FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Brownie break staves off stress

• Brownies provide quick pick-me-up

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Catherine Toth of our staff is a Tiggerish sort of person who, when she sees a need, tends to bounce right in and fill it. On a recent afternoon, the need was one she'd noticed in herself and her colleagues: a chocolate craving brought on by the stress of afternoon deadlines.

Her solution: an in-house brownie-making competition to be held in the afternoon, during those desolate hours when lunch is but a memory and dinner is deadline and drive-time away. Toth is also very persuasive, so she was able to dragoon seven of her co-workers into submitting entries and a bunch of us into serving into judges (this last was not particularly difficult).

In seeking entries, we had to disqualify one: senior editor Anne Harpham, whose brownies are to most others what Sean Connery is to a Corbin Bernsen or a Ferrari to a Kia. We joked that the first place prize should be a batch of Anne's brownies.

When the big day arrived, we had about every sort of brownie there is: with and without nuts, blonde, a version slathered with raspberry sauce and a variation on a s'mores theme that involved Graham crackers and marshmallow cream.

But the winner captured the Essence of Brownie; that is, it was moist and dark, firm-textured but velvety, with that nice, crackly, slightly puffy top that is one mark of the perfect brownie. It came from reporter Robbie Dingeman, a hybrid recipe that she created based on the easy brownie classic from the Junior League of Honolulu's "Another Taste of Aloha" and the instructions from the baking chocolate box, which she tinkered with by adding chocolate chips and removing the nuts.

Dingeman came close to approximating a brownie recipe that it took the testers in the Cook's Illustrated kitchen more than 50 patches to perfect.

Their formula, which they describe as a delicate balance of the five basic brownie ingredients — chocolate, flour, sugar, butter and eggs — incorporates three types of chocolate (semisweet or bittersweet, unsweetened and cocoa), each conferring a different characteristic to the recipe. Their ingredient list: 5 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet, chopped; 2 ounces unsweetened, chopped; 1 stick butter, cut into quarters; 3 tablespoons cocoa powder; 3 large eggs; 1 1/4 cups flour; 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour. For a mocha version add 1 1/2 instant espresso or coffee powder.

A cooking competition makes a nice afternoon break, builds camaraderie and encourages people to get back into the kitchen.

I propose we attempt the perfect peanut-butter cookie next.

Brownies provide quick pick-me-up

Here's a recipe for Advertiser reporter Robbie Dingeman's afternoon-pick-me-up brownies. You can add chopped nuts if you crave them.

Very Chocolatey Brownies

• 4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
• 3/4 cup ( 1 1/2 sticks) butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (about half a 12-ounce package)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-13-inch pan with nonstick spray.

Melt the baking chocolate and the butter over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Stir until melted and remove from heat. (This could also be done in a glass bowl in the microwave.) Stir in sugar, then add beaten eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour until well blended and add chocolate chips. Pour into pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick poked into center comes out mostly clean (a few moist crumbs are OK). Cool completely in the pan, then cut into squares. Makes about 35 medium-sized squares.