Also any Organic brownie recipes....My mom's a health nut, what can I
say!~Thanks

"Cate Oliver" > wrote in message
...
> Also any Organic brownie recipes....My mom's a health nut, what can I
> say!~Thanks
>

There, I can help you. The Joy of Cooking has a wonderful brownie recipe.
I would also use the Hershey's brownie recipe, only I wouls substitute
organic ingredients (raw sugar, for instance, as well as organic eggs and
milk). Try contacting your local health food store for organic chocolate -
Green and Black is a good brand. They probably also make a cocoa.

There isn't any reason why organic foodstuffs would need special recipes. As
you no doubt know, organic simply means grown without pesticides, and in
some cases, growth hormones. An organic food market or health food store
should have all the ingredients you'll need. If, however, you are looking
for a vegan brownie recipe, that's another matter. For a recipe that uses
substitutes for milk and eggs, I would try the Moosewood Cookbook, which has
lots of delicious vegan recipes. For those, you will probably have to
substitute tofu and soy milk for the eggs and cow milk. The rest of the
ingredients will probably be the same, but in different proportions.

I don't know about brownies, but I think you'd really want the flourless
chocolate cake if you're a vegan craving chocolate. It's fabulous with a
texture similar to brownies. Real vegan brownies have always sounded
sketchy to me; the whole tofu in my chocolate has never appealed. Oh well.
I've never tried it, but I'll get up the guts one of these days...


"Tea" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Cate Oliver" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Also any Organic brownie recipes....My mom's a health nut, what can I
> > say!~Thanks
> >
>
> There, I can help you. The Joy of Cooking has a wonderful brownie recipe.
> I would also use the Hershey's brownie recipe, only I wouls substitute
> organic ingredients (raw sugar, for instance, as well as organic eggs and
> milk). Try contacting your local health food store for organic
chocolate -
> Green and Black is a good brand. They probably also make a cocoa.
>
> There isn't any reason why organic foodstuffs would need special recipes.
As
> you no doubt know, organic simply means grown without pesticides, and in
> some cases, growth hormones. An organic food market or health food store
> should have all the ingredients you'll need. If, however, you are looking
> for a vegan brownie recipe, that's another matter. For a recipe that uses
> substitutes for milk and eggs, I would try the Moosewood Cookbook, which
has
> lots of delicious vegan recipes. For those, you will probably have to
> substitute tofu and soy milk for the eggs and cow milk. The rest of the
> ingredients will probably be the same, but in different proportions.
>
>

at Wed, 12 Nov 2003 01:59:02 GMT in
>, (Tea)
wrote :

>
>"Cate Oliver" > wrote in message
...
>> Also any Organic brownie recipes....My mom's a health nut, what can I
>> say!~Thanks
>>
>
>There, I can help you. The Joy of Cooking has a wonderful brownie
>recipe. I would also use the Hershey's brownie recipe, only I wouls
>substitute organic ingredients (raw sugar, for instance, as well as
>organic eggs and milk). Try contacting your local health food store for
>organic chocolate - Green and Black is a good brand. They probably also
>make a cocoa.
>
Green and Blacks, IMHO, is a TERRIBLE brand, truly one of the worst of the
organic chocolates. It's extremely bitter and harsh, and you can do far,
far better from companies like Rapunzel, Chocolove, or Dagoba. I've been
uniformly disappointed with all the organic cocoas (i.e. the powder) that
I've tried so far, they all seem to be low-fat, tasteless substances - you
might just as well eat dust. I've not tried Dagoba's cocoa powder yet -
hopefully it will impress me.

My recipe "Hyper-chocolatey brownie recipe" - easy to find by searching for
that on DejaNews, is an excellent one for organic ingredients, although
it's not low-fat; instead, it's high-test. I recommend using Dagoba
unsweetened chocolate for them - buy it from http://www.chocosphere.com.

On healthy eating and low fat, I can't resist making a point. Nutritionists
seem to have vilified fat almost like Saddam Hussein for years, but it's
not an unequivocally evil thing - no, not even saturated fat. Moderation is
the key. It's not healthy to eat vast quantities of fat, but reasonable
amounts are perfectly OK. Trying to make everything low-fat tends to leave
you profoundly unsatisfied, since now you'll be eating too *little* fat,
and the fat deficiency will drive your body to induce massive fat cravings.
It's also especially pointless to try to do this for foods that are by
nature a high-fat indulgence. By reducing the fat, all you do is make it
less indulgent, reducing the satisfaction. It can also lead you to eating
more in a vain attempt to satisfy the craving that the low-fat item doesn't
fulfill. This is the same dead-end approach that vegan imitation meat is.
So if you make brownies similar to mine, you probably will end up overall
eating healthier, because it'll take less to satisfy you, and in addition
to the one batch going much further, you won't need to make them as often.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

"Alex Rast" > wrote in message
...
> at Wed, 12 Nov 2003 01:59:02 GMT in
> >, (Tea)
> wrote :
>
> >
> >"Cate Oliver" > wrote in message
> ...
> >> Also any Organic brownie recipes....My mom's a health nut, what can I
> >> say!~Thanks
> >>
> >
> >There, I can help you. The Joy of Cooking has a wonderful brownie
> >recipe. I would also use the Hershey's brownie recipe, only I wouls
> >substitute organic ingredients (raw sugar, for instance, as well as
> >organic eggs and milk). Try contacting your local health food store for
> >organic chocolate - Green and Black is a good brand. They probably also
> >make a cocoa.
> >
> Green and Blacks, IMHO, is a TERRIBLE brand, truly one of the worst of the
> organic chocolates. It's extremely bitter and harsh, and you can do far,
> far better from companies like Rapunzel, Chocolove, or Dagoba. I've been
> uniformly disappointed with all the organic cocoas (i.e. the powder) that
> I've tried so far, they all seem to be low-fat, tasteless substances - you
> might just as well eat dust. I've not tried Dagoba's cocoa powder yet -
> hopefully it will impress me.
>
> My recipe "Hyper-chocolatey brownie recipe" - easy to find by searching
for
> that on DejaNews, is an excellent one for organic ingredients, although
> it's not low-fat; instead, it's high-test. I recommend using Dagoba
> unsweetened chocolate for them - buy it from http://www.chocosphere.com.
>
I think all the organic chocolates stink, but I have met people who like
Green and Black (although it is fair to mention that I have also met people
who ate paste as children).
'Organic' does not always mean 'better for you.' Snot is pretty organic. Poo
can be organic. Carob is organic, and anyone who thinks it tastes like
chocolate should be beaten with a lead pipe (http://www.ripeforpipe.com/).

NOTE: My Correct Address is in my signature (just remove the spaces).
On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 03:42:05 GMT, "Tea" > wrote:

>'Organic' does not always mean 'better for you.' Snot is pretty organic. Poo
>can be organic. Carob is organic, and anyone who thinks it tastes like
>chocolate should be beaten with a lead pipe (http://www.ripeforpipe.com/).
>
"Carob is a brown powder made from the pulverized fruit of a
Mediterranean evergreen. Some consider carob an adequate substitute
for chocolate because it has some similar nutrients (calcium,
phosphorus), and because it can, when combined with vegetable fat and
sugar, be made to approximate the color and consistency of chocolate.
Of course, the same arguments can as persuasively be made in favor of
dirt." --Sandra Boynton


--
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)
~*~*~*~*~*~
Links to my published poetry - http://davidachazan.homestead.com/
~*~*~*~*~*~

Alex Rast wrote:

> My recipe "Hyper-chocolatey brownie recipe" - easy to find by searching for
> that on DejaNews

I did find this, and am eager to try it. But I have some questions.
You have:

9 oz. (1 1/8 cup) white bread flour

By my measure, 9 ounces of flour is 2 1/8 cups. So is it 9 ounces or 1
1/8 cups (5 ounces)?

Bread flour has a higher protein and gluten content than all purpose
flour. Wouldn't using bread flour make the brownies a bit tougher? Or
is the higher protein content necessary given the low mixing and the
extremely high level of chocolate?

Thanks!

Karen

Karen wrote:

> Bread flour has a higher protein and gluten content than all purpose
> flour. Wouldn't using bread flour make the brownies a bit tougher?

It makes them chewier. Some people really like them that way. I
prefer using AP.

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com

at Thu, 13 Nov 2003 15:44:56 GMT in
.net>,
(Karen) wrote :

>Alex Rast wrote:
>
>> My recipe "Hyper-chocolatey brownie recipe" - easy to find by
>> searching for that on DejaNews
>
>I did find this, and am eager to try it. But I have some questions.
>You have:
>
>9 oz. (1 1/8 cup) white bread flour
>
>By my measure, 9 ounces of flour is 2 1/8 cups. So is it 9 ounces or 1
>1/8 cups (5 ounces)?

1 1/8 cups. (I find my old scale has some serious problems)

>
>Bread flour has a higher protein and gluten content than all purpose
>flour. Wouldn't using bread flour make the brownies a bit tougher?
>
In this case it lends it enough structure to prevent it from being too
crumbly. I tried the recipe with AP and pastry flour, and in each case it
was a bit fragile and seemed somewhat dry.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

Alex Rast wrote:

>>By my measure, 9 ounces of flour is 2 1/8 cups. So is it 9 ounces or 1
>>1/8 cups (5 ounces)?
>
>
> 1 1/8 cups. (I find my old scale has some serious problems)

So the 12 ounces of unsweetened chocolate is really about 8 ounces?
<VBG> What a disappointment :-).

>>Bread flour

> In this case it lends it enough structure to prevent it from being too
> crumbly. I tried the recipe with AP and pastry flour, and in each case it
> was a bit fragile and seemed somewhat dry.

Thanks! I'm looking forward to trying these.

Karen

at Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:42:55 GMT in
>,
(Karen) wrote :

>Alex Rast wrote:
>
>>>By my measure, 9 ounces of flour is 2 1/8 cups. So is it 9 ounces or 1
>>>1/8 cups (5 ounces)?
>>
>>
>> 1 1/8 cups. (I find my old scale has some serious problems)
>
>So the 12 ounces of unsweetened chocolate is really about 8 ounces?
><VBG> What a disappointment :-).

No, because I didn't need to use a scale for that, I had a pre-measured
amount guaranteed to be 12 oz. So it really is 12 oz chocolate.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

(Alex Rast) writes:

> at Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:42:55 GMT in
> >,
> (Karen) wrote :
>
> >Alex Rast wrote:
> >
> >>>By my measure, 9 ounces of flour is 2 1/8 cups. So is it 9 ounces or 1
> >>>1/8 cups (5 ounces)?
> >>
> >>
> >> 1 1/8 cups. (I find my old scale has some serious problems)
> >
> >So the 12 ounces of unsweetened chocolate is really about 8 ounces?
> ><VBG> What a disappointment :-).
>
> No, because I didn't need to use a scale for that, I had a pre-measured
> amount guaranteed to be 12 oz. So it really is 12 oz chocolate.
>
> --
> Alex Rast
>
> (remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

I find this all rather silly. Surely the original 9 ounces meant
fluid ounces, or precisely 1 1/8 cup, and not that your scale was off
by 80%.


Eddie

>
> I find this all rather silly. Surely the original 9 ounces meant
> fluid ounces, or precisely 1 1/8 cup, and not that your scale was off
> by 80%.
>
>
> Eddie

flour isn't fluid. you measure it by weight. the reason why it's
preferred to measure by weight instead of volume is because everyone's
flour has settled differently.

from my experience, flour is generally 4.5 oz per cup.

"Alex Rast" > wrote in message
...
> at Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:42:55 GMT in
> >,
> (Karen) wrote :
>
> >Alex Rast wrote:
> >
> >>>By my measure, 9 ounces of flour is 2 1/8 cups. So is it 9 ounces or 1
> >>>1/8 cups (5 ounces)?
> >>
> >>
> >> 1 1/8 cups. (I find my old scale has some serious problems)
> >
> >So the 12 ounces of unsweetened chocolate is really about 8 ounces?
> ><VBG> What a disappointment :-).
>
> No, because I didn't need to use a scale for that, I had a pre-measured
> amount guaranteed to be 12 oz. So it really is 12 oz chocolate.

It's really hard to get unsweetened chocolate over here in Europe. Is there
someway to use, say, 70% or even 85% chocolate (e.g. by Lindt) and somehow
adjust the recipe?

John

at Tue, 18 Nov 2003 15:21:37 GMT in
>, (JMF) wrote :

>
>"Alex Rast" > wrote in message
.. .
>> at Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:42:55 GMT in
>> >,
>> (Karen) wrote :
>>
>> >Alex Rast wrote:
>> >
>> >>>By my measure, 9 ounces of flour is 2 1/8 cups. So is it 9 ounces
>> >>>or 1 1/8 cups (5 ounces)?
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> 1 1/8 cups. (I find my old scale has some serious problems)
>> >
>> >So the 12 ounces of unsweetened chocolate is really about 8 ounces?
>> ><VBG> What a disappointment :-).
>>
>> No, because I didn't need to use a scale for that, I had a
>> pre-measured amount guaranteed to be 12 oz. So it really is 12 oz
>> chocolate.
>
>It's really hard to get unsweetened chocolate over here in Europe. Is
>there someway to use, say, 70% or even 85% chocolate (e.g. by Lindt) and
>somehow adjust the recipe?
>
I suppose you could, by simply noting that for instance a 70% will thus
have about 30% of its weight in sugar. Thus, you would have to increase the
amount of chocolate to 17 oz and decrease the amount of sugar by a
commensurate 5 oz. However, I haven't tried it, nor would I recommend it.
The recipe I gave specifies brown sugar, so you'd be taking out molasses in
the substitution (chocolate uses white sugar) and while you might be able
to compensate with a bit of molasses, everything now is changing and you
might as well start over to create your own scratch recipe.

Furthermore, unsweetened chocolate typically contains more cocoa butter
(about 50%, as opposed to the about 40% of a typical sweetened chocolate),
and that further complicates matters because of the changes in fat ratio.
All in all, I think experimenting would involve exactly that - it wouldn't
be the same recipe - you'd have to tweak everything.

Far better and easier would be to order unsweetened chocolate on-line from
sources in Europe. For instance, Michel Cluizel, makers of the Noir Infini
chocolate that is the chocolate of choice for the recipe (it's the one *I*
use), have a website at http://www.fontaineauchocolat.com. There's also
Domori (http://www.domori.com) who have an excellent unsweetened in the
Puro. In addition, since you're in Italy, it shouldn't be too hard, with a
little searching, to find a shop selling Domori.



--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

"Alex Rast" > wrote in message
...
> at Tue, 18 Nov 2003 15:21:37 GMT in
> >, (JMF) wrote :
>
> >
> >"Alex Rast" > wrote in message
> .. .
> >> at Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:42:55 GMT in
> >> >,
> >> (Karen) wrote :
> >>
> >> >Alex Rast wrote:
> >> >
> >> >>>By my measure, 9 ounces of flour is 2 1/8 cups. So is it 9 ounces
> >> >>>or 1 1/8 cups (5 ounces)?
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> 1 1/8 cups. (I find my old scale has some serious problems)
> >> >
> >> >So the 12 ounces of unsweetened chocolate is really about 8 ounces?
> >> ><VBG> What a disappointment :-).
> >>
> >> No, because I didn't need to use a scale for that, I had a
> >> pre-measured amount guaranteed to be 12 oz. So it really is 12 oz
> >> chocolate.
> >
> >It's really hard to get unsweetened chocolate over here in Europe. Is
> >there someway to use, say, 70% or even 85% chocolate (e.g. by Lindt) and
> >somehow adjust the recipe?
> >
> I suppose you could, by simply noting that for instance a 70% will thus
> have about 30% of its weight in sugar. Thus, you would have to increase
the
> amount of chocolate to 17 oz and decrease the amount of sugar by a
> commensurate 5 oz. However, I haven't tried it, nor would I recommend it.
> The recipe I gave specifies brown sugar, so you'd be taking out molasses
in
> the substitution (chocolate uses white sugar) and while you might be able
> to compensate with a bit of molasses, everything now is changing and you
> might as well start over to create your own scratch recipe.
>
> Furthermore, unsweetened chocolate typically contains more cocoa butter
> (about 50%, as opposed to the about 40% of a typical sweetened chocolate),
> and that further complicates matters because of the changes in fat ratio.
> All in all, I think experimenting would involve exactly that - it wouldn't
> be the same recipe - you'd have to tweak everything.
>
> Far better and easier would be to order unsweetened chocolate on-line from
> sources in Europe. For instance, Michel Cluizel, makers of the Noir Infini
> chocolate that is the chocolate of choice for the recipe (it's the one *I*
> use), have a website at http://www.fontaineauchocolat.com. There's also
> Domori (http://www.domori.com) who have an excellent unsweetened in the
> Puro. In addition, since you're in Italy, it shouldn't be too hard, with a
> little searching, to find a shop selling Domori.

Great info. Thanks very much.

John

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 15:21:37 GMT, JMF wrote:

> "Alex Rast" > wrote in message
> ...
>> at Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:42:55 GMT in
>> >,
>> (Karen) wrote :
>>
>>>Alex Rast wrote:
>>>
>>>>>By my measure, 9 ounces of flour is 2 1/8 cups. So is it 9 ounces or 1
>>>>>1/8 cups (5 ounces)?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> 1 1/8 cups. (I find my old scale has some serious problems)
>>>
>>>So the 12 ounces of unsweetened chocolate is really about 8 ounces?
>>><VBG> What a disappointment :-).
>>
>> No, because I didn't need to use a scale for that, I had a pre-measured
>> amount guaranteed to be 12 oz. So it really is 12 oz chocolate.
>
> It's really hard to get unsweetened chocolate over here in Europe. Is there
> someway to use, say, 70% or even 85% chocolate (e.g. by Lindt) and somehow
> adjust the recipe?

So what happens if you use cocoa and butter -- in this case I'd use 9 oz
cocoa, 3 oz butter. I do this all the time with brownies since unsweetened
chocolate isn't easily available in the UK.

Doug

NOTE: My Correct Address is in my signature (just remove the spaces).
On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 21:35:04 +0000, Doug Weller
> wrote:

>On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 15:21:37 GMT, JMF wrote:
>
>> "Alex Rast" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> at Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:42:55 GMT in
>>> >,
>>> (Karen) wrote :
>>>
>>>>Alex Rast wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>>By my measure, 9 ounces of flour is 2 1/8 cups. So is it 9 ounces or 1
>>>>>>1/8 cups (5 ounces)?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 1 1/8 cups. (I find my old scale has some serious problems)
>>>>
>>>>So the 12 ounces of unsweetened chocolate is really about 8 ounces?
>>>><VBG> What a disappointment :-).
>>>
>>> No, because I didn't need to use a scale for that, I had a pre-measured
>>> amount guaranteed to be 12 oz. So it really is 12 oz chocolate.
>>
>> It's really hard to get unsweetened chocolate over here in Europe. Is there
>> someway to use, say, 70% or even 85% chocolate (e.g. by Lindt) and somehow
>> adjust the recipe?
>
>So what happens if you use cocoa and butter -- in this case I'd use 9 oz
>cocoa, 3 oz butter. I do this all the time with brownies since unsweetened
>chocolate isn't easily available in the UK.

Its the dreaded Cadbury Curse, innit? All that milk powder shoving
out the taste of the cocoa.

You can use the Green & Blacks dark chocolate - while it isn't all
that great for plain eating, its great in brownies.

(If a tad expensive.)

--
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)
~*~*~*~*~*~

at Sat, 29 Nov 2003 21:35:04 GMT in
>,
(Doug Weller) wrote :

>On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 15:21:37 GMT, JMF wrote:
>
>> It's really hard to get unsweetened chocolate over here in Europe. Is
>> there someway to use, say, 70% or even 85% chocolate (e.g. by Lindt)
>> and somehow adjust the recipe?
>
>So what happens if you use cocoa and butter -- in this case I'd use 9 oz
>cocoa, 3 oz butter. I do this all the time with brownies since
>unsweetened chocolate isn't easily available in the UK.
>

See my very detailed explanation for substituting cocoa and butter for
straight chocolate posted to rec.food.baking: "Re : Need exchange of
chocolate to cocoa powder". It contains probably more information than
you'd want to know about substitution.

In the case of the brownies, I think the cocoa/butter substitution would
make them more "cakey", at least to some degree and certainly crisper
around the edges. It'd also be somewhat more temperature-sensitive in the
oven. But I haven't experimented with this approach on the brownies so I
can't give you a definitive answer. Why don't you try it (following my
substitution calculations) and tell us how they turned out? I don't think
they'll come out *really* wrong or awful.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)