As I thought about what recipe I might share to somehow unite us (that elusive "all of humanity" moment I will never come close to achieving), it came to mind that many (certainly not all) of us have had a night when we would have given just about anything for a hunk of some sort of dense, nutty, chocolate, not allowed on any diet, treat to scarf down while we are watching Field of Dreams, or Casablanca, Shawshank, or maybe Dumbo for the eighth time? It is hard to believe that is one sentence, isn't it? All I can say about that is me too.
If you like chocolate,
you will love Bonnie’s Brownies
Sometimes a guy gets all souped and grill cheesed out and things that fill the belly but do nothing for the soul.
That happened to me earlier this week but the wife (MHNBF) pulled a rabbit of the hat for me when she looked out the kitchen door and said, "I think I'm going to make a pan of Bonnie's Brownies."
What better thing
could a wonderful wife offer to cook to satisfy the chocolate treat cravings of her
brownie loving husband than "Bonnie's Brownies"? You may already be asking, "What the heck is a Bonnie Brownie?
To get an answer, we need to journey back to the winter of 1981 and two families in Mountain Home, Arkansas. At that time, I was Senior Quality Engineer for the MH location of Baxter Laboratories, along with a good friend. My wife and his wife, Bonnie, held down the home front while my buddy and I tried to catch every last fish from Norfork Reservoir. We caught hundreds of fish and still failed miserably in our efforts to set the bass catching record. We worked toward this goal by fishing two or three times a week (sometimes four or five), while our wives watched over the kids at one house or the other. When we weren't fishing, we played Rook to pass the time. Both wives worked for the school system and our eventful night occurred one winter night as a snowstorm was bearing down on Mt. Home. Heavy snow meant no school, so we all played cards and watched the snow falling until late into the night.
At some point our thoughts turned from adult cards and kids TV to the possibility of snacks, with the problem of what we had in the pantry to make treats for two families. The wife and Bonnie plundered cabinets and consulted cookbooks and announced they thought we had everything they would need to make Brownies by slightly modifying a recipe they had found. About an hour later, the roads were covered with snow, and we had a big pan of Brownies on the kitchen counter. Not long after that, our family began calling the recipe Bonnie's Brownies and a tradition was born.
In the 40 + years since that night, I bet we have made Bonnie's Brownies 200 times, calling on the recipe to provide covered dish desserts, school classroom cookies and cake days, unexpected company food, or whatever reason we encountered. They are a reliable treat because everyone lifes them and we always have the ingredients in the pantry.
Here is how we make them.
Ingredients:
1/2 rounded cup Cocoa
2 Tablespoons Karo Syrup
2 cups Sugar
1 1/2 cups AP
Flour
4 eggs
2 sticks of butter (melted)
2 teaspoons good Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon
salt
1 cup chopped pecans.
Hand mix all ingredients in a suitably sized mixing bowl:
Add to pan
and smooth out - the batter is very dense/thick and only about 3/4 inch thick in the pan - a perfect thickness for a brownie.
The brownies will cook on center shelf of the oven at 325 for 30 minutes. If you use a dark or glass pan, lower the oven temp 25 degrees. Finished when a toothpick stuck into the brownie comes out clean.
Sadly, these must cool on a rack for five minutes before cutting and serving.
On the plate
Oh - the beverage - Brownies need a beverage. My idea is strong hot coffee with an addition.
The closest I can come to Barista style Coffee art, courtesy of Baileys' Irish Cream.
"Clouds of pleasure"
"Chicora", the god of coffee, points the way to Ireland with his walking stick.
Not a bad desert while watching a little Joe Bonamassa and his Les Paul on the YouTube
Thanks for looking at my post.
God bless you!
13 comments:
You did Faulkner proud with the sentence. Brownies look great!
The run-on sentence you addressed appears to be missing, "...or have a bad case of the munchies" to make it complete.
Which is the segue to the main question begged by the recipe you posted. When is the ummm, additive (somewhat rhymes with Benniehanna) put in there?
*Sorry, I couldn't contain myself, sometimes the jokes write themselves.
BTW, great recipe! Thanks for posting them regularly.
Oh, man. I could give my cardiologist a heart attack with this recipe. Looks like I'm only going to be able to fantasize about having a batch of these at my disposal, but in my heyday...
Why five eggs in the picture?
Cookbook please.
I love the recipe,
But the first photo looks more like a piece of fried chicken.
Only 4 eggs used. Trust me. Done this one hundreds of times.
Steve. You are getting a cookbook one week at a time. 😁
Great story, and a great recipe. Look forward to your posts every week.
Past time for you to put together a hardback cookbook. You know that it'll sell to all of us who appreciate your stories and recipes.
Yum!!! and the perfect drink. Dang it, I got to go back to the grocery.
To 617's earlier question, there is merit to his observation in the appearance of the eggs. From the earlier picture there were four eggs with intact shells. However, there does appear to be five yolks in the picture being questioned by 617. The possibility exists of one of the eggs having two yolks. Thus, the facts are not mutually exclusive of both pictures being accurate.
At least for us kuntry folks. We know both can be true as occasionally there are double-yolk eggs.
No offense intended the bottom yolk broke apart and spread apart under an unbroken yolk above it. The recipe might work with 5 eggs but in the photo a few shots above it, I only show 4 eggs on the counter with the other ingredients.
As long as I’m writing responses, isn’t that a nice looking grilled cheese beside that bowl of chowder!
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