Brownie Pudding

Oh my gosh.  This is basically a recipe for a baked brownie batter.  It's just like licking the bowl after making a box of brownies, except you can't feel guilty about eating raw eggs because it was in the oven for an hour! This is a must-have for every choco-holics' recipe box.  A few of my sorority sisters and I demolished the vast majority of this little slice of heaven in around 15 minutes, it's that good.

I apologize in advance - I sort of forgot to take pictures as I went along.  I'm still new to this whole blogging while cooking thing, I'll work on improving that!

It takes a little while to bake (1 hour), and is just a little tricky compared to the other recipes on this blog so far, so be warned!  It's not that difficult though, I was able to do it in my tiny kitchen with limited cooking supplies and it came out absolutely delicious.  I baked it for my friends and I to eat on girls' night and it was a huge hit.

It's pretty simple as far as ingredients go, you only need butter, sugar, cocoa powder, flour, eggs, and vanilla extract.

Preheat the oven to 325 F, then melt the butter and let it cool down.  Mix the eggs and sugar until they are thick and fluffy, then mix the cocoa and flour in a separate bowl.  Add the vanilla to the eggs and sugar mixture, then slowly add the dry ingredients, and mix just until it's all mixed in.  Lastly, add the melted butter, pour into a baking dish.  This is the tricky part, at least for me.  To bake, set the baking dish into a larger dish filled with hot tap water that comes to about half way up the baking dish.  I struggled to find a second, larger dish in my small kitchen and wound up filling it to the brim with hot water, which meant getting everything in and out of the oven was quite the challenge without making a huge mess.  After 65 minutes, it looked like one huge souffle, so I took it out and let it cool for a little while.

Breaking the "souffle" showed that the middle was basically brownie batter.  Fully cooked of course - it was in the oven for over an hour! - but the consistency of very thick brownie batter.  It tasted absolutely delicious.  I think next time I'll top it with a scoop of ice cream to make it even more fantastic!

Brownie Pudding
(Serves 8)

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 325 F.
• Melt the 2 sticks of butter and set aside to cool.
• Combine the eggs and sugar and beat on medium-high until thick and light yellow.  If you have a stand alone mixer, you should use it here.  Once the eggs and sugar are mixed, add the vanilla extract.
• Mix the cocoa powder and flour in a separate, small mixing bowl.
• Slowly add the cocoa and flour mixture to the eggs and sugar mixture, beating on low speed until just combined.
• Keeping the mixer on low, slowly pour in the melted butter and again mix until just combined.
• Pour the mixture into a circular baking dish.  Place the dish inside a larger dish, and fill the larger dish with hot tap water to create a water bath that comes about halfway up the side of the baking dish.
• Bake for 60-70 minutes.  The middle will look undercooked - that's the way it's supposed to look.
• Let cool for a few minutes, then serve.  Ice cream goes well with this dish :)

Inspiration from: http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/02/16/brownie-pudding/