Happiness is a warm brownie.
What’s not to love? Brownies are the chocolate equivalent of a hug; a little square of comfort food just perfect for satisfying your sweet tooth and making you feel good inside at the same time.
When I smell brownies baking in the oven I have an instant flashback to my childhood. My mother’s chocolate chip brownies were our ultimate dessert fantasy. She didn’t make them frequently, but when the occasion called for a chocolate dessert, this was it.
The whiff of chocolate-y wonderfulness emanating from the kitchen would filter up to my bedroom and I knew right away what goodness was to come. A warm brownie with a cold glass of milk. Is there anything better?
Many a brownie have I baked over the years, and many have I loved. But the recipe I always come back to is this one from my childhood — my mother’s Chocolate Chip Brownies.
Now, these are not fancy shmancy brownies. No bells and whistles. They’re fairly sedate as brownies go, but the thing that makes them unique is the chopped nuts are sprinkled on the top only. If you are allergic to nuts, obviously this won’t work for you. You could simply omit the nuts and the brownies will still be wonderful (although I must confess I have never tried them that way).
Erev Rosh Hashanah, the start of the Jewish New Year, is tomorrow evening, and many of my Jewish friends and relatives are busy cooking. It is traditional to serve an apple dessert since apples represent the sweetness of the coming year.
But a little chocolate sweetness couldn’t hurt, either.
Who couldn’t use some extra sweetness? I say bring it on.
May the coming year be sweeter for all of us.
Chocolate Chip Brownies
4 sq. bitter chocolate
2 sticks butter
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 1/3 c. cake flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 6 oz pkg. chocolate chips
2 t. vanilla
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
Melt chocolate and butter; cool. Beat eggs well. Add sugar gradually. Continue beating and add cooled chocolate-butter mixture gradually.
Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Add gradually. Remove from mixer.
Add chocolate chips and vanilla and mix by hand. Place in large oblong pan which has been greased and floured. Sprinkle chopped nuts on top only. Bake at 350° for 35 min.
Enjoy!
I opened my prayerbook yesterday on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, with the pale morning sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows and the white-robed rabbi and cantor solemnly approaching the bima.
