Cleaning Out The Pantry
Sunday I had a craving for something, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what I wanted. Weather in sunny South Florida was freezing (I know—50’s is all in the eyes of the beholder; I was freezing), so I needed to work with the ingredients I had in the pantry. The thought of bundling up like Nanook of the North was not appealing to me.
Shoshana and Samuel were pushing for muffins, but I wanted something sweeter. I had several bags of sweetened coconut, so I suggested coconut cupcakes. They nixed that idea.
Once I reached brain freeze, I went to Plan B, the Internet. I found a recipe that had tweaking potential, and gave me hope for using up my ingredients and satisfying my hunger.
Recently, I had a German Chocolate Cake from The Sugar Monkey, an uber bakery in West Palm Beach. This is not one of my usual go-to desserts, but something about the memory of this cake stayed with me and I immediately knew what I wanted to make.
A traditional German Chocolate Cake is a chocolate cake with a very sweet coconut-pecan frosting. I had always taken for granted that a German Chocolate Cake originated in Germany. Boy, was I wrong. An American named Sam German developed a sweet, dark chocolate for Baker’s Chocolates back in 1852; someone then used for this chocolate for a cake and thus the name was born.
German-Chocolate-Cake Brownies have a brownie layer that is moist and chocolatey; but it is the top layer that makes the brownies unique. By combining brown sugar and butter with coconut, pecans, chocolate chips and a hint of salt, you end up with a nice, toasty crust.
Fortunately, German-Chocolate-Cake Brownies are not overly sweet, but rather they are the perfect combination of sweet and satisfying. I can’t think of a more tasteful way to clean out the pantry.
| German-Chocolatish-Cake Brownies | | Print |
- Topping:
- ¾ cup sweetened flaked coconut
- ¾ cup pecans, chopped
- ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- Brownie:
- ⅔ cup all purpose flour
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
- 1-1/3 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease and flour an 8” x 8” baking pan and set aside.
- For the topping:
- Combine the coconut, pecans, chocolate chips and salt together in a small bowl. Mix in brown sugar and then the melted butter. Set aside.
- For the brownie:
- Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Microwave the butter and unsweetened chocolate together in a medium bowl. Stir until smooth. Using a wooden spoon, blend in the sugar.
- Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Stir in the dry ingredients. Use a rubber spatula for the final mixing, scraping the bowl down as needed.
- Pour the brownie layer into the prepared pan. Spoon the topping over and gently press down.
- Bake in 350º for 35-40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. After the initial 20 minutes, rotate the pan and tent with aluminum foil to prevent the topping from burning.
- Cool completely on a cooling rack. Once the brownies are cool, cut into 16-20 brownies.
- Betsy's tidbits:
- I use Pan Grease to grease my baking pan. Butter and flour work, too.
- If your cake tester does not come out clean at 40 minutes, remove the brownies anyway or else they will be overdone.
If you’re looking for a fool proof amazing brownie recipe this is it. Because I assure you that no one will ever double the amount of butter by mistake as I did and still have people oohing and aahing with each mouthful as my friends did. It took me about 16 hours and re-reading the recipe about 7 times to figure out why they took twice the amount of time to bake. I would, definitely, not recommend doubling the butter and all I can say is if they were so delicious even with botching up the recipe, they will be, totally, amazing when they are made the way they are supposed to be.
Too funny M. I am glad that you were able to figure out what was different about your brownies. I know that would have driven me CRAZY!
I just made these and they were FANTASTIC! I save your recipes and then pick one out when looking for new yummy ideas. Betsy, thank you for your wonderful blog and great recipes.
Susan,
I LOVE that you save my recipes and pick the one you want to bake when the mood strikes. Thanks so much for letting me know.
Can you double this recipe to make a 13 x 9 ?
Kay,
That should work! Just let the brownies bake a tad longer – around 10 minutes. Enjoy!