brownie recipes and begging the question: Can one make the perfect brownie that suits every taste?
These days I find myself practicing virtues much more, gratitude more than anything. What does it mean to be grateful? "Be grateful!" is a phrase that you hear thrown around by every authority figure that you've ever known, probably in response to some sort of whining. Working with kids, I found myself saying it too. Generally, yes, it is good to be grateful for the things that you have: privilege, material possessions, opportunities etc. Facing a literal global crisis when nearly every single person in the world is inconvenienced, gratitude is both easier and harder to come by. To me, being grateful comes much more simply now and can even feel selfish.
Gratitude has tethered me to reality and humbles me on a daily basis. I don't mean that in a "I'm so grateful because my life fucking rules" way, but I mean that at the moment, it's really easy to get lost in how things affect you. Anxiety. Inconvenience. Fear. Sadness. Exhaustion. All emotions that are justified. We all feel them. Some days more than others and sometimes it feels wrong to feel what you feel when some are working so hard to just to stay afloat or take care of others. For me, gratitude is a gift. I'm grateful for what I can control. Some of which are: being outside, watching the neighborhood kids play, donating to organizations like Serving Up Gratitude (an org that provides meals to healthcare responders) and North Texas Food Bank, and of course, baking.
Can one make the perfect brownie that suits every taste? Hm, a great question. I think...no. So I developed two brownie recipes. This one is chewy and fudgey and perfect (for me).
If you want more fudge and cake, please see my other brownie recipe!
As today marks the second day that Texas has lifted its shelter-in-place warrant, I hope you're continuing to stay safe, take precautions, and baking!
Best,
mal
Best Chewy Fudgey Brownies
Prep Time: 20min
Cook Time: 25-30min
ingredients
2 eggs
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
4 oz (1/2 cup), plus 2oz (1/4 cup) dark chocolate bar, chopped
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
instructions
1. Roughly chop the whole dark chocolate bar into chunks. Set aside.
2. Cut the sticks of butter into large cubes and place in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Let simmer for about 5-8 min until your butter has achieved a golden brown color.
3. Once the butter is browned, toss in 4oz of the chocolate chunks (about half a cup) and let melt completely, stirring pretty consistently. When chocolate and butter are combined, set aside.
4. In a small bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, and salt.
5. In a large mixing bowl, mix light and dark brown sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Mix until thoroughly combined.
6. Pour butter/chocolate mixture, slowly while mixing, into the egg/sugar mixture.
7. Mix dry ingredients with wet by adding a half cup of flour/cocoa powder to chocolate mixture at a time, mixing well in-between. Make sure everything is well mixed and combined.
8. Lastly, fold in the rest of the chocolate chunks. Pour into a 9x9 or 6x12 dish. I used 6x12 because our 9x9 has tragically broken (sigh). Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 min (depending on how crispy you like your corners).