Category: food

Don’t Bother With This Nutella Brownies Recipe

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

I enjoy some of the cooking shows on Food Network and one of the episodes of Sweet Dreams (a show on desserts) focused on just brownie recipes (w00t). And, rather than Gale (the host) coming up with her own recipes, she baked brownie recipes submitted by viewers. One in particular, the Peanut Butter-Hazelnut Brownies, caught my eye. Of course, the “hazelnut-chocolate spread” to which they refer in the recipe is really just Nutella.

That recipe sounded pretty good to me at the time and so I exported that episode from my TiVo to VHS for safekeeping. Then, when the December Cocktail Event/Holiday Party came up, I figured that I could put the recipe to good use. So, the weekend before, I bought all the ingredients which I didn’t already have — which was primarily flour, cocoa powder and Nutella. And, on Tuesday evening (the day before the party), I baked the brownies.

Per the instructions, I baked the brownies at 350° for 30 minutes and then I let them cool to room temperature before cutting. In my case, the brownies weren’t quite cool when I was heading for bed and so I left the cutting for the following day. Then, after work that next day, I proceeded to cut the brownies and place them into a rectangular Rubbermaid container for the party. And, as I am wont to do, I tried one to ensure that they turned out all right.

It was horrible.

Somehow, the brownie had completely dried up; I was actually so dry that I needed a glass of water to help wash it down. And, the peanut butter and Nutella flavors were nowhere to be seen. Figuring that maybe the outside edge had dried, I then tried a square cut from the center — no such luck, it was just as bad. I couldn’t even make it through eating the whole square and I ended up throwing out the batch. Of course, I still had to bring something to the party (“a snack or dessert”) and so I stopped by Super Target to buy some cookies from their bakery department.

Not to be discouraged, I recalled that the Dallas Camera Club’s Holiday Dinner was coming up (which was also a pot-luck) and I decided to try the recipe again. Fortunately, I had enough ingredients left over from the first attempt that I didn’t need to go back to the store. So, as before, I followed the recipe exactly but I baked the brownies for just 15 minutes this time, and added increments of 5 more minutes until a knife came out clean (for a total of about 23 minutes).

Of course, I had to allow the brownies to cool before cutting them and so I didn’t know right away whether I had succeeded. And, the following day, I sliced the brownies into squares and sampled one — it was distinctly moister but still a bit chalky. After rummaging through my cupboard, I found a legacy can of frosting (left from a former roommate) which I thought to try (Betty Crocker's “Rich & Creamy Mint Chocolate Chip”, fwiw).

The frostiing was a little hard to spread, right out of the can, but I nuked it for about 15 seconds which softened it up. And, I ended up using the whole can on the brownies’ 9x13 pan. I then sampled a square once more and found that this was reasonably all right. It wasn’t the best batch brownies I had ever had, but the frosting pushed them over the line from “bad” to “ok”.

Considering the ingredients, Nutella and peanut butter, I didn’t think I could go wrong. But, this recipe confounded me. I suppose can’t rule out that maybe my oven’s thermostat could be miscalibrated, though that wouldn’t explain the good results I’ve had with other baked goods. Anyhow, if you’re looking for a Nutella-based brownie recipe, I would try something else. And, if you can get this recipe to come out deliciously, then you’re a better man/woman than I.

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Blondies

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

I brought along some Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Blondies to the LucciHouse Holiday Party last weekend and I thought I’d share the recipe here:

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Blondies

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup margarine
  • 2 cups white sugar [I used Splenda instead]
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup chunky peanut butter [I used creamy peanut butter instead]
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a 10x15 inch jellyroll pan with parchment paper.

  2. In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the vanilla and peanut butter until smooth. Combine the flour and baking powder, then stir into the peanut butter mixture. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips. Spread the dough out flat on the prepared pan.

  3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the tops of the bars look dry. Cool in pan, then cut into squares.

I got the idea for blondies from a cookie run earlier that week — Leia and I walked to Eatzi’s to grab some cookies from their bakery section. In addition to a dozen peanut butter cookies, I also picked up a peanut butter blondie. It was pretty tasty and I pondered whether I could make some myself.

So, I checked AllRecipes’ cookie section and searched for blondie recipes. While there were a fair number of recipes for regular blondies, there were relatively few for peanut butter blondies (why, I have no idea). In addition to the recipe on which I decided, I also considered the recipe for Best Ever Chocolate-Free Blondies but I ruled that one out as I didn’t want to deal with peanut butter chips (at best they tend to resemble peanut butter).

I was pleased with how the blondies turned out, though their consistency was different than I had expected. The blondie which I had at Eatzi’s was fairly chewy but these were flaky in texture. Their texture was almost like that of a thick peanut-butter flavored sugar cookie. I’m curious whether swapping the sugar for Splenda, as I did, had any effect on their chewiness.

Mystery Egg Sandwich

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

I went to the Dallas Camera Club this evening and tonight was their “Bird Competition”, a competition between the Fort Worth and Dallas Camera Clubs, so called because the trophy is consists mostly of a bird statue (no, I don’t see the significance either).

Both clubs attended the meeting and a set of judges scored photos selected by each club in real-time (that is, the judging was in real-time, not the selection). And, to make for a more jovial atmosphere, everyone brought along snacks or drinks (a bit like a pot-luck / photography competition, you could say). I made a point of avoiding the sugary snacks, but there were some sandwiches which caught my eye. They were obviously hand-made and with decent bread to boot.

Just from looking at them, I couldn’t descern exactly what was in the sandwiches; but, I was able to figure out most of it. And I liked each of the ingredients:

  • Rye bread, cut diagonally
  • Sliced hard-boiled eggs
  • Black olives
  • Mayonnaise

I selected a sandwich-half and placed it on a Styrofoam plate as I walked back to my seat. Keeping in mind that I’ve never had an egg-salad sandwich — not that I have anything against them — I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I mean, sure, I’ve had omelettes and other egg preparations but not eggs right in a sandwich.

I suppose I expected more as I bit into it; I think I was expecting a coherent team effort among the ingredients. Instead, it resembled a mere collection of the ingredients sharing a common point in space. All the same, I was left wondering whether this was perhaps a sub-par execution of a more traditional sandwich recipe (like an egg-muffaletta or something?).

Along those lines, I loaded up AllRecipes and checked their section on sandwiches. I did a search for “egg sandwich” and “egg olive sandwich” but I couldn't find one that quite matched the sandwich I had. Maybe this evening’s sandwich was a more obscure recipe, or maybe it was just way off from an established recipe.

All the same, I did run across a recipe for Lindsay® Olive Tea Sandwiches. It’s far different from the sandwich I had, but it looks positively delectable. Olives, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, pine nuts and cream cheese — how can you go wrong? The primary disadvantage to that sandwich, it seems, are the ingredients themselves. After all, who regularly keeps pine nuts in his/her fridge? But, that may just mean that I’ll have to make a trip to Central Market as part of a sandwich-making mission.

Ben & Jerry’s Blueberry Splenda Ice Cream

Ashley Bischoff11 Comments

I’m on vacation in South Africa celebrating my dad’s 60th birthday (returning on Saturday). I flew from Dallas to Atlanta and from there to Cape Town; and, as I walked from my incoming gate in Atlanta airport to my connecting gate, I passed by a Ben & Jerry’s. It was about 9am at the time, but I couldn’t resist a peek at their menu ;).

I looked around for any sugar free flavors as the last thing I really needed was full-sugar ice cream first thing in the morning. As I peered down the list of flavors, one of them had Splenda: blueberry. So, I ordered one scoop of blueberry and I ate it as I walked to my next gate.

I’ve had sugar-free ice cream before — though I’m not sure I’ve had Splenda-sweetened ice cream. And, while sugar-free ice cream is usually very close to the real thing, this was a disaster. It was as if it was all ice and no cream. As I plowed my plastic spoon into the ice cream, the ice cream merely broke off in chunks — like a rock face — rather than pulling apart like the creamy confection it should have been.

You might expect this sort of behavior from a fat-free ice cream, but that shouldn’t have been the case this time. I can only figure that it was over-frozen as even when I attempted to savor the ice cream, it merely disintegrated in my mouth like an ice cube rather than dissolving creamily. I’ve had Ben & Jerry’s ice cream before and it’s often very good (if over priced). So, it’s not that I’ve given up on Ben & Jerry’s, but I don't think I’ll have their sugar free varieties again any time soon.

Sandwiches at Plaza Health Foods

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

I was walking around Snider Plaza last weekend and I was getting a bit peckish since it was nearing 3:00 at the time. At that moment, I passed by Plaza Health Foods. Normally, I'd keep on walking, but the lettering on the awning caught my eye: “Health Food * Vitamins * Sandwiches”. Curious as to what kind of sandwiches a health food store might have, I stepped in.

To little surprise, most of the store was shelves and shelves of vitamins and other elixirs. But, towards the back was a lunch counter. And as I walked closer, I saw a chalkboard listing the sandwiches available. Among them, there was turkey & swiss, ham & cheese and tuna. And, as I was reading it, the store owner walked up and asked if he could help me. I mentioned that I was just looking over the sandwiches and he offered that an additional sandwich not listed was their chicken salad sandwich.

I hadn’t eaten a chicken salad sandwich in quite a while and that did seem tempting. But, there was also a something-and-avocado sandwich on the board (“turkey and avocado”, I think) that taunted me. I just can’t resist avocado and I was drawn to it; but, the chicken salad still beckoned. Taking a chance, I asked the owner if I could get a chicken salad sandwich with avocado. He readily agreed and relayed my order to a girl behind the counter.

A few minutes later, my sandwich was ready: wheat bread along with chicken salad, avocado, lettuce and tomato. It wasn’t overstuffed or Dagwooderized, but just a respectable size. As I took a bite, I was surprised by how good thes sandwich was — the ripe avocado blended perfectly with the creamy chicken salad. But, the best part was the bread. It wasn’t that thick, maybe a quarter inch, but it was virtually unprocessed wheat. There were so many granules and knobbly bits that it was like eating wheat gravel.

I’ve had some good sandwiches in Dallas, but that was one of the best. It wasn't terribly fancy, but all of the ingredients came together so well. And, the bread was astounding in its own right — had I loaf of it at home, I could imagine just taking out a slice from the bag and nibbling on it plain. I wasn’t expecting much from a sandwich in a health food store — just some nourishment to keep me going — but this sandwich just about made my day.