Fudgy Brownies (CCTC p. 388)

Tonight I made "Fudgy Brownies" out of America's Test Kitchen's "The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook" (p. 388).

The Process: Took about 30m to prep and 30m to bake. It was a pretty straightforward and fun recipe to make.

The Verdict: 8 out of 10. Really, really good brownies, but not amazing. The brownies required quite a bit more time in the oven than stated in the recipe. The recipe says to bake them for 24 to 28 minutes. I baked them for at least 34 minutes, and they still weren't cooked enough.

The Cost: $TBD

The recipe calls for an 8.5" x 4.5" loaf pan. My adjustable loaf
pan is exactly 4.5" wide, and I simply adjusted it to 8.5" long.

The recipe calls for semi-sweet chocolate, so I was glad I had
this in my cabinet.

A little scale action, to ensure I'm chopping up just the right
amount of chocolate.

I've just chopped the chocolate and ready to melt it together
with the butter.

Adding the cocoa powder to the chocolate and butter.

The butter, chocolate & cocoa powder is ready for the microwave.

Making a "foil sling", as directed in the recipe.

The recipe calls for one egg plus one yolk, so I was excited to
finally use my egg separator for the first time!

Adding vanilla extract to the sugar and eggs.

About to whisk the sugar, salt, egg & vanilla extract together.

Action shot: whisking the sugar, salt, egg & vanilla extract together.

Pouring the melted chocolate mixture into the sugar & egg batter. 

Mixing together all the ingredients except flour.

Adding flour to the final mixture.

Stirring flour into the batter.

Pouring the brownie batter into the prepared foil sling.

Ready to go into the oven!

Just out of the oven!

Cooling on the cooling rack.

Slicing into 8 brownie squares.

This recipe yields 8 brownie squares.

This recipe yields 8 brownie squares.

The finished product!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (CCTC p. 384)

Tonight I made "Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies" out of America's Test Kitchen's "The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook" (p. 384).

The Process: Took about 45 minutes, start to finish. It was a super easy recipe to follow.

The Verdict: 6 out of 10. I was not impressed with these cookies. They were good, but the consistency and flavor were nowhere near as good as, for example, the "Best Chocolate Chip Cookies" on allrecipes.com, which is my usual recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I'm not sure what the advantage of the parchment paper is, as I've never used parchment paper before, and other cookies I've made were much better than these. These should be less chewy and more gooey, and have better flavor. To be fair, I didn't have unsalted butter so I used salted butter, and I didn't have a full cup of semisweet chocolate chips, so I used a mix of semisweet and milk chocolate chips. (Overall, the cookies aren't terrible or anything, and obviously I will eat them all ;-) ).

The Cost: $TBD

Cutting up the butter. 

Preparing to melt the butter.

Laying the parchment paper on the cookie sheet.

Whisking together the flour, baking soda and salt.

Mixing the granulated sugar with the light brown sugar.

Measuring out the chocolate chips.

Whisking the melted butter into the sugar.

Just after mixing the butter into the sugar. 

Adding egg and vanilla to the sugar/butter mixture.

Just after mixing the sugar/butter/egg/vanilla mixture until smooth.

Adding the dry (flour) mixture to the wet (sugar/egg) mixture.

Stirring the 2 mixtures together with a rubber spatula.

Just after mixing everything together and before adding the chips. 

Adding the chocolate chips for the final mix.

The chocolate chip cookie dough is now done and ready to scoop onto the sheet.

The dough has been scooped onto the prepared sheet.

Halfway through baking, about to spin the sheet around.

Just after coming out of the oven.

Just after coming out of the oven.

The finished product.

They smell great. Taste good, but not great.

More chewy than gooey.

Weeknight Beef Stew (CCTC p. 46)

Tonight I made "Weeknight Beef Stew" out of America's Test Kitchen's "The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook" (p. 46).

The Process: Took about 1h40m, including prep time. I can probably get this down to about 1h10m as I get more familiar with the recipe and don't have any distractions. This was a very enjoyable and satisfying process though.

The Verdict: 8.5 out of 10. Totally delicious flavor, but the meat wasn't quite as tender as I would have liked, and the potato could have used 5 more minutes of simmering. Next time, I'll hope to find the proper steak as called for in the recipe, and see whether that bumps the rating up to a 9.5.

The Cost: $6.28 (steak $4 + onion $.30 + carrot $.33 + garlic $.15 + tomato paste $.20 + wine $.50 + broth $.30 + potato $.30 + peas $.20, plus negligible amounts of salt, pepper, thyme, flour, soy sauce, oil)

Preparing the beef broth ahead of time.

I used grapeseed oil to brown the meat, and I think it worked well.

I actually did a bit of prep work this time -- here are the chopped onion,
sliced carrot and minced garlic.

I had trouble finding the "sirloin steak tips" called for in the recipe, so
I went with this top sirloin steak which happened to be on sale. I look
forward to making this recipe again with the proper meat.

I weighed out the appropriate quantity of steak and prepared to cut it up.

The steak, all cut up and ready to be browned.

Browning the steak in two batches.

The first half of the steak, all browned and about to be set aside.

Setting aside the first half of the steak after browning.

Browning the second half of the steak.

I've just added the onion & carrot to the fat left in the saucepan.

I cooked the onion & carrot until softened, then added the
garlic, tomato paste, thyme and flour. 

Here I've added the wine, beef broth and potato.

After simmering for about 20 minutes, I added the frozen peas.

Here I've added the browned beef back to the stew, along with some soy sauce,
mixed it all together and let the beef come back up to temperature.

The finished product!

The finished product!