Monday, January 16, 2012

Malbec Brownies

This is a post that's been long awaited, promised before Christmas, but lost in time. Since this week has been balls to the walls busy (hehe)...I didn't get a chance to bake anything blog worthy, so I said to myself, "self, why don't you post about those brownies you promised you would share?"

"OOO, that's a good idea. I should do that."

"Bravo, bravo."

The bravo comment made the conversation weird so I just turned and walked away.

So what makes a "balls to the walls" busy week? Well my night job consists of cake decorating for the the super fabulous and this week's superstar cake was a 3-tier silver beauty with 3 electric guitars! It turned out great but really, really tested my cake faith. I had to rebake 3 of the 4 cakes (3 tiers take 4 batches of cake). The first batch, I dropped a tiny, little bottle of butter rum candy oil into my mixer whilst it was whirring away. That caused a bit of raucous. The bottle's top broke off and made a butter rum chocolate cake (which I'm going to try sometime for real), I would have just baked this one, but some of the glass actually broke in the mix. Down the garbage disposal it went...so sad. This calamity also messed up the beater blade! Dang it!!!!!!! Luckily KitchenAid has a warranty, so new blade is on its way. Thank you KitchenAid.

Nextly, the other 2 cakes I had to rebake were because of the untrustyworthyiness of my oven. Oh well. Cake faith tested and I made it through. Yeah me. Booya!

Ok, on to the recipe. This is based on a brownie recipe I found on Allrecipes.com (great site), but I wanted to add a little somethin' to it. I've been drinking malbec's lately and had this one from Layer Cake Vineyards. Besides being called Layer Cake, it is really outstanding. I really thought the brownies would pair well with the wine, but instead of just adding a teaspoon or two, I really wanted a strong flavor. I researched a bit and decided on reducing a cup of the wine by about half on the stove. That did the trick. It made a delicious sauce that was perfect in the brownies. I suggest the Layer Cake Malbec, but I can see many wines being very beautiful in this recipe.

The M is actually for Mason.


Malbec Brownies

adapted from allrecipes.com http://allrecipes.com/recipe/brookes-best-bombshell-brownies/detail.aspx

1 stick unsalted butter (4 oz.), melted
3 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup reduced malbec wine*
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey’s works very well)
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish, two mini muffin pans or two square cupcake pans. If you use the muffin pan or cupcake pan, you will have a little batter left over. Perfect for making a small pan for yourself to stash in the freezer.

Combine the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix in the reduced wine and beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, until thoroughly blended.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until blended. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish or scoop into muffin/cupcake pans.

Bake in preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes for pan or 20 - 22 mins for mini muffins and 18 mins for cupcake pans. Remove, and cool pan on wire rack before cutting. Brownies will need to cool completely in muffin/cupcake pans before they can set up enough to be easily removed from pans.

*Simmer 1 cup of malbec wine (Layer Cake Vineyards) for 15 mins or so over medium heat until you have reduced it by half. If you have reduced it to less than a ½ cup, you can add water to the wine until you reach the ½ cup mark.


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