Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Midnight Madness



Real Estate
Becky Goldsmith, GRI
720-979-3184

Chocolate. What adjectives come to mind when you think of chocolate? I won't bother to compile a list of them here, but say the word 'chocolate' out loud and you will get the attention of everyone within earshot. Instantly recognizable, always welcomed, possibly addictive; chocolate is a glorious guilty pleasure.

It has often been compared to good sex. We've heard that chocolate triggers the same pleasure centers in the brain as sex. However unlike sex, eating chocolate is safe and can be enjoyed in public. I've never heard of someone being arrested for eating chocolate in a movie theater or requiring a pill after spending the night with a pint of Haagen Dazs chocolate chocolate chip.

Chocolate is believed to have originated in the Amazon at least 4000 years ago. The Aztecs valued the cacao bean so much they used it for currency. I think a case could be made that chocolate is still used for currency today, Valentine's Day? Oh yes indeed.....don't think for a moment that box of chocolates was given without expectations!

 (Don't you just love chocolate dipped strawberries?)

So when you think of chocolate what comes to mind? What is your 'default' chocolate pleasure that satisfies the beast within? Is it ice cream, cake, cookies, hot cocoa, brownies, candy, or a combination?
Oh yes, a combination please. Ice cream combined with any of the above is never a bad thing.


Brownies have not only been my 'go to' for chocolate when I want to satisfy a craving, they have been a lifelong addiction. As far back as I can remember, brownies have been one of my favorite indulgences. For years I've searched for and experimented with different recipes thinking I would find the ultimate brownie. I have recently come to accept that there is no such thing as the ultimate brownie, but instead there are many great recipes and truthfully, I've never eaten a brownie that I didn't enjoy at least a little bit. Of course some are better than others, but as my friend and business partner Roxanne says about Mexican food, 'even bad Mexican food is good'! So even bad brownies are good brownies. That said, really good brownies are so easy and quick to make there's no reason to ever eat an inferior brownie.

Around midnight one night many years ago when I was newly married to my first husband Cowboy  Bob, I awoke with one of my uncontrollable brownie cravings. I quietly snuck out of bed and headed to the kitchen to whip up a pan. I was just about to put them in the oven when Bob woke up, "What in the h!@* are you doing!?" he asked. When I calmly said that I was making brownies, he exclaimed that he'd married a crazy woman. I should have realized then that our marriage was doomed.
Now, when I have a case of midnight madness Chef Jack knows all to well what I'm up to and all he says is, "Great! What kind?" Ahhhh, my soul mate!

Lucky for me hubby has been a food rep for the last 7-8 years, and has access to some of the best baking chocolates available. Valrohna, Scharffenberger, Callebaut, they're all wonderful and lots of fun to bake with. But there's nothing wrong with good ol' Hershey's unsweetened baking chocolate. Some of the best brownies ever are Barron's Brownies from Maida Heatter's Book of Great American Desserts, using Hershey's unsweetened chocolate. Awesome brownies, they never fail to get rave reviews when I take them to parties. The book was published in 1985, before artisan chocolates were widely available.


Barron's Brownies from Maida Heatter

2 Ounces unsweetened chocolate         1 Cup granulated sugar
4 ounces semisweet chocolate              2 large eggs
4 ounces (1stick) unsalted butter           1/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt                                    4 ounces (1 generous cup) walnut halves
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract                      or large pieces

Preheat oven to 325, adjust a rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven. Prepare an 8-inch square pan as follows. Turn the pan over, center a 12-inch square of foil shiny side down over the pan, fold down the sides and corner to shape the foil, then remove the foil and turn the pan over again. Place the foil in the pan and press it gently into place. Butter the foil all over with melted butter (in addition to that called for) and set aside.

Place both chocolates and butter in a heavy saucepan over moderately low heat. Stir occasionally until melted, whisk if necessary until smooth. Remove from heat, stir in salt, vanilla, sugar, then eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition until incorporated. Add the flour and stir briskly for about a minute until the mixture is smooth and shiny and comes away from the sides of the pan. Stir in the nuts.

Turn mixture into the pan and smooth the top.

Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean and dry.
Remove from the oven, cool completely in the pan. Place the pan in the freezer for about an hour until the cake is firm. Cover with a cutting board or a cookie sheet and turn the pan and the board or sheet over. Remove the pan. Slowly and carefully peel off the foil, the turn the firm cake over again. Cut the cake into quarters and then cut each quarter into 4 brownies.
Click on the link below for a downloadable pdf version of Barron's Brownies

Now we have chocolate with different chocolate percentages. "Chocolate percentage" is an imposing phrase thrown around loosely among chocolate connoisseurs. It refers to the percentage of cocoa mass (aka chocolate liquor), the essence of chocolate, in the chocolate bar itself. More cocoa mass means a higher percentage, darker color, and a more intense chocolate taste. Unsweetened or bitter chocolate contains nearly 100 percent cocoa mass. Semisweet and bittersweet chocolates have added sugar, so their cocoa percentages are a little lower - good quality dark chocolate usually contains a minimum of 50 percent cocoa mass, but can go as high as 85 percent. Because milk chocolate has more added sugar than dark, as well as dried milk solids, it has a lower percentage of cocoa mass, usually about 30 to 40 percent. And for those who love the taste of milk chocolate but crave the deep chocolaty flavor of dark, many companies are creating dark milk varieties which have a higher cocoa mass percentage than conventional milk chocolates.
The percentage also gives us some idea about the chocolate's sweetness. If a dark chocolate contains 70 percent cocoa mass, it must contain about 30 percent sugar. The chocolate will have an intense chocolate flavor, with just enough sugar to make it palatable. The lower the chocolate's percentage, the higher the percentage of sugar and the sweeter the chocolate will be.


Becky Goldsmith, GRI
720-979-3184
Please call me if you're thinking of buying or selling your home or if you know of someone who is,
Thank you!

My new favorite brownie recipe is from 'The Essence of Chocolate' by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg. They call them Cakey Brownies, but I thought they were a wonderful mix of fudgey and cakey, the best of both worlds!

Cakey Brownies

4 ounces unsalted butter (plus more for the pan)
1/3 cup cake flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces 70% bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts or chocolate pieces (optional).

Position a rack on the lowest level of the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly butter a 9 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan. (I used my 8 inch square brownie pan, it worked perfectly).
Sift together the flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Set aside.
Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Let stand, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted and evenly blended with the butter.
Add 1/2 cup  of the sugar and stir until it is dissolved. Stir in the yolks. Pour the mixture into a medium bowl and add the dry mixture, stirring just until incorporated.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the whites at high speed until a loose froth with large bubbles forms. While continuing to whip, gradually add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a slow, steady stream. If sugar builds up on the sides of the bowl, stop the mixer and quickly scrap the sugar into the whites. Continue whipping until the whites form firm peaks.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate mixture. Fold in the chopped nuts or chocolate, if using. Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a few strokes of the spatula. Don't spend a lot of time trying to make the top perfectly even, because that could overwork and deflate the batter.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before cutting.
Click on the link below for a downloadable pdf version of Cakey Brownies

Here's a little song to get you in the mood for chocolate, enjoy!