brownie | Small Indulgences

I feel like the brownie is an often overlooked dessert option. It’s almost cake – the ingredients are basically the same, the main difference being that brownies are unleavened. Some brownie recipes call for leavening agents, but don’t be fooled – technically that makes it just a good old regular chocolate cake. Call it a brownie if you will, but you’re only kidding yourself.

they're real, and they're spectacular.

I’m guessing the reason brownies get the cold shoulder could be due to their lack of variety. There’s chocolate or….chocolate. Those things they call “blondies”….yeah that does not qualify as a brownie or anything even remotely so in my book.

But brownies are desserts too. And they deserve the same rights and respect as their sister sweets. And as far small indulgences go, the brownie fits in quite nicely.

The beauty of a brownie is that it can be cut to any size you want. They start off thin and flat, so unlike a cake, a small piece of brownie is actually small. Sure, they only come in chocolate (they are called BROWNIES, for the love of pete), but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice variety – this is your chance to dig into all those ideas you’ve got locked away in storage, and use some of that creative prowess that attracted you to baking to begin with! The other night, I was experimenting with brownies (which is what prompted this post), and came up with a “cinnamon pecan brownie.” I made a basic chocolate brownie recipe, threw in a handful of chopped pecans, and baked. After they cooled, I slathered a buttery cinnamon brown sugar spread all over the top of them, and sprinkled them with even more pecans. The result: a rich, decadent, buttery chocolate cinnamon indulgence – cut to suit.