Reg and I have had CRAP luck lately. With St. Patrick’s Day upon us and with a touch of Irish blood “in me veins” I am calling upon all that is lucky in the universe to bring us to our path of good fortune. To do so I took a meh recipe and did some foodie alchemy to bring you this double decker Irish cream treasure to you.
Hopefully now we will be on the path to good luck!
I knew I should have listened to my foodie instincts when the recipe wrote, “Heat granulated sugar (1 1/4 cup), butter or margarine, and 1/2 cup cocoa powder in a large saucepan over medium heat until butter or margarine melts, stirring constantly.”
Everything clumped and took forever to melt and almost scorched so please do this instead:
Melt 3/4 cup butter in a medium sauce pan over low heat. Then stir in 1 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup cocoa powder. Remove from heat.
For the dry ingredients sieve 1 1/2 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp baking soda. It was not until I put the brownies into the oven that I realized there was no salt!!! So please, add 1/2 tsp of salt.
For the wet ingredients stir together 3/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup Baileys. The recipe called for 2 tbsp of instant coffee but I used 1 tbsp instant espresso. Yum! Mix together.
When the chocolate mixture cools a bit, stir in 2 eggs, one at a time making sure the first one is well incorporated before adding the second one.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and then 1/2 the Irish cream mixture. Add another 1/3 of the flour, the last half of the Irish cream and finish with the dry ingredients. Do not over mix!
Here is where another warning siren went off in my head. The recipe calls for a well greased 15″ x 10″ x 1″pan which is HUGE! I personally would recommend using a 9″ x 13″ pan.
Sure enough, the brownies were totally done in like 10 minutes. Good thing I did not bake them for the recommended 15-20 minutes at 350F because they were so thin. If you use the 9″ x 13″ you should be fine with this baking time.
Foodie Results
These brownies were OK but I could tell they would have been so much better had I made them the way I wanted and added some salt!!! Good brownies do not require icing. (People on Facebook and Twitter agreed with me about that.) But these brownies needed more than just a little something.
Getting Dressing Up
I just gave up on the recipe at this point. I did sift 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar and 2 tbsp cocoa powder. Then I added 1 tbsp Bailey’s, 1 tsp vanilla and a couple tbsp of evaporated skim milk. You can use just regular milk. I whisked it all together to dress up the brownie.
That’s not a brownie…
This saved us from muted flavour but it is so sad-looking! So flat!
You know I am doing serious first aid to a recipe when I get out the cookie cutters! Wish I had a four leaf clover but I got out my heart cookie cutter and got to work.
Striking Foodie Gold
I got out the President’s Choice Cookie Spread and sandwiched it between two layers and created this double decker Irish cream BEAST! I also sprinkled some fleur de sel on top to make up for the missing salt inside the brownie.
Well if that does not appease the good luck foodie gods I don’t know what will! I did eat this chocolate monster and it was divine. Absolutely divine. One of the best desserts I have had in a very long time.
Each time I try and follow a recipe I realize maybe that time has passed for me? I think it is time for me to take a recipe by the reins and just make it my own damn it. I have never been good at following directions. Maybe I will be better at giving them!
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