100 hour brownies

I owe one of my neighbors for helping watch Lady and Carl during a recent trip, so I decided to repay him in baked goods. In this particular case, I’ll be making Alvin Zhou’s 100-Hour Fudgy Brownies and some butterscotch chocolate chunk cookies.

I prepared the cookie dough a few days ago (the internet tells me that a few days’ rest in the fridge helps improve the flavors, and who am I to argue with the internet?). The recipe was a simple one, taken from the back of a package of Tollhouse chocolate chips. My only slight tweak was using chopped Aldi’s 85% cocoa bars instead of chocolate chips (sorry, Tollhouse).

a plastic food-safe container partially filled with chocolate-and-butterscotch-chip cookie dough

I halved the amount of chocolate, because left as described the ratios would be out of whack, and I personally enjoy the cookie portion more than the chocolate chip part. This particular batch required far longer in the oven than I’m used to (17 minutes, versus the usual 11), but they seem no worse for the additional time spent baking. They’re in the microwave only to prevent Lady from extracting her tax on all baked goods.

twelve freshly baked cookies resting on a cooling rack twelve cookies sitting on a plate in a microwave

Now for the brownies. This recipe calls for altogether too much chocolate for my taste, but I’m not the intended recipient, and I know he has something of a sweet tooth.

Here’s the obligatory shot of gathered ingredients (though I was sloppy, and the assembly incomplete).

espresso beans, cocoa powder, two sticks of butter, a tube of vanilla bean paste, and six chocolate bars on a countertop

First, I browned some butter. Heat on medium until the color becomes a nice golden brown, then remove from heat once your kitchen begins to smell like heaven, the usual. To accelerate the cooling, Alvin suggested adding a coffee ice cube, so I did just that, using a tray of them I made yesterday from my usual pitcher of cold brew.

two sticks of partially-melted butter being stirred with a wooden spoon in a saucepan fully-melted and darkened butter being stirred with a wooden spoon in a saucepan

The end result took on a lovely color, and was set aside while I began making the batter. As always, Lady was ready to help.

a hand holding dark brown melted butter in a glass measuring cup, with a tabby cat watching from a nearby counter

First, four eggs (fresh from yesterday’s farmers market), accompanied by vanilla paste and white sugar.

a mixing bowl containing four eggs, vanilla paste, and sugar

Then, once those had been handmixer’d together, I added in the browned butter.

a mixing bowl with eggs, vanilla paste, and sugar being blended with a hand mixer

Another round of thorough mixing with a rubber spatula, and then I sifted in the cocoa powder, espresso, and some kosher salt.

a mixing bowl containing brown batter, with various white and dark powders resting on the surface

Once that was also mixed in, Alvin ordered me to add even more chocolate. Two more bars of 75% cocoa, melted.

a mixing bowl containing slightly lighter brown batter a mixing bowl containing darker brown batter

Finally, the last ingredient: some flour, to lighten things up.

a mixing bowl containing thick chocolate batter with streaks of flour in it

Except, no, there’s still more chocolate. On top of all I’ve already used, now he wants two more bars (one milk, one dark) chopped up and mixed into the batter unmelted?!

five bars of milk chocolate and five bars of dark chocolate on a wooden cutting board a pile of milk and dark chocolate chunks on a wooden cutting board