A Tower of Brownies

Made these brownies last night. I have refrained from baking anything with chocolate lately, as both my kids have been unwell for the past weeks. Upon their request, I baked these for their breakfast today.

I followed the recipe from Alice Medrich's Chocolate Holidays: Unforgettable Desserts for Every Season. It recommended a ice bath method...a special but simple technique to a perfect brownie. This involves baking the brownies at a high temperature of 200 degC for 20 mins, and once out of the oven, submerge the pan straight into an ice bath (a bigger pan filled 3/4 full with ice & water). Let the brownies cool in the ice bath before cutting into squares.

Cleaning up after the baking session was really easy. The main utensils I used were only a saucepan and a wooden spoon! I melted 4 oz butter and 4 oz unsweetened chocolate in the saucepan directly over low heat(although the instructions says to melt them in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water). Then, I simply stirred in the rest of the ingredients: 200g sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla essence , followed by 2 eggs (adding one at a time) and finally 70g of plain flour directly in the saucepan. I also lined the baking pan with foil, and if you are really not fussy, you don't even have to wash it ;]

The top half of the brownie is rather crispy while the bottom half has a softer texture. In fact, you could see a clear distinction of the 2 layers from the photo above. They are rather rich and a bit too sweet for my liking, although my kids find the taste just nice. Anyway, I'll definitely cut down the sugar next time.

Note: This recipe yelds 16 squares.