The Weekend

This weekend was pretty fantastic.  I have to say that we have pretty amazing friends, and we are lucky enough to have the majority of them living here in Houston with us! Since the NCAA Final Four was in town, that provided a lot of FREE entertainment for us! There were free concerts at the downtown park all weekend long, and it was great! I thought, man, for all the people visiting they probably think Houston is the place to be! Ha ha ha! We went to the Friday night concert, but missed the Saturday one because we go the times mixed up! Oh well! Instead we had my cousin and her husband over to watch the Kentucky vs. UConn game, which was pretty fun.  I enjoyed getting to spend time with them as always.

In response to my brother's request to post the recipe that I last talked about I will have to say that I keep debating.. Brett, it's totally a matter of  pride.  It's not that hard, and yet...  I butchered it.. so, maybe? The root of the problem was that they didn't have something I needed at the grocery store, so I substituted with something that I thought would work.. HA! Of course, it didn't.  Oh well!

Since we are on the subject of cooking failures, I will go ahead and just tell you about another.  My cousin was in town at the end of January and all the cousins who live here in Houston got together for dinner to hang out.  Of course my job was to bring dessert.  Now, instead of grabbing the box of the easiest mix at the store, I thought I might branch out and make something from scratch ( I'm beginning to see that this "branching out" isn't working that well for me).  So, I tried something called bittersweet chocolate mousse brownies. Sounds amazing, right? Well, I was doing great so far, until it got to making the mousse part.  It said to wait until it peaked...So, seeing as I didn't want to disturb my sister at work who I always text with cooking questions, or that my husband was absent and somehow seems to know things about cooking than I do.. I guessed. Let me just say that I'm 100% positive at one point in my life my mother taught me tons about cooking or at least defined things, but I dont' think I ever stored that information away...I thought, you know, it meant what it said, it'll look like peaks..apparently I'm impatient and the "peaks" to me weren't "peaks" at all.  The supposed mousse turned into goop. Yes, goop.  Griffin got home and was like, what's that? I go, it's supposed to be mousse.  As he tried to figure out why it hadn't worked, I confessed that I think I was impatient on waiting for the real peaks. Well, his solution was to poor the goop over the brownies, and head to the store to buy ice cream to put on top.  Which is a great idea and it didn't taste bad.  So, on I went with my disastrous "mouse brownies" that looked more like a chocolate swamp land.  I'm on my way to pick up my cousin from her hotel, and the swamp land had spilled all over the passengers seat of the car.  Being resourceful like I am and having absolutely no napkins in my car, I grabbed my raincoat that was in the back seat, and she sat on it as we drove away.  All in all we laughed hysterically at this brown mush that didn't taste too bad.  Sigh.  So, here I will leave you with the recipe for the bittersweet chocolate brownies.  My fail could be your fabulous gain... :)

Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse Brownies
 
Original Recipe Yield 6 - 9 brownies

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 (1 ounce) square unsweetened chocolate
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 (1 ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 3 tablespoons strong brewed coffee
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line an 8 inch pan with aluminum foil. Make sure to extend the foil beyond the two opposite ends of the pan. This will help in lifting brownies out of pan. Lightly butter bottom and sides of foil-lined pan.
2. Cut butter into pieces and melt in a saucepan over low heat. Remove pan from heat, add 1 ounce of unsweetened chocolate. Let stand 1 minute, then stir until smooth. Let cool for 10 minutes.
3. Whisk in 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 egg (make sure egg is at room temperature), and then vanilla. Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until smooth. Spread dough evenly into pan.
4. Bake 10-12 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out with a moist crumb. Do not overbake. Cool completely on wire rack.
5. To Make Mousse: Melt 4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate with the coffee in top of a double boiler over hot water. Stir often until smooth. Whisk in 3 egg yolks, one at a time. Remove from heat.
6. In a chilled medium bowl, beat 3/4 cup heavy cream just until soft peaks form. In another medium bowl, beat 3 egg whites just until soft peaks begin to form. Stir 1/4 of these beaten egg whites into the chocolate/coffee mixture, then carefully fold in the rest
7. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Spread chocolate mousse evenly over the top of the cooled brownie in the pan.
8. To Make Topping: In a chilled medium sized bowl, beat 1/3 cup heavy cream and 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar until soft peaks form. Remove brownie from baking pan by grasping the overhanging foil. Cut into squares and transfer to serving dish. Place some whipped cream on top of each brownie and top with a chocolate espresso bean. Store in refrigerator.