The Brownie Pudding That Cleared Me Out

Sorry there hasn't been much baking going on around here. The truth is that I am out of eggs and butter. I never saw the day where I would be out of both eggs and butter. I was very close to being out of eggs, butter, and flour, but I bought flour recently to make the Root Beer Cake. I hope to get back on the baking wagon after this weekend. For now though, I bring you brownie pudding. My friend Jess recommended the recipe to me about a month ago and then recently the Barefoot Bloggers made it. I saw it pop up so many times in my Google reader that I absolutely had to make it. And make it I did. However, I cut the recipe in half because, well, I ran out of eggs and butter. This dessert is sweet. My teeth hurt after each mouthful of the stuff. Presentation of this dessert is great because of the contrast between the hard crust and gooey inside. The crust tasted like an airy chocolate wafer and the inside was like the gooey inside of a lava cake. Alex loved this dessert and he's not a fan of chocolate desserts.


Brownie Pudding
Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics

Ingredients
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for buttering the dish
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup good cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
1 tablespoon framboise liqueur, optional
Vanilla ice cream, for serving (I didn't use)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly butter a 2-quart (9 by 12 by 2-inch) oval baking dish. Melt the 1/2 pound of butter and set aside to cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for 5 to 10 minutes, until very thick and light yellow. Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder and flour together and set aside.

When the egg and sugar mixture is ready, reduce the speed to low and add the vanilla seeds, framboise, if using, and the cocoa powder and flour mixture. Mix only until combined. With mixer still on low, slowly pour in the cooled butter and mix again just until combined.

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared dish and place it in a larger baking pan. Add enough of the hottest tap water to the pan to come halfway up the side of the dish and bake for exactly 1 hour. A cake tester inserted 2 inches from the side will come out 3/4 clean. The center will appear very under-baked; this dessert is between a brownie and a pudding.

Allow to cool and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Brownie pudding goodness.

Close up.