"There are as many brownie recipes as there are flowers in the meadow" says Laurie Colwin (author of both fiction and nonfiction as well as a regular contributor to Gourmet and New Yorker), as she introduced the recipe she claimed was Katharine Hepburn's Brownies in an article called "A Harried Cook's Guide to Some Fast Food" in 1992. This article had actually originally been printed in The Ladies Home Journal in 1975. Well I'm not sure how many flowers one might find in a meadow, but I can tell you for sure there is no end in sight when looking for brownie recipes!
Brownies originated in Chicago at the Palmer House Hotel at the end of the 19th century by Mrs. Palmer who needed a dessert for the box lunches for women attending a fair at the hotel. It was from this beginning that the brownie began it's journey to it's current leading position on so many folks list of "favorites"!
Well I will assure you this is not an exhaustive look at brownies- but we are going to look at four recipes- and even do a blind taste test using both chocolate lovers- and non-chocolate lovers! I do believe I found my favorite- we'll see how this one rates with our other "tasters"! I have to warn you here that we can't really say which is the REAL #1. Our first testing compared the Katharine Hepburn "A" Brownies to Expresso Kahlua Brownies while our second testing compared the Katharine Hepburn "B" Brownies to Caramel Brownies. That said we each came out with a favorite!
Most of us easily recognize the two major types of brownies-" cakey" or "fudgy". Now since I really only like the "fudgy" rather than the "cakey" brownies- and since this is my blog- we're only going to focus on the "fudgy" ones. So if you're a "cakey" brownie sort of person you're on your own! We'll look at two recipes claiming to have originated with Katherine Hepburn's family- you got it- two recipes! And then we'll try an Expresso Kahlua Brownie as well as a Caramel Brownie! I feel certain after reading this blog each of you will go straight to the kitchen and bake your own brownies!
Let's start with Katharine Hepburn "A" Brownies. The source of this first recipe is from a "Letter to the Editor" in the New York Times- (you can find the letter here) written by Heather Henderson, a graduate of Bryn Mawr, Katharine Hepburn's alma mater. Ms. Henderson writes a lovely tribute to Ms. Hepburn that makes you love Ms. Hepburn- if you already didn't. It seems that as a young girl Ms. Henderson was a student at Bryn Mawr- the same college that Katharine Hepburn had attended. Ms. Henderson reports becoming so discouraged in her studies her senior year that she told her father that she was going to drop out of school. Now it just so happened that her father shopped at the same small grocery in New York City that Ms. Hepburn also shopped. Ms. Henderson's father asked Ms. Hepburn if she might talk to his daughter about her studies and Ms. Hepburn agreed- and promptly invited the young girl and her father to tea at her apartment. Ms. Hepburn served brownies. Ms. Henderson did not drop out of college. She writes in this letter that she learned three things from Katharine Hepburn- "Don't quit. Be yourself. Never put too much flour in your brownies." Ms. Hepburn gave the recipe to Ms. Henderson.
You can add nuts to any of these recipes though I didn't. I have some chocolate lovers that love their chocolate straight!
So let's get cooking!
Katharine Hepburn's Brownies "A": Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Ghiradelli of course!)
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla
1/4 tsp of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)
1/4 cup of flour
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 8 inch square baking pan- use metal- with either parchment paper or wax paper. Bring the paper up two sides to make it easier to get the brownies out. Butter and flour the paper.
Whisk the flour and salt together.
Melt the butter over low heat on the stove top. When the butter starts to melt, sift the cocoa onto the butter. Stir until butter is melted and cocoa is well mixed into the butter. Set aside.
Whisk the eggs until light yellow in color. Add the eggs to the butter/cocoa mixture.
Add in the sugar and vanilla. Add the flour mixture- be real gentle with the mixing- you want to mix by hand (I used a rubber spatula)- and stop mixing when the flour has disappeared.
Spread the mixture into the pan and bake for about 30 minutes. Start checking after 20 minutes. You really don't want to overcook brownies. If you happen to overcook them then cut the dry edges off and serve these as a "biscotti" with ice cream- and just cut the center of the brownies into squares.
Cool completely in the pan and then remove using the parchment or wax paper edges. Cut into squares.
But brownies aren't just plain- often other ingredients are added for a different taste. One of the most frequently mentioned "add-on" is coffee. Coffee actually enhances the flavor of the chocolate. The next brownies are a more "grown-up" brownie!
So let's gather the ingredients!
Expresso Kahlua Brownies: Adapted from a food blog, Baker Street
Ingredients:
1 stick of butter, cut into pieces
3 ounces of chocolate ( I used 60% Cocoa)
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla
3 Tbsp of instant espresso powder
2 Tbsp of Kahlua or other coffee-flavored liqueur
1 cup of pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)
3/4 cup of flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With brownies you want to use a conventional oven setting rather than the "convection" setting if your oven has this setting. The "convection" setting creates more even heating so the brownies won't develop the crusty exterior and the gooey interior- the perfect texture for a brownie.
Grease and flour a 9 inch cake pan.
Whisk together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt)
Melt butter and chocolate in a sauce pan over low heat.
In a large bowl (I used my Kitchenaid stand mixer), mix well the eggs, sugar, vanilla, espresso powder and Kahlua. Add in the chocolate mixture. Last, gently add the flour mixture being careful not to overdo this. Stop when you no longer see "white"!
Spread the mixture into the pan and bake for 30 minutes. Again do check beginning at 20 minutes so you don't over bake.
Cool completely before cutting into squares.
Since I was traveling to Florida with these brownies, I layered them in a plastic container separating each layer with wax paper. Kept this way brownies will last up to a week. Brownies can also be frozen for up to 3 months if anyone can resist eating them before any thought is given to freezing them!
But just two recipes for brownies didn't seem enough- not given the abundance of "flowers in a meadow", so when I returned from Florida it was back to baking! Besides, Brandy and Will were to arrive from Florida (we were watching Mikayla while they went house hunting in Michigan) so they could be taste testers for two more renditions of brownies!
I was especially interested in the other brownie recipe attributed to Katharine Hepburn. So we're back to Laurie Colwin and her article "A Harried Cook's Guide to Some Fast Food" from her book, More Home Cooking. The article that appeared first in The Home Journal before it was later published in Gourmet. This recipe had traction! In this brownie recipe rather than using cocoa, chocolate is used. I rather like this recipe because it is so, so, so, so easy- and so, so, so, so chocolately! If you want perfect brownies, but don't want to work so very hard- this is the recipe for you.
We'll end this brownie match-up with a "layered" caramel brownie. And who of course can resist a Caramel Brownie!
So let's get started!
Katharine Hepburn's Brownies "B": Adapted from "A Harried Cook's Guide to Some Fast Food" by Laurie Colwin
Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
6 ounces of chocolate (I used a mixture of 70% as well as semi-sweet)
2 tsp of vanilla
1/4 tsp of salt
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup of pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup of flour
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line a 9 inch aluminum pan with parchment paper- or aluminum foil. Grease and flour the pan.
In a saucepan melt the butter and chocolate together. When completely mixed, stir in the vanilla, the sugar and the salt. Mix well.
Add in the eggs.
Finally, add in the flour. Remember- don't overdo this. Stop when you don't see "white".
Spread into the pan. and bake for 30 minutes (again begin to check after 20 minutes so that you don't overcook).
Cool completely in the pan before removing from the pan and cutting into squares.
The final brownie was a Caramel Brownie- rather like a caramel sandwich- layer of caramel sandwiched in between two layers of brownie.
So let's get started!
Caramel Brownies: Adapted from the food blog, Annie's Eats.
Ingredients:
For the Brownies: (Notice that these are the same brownies as Katharine Hepburn's "B".)
1 stick of butter
6 ounces of chocolate (Again I used a mixture of 70% and semi-sweet- the chocolate I had on hand- feel free to use your favorite!)
2 tsp of vanilla
1 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp of salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup of flour
For the Caramel:
7 ounces of caramels
1/2 cup of pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)
1/6 cup of heavy cream
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8 inch cake pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
Melt the butter and the chocolate in a saucepan over low heat. Add in the vanilla, sugar and salt. Mix well. Add in the eggs. Again, mix well. Finally, add the flour, mixing only until you no longer see white.
Spread half of the mixture into the pan and bake for 15 minutes.
Melt the caramels with the cream.
Cool the bottom brownie while you melt the caramels.
Spread the caramel mixture over the bottom brownie.
Top the caramel layer with the rest of the brownie mixture.
Bake the Caramel Brownies for 15-20 minutes. Again watch carefully so that you don't over cook- the idea is to get "soft, gooey" brownies. And these brownies will always win the "soft, gooey" award!
As for me- well that is a lot of brownies to mix and taste. And I have to admit I'm rather influenced by how easy it might be to "whip" up a batch of brownies on a whim. With that criteria I have to say I'm with Becca. Katharine Hepburn "B"! Try them all- and see which one you like!
Enjoy!
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