Hi!
I love baking as much as the next person who loves baking but when you’re by yourself or just have a small family to feed you can end up eating your baked goods every day for a week and still having leftovers you end up throwing away.
Being a family of two with no other family to share our baked treats with, this is a problem.
We don’t want to do without them completely and pre-made baking in smaller quantities from the shop just doesn’t taste as nice and costs more.
I love America’s Test Kitchen so when I saw they did a book just for cooking for two I just had to have it!
America’s Test Kitchen test out kitchen equipment, brands of food and recipes until the find the perfect ones, though of course they are American so it’s not perfect for us Brits.
Still, it’s certainly worth doing a bit of conversion to try out the delicious recipes!
I have made their immense and massive recipe for a whole dish of brownies before which were delicious but certainly too much for just two, this recipe cuts it down from using a 13 x 9 inch pan to an 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf tin which makes 8 big, delicious brownies without you having to post extras through all your neighbours letterboxes just to get rid of them!
For mine I substituted the vanilla extract for the same in orange extract which gave them a slight hint of orange which I just love with my chocolate, though use vanilla for that purely chocolatey taste!
America’s Test Kitchen Brownies For 2
Makes 8 large brownies
Ingredients
100g milk chocolate
4 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine plus extra for greasing
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
4 1/3 ounces granulated sugar (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons)
1 large free range egg + 1 large free range egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if using margarine)
2 1/2 ounces plain flour (1/2 cup)
Method
Place rack of oven to the middle of the oven and preheat to 180oc.
Using heavy duty foil, line the loaf tin so a good amount of foil hangs over either side of the tin for easy lifting when the brownies are cooked, grease the foil.
Chop the chocolate up into small pieces.
In a bain-marie or in a microwave at 50% heat, heat the chocolate, cocoa powder and butter, stirring occasionally until fully melted.
Set aside and let cool.
In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, egg and yolk, vanilla and salt until combined.
Whisk in the melted chocolate mixture a small amount at a time until combined.
Add in the flour and stir with a spatula until just incorporated.
Place the mixture into the greased pan, pouring it all into the middle so the batter naturally spreads out into every corner and is even and smooth on top.
Bake in the oven for 24-28 minutes rotating halfway through the cooking time until a skewer in the middle of the brownies comes out without wet batter on it, moist crumbs are perfect.
Place the loaf pan on a cooling rack and let the brownies cool completely.
When they are cooled, lift out the brownies with the foil edges, carefully peel off the foil and cut in half length ways, in half width wise, then half each of those halves for 8 lovely brownies!
Serve!
Delicious with coffee or salted caramel ice cream on the side!
