Sunday, October 3, 2010

Butterscotch Flip


Butterscotch Flip - made October 1, 2010 from Fat Witch Brownies by Patricia Helding

If you like butterscotch and chocolate together, this is an awesome brownie. It looks pretty and it's a great flavor combination. The sweetness of the brown sugar/butterscotch is perfectly complemented by the chocolate brownie layer. When I made this recipe, I baked it for 35 minutes as the top was the right color of brown and the toothpick came out moist but clean. In hindsight, after it cooled and I tried a piece, I should've baked it a little bit longer. The top layer was still a bit mushy. It wasn't bad but to get it a little more cakelike and less mushy, it could've used a few more minutes of baking time. It doesn't affect the flavor but texture-wise I think it would've been a bit better if baked a little longer. Once again, this was impacted by my workouts as I made the brownie, popped it into the oven and did my workout. I had to keep pausing my workout after the first 25 minutes to keep checking on it. By the 35-minute mark, I didn't want to keep pausing anymore so I just took it out :).

Bottom Brownie
7 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
½ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unbleached flour
Pinch of salt
¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips

Top layer
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter
1 large egg
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup unbleached flour
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup butterscotch chips

1. Grease a 9-inch x 9-inch baking pan with butter. Dust with flour and tap out the excess. Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
2. To make the bottom brownie, melt the butter and bittersweet chocolate chips together in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
3. Cream the eggs, granulated sugar and vanilla together until smooth. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and continue mixing until well blended.
4. Measure the flour and salt and sift together directly into the batter. Mix gentle until well combined and no trade of the dry ingredients remains. Stir in the semisweet chocolate chips by hand, if desired. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared baking pan and set aside.
5. To make the top layer, melt the butter in a small pan or in the microwave. Beat the egg, brown sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Add the melted butter and continue beating until well combined.
6. Measure the flour, salt and baking powder and then sift directly into the batter. Mix gently until well combined and no trace of the dry ingredients remains. Stir in the butterscotch chips by hand. With a spatula, spread the batter over the bottom layer in the prepared baking pan and smooth to the edges.
7. Bake for 32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with only crumbs, not batter, on it. The top should be a golden butterscotch color.
8. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack for 1 hour. Cut just before serving.

Makes 12 to 16 bars

2 comments:

  1. Dear Pastry Chef,

    Some exciting news for you, I hope: At The Christian Science Monitor, we have spent many months researching food blogs, and “Pastry Chef” is one of the most down-to-earth yet elegant, relatable yet professional, organized yet experimental, intelligent yet also conversational food blogs we have ever read (and we’ve reviewed thousands!).

    Our food editor, Kendra Nordin, told me she’d met you and was very enthusiastic about your blog.

    Your photos are delightfully "real" instead of being the slick, overly produced photos of most food bloggers. They look like pictures I could take and, thus, dishes I could make myself.

    Your recipe instructions are very detailed, and yet very friendly. And you get your recipes from sources the "normal" reader might use, ranging from cookbooks to the backs of candy bags (like your HeathBits-based recipe). You also offer recipes that most readers can relate to like your Sloppy Joe and Snickerdoodle recipes. And you offer advice within the recipe instructions, offering cautions or enhancements like "use a high-quality dark chocolate not an insipid grocery store brand..." and "don't over bake these!"

    And you also delighted us with your penchant for experimenting with recipes. More often than not, you say things like "the only thing I did differently," proving that it really is OK to play with a recipe, to give it your own flavor or twist.

    Your writing is both intelligent AND conversational, smart and friendly, relaxed and informative. Reading your posts is like being part of a laid-back chat with an old friend over the phone or at the kitchen table.

    Here're are some great examples of your writing talents:

    • "If you don't like chocolate or are indifferent to it, move along, there's nothing to see here. But, if you're like me and think chocolate is the greatest invention of mankind and would inject it directly into your veins if you could, then this is the cookie for you."
    • "Then again, once people taste this cake, they may not care. It was a rough day at work and I'll be the first to say this is excellent comfort food. "
    • "I almost didn't want to make this blog post because this recipe turned into a half-failure and I hate when that happens. But failure and confession is good for the soul and I decided I needed to 'fess up. Not everything I make turns out but I learn from it for next time and that's all I can ask."
    • "No, your eyes aren't deceiving you - that isn't some new form of chocolate as the frosting. The original recipe calls for making this with a chocolate frosting but my personal favorite falvor with banana is a caramel frosting, especially when I add butterscotch chips to the banana cake (which I did). So I took some creative license here."

    Anyway, suffice to say that we really enjoy “Pastry Chef” and would like to give you more exposure here in the United States and around the world.

    My name is John Wilpers, the global blog coordinator for The Christian Science Monitor, an award-winning international news organization that covers news and feature stories from every corner of the globe.

    We are looking for the very best, most compelling, most gifted bloggers writing about Food (one of our readers’ favorite subjects). We think you belong in this elite company.

    So we would like to extend an invitation to you to have your blog posts appear on our Food page (http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food).

    We offer you significantly more visibility on a global brand with almost six million monthly readers who will be exposed to your work.

    I look forward to hearing from you. Please reply to me at: wilpersj@csmonitor.com. Thank you.

    Sincerely,

    John


    John Wilpers
    Global Blog Coordinator
    The Christian Science Monitor
    210 Massachusetts Avenue
    Boston MA 02115
    wilpersj@csmonitor.com
    617-688-0137

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Pastry Chef,

    Some exciting news for you, I hope: At The Christian Science Monitor, we have spent many months researching food blogs, and “Pastry Chef” is one of the most down-to-earth yet elegant, relatable yet professional, organized yet experimental, intelligent yet also conversational food blogs we have ever read (and we’ve reviewed thousands!).

    Our food editor, Kendra Nordin, told me she’d met you and was very enthusiastic about your blog.

    Your photos are delightfully "real" instead of being the slick, overly produced photos of most food bloggers. They look like pictures I could take and, thus, dishes I could make myself.

    Your recipe instructions are very detailed, and yet very friendly. And you get your recipes from sources the "normal" reader might use, ranging from cookbooks to the backs of candy bags (like your HeathBits-based recipe). You also offer recipes that most readers can relate to like your Sloppy Joe and Snickerdoodle recipes. And you offer advice within the recipe instructions, offering cautions or enhancements like "use a high-quality dark chocolate not an insipid grocery store brand..." and "don't over bake these!"

    And you also delighted us with your penchant for experimenting with recipes. More often than not, you say things like "the only thing I did differently," proving that it really is OK to play with a recipe, to give it your own flavor or twist.

    Your writing is both intelligent AND conversational, smart and friendly, relaxed and informative. Reading your posts is like being part of a laid-back chat with an old friend over the phone or at the kitchen table.

    Here're are some great examples of your writing talents:

    • "If you don't like chocolate or are indifferent to it, move along, there's nothing to see here. But, if you're like me and think chocolate is the greatest invention of mankind and would inject it directly into your veins if you could, then this is the cookie for you."
    • "Then again, once people taste this cake, they may not care. It was a rough day at work and I'll be the first to say this is excellent comfort food. "
    • "I almost didn't want to make this blog post because this recipe turned into a half-failure and I hate when that happens. But failure and confession is good for the soul and I decided I needed to 'fess up. Not everything I make turns out but I learn from it for next time and that's all I can ask."

    Anyway, suffice to say that we really enjoy “Pastry Chef” and would like to give you more exposure here in the United States and around the world.

    My name is John Wilpers, the global blog coordinator for The Christian Science Monitor, an award-winning international news organization that covers news and feature stories from every corner of the globe.

    We are looking for the very best, most compelling, most gifted bloggers writing about Food (one of our readers’ favorite subjects). We think you belong in this elite company.

    So we would like to extend an invitation to you to have your blog posts appear on our Food page (http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food).

    We offer you significantly more visibility on a global brand with almost six million monthly readers who will be exposed to your work.

    I look forward to hearing from you. Please reply to me at: wilpersj@csmonitor.com.

    Sincerely,

    John

    John Wilpers
    Global Blog Coordinator
    The Christian Science Monitor
    wilpersj@csmonitor.com
    617-688-0137

    ReplyDelete