I subscribe to a handful of baking blogs, and most of them seem to have some personal anecdote related to the recipe to start the article, before launching into the actual recipe. So if one of these bloggers had a post about brownies, they might have something like
Warm, fudgy brownies are one of my favorite things in life. They remind me of cool nights in the fall, when the weather is just perfect for baking a nice big batch of brownies. The heat from the oven warms up the house to just the right temperature, but it’s not too cold outside that it feels like you’re trapped in the house. Biting into a warm brownie fresh out of the oven along with a tall glass of milk is one of those things that’s so wonderful that there are no words to describe it.
I remember one autumn night during my college years when I ventured out to a nightclub. I really wasn’t the nightclub kind of person, and I’m certainly not one now, but that night, my friends managed to coax me into going out with them. I put on my black shirt and nice jeans, and sprayed on some cologne for a night on the town. I wasn’t really expecting much, other than the usual discomfort I feel in loud, crowded places like clubs.
After we got to the club, we had a couple of rounds of drinks, and I was feeling pretty buzzed. In my youth, I was a lot slimmer than I am now, and my alcohol tolerance was a lot lower. I spotted a hot Asian girl walking towards me. I can still remember what she was wearing: a tight red dress with a slit up the right side, and a pair of amazingly high black stiletto heels. She took my breath away. Feeling uninhibited from the alcohol, I approached her. I can’t even remember what I said, but I pulled out every last bit of flirtatiousness I was capable of. Pretty soon, we were making out on one of the couches in the back. I didn’t even care that everyone could see us. I didn’t have a care in the world.
She whispered in my ear that her place was just around the corner, and she invited me to stay over, seeing as how I was probably slurring my words when I didn’t have my tongue in her mouth. I could immediately tell that she was a thoughtful, caring person like that. Who was I to refuse such a generous offer? I followed her out of the club to her one-bedroom apartment in a nearby building. As soon as she closed her apartment door, she just leapt at me. I nearly fell over before I managed to catch her in my arms and balance myself against the wall. While we made out in that position, she motioned toward her bedroom. I obeyed. She told me to get comfortable and take off my shirt. Well, it was pretty warm in her apartment, so I did as she said. She sat down on her bed and told me to come over. I didn’t want to be rude, so I sat down beside her. One thing led to another, and pretty soon we were tearing our clothes off of each other. The passion and intensity were indescribable. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. We had this raw, primal attraction to each other. We made love for what seemed like hours, before we both collapsed in a heap.
I woke up to the sound of birds chirping outside. She was still sound asleep, so I made my way to her kitchen to get a drink of water. I noticed that there was a handwritten recipe on her kitchen counter. It said “Best Brownies Ever.” I’m not sure if it was her handwriting or not, but I loved it. The way the r’s wiggled was just incredibly cute. I glanced at the recipe, and it looked simple. Her cupboard seemed really well-stocked, so I thought I’d just bake some of these brownies while she was still asleep. I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl, poured them into a pan, and then stuck them in the oven. I set the timer for 35 minutes. Right as the timer went off, she emerged from her bedroom. We awkwardly glanced at each other with the typical did-we-just-do-that-last-night looks, with the added awkwardness of me pulling brownies out of her oven with her bright pink oven mitt while just wearing my boxers, staring at her just wearing her panties. But soon, we were cutting into the brownies, and all the awkwardness had subsided.
Every time I bake these brownies, I think of that magical night, and how this recipe brought two people closer together.
[insert recipe here]
Sadly I don’t have the looks or the charm to pull off a one night stand like that, nor do I have an interesting story about these brownies. I just baked them for the bake sale last Saturday, since they’re simple, and they’re my go-to recipe for brownies. I got the recipe here.
1 cup butter
3 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
It’s very simple; I just mixed all the ingredients above in the order they’re listed. One bowl.
Then, the batter goes into a 9×13 baking pan. You’re supposed to smooth out the top better than I did here…
After 35 minutes in the oven at 350F, they’re done. If you smooth out the top properly, you won’t end up with the bumpy surface that I had.
I managed to flip the whole brownie sheet onto some wax paper without breaking it. I tried to wait patiently until it cooled completely this time, and I think that probably helped.
Then I cut the big slab of brownies into 24 pieces.
The brownies are really dense and moist on the inside, but they also have that nice crunch on the outside.
I packaged them up, three per bag, for the bake sale.
These are really dense and rich, so one batch serves quite a few people. If they weren’t being sold, I might have cut them into even smaller pieces.