It’s customary at my workplace, as at many others, to bring a treat for the office on your birthday. I did indeed make it through another year as of Sunday, but simply didn’t have time to bake until tonight. Scout’s Brownies from Diane Mott Davidson’s Dying for Chocolate are the treat du jour. It’s copyrighted material, but well worth checking the book out from the library or buying a paperback copy. It is a murder mystery: Ms. Davidson’s heroine is a caterer, and in each of her culinary-based books she includes a number of original recipes.
The brownies include baking chocolate, cocoa, a cup of real butter, four eggs and two cups of sugar – plus chocolate chips sprinkled on top before baking. To say they are rich is an understatement. I highly recommend the Lethal Layers from the same book. A brown sugar/egg mix is poured over a shortbread crust sprinkled with pecan halves. Chocolate chips, of course, are sprinkled on before baking. The sugar/egg mix sort of caramelizes, and the end result is heavenly.
Baking is not my forte, as I hate having to measure accurately. These two are part of my basic dessert repertoire, along with a chocolate chiffon cake, cream cheese torte, shortbread cookies, cream cheese mints and another couple types of cookies.
Oh – did I mention that at least four of the twenty-two people in our office are on vacation tomorrow? Given that it is Friday, any leftovers will have to come home with me, since they will spoil by Monday.
Really, I didn’t plan it that way.
Happy Birthday to me!
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