Hi, Alex. If vanilla pods aren't available, what's the vanilla extract
substitution ratio?


Brownies

14 oz. (1 3/4 cup) dark brown sugar
12 oz. unsweetened chocolate
9 oz. (1 1/8 cup) white bread flour
5 oz. (10 tbsp) unsalted butter
3 large eggs
1 vanilla bean
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Thoroughly grease a 9" * 9" square pan and set in
the refrigerator. Break the chocolate into small pieces, melt carefully
in a double boiler, remove from heat, and set aside to cool. Slit the
vanilla bean lengthwise with a knife and scrape the insides in a large
bowl along with the sugar and the salt. Mix well, breaking up lumps in
the sugar.
Cut the butter into small squares. Mix it in to the sugar (a wooden
spoon works great for this) until thoroughly blended, minimizing air
addition (i.e. do not cream). Stir in the chocolate and mix until fully
blended. Add the eggs, one by one, stirring each until it is fully
incorporated before adding the next. Blend in the flour slowly - this
will
take some effort: the mix should have the consistency of firm cookie
dough.
Spread the mixture into the pan and smooth with a knife. Bake at 350 F
for 30 minutes. Cool completely and cut into squares as large as you
want when you are ready to serve.

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at Fri, 28 Nov 2003 22:22:38 GMT in heimdall-69B796.17215728112003@news4-
ge1.srv.hcvlny.cv.net, lid (Scott) wrote :

Hi, Alex. If vanilla pods aren't available, what's the vanilla extract
substitution ratio?

If they're not available, I suggest just not using any vanilla at all. The
full power of real vanilla beans is really the only thing that has much
chance of cutting through the power of all that chocolate, until you start
adding so much extract that the brownies end up tasting *very* boozy and
probably turn out soggy. (They might even catch fire!) The vanilla is a
small tweak - it adds "dimension" to the flavour in the same way that salt
adds dimension to savoury dishes. So without the vanilla it might taste
flat in a way that's hard to place, but that's about it. Not anything that
would be the end of the world.

--
Alex Rast

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NOTE: My Correct Address is in my signature (just remove the spaces).
On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 08:59:52 -0000,
(Alex Rast) wrote:

at Fri, 28 Nov 2003 22:22:38 GMT in heimdall-69B796.17215728112003@news4-
ge1.srv.hcvlny.cv.net, lid (Scott) wrote :

Hi, Alex. If vanilla pods aren't available, what's the vanilla extract
substitution ratio?

If they're not available, I suggest just not using any vanilla at all. The
full power of real vanilla beans is really the only thing that has much
chance of cutting through the power of all that chocolate, until you start
adding so much extract that the brownies end up tasting *very* boozy and
probably turn out soggy. (They might even catch fire!) The vanilla is a
small tweak - it adds "dimension" to the flavour in the same way that salt
adds dimension to savoury dishes. So without the vanilla it might taste
flat in a way that's hard to place, but that's about it. Not anything that
would be the end of the world.

When I made brownies this week, I decided to add one of those little
squares of the Cluizel 99% chocolate in with the rest of the
chocolate, and not use the fake vanilla extract. The results was
WONDERFUL!


--
Davida Chazan (The Chocolate Lady)
davida @ jdc . org . il
~*~*~*~*~*~
"What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of
chocolate."
--Katharine Hepburn (May 12, 1907 - June 29, 2003)
~*~*~*~*~*~