A sunny afternoon treat

I've made brownies from a box plenty of times when I was growing up but for some reason, I had never really explored making them from scratch until relatively recently (like the past two years). That was when I came across the Joy of Cooking recipe which I had never noticed before because it is oddly filed in the 'Cookies' chapter. It's under the sub-category 'Bar Cookies'--I had never thought of brownies as being a bar cookie, but I guess it sort of makes sense (uh, sort of; it only took me 10 years to find the recipe). Anyways, it is super easy and requires the most basic of ingredients.

You start with melting 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate and a stick of unsalted butter (8 tbsp). I use the double-boiler method (heat-proof bowl over simmering water) because I don't have to worry about burning it. I was assisted by a giant paw.


After the chocolate mixture has cooled completely, mix in 2 cups of sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla...


Then four eggs... I need practice cracking eggs. And jokes.


Then a cup of flour.


Now at this point I would have added a cup of chopped walnuts. But I was planning on taking these brownies to a picnic where someone with a peanut allergy would be. Oh sure, peanuts and walnuts are different, but sometimes the packaging says 'packaged in a facility with peanuts' or something along those lines, and I would have been mortified if he got sick, especially since he is the husband of a good friend. Did I really want that on my conscience? No. But I wanted walnuts in my brownies. So, I devised a split pan using foil.


I poured half of the mixture onto one side, stirred the nuts into the remaining half and then filled the rest of the pan. Unfortunately, I did not do the best job dividing the batter because the side without walnuts was significantly thinner than the side with walnuts (the no-walnut brownies are clearly the red-headed step-child). This was difficult for baking because the no-walnut side was done after about 23 minutes but the walnut side needed about 27 minutes. Nonetheless, they turned out okay. Apparently the Giant Paw stole a piece right after they came out of the oven.


It also turned out that Peanut Allergy Guy is okay with walnuts, in fact likes walnuts. I made him take all the no-walnut brownies home with him.