Sourdough Surprises: Graham-Crusted Brownies

There is one thing I absolutely don't like about May anymore: All I do is eat. Somehow I managed to have my birthday right about the same time as Mother's Day – and who created this “Eat What You Want” day that my friends have to remind me of, on May 11^th, right when I'm trying to behave myself?

Instead, once the local bakery Red Velvet Cupcakes were gone from my birthday, I used this month's Sourdough Surprises challenge to do my Mother's Day baking in one swoop.

I found a different recipe this month, as I didn't want a 13”x9” pan of brownies lying around this time of year. I looked around for how I could jazz it up, and found a nearly empty box of graham cracker crumbs in the pantry. Reminded of a few variations of s'mores brownies that I've read about, I decided to top my brownies with the crumbs. I did realize (right after coming home from the store) that the recipe called for cake flour, so I had to make another adjustment.

My version of the recipe:

Graham-Crusted Brownies

Adapted from grouprecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
  
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ cup ripe sourdough starter
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

• Preheat oven to 375F, and grease a 9" pan.
• Microwave chocolate and oil in 10 second increments, stirring in between, until melted.
• In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
• Beat together brown sugar, egg, sourdough starter and vanilla, then stir in cooled chocolate mixture.
• Stir in flour mixture until just blended.
• Spread in prepared pan. Top with graham cracker crumbs
• Bake 25-30 minutes, or until edge begins to pull away from pan.
• Cool completely before cutting and serving.

They didn't need quite the 30-35 minutes in the oven that the recipe called for. My only complaint is that they turned out a bit more like cake than brownies:

Still, by using unsweetened chocolate, they had a very rich and satisfying chocolate taste. I do plan on making more of a graham streusel if I do this again, and probably omitting the baking soda so that they don't come out so cakey.

Yes, I will be saving this recipe. They're pretty darn good. And all things considered, they're not that bad for you – 1/12 of the recipe is only about 160 calories.

So even though it's May, I can still have my cake and my brownies too. And then I can go back to my regularly scheduled baking.

Check out our other delicious brownies!
 

Shine Supper Club: Cooked Carrots

When I was little, my mother would always ask what vegetable I wanted with dinner. Like she needed to ask - “cooked carrots” was always my response. Plain cooked carrots. Not that I minded glazed carrots (although, to this day, I'm not fond of raw carrots), but just boiled carrots with a little bit of salt. It's the simple things in life that keeps kids happy.

I'm all grown up now, and although I do still live at home, I do most of the cooking now (when I'm not working much, at least). When I found out the Shine Supper Club was doing childhood dishes for the month of May (my birthday month even!), I knew I had to do a grown up version of my favorite side dish growing up.

Lemon Pepper Boiled Carrots

Serves 4

1lb baby carrots

1tsp salt

Enough water to cover carrots

2 tblsp butter

2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning or to taste (or lemon zest and black pepper to taste)

1. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Add carrots and boil 10-15 minutes, to desired doneness. Drain and return pot to heat.
2. Melt butter in pot with lemon pepper seasoning. Toss to coat and serve.

I served this with some white rice and Spicy Maple Mustard glazed chicken (so good I had to scrape off a little of the extra!). The glaze, if interested...

Spicy Maple Mustard Sauce

Adapted from EatingWell.com

Makes 1/4 cup

1 tblsp Maple Syrup

3 tblsp Horseradish Mustard

1/2 tsp paprika

Simply mix in a small bowl. Makes a great dip as well as a sauce for all kinds of meat!

Of course, this wasn't how I ate my carrots growing up – as I've said before, my mom is a lazy cook, and only after telling her what I'd added to the carrots did she find out about the lemon pepper seasoning I had in the pantry. Still, it was a tasty reminder of the way things were back then – and Mom even loved them too.

The simple things in life keep adults happy too.