A few months ago, my friend McKendrick brought in these *amazing* brownies. I asked him for the recipe (which he got from his mom). Here is my attempt to follow this recipe and the delicious results.
"First the Grocery list! I may tell you to get more than you actually will need because it's better to have more than enough than not enough.
2 cups Sugar and Flour
6 Tablespoons of Cocoa (roughly a cup and a half)
2 sticks of butter (1 cup total)
1/2 Cup vegetable oil.
1 cup buttermilk (RECIPE WILL NOT WORK WITHOUT. DANGER WILL ROBINSON)
1 Teaspoon
baking soda.
2 eggs.
Some form of baking non-stick spray. Mom uses Baker's Choice.
Bag of Mini Marshmallows.
1 pound powdered sugar (MUST BE POWDERED UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR FROSTING TO HAVE THE CONSISTENCY OF A ROCKY BEACH)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.
2-3 big bowls.
Jellyroll pan. "
(This is a jellyroll pan. I went to the store and bought some cheap tinfoil-esque pans that looked similar to this, and it turned out fine. So nobody has to panic like I did at first. -_- )
"...So I asked my mom about the size of the oven and she said she made these in her old oven, which had two small ovens, so unless your stove is comically tiny like mine she didn't think you'd have a problem.
RECIPE AND INSTRUCTIONS!
My mom's been making this for 31 years. Nuts, huh?"
Totally nuts. Speaking of which, I suppose you could add nuts to this recipe if you wanted to, but I am not a fan of nuts. Just so you know.
"Get a biggish bowl out and gather 2 cups flour and sugar (regular sugar) and 4 tablespoons of cocoa."
"Sift together. I dunno if you've done this before but you basically get one over those things with metal mesh and shake it, making the flour/sugar/cocoa mix together in a fine mixture. I might be telling you something you already know but I want to be sure I cover everything."
Thanks, McK. I totally didn't know how to do that before. :D Oh, and what I did was dump them in a medium-size bowl and then pour them through the strainer into the big bowl.
"Now that it's sifted and in a bowl, put it aside.
Grab a sauce-pan (medium sized should do) and pour in:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter (half a stick)
1/2 cup vegetable oil.
BOIL THE MOFO. (but not too fast, don't want to burn the butter)"
I have a gas stove (which I love), and I heated this on 2 until the butter melted, then turned it to 4. Took about 8 minutes total to boil.
"When boiling, pour it into the flour mix and stir it up until there's no point in stirring it anymore (meaning it's as smooth as can be)."
"New Bowl!
1/2 Cup
Buttermilk1 Teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs (without shells, preferably)"
"Mix it up. MIX IT UP HARD."
"Add to flour mix. STIIIIRRRR."
I have to say, this is a really weird consistency. But, whatevs. I trust your recipe, McK.
"Get out your jellypan!
Baking Spray!
Pour in mixture!"
"Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes in the middle rack. It's done when it's light and springy to the touch."
"POUR ON THE MARSHMALLOWS! One layer."
"Stick it back in the oven (I keep typing over and it's irritating) for 3-5 minutes, until the mallows are squishy and slightly brown on top."
"Take it out and let it cool COMPLETELY. If you can fit it in your fridge that'd be a good idea. The reason is if you don't let it cool completely and then pour on the icing, the mallows migrate and make a mess."
A note here: I did *not* have near enough frosting for this amount of brownies. It turned out alright, though, the brownies taste just as good without the icing.
"ONLY START THIS PART ONCE THE BROWNIES HAVE COOLED.
Frosting.
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter (half a stick)
1/4 cup cocoa.
Medium-sized saucepan. Bring to boil (again not to fast, the buttermilk and legit butter will burn)"
"Once it's all a bubbling add:
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 POUND of powdered sugar (MUST BE POWDERED)"
"Mommy McK uses a whisk to beat it at this point until smooth. "
"Grab the pan and pour the icing over the mallow/browning lengthwise, back and forth, covering as much as you can. Then grab a
butter knife or spatula to spread and even it out. Let cool."
Like I said, I ran out of icing, sue to having made two batches. No worries if you only make one, though.
"To cut, get a steak knife (not joking) and run it under hot water (or have a glass of
boiling water nearby) before cutting it into 1 inch squares. These brownies are SOFT and MOIST and most other methods make a mess of them. Do not dry the knife after getting it hot."
Yum Yum Yum.
"Feeds 3 McKendrick men for a day or an army for a week (like, seriously, there will be a lot)."
Yeah, he isn't joking. These things are maybe one square inch and they are SO. RICH. OMG. They're more cakelike than brownielike but they are fabulous. I brought one pan to work with me and the consensus was that they are amazingly good (the other consensus was that they couldn't be eaten due to breaking every diet ever).
It took me about 4 hours to make these, including cooldown time in between steps and also because I was watching Buffy.
<3,
TWC
