Today, Punchy wanted to make One-Bowl Brownies. The recipe is on the unsweetened Baker's Chocolate box [containing four bitter 1-ounce squares]. It's OK that the chocolate is bitter because you will use 2 full cups of sugar.
I have been making these brownies for decades.
My friend Nancy presented a china plateful back in Dumont, when we were teenagers. My mother was very impressed.
See, Alice? she said from the sofa. Nancy used real chocolate in these brownies. Aren't they delicious?
Nancy and her mother, Rita, showed me a Baker's box from the pantry. Rita taught me a lot about food and entertaining, including how to warm china plates before serving dinner to company.
Please understand, my mother was not overweight, but had a true appreciation for things like the Schrafft's hot fudge sundaes of her girlhood and for that matter, any restaurant that served hot fudge in a little individual pitcher for the patron to pour over her dessert.
Later, when Dan and I lived in our Montclair apartment before buying a house, I sold the rich Baker’s brownies at a yard sale, after pressing a single Andes Creme de Menthe thin into each warm square. They were a hot ticket.
My friend Nancy presented a china plateful back in Dumont, when we were teenagers. My mother was very impressed.
See, Alice? she said from the sofa. Nancy used real chocolate in these brownies. Aren't they delicious?
Nancy and her mother, Rita, showed me a Baker's box from the pantry. Rita taught me a lot about food and entertaining, including how to warm china plates before serving dinner to company.
Please understand, my mother was not overweight, but had a true appreciation for things like the Schrafft's hot fudge sundaes of her girlhood and for that matter, any restaurant that served hot fudge in a little individual pitcher for the patron to pour over her dessert.
Later, when Dan and I lived in our Montclair apartment before buying a house, I sold the rich Baker’s brownies at a yard sale, after pressing a single Andes Creme de Menthe thin into each warm square. They were a hot ticket.
Moey did the sale with us, and we decided it was worth me popping back into the apt. and making a second batch, because they are that easy, and that loved. [Secrets: Use butter, add 1/2 tsp salt, line pan with foil overlapping at ends so you can lift one big brownie out to cut and do not overbake.]
I remember writing an article for a spring issue of Good Housekeeping, that first spring after 9/11--it was about what people were doing to commemorate those they had lost on that terrible day--and it was a rush. When I finally handed it in on a Friday in the nick of time to get young Figgy at school by 3 o'clock, I said to my editor, Great, now I can make s'mores brownies with my daughter and her friend, who is coming over for a play date.
Figgy was in first grade, our little rumpled angel--broad smile; tender, trusting heart; flyaway reddish hair. The friend was a blue-eyed blonde. We topped the brownies with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips.
This is not meant to be catty or critical, but I do think the assigning editor was almost dangerously slender, an absolute brownie againster. Sometimes I wonder what she thought of my afternoon plans. I recall she laughed uncomfortably.
Figgy was in first grade, our little rumpled angel--broad smile; tender, trusting heart; flyaway reddish hair. The friend was a blue-eyed blonde. We topped the brownies with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips.
This is not meant to be catty or critical, but I do think the assigning editor was almost dangerously slender, an absolute brownie againster. Sometimes I wonder what she thought of my afternoon plans. I recall she laughed uncomfortably.
My sweet story ends there. I stopped making these deadly dames a few years ago.
I cannot make them, swipe a taste of the batter, eat the broken ones when cutting, without falling deeper and deeper into a dark sugar swirl. I put Punch off for a long time. They are her favorite treat--along with Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies. The last time I broke down and made those, when P's friend was over one wintry afternoon, I ate so many that I fell into a stupor on the couch and could barely get up when the Dad rang the doorbell for pickup.
So far, I haven't had a single lick. I plan to continue that.
I told Punch she would have to bike to Kings to get sugar and Baker's Chocolate and that she would do the whole project, just with my supervision [hot oven, etc.]. I like to add a little extra vanilla, she said, putting her own stamp on the treat. When it came to cutting, she begged me to help and after a couple begs, I tried. But they were not cutting evenly for me, either. Maybe we didn't chill them long enough.
Please, I said, I can't. It's like asking a drug addict to measure cocaine.
I want to go read more. I'm loving Life Among the Savages, bought used on Amazon and written by Shirley Jackson. It's about raising her kids and managing her rambling house in Vermont, after she and her husband moved from an apartment in NYC.
Good night.
TCOY
- Walked Sug around block.
- Used ripe apricots in a Ruth Reichl tart; cut back the sugar.
- Healthy foods eaten: Homemade oatmeal w walnuts; veg burger; roasted baby beets; roasted cauliflower and broccoli w lemon juice and zest; small portion grass-fed steak; those apricots. These days, Figgy loves things like roasted broccoli and I am happy to oblige. She does like the occasional rich vegan brownie, too. Alas, those are also usually loaded w sugar.
- About to text someone for more don't-eat-the-brownies support.
$ MONEY SPENT OUT OF POCKET
- Gave Punch $11 for grocery store.
Ongoing monthly spend as of July 15: $1,381.32.
Avg daily spend: $92.08.
Avg daily spend: $92.08.
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Wow, so very hard to have such a treat being made without indulging- at a time when self-indulgence feels earned.
ReplyDeleteR.e.s.p.e.c.t.
I think you have a good attitude here: do not give the food power over you- it is not animate (really). Only your thoughts give it power. So indulge in other things, like roasted vegetables.
And, if by chance you did or do indulge: NO SHAME! Only compassion, and learning: what were you thinking? Could you have thought something different, done something differently?
ReplyDeleteXoxo