Sweet Treats

Prepare to drool. I loved writing my last two posts, making pizza and crackers during our visit to King Arthur Flour this past weekend, but I could not wait to share with you the decadent chocolate, whole grain (!) delights that we learned to make. Brownies from scratch. Now, we all know I have a huge interest in food, but I have never actually made brownies that did not come from a box. I had no idea how easy brownies from scratch were! I really have been in awe of people who made these things over the year, and I can not wait to spend the winter holed up in my house baking.

Once again, Susan broke the process into a couple of demos and hands-on time at our work stations. We started by melting a half pound of butter and two cups of brown sugar into a caramel-like substance, then adding the cocoa powder, flour, eggs, and other ingredients. While these ARE whole grain, they aren’t health food. Still, it’s nice to add a little bit of nutrition into a treat!

	Oh the evolution of brown sugar and 1/2 pound of butter. We learned that you want to measure brown sugar differently than flour. You actually WANT to pack the sugar in so tightly that it holds its shape when dumped out of the cup. Dutch process cocoa has an alkaline agent added to it and gives it a smooth, milder flavor. Look at that color!

As though creating our own deliciousness was not enough, we were invited to King Arthur’s other baking classroom where a class with visiting baker En-Ming Hsu was just finishing up. We thought we were just going to look at and photograph these beauties, but we got to EAT them too.

I am more confident with my baking skills, but I am not sure I will ever be able to create something this beautiful.

I have to say, my brownies didn’t look too shabby.

Susan instructed us to wait until the next day to eat them as the bran taste would be more evident the first day. I can’t believe it, but we were good bloggers and actually didn’t eat any of the brownies while in VT! Since I have gotten home. . . a completely different story. They are quite delicious!

If you are a baker, what is your favorite thing to bake? Do you dream of baking something super complicated?

If you don’t bake, what’s your favorite baked good to eat?