From Traveler Bill’s Test Kitchen – “Red Herring”

Dateline New York City, NY – December 23, 2009 (Embargoed until December 26, 2009)

On the 22nd  I posted the recipe I used to create brownies for gifts for my family.  In the post which I implied had been uploaded from my mobile phone, I stated that Traveler Nell and I had headed up to Albany for the holiday.  That wasn’t exactly true.

You see I was still in NYC at the time and my Nellie was on her way to Melbourne for a surprise trip home for Christmas.  A trip that had been in the works for at least nine months and which I played an integral role in the planning.  Which is why I have no problem giving an account of the planning stage here on the Traveler Bill-og.

Early on it was decided that Nellie would be going home to Melbourne sometime this year one way or another.  Either for Christmas or to see Collingwood in the Grand Final.  When the Pies faltered early on it was looking more and more like a Christmas time trip would occur.

The idea for a surprise trip came from a trip home I made while I was away at college in Oswego.  I made an unannounced trip home for Thanksgiving.  I took a cab from the train station and was greeted by an empty house and an hour wait in the cold for someone to turn up.

But Nellie is far too shrewd to be caught unawares like a 19 year old Traveler Bill.  As soon as it looked like Collingwood was out of it, during her trip to Las Vegas with her parents in May, she switched her tickets from September to December.  Little did she know Collingwood would go on an improbable winning streak and come a hairsbreadth from the Final.  At that point however, we were so invested in the surprise trip home that the Christmas trip would have happened regardless.

Not to say it wasn’t difficult to maintain the ruse.  In many of her calls home Nellie nearly let it slip, or felt like she couldn’t hide the truth anymore.  I was there to make sure she kept to the company line right until the end.  To the point that while Jenelle was in her Qantas 747-400 over the Pacific heading toward the International Date Line and the future I was logging in to her email to send a phony dispatch to her parents saying how cold it was in Albany.

I wish I could be there to see their reactions which, if Jenelle makes decent time from the airport, should be happening right about as I write this sentence.

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As promised, here is the previous post with photographs.

Christmas Time is here and that means that Traveler Nell and I are headed to Traveler Bill’s ancestral home to spend the holiday with my family.  Nellie being from Australia, Upstate New York is a slightly easier commute.

The siblings in my family have drawn names for a grab bag for more than 20 years and 2009 was no exception.  And while it has recently changed to include our oldest niece and nephew, it is pretty much how it was in the late 80’s.  Which means while I don’t go all out for everybody…everybody get something.

In the past that has meant Smart Wool (1997) socks for everyone,  a genuine Traveler Bill t-shirt (see image) (2003) or even peanut brittle 2006).  This year it will mean brownies.

But not just any brownies.  This brownie recipe is my adaptation of The Barefoot Contessa’s Outrageous Brownies which were also an adaptation of the chocolate globs in the Soho Charcuterie Cookbook.

Ingredients

• 1 pound unsalted butter
• 14 ounces plus 10 ounces semisweet chocolate chips – divided
• 8 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 6 jumbo eggs (room temperature)
• 3 tablespoons instant coffee powder
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 ¼ cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup plus ¼ cup all purpose flour – divided
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 ounces peppermint candy canes (about five) broken into pea sized pieces
• 3 cups walnuts chopped
• ¼ cup (4 or so) candy canes ground into a fine powder
• ¼ cup confectioners sugar

Preheat your oven to 350° F.   Butter and flour your largest metal baking pans.  The original recipe called for a 13 X 18 X 1½ sheet pan. (I used a 13 X 17 X 1 aluminum pan and put the rest into ceramic dish.  The brownies in the metat dish came out MUCH better.)

I first mixed the walnuts, the 10 ounces of chips and the pea sized peppermint chips with the ¼ cup all purpose flour, then placed this mix into the refridgerator.

In a large aluminum pan over simmering water melt the butter the 14 ounces of chips and the 8 ounces of bakers chocolate.  I did this over too high of heat and had to wait a while for the mix to cool down once melted.

While it is cooling mix with a beater on low setting the eggs, the coffee the vanilla and the sugar.  I mixed until the were well combined but not frothy.  I added a cup of the warm chocolate mixture to the egg mixture to temper them before combining the eggs into the chocolate again with the mixer.

In another bowl (Nellie was THRILLED with all the dishes involved) I mixed the 1 cup of flour, baking powder and salt; then folded into the chocolate mixture.  Once fully mixed and glossy I folded the chilled walnut/chocolate/peppermint mix into the batter and poured into the pand and baking dish.

I ended up baking the dish for 30 minutes and the pan for 45, but start checking at 30minutes.  Test by inserting a toothpick into the center of the brownie.  When it comes out clean, it is done.

Cool on racks until room temperature then refridgerate overnight in the pans.  After I cut the brownies into squares I dusted the top and bottom with a mix of the candy cane powder and confectioners sugar.

The subtle peppermint taste is very pleasant and not the punch in the nose that peppermint extract can be.  I brought some into my lawyers office today and everyone who tried them (especially those who tried them multiple times) found them delicious.