Best Basic Brownie Recipe Ever

The Simplest, Most Awesome Basic Brownie Recipe...ever

Ingredients

1½ cups sugar
¾ cup flour
¾ cup cocoa powder (see note below)
3 eggs
¾ cup butter, melted
½ teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F!

Combine dry ingredients and quickly whisk together. Add butter and eggs. Combine, but do not beat too much because the flour will release...GLUTEN! Gasp!!!

(Kneading flour produces gluten, the springy protein that makes bread chewy)

Now stir in the chocolate chips. Taste if you like! avoid e-coli while you're at it...

Bake your awesome brownies for 20-30 minutes. When poking the brownies, make sure you are not making contact with a chip by poking several places.

Now...

Falafel and Cucumber Sauce

From AllRecipes.com: Sean's Falafel and Cucumber Sauce Recipe. I don't know who Sean is, but his falafel is quite good. The recipe calls for deep-frying, but we pan-fried them instead: Use a small amount of vegetable oil in a frying pan and make small, flat patties instead of large balls. If the patties fall apart, no worries - you have now made fork-lafel.

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained 1 onion, chopped 1/2 cup fresh parsley 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 egg 2 teaspoons ground cumin 1 teaspoon ground coriander 1 teaspoon salt 1 dash pepper 1 pinch cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon baking powder 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 cup dry bread crumbs oil for frying 1 (6 ounce) container plain yogurt 1/2 cucumber - peeled, seeded, and finely chopped 1 teaspoon dried dill weed salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoon mayonnaise

Directions:

1.	In a large bowl mash chickpeas until thick and pasty; don't use a blender, as the consistency will be too thin. In a blender, process onion, parsley and garlic until smooth. Stir into mashed chickpeas.
2.	In a small bowl combine egg, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, cayenne, lemon juice and baking powder. Stir into chickpea mixture along with olive oil. Slowly add bread crumbs until mixture is not sticky but will hold together; add more or less bread crumbs, as needed. Form 8 balls and then flatten into patties.
3.	Heat 1 inch of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry patties in hot oil until brown on both sides.
4.	In a small bowl combine yogurt, cucumber, dill, salt, pepper and mayonnaise. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Spicy Chickpea Curry

Channa Masala (Spicy Chickpea Curry)
Reproduced from Eat, Live, Run  via The Culinary Chronicles

Ingredients:
2 15 Ounce Cans Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 Garlic Cloves, smashed and chopped
1 Onion, chopped
1 Jalapeno Pepper, seeded and chopped
1 Inch Knob Fresh Ginger, peeled and chopped
1 15 Ounce Can Diced Tomatoes
3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
1/2 Lemon
1 Tablespoon Ground Coriander
1 Teaspoon Ground Cumin
1/2 Teaspoon Sea Salt
1 Teaspoon Garam Masala
1/4-1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1 Teaspoon Ground Turmeric
2 Tablespoon Butter

In a large cast iron skillet, heat the butter. Once melted, add the onions and cook for about 15 minutes on medium low heat, or until golden brown. Once the onions have caramelized, add the garlic, ginger and jalapeno and stir well. Cook for about two minutes or until it starts to smell like heaven on earth. Add the tomato paste and pince*. This is very important and if you don’t do it right your dish is pretty much doomed. No pressure. Add the coriander, cumin, cayenne and tumeric and stir well. Then add the diced tomatoes, chickpeas and garam masala. Cook for about five minutes or until the chickpeas have heated through. Finish with a squeeze of lemon and top with plain yogurt and cilantro if desired!

**To pince is essentially a browning process. For this recipe, after you add the paste, stir it well into the other ingredients. Next you’ll want to flatten the ingredients into one layer on the bottom of the pan. Turn up the heat and allow the sugars to cook down for a few minutes and create a really nice brown crust on the bottom of your pan. It may look like it’s burnt but it’s not. Jenna (not me!) describes it as smelling like “pizza” —and it does!

Yogurt Chicken with Curry Powder and Apple

• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 4 boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 tart apple, cored peeled, and thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 325°. Beat together the yogurt, egg, lemon juice, soy sauce, curry, coriander, salt, and pepper.
Place chicken breasts in a shallow baking dish. Top each chicken breast with apple slices. Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes; spoon yogurt sauce evenly over chicken and bake for another 15 minutes, or until chicken is tender. If you cook the full time with the sauce, it might curdle a bit but will still be tasty. Serves 4.

Chocolate Idiot Cake

From the David Lebovitz website:

One 9-inch (23 cm) cake
Adapted from Ready for Dessert (Ten Speed Press)
This cake is extremely rich, and tastes like the most delicious, silkiest, most supremely-chocolate ganache you’ve ever had. As mentioned, it’s equally good a few days later, and only an idiot could possibly mess it up. You don’t need to use ScharffenBerger chocolate for this cake, but use a good one—you’ll appreciate it when you taste your first melt-in-your-mouth bite.
10 ounces (290 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
7 ounces (200 g) butter, salted or unsalted, cut into pieces
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (200 g) sugar
Preheat the oven to 350F (175C).
1. Butter a 9-inch (23 cm) springform pan* and dust it with cocoa powder, tapping out any excess. If you suspect your springform pan isn’t 100% water-tight, wrap the outside with aluminum foil, making sure it goes all the way up to the outer rim.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler (or microwave), stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove from heat.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar, then whisk in the melted chocolate mixture until smooth.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan and cover the top of the pan snugly with a sheet of foil. Put the springform pan into a larger baking pan, such as a roasting pan, and add enough hot water to the baking pan to come about halfway up to the outside of the cake pan.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
You’ll know the cake is done when it feels just set, like quivering chocolate pudding. If you gently touch the center, your finger should come away clean.
5. Lift the cake pan from the water bath and remove the foil. Let cake cool completely on a cooling rack.
Serve thin wedges of this very rich cake at room temperature, with creme anglaise, ice cream, or whipped cream.
Storage: This Chocolate Idiot Cake can be wrapped and chilled in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.

Peanutty Energy Bars

• 1/2 cup (60 g) salted dry-roasted peanuts
• 1/2 cup (80 g) raisins or other dried fruit
• 2 cups (160 g) uncooked oatmeal, old-fashioned or instant
• 2 cups (50 g) toasted rice cereal, such as Rice Krispies
• 1/2 cup (130 g) peanut butter, crunchy or creamy
• 1/2 cup (100 g) packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Optional: 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ

Mix together the first six ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside. Combine peanut butter, brown sugar and corn syrup in a large bowl. Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Add vanilla and stir until blended. Add dry ingredients from medium bowl. Stir until coated. Spoon mixture into an 8-inch square pan coated with non-stick spray. Press down firmly (It helps to spray fingers with nonstick spray). Let stand about 1 hour. Cut into bars.

Great Grandma Carpenter’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 ½ C four

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 C shortening

1 C white sugar

1 C brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 C quick oats

1 C raisins

Sift flour, soda and salt together. Beat shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine with flour mixture and oats. Add raisins. Bake at 375F for 12-14 minutes.