Bready or Not: Cocoa Pecan Brownies
These Cocoa Pecan Brownies are perfect for when you have a chocolate emergency and need brownies, STAT.
(If you don’t know what might constitute a chocolate emergency, my gosh, why are you even here?)
In any case, these brownies are great because they mix up quickly in a big pot, and they are a pretty straightforward bake, too. If you don’t like pecans, okay. Omit the nuts entirely, or use walnuts, a mix of nuts, cocoa nibs, whatever. This recipe can flex!
The one necessity: you need to enjoy these things. Really savor them. Maybe even stash some in the freezer for when that next chocolate emergency strikes.
Bready or Not: Cocoa Pecan Brownies
Equipment
- 13×9 pan
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter 3 sticks
- 3 cups white sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 12 Tablespoons cocoa powder sifted
- 6 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a 13×9 pan with foil and apply nonstick spray or butter.
- In a large saucepan, heat the butter and sugar together on medium heat, stirring often, just until the butter is melted. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and cocoa powder. Add eggs one at a time, mixing in completely before adding the next. Stir in flour. Fold in the pecans.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the very middle passes the toothpick test. Cool at room temperature, speeding the process in fridge if desired. Use foil to lift contents onto a cutting board. Slice up. Store in a sealed container.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Browned Butter Lamington Blondies
These Browned Butter Lamington Blondies are rich and indulgent, all chewy, chocolaty and good.
A lamington is an Australian dessert wherein pieces of sponge cake are rolled in chocolate and coconut. I haven’t gotten to try the real thing, but I can vouch for the fact that this home-baked version is delicious.
You start out with a blondie base that is rich on its own, with bountiful butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Then you go even more ultra by adding an ooey-gooey chocolate and coconut-laden topping.
The original version of the recipe, in the Bake from Scratch May/June 2019 issue, proposed this Lamington version as a modification for a standard Blondie recipe. I rewrote it to streamline the process and change out some ingredients. Like… this doesn’t need sweetened coconut. It’s already sweet enough!
As I live in Arizona and have a warm kitchen, I found it essential to chill these bars so that they could be sliced up. I stored them in the fridge afterward as well, but if you’re in a cooler area, that likely isn’t needed.
Bready or Not: Browned Butter Lamington Blondies
Equipment
- 13×9 pan
- uneven spatula
Ingredients
Blondie Base
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter 3 sticks
- 3 cups light brown sugar packed
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
Topping
- 1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
- 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
- 14- ounces sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat, stirring often until butter turns golden-brown with a nutty aroma, about 5 to 10 minutes. Pour into a small bowl to let stand at room temperature while the next steps are prepared.
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a 13×9 pan with foil and apply nonstick spray or butter.
- In a large bowl, beat together the brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat in the browned butter. Add eggs one at a time, scraping bowl after each addition. Add vanilla extract. Fold in flour until just combined. Pour into prepared pan, evening out with an uneven spatula.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Middle needs to be set or the toppings will sink. Once that is done, no need to cool the base layer–remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle coconut over the top followed by the chocolate chips. Pour the sweetened condensed milk all over both.
- Place pan back in oven to bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until middle is molten. Let cool for a while at room temperature, then place in fridge to completely set and chill.
- Use foil to lift contents onto a cutting board. Slice. Store individually wrapped-up or in a sealed container at room temperature or in the fridge for up to 3 days.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Walnut Streusel Coffee Cake in a Bundt Pan
Coffee Cakes can be delicious but so very messy to eat. This bundt cake version turns things inside out by putting the ‘messy bit’ inside the cake, making for easier yet still scrumptious eating.
The most negative thing I can say about this Walnut Streusel Coffee Cake in a Bundt Pan is that it dirties a lot of dishes. So yeah, there is some effort involved, but the result is well worth it!
I individually wrapped slices of this for my husband to take to work. He had a co-worker tell him this cake was “f—–n’ awesome.” I take that as high praise.
This would be a great cake to make a day-ahead for a breakfast or brunch for a lot of people!
Bready or Not: Walnut Streusel Coffee Cake in a Bundt Pan
Equipment
- large bundt pan
- nonstick spray with flour
- mixer
Ingredients
Candied Walnut Filling
- 1 cup walnuts chopped
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Coffee Cake
- 4 large eggs separated
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sour cream or vanilla or plain Greek yogurt
- confectioners' sugar to dust on top, optional
Instructions
- In small bowl, combine the walnuts, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon, tossing to coat well. Set aside.
- Separate eggs, placing the whites in a large bowl. Let them come to room temperature for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Use nonstick spray with flour on a large bundt pan.
- In a big mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, making them light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time. Add vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mix alternatively with the sour cream, scraping the bowl on occasion, until just combined.
- Using clean beaters, beat the egg whites on medium until stiff peaks form. Fold the whites into the batter, making sure not to overmix and deflate.
- Pour half the batter into the bundt pan. Sprinkle the walnut mixture fully around the ring. Pour the rest of the batter on top and smooth out.
- Bake cake for 45 to 55 minutes, plunging a toothpick in the middle of the cake to test for doneness. Cake is done when the toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes, then invert onto a rack to completely cool.
- If desired, sprinkle confectioners’ sugar over the top prior to serving. Cake is best eaten within two days, but can also be individually sliced, wrapped, and frozen to enjoy later.
OM NOM NOM!
Publications from Summer 2022
Well, hi. There hasn’t been anything but scheduled-ahead Bready or Not posts over the past while because I have been in DEADLINE LAND. Deadline Land is a nightmarish place where you don’t leave the house except to acquire groceries and get your kid to therapy, and you write and write and write and panic and write some more AND THEN you get copyedits for another book and you then quietly scream.
I’m still in Deadline Land but the landscape has changed enough to grant me some catch-up time to update my bibliography and also compile those changes in this very post. Along with the new short stories, poems, and podcast linked below, I can also say that my book A Thousand Recipes for Revenge is now scheduled for release on June 13, 2023. I hope to have a cover to share soon!
New Short Stories
“Prognostiqueso,” Daily Science Fiction
“The 207th Time I Went Back to March 9, 1980,” Uncanny Magazine Issue 48 (Sept/Oct 2022)
“How to Creatively Host Cheese Parties During and After the Apocalypse,” Hexagon Magazine
“A Light in the Garden,” Nature
Poetry
“Only Times,” Eye to the Telescope #45
“When As An Adult, You Choose to Again Believe in Magic,” The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction July/August 2022
“In Spring, We Thanked the Wee Folk,” Kaleidotrope (Summer 2022)
“The Ship is Wrong,” Felis Futura [Amazon Affiliate link]
Podcast
“Consider the Monsters” (reprint), Manawaker Studio’s Flash Fiction Podcast
#SFWAPro
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