Pumpkin Brownies

It's PUMPKIN TIME! Finally! All these fresh vegetables, bountiful crops, and dizzying varieties during the summer--at last, we can settle down on one thing. And eat it all winter long.

Fall has several meanings for me: 1. Pumpkins, 2. Apples, 3. Cranberries, 4. Halloween Candy. And seasons changing and all that other crap too, of course, but mostly I really look forward to the foods that go with autumn. They're crisp and spicy-sweet and warm and mushy. (Think baked apples and soft roasted winter squashes and pie galore.) They also have come to mean infiltrating all otherwise normal dishes somehow with pumpkin. Enter Libby.

I saw her on the shelf and couldn't walk by. Look at that beast! Think of how many Downsliced creations she could make! Cookies, muffins, brownies, pie, pastas, soups, sauces....my head almost exploded right there on the carpeted floor (not kidding) of my local Foodmaster. 100% Calabaza Pura. I made her mine and took her home.

As usual, I wanted chocolate, but I also wanted pumpkin. Most of the recipes Google gave me had dreadful terms like "healthy" and "low calorie" in the title. Worse, they were actually promoted using phrases like, "Can't even taste the pumpkin!" or "Your kids won't know its there!" What blasphemy is this? A pumpkin brownie with no traceable elements of pumpkininity? What has our world come to?

My pointer finger went spasmodic; I think I actually made it to page three of Google's search results before Food and Wine magazine saved me. A delicious chocolate brownie with an intentionally discernible pumpkin swirl marbled throughout. Phew. The living room ceased to spin around me. I calmly clicked 'Print.' The world was as it should be.

Pumpkin Brownies

adapted from Food & Wine,* serves 4ish; takes about 40 minutes

For the Pumpkin batter

2 tsp butter, room temp

2 Tbsp cream cheese, room temp

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

2 Tbsp pumpkin

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp each cinnamon and ginger

1 Tbsp flour

For the Brownie

1 1/2 oz chocolate

2 Tbsp butter

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

pinch salt

1/3 cup flour

(1/4 cup walnuts, optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Whisk together cream cheese and butter in a small bowl until creamy and uniform. Add sugar and whisk to incorporate. Add yolk, pumpkin, vanilla and spices then whisk again until smooth. Stir in flour. Set aside
2. Now, melt chocolate and butter together in microwave or gently over the stove. Set aside to cool slightly. In a medium bowl, beat egg, sugar, vanilla and salt until your arm gives out, or until the egg is frothy and the sugar is almost dissolved, whichever comes first (feel free to use electric beaters for this). Gradually add melted chocolate mixture, whisking all the while so it doesn't cook your eggs. Once chocolate is in, fold in flour and nuts (if using).
3. Take a well-greased 4-5 inch square pan and pour the brownie batter in. Slop heaping spoonfulls of pumpkin batter all over the top, then swirl with a knife (not too much! you still want separate entities). Bake 20-28 minutes, depending on your gooeyness preference. Tastes really good cold.

*Special note: I actually made two versions of this brownie; the first, I felt, did not have all the pumpkin-packed power I was craving. On the second round I actually doubled the amount of pumpkin swirl it called for and found it perfect.

Holy Expletive Brownies (with Strawberry Milkshakes)

Don't even think about judging me for posting two different brownie recipes over the span of a single week. Don't pretend like you don't love brownies and when you make a pan and they're gone all you want is some more brownies. Don't act like all brownie recipes are created equal, either. And, for the love of pete, don't skip this recipe.

Unless you like stale, cakey brownies, in which case this dessert is not for you. They're gooey, they're deeply chocolatey, and they are worth every single calorie. Also, they are best thick, so if you don't have a small enough pan (say, 4-inch square at the largest), use a cupcake tin sprayed down pretty heavily, and fill the molds at least 1/2-full. Actually, the brownie pictured here is a little on the thin side....

Holy Expletive Brownies

(adapted from The Little Black Book of Chocolate by Barbara Benjamin; start to finish time about 40 minutes)

2 1/2 Tbsp butter

1 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

pinch salt

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Combine butter and chocolate in a small saucepan or a microwave safe bowl. Melt them together slowly over low heat on the stovetop or in 20-second increments in the microwave, until you can stir it smooth. Let cool slightly.
2. In a bowl, whisk eggs until foamy. Add sugar, vanilla and salt and whisk just until combined (don't overbeat). Gradually add chocolate mixture, whisking all the while. Add flour, again whisking just until combined. Stir in pecans.
3. Pour into small greased baking pan, about 4-in square max. You want it good and thick. Bake for 20 minutes, then start checking for "doneness." Take it out when the batter has has set up in the middle but a toothpick inserted in center does NOT come out clean--it will continue to cook a bit as it cools. Depending on your oven, you may need to give it another 5 minutes or so. Exercise your will power for at least 10 minutes before digging in.

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Maybe you noticed the strawberry shake in the background of my picture there. Here's a pretty simple "recipe" that serves 2 people just perfectly: combine 1 cup frozen strawberries, 1 cup ice cream and 1 cup milk in a blender. Voila. It's not a bowl you over, face-imploding diner shake, but it gets the job done.

4 Brownies

To be very honest with you, the title of this post should probably be "6 Brownies," but because I am a glutton, it is not.

The original-sized recipe came from my mother-in-law and is appropriately entitled "Friendship Brownies." I think it's because you can mix up all the dry ingredients, then gift it with instructions on how to get them baked, thereby securing yourself oodles of friends. Many a happy day found David and I opening a care package from Virginia with some "friendly" mix in it. It's a great recipe and so easy, because its chocolateyness comes from cocoa and the fat is oil, so there's no melting, no stirring, no tempering -- just one bowl and a whisk.

So here's a tip: if you want to make smaller batches of brownies but don't have a tiny pan, cupcake tins work just fine. If you're an edge person (like David), bake them straight in the greased pan. If you're a middle person (like me), use cupcake liners, which will block some of that exterior crusting.

4 (fine, 6) Friendship Brownies

(Total prep/bake time: 30 minutes)

1/3 cup flour

1/4 cup each brown sugar, white sugar, and cocoa

1/3 tsp each salt and baking powder

1 large egg

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/3 tsp vanilla

3 Tbsp chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Mix together dry ingredients (flour through powder).
2. Add egg, oil, and vanilla. Whisk well (dough will be thick). Stir in chips.
3. Divide between 4 (ok, 6) cupcake tins. Bake 14-20 minutes.

I know 14 - 20 minutes may seem like a pretty big window for baking time, but brownies are a deeply individual thing. If you like yours closer to batter than baked good, take them out when they're still jiggly and let them rest -- they'll continue to cook a bit out of the oven. If you're a cakey type (for some unfathomable reason), air on the lengthier side.

Brownie Thins

Finally, a recipe that discards all that extra fatty padding and leaves you with just the thin, ever-so-subtle crisp of brownie tops. Full-sized brownies have their place, don't get me wrong, but this recipe comes together in a snap, supplies just the right amount of chocolate pleasure, and doesn't leave you with a full pan of thunder thighs waiting to happen. 

Brownie Thins

(c/o Bon Appetit -- makes 6 petite thins)

1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped 

1 1/2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp egg (or substitute is fine here)

3 tsp flour

dash of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt

2 Tbsp chopped nuts

1. Preheat oven to 350º. In a medium bowl, melt chocolate and butter together in the microwave. Start with 30 seconds, then go 15 at a time until you can stir it smooth.
2. Whisk in sugar and egg until smooth, about 1 minute. Add flour, extracts, and salt. Stir just to blend. 
3. Let batter hang out for 10 minutes. 
4. On a pan with parchment paper or a silpat, scoop out rounded teaspoons (that's right, a teaspoon) of dough a few inches apart. Using a piece of plastic wrap, sprayed with cooking oil if you like, press dough lumps down to flatten them a little. Sprinkle with nuts. 
5. Bake for 7 minutes. Cool for 2. Eat them all at once.