I have a nemesis. Its boxed brownies. Being a guy that likes to make everything homemade, the problem is this, boxed brownies always come out perfect. I could never make any brownies that match up. This goes double for my wife. Of the countless homemade brownies I have made over the years she has never loved or sometimes even liked them. I have tried the Cooks Illustrated brownies. They didn’t go over well. I have also made cheesecake brownies, peanut butter cup brownies, and countless other brownies. None of these were any good for my sweetheart.

I kept searching all the recipe blogs I follow for something that sounded like a solution. Then I started to hear of some brownies from a bakery called Baked. The owners of that bakery have published two books, which I found at our local library. I checked them out and found that there are two brownie recipes in them. One was their original brownie recipe and the other was a sweet and salty brownie recipe, essentially the original recipe with tasty salty gooey caramel in the center.

Having thought the sweet and salty version was up my alley, I decided to make this for my wife and her family. I wanted to see if it would pass the test. She was skeptical as always. That was until she went back for seconds! We all licked the pan clean in a matter of minutes. I believe I finally found the best brownies recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as my wife and I do.

Sweet and Salty Brownie aka. Best Brownies Ever

Adapted from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented

Caramel Filling Ingredients

• 1 C. sugar
• 2 T. light corn syrup
• 1/2 C. heavy cream
• 1 t. Fleur de Sel (I don’t have this fancy stuff so I use kosher salt)
• 1/4 C. sour cream

Brownie Ingredients

• 1 1/4 C. all purpose flower
• 1 t. salt
• 2 T. dark unsweetened cocoa
• 11 oz. quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped.
• 1 C. (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into 1″ cubes
• 1 1/2 C. sugar
• 1/2 C. firmly packed light brown sugar
• 5 large eggs at room temperature
• 2 t. vanilla extract

Brownie Topping

• 1 1/2 t. fleur de sel (again no fancy stuff just kosher for me)
• 1 t. coarse sugar

Filling Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and corn syrup with 1/4 C. water, stirring them together so they don’t splash the sides of the pan. Cook over high heat until a thermometer reads 350 degrees F, or until the mixture is dark amber in color (keep a close eye on the caramel at all times as it can go from golden brown to black and burnt very quickly), 6 to 8 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and add the cream (careful, this will bubble up and steam) and then the salt.
3. Whisk in the sour cream. Set aside to cool.

Brownie Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (In my experience a convection oven works better than a normal oven, but it will work, it just may need longer to cook.)
2. Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light colored 9×13 pan. Line the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper, and butter the parchment.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and cocoa.
4. Place the chocolate and butter in the bowl of a double boiler set over a pan of simmering water, and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler, and add both sugars. Whisk until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be at room temperature.
5. Add three eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage, or your brownies will be cakey.
6. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate. Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until there is just a trace amount of the flour mixture still visible.
7. Assemble the brownies: Pour half of the brownie mixture into the pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Drizzle about 3/4 cup of the caramel sauce over the brownie layer in a zigzag pattern, making sure the caramel doesn’t come in contact with the edges oft he pan or it will burn. Use an offset spatula to spread the caramel evenly across the brownie layer, leaving about a ½-inch border around the edges. In heaping spoonfuls, scoop the rest of the brownie batter over the caramel layer. Smooth the brownie batter gently to cover the caramel layer. (In the book they say don’t give in to the desire to put more caramel in the brownie than directed, a little goes a long way! Keep the rest and pour it over the brownie or ice cream or whatever.)
8. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, and check to make sure the brownies are completely done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan. The brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.
9. Remove the brownies from the oven and sprinkle with the fleur de sel and coarse sugar.
10. Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving. (Yeah right! Good luck with that one!)
11. The brownies can be stored, tight wrapped at room temperature, for up to 4 days. Or freeze them for another day.

I don’t know if you know this but I have the recipe for the best waffles ever. My kids love waffles. I guess who doesn’t. I usually make them for Saturday morning breakfast about every three weeks they love them so much. Sadly I don’t have time during the week to make the crispy goodnesses, so today I took the initiative and made a separate batch for the week and am going to freeze them. This way my kids can have something warm and crispy during the week for breakfast, just pop them in the toaster for a few minutes and viola warm, crispy waffles.

If you want a refresher of the recipe here it is.

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Best Waffle Recipe Ever

Courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 C. All Purpose flour
• 1 T. Baking Powder
• 1/4 t. Salt
• 1 T. Sugar (new addition, gives the waffles a slightly sweet flavor, not too much though)
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 3/4 C. Milk
• 1/2 C. cooking oil
• 2 egg whites
• 1 1/2 t. pure vanilla extract (new addition, gives it a good aroma mmmm…)

Directions

1. In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Make a well in the center. In another bowl beat egg yolks slightly. Stir in milk, vanilla, and oil. Add egg yolk mixture all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just till moistened (should be lumpy).
2. Now the important part. In a small bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight up). This may take a few minutes. Make sure you use beaters, its much easier this way than trying to whisk them by hand. Gently fold egg whites into flour and egg yolk mixture, leaving a few fluffs of egg white, DO NOT OVERMIX. And proceed to make your waffles, about a cup of mixture to make a waffle.
3. To freeze them let them cool all the way on some cooling racks then transfer them to plastic bags and put directly in the freezer.
4. To cook just pop one in the toaster and set it to medium to medium low time and toast. If you have a defrost option on your toaster, you can use that too.

A few years back I tried to make some english muffins. That didn’t go so great. They were too dense, and the dough was hard to shape. So I decided to leave english muffins up to the pros. That is until a few weeks ago when I checked out a book from the library: Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day. The same author who wrote The Bread Baker’s Apprentice if you are familiar with that one. Peter is a master bread baker and it shows in his books. The Artisan Breads Every Day is along the same lines as Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day which I own and highly recommend. The dough is to be made ahead of time and sits in the fridge until you need that bread fix. This recipe falls under the same idea, make the dough then make the muffins when you want them. After they are baked open them with a fork to expose all the nooks and crannies then slather them with lots of butter and jam.

Needless to say my kids loved them. They have asked for them a lot since I made them. Keeping that in mind this recipe is easily doubled or tripled if you want to put some in the freezer for another day.

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Easy English Muffins

Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day

• 2 t. Honey
• 1 T. Vegetable Oil
• 1 1/2 C. (12 oz/340g) Lukewarm whole or nonfat milk (about 95 degrees F or 35 degrees C)
• 2 2/3 C. (12 oz/340g) unbleached bread flour
• 3/4 t. Salt or 1 1/4 Coarse Kosher Salt
• 2 t. Instant Yeast
• 1/4 t. Baking Soda
• 3 T. Warm Water
• Cornmeal for dusting

Directions

1. The Day before or 4 hours before making the muffins:
   • In a large bowl whisk together flour, salt, and yeast.
   • In another smaller bowl mix honey, oil and milk until honey is dissolved.
   • Pour milk mixture into flour mixture and whisk until most of the flour is dissolved and let it sit for 2 minutes. Then mix again until you don’t see anymore dry flour, 30 sec. It is going to be super sticky.
   • Put it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight and up to 4 days. The batter will bubble and rise as it cools down.
2. On the day you are going to make the muffins
   • Take out dough and let it sit on the counter for at least 2 hours
   • When you are nearly ready to bake, in a small cup or container mix the warm water and the baking soda until it is dissolved.
   • Gently fold the water mixture into the dough kind of like you were folding egg whites into cake batter. Let it sit for another 10-12 minutes or until it starts to bubble again.
   • In the meantime heat a flat griddle or cast iron skillet on medium heat, or to 300°F (149°C) if using an electric griddle.
   • If you have crumpet rings or if you don’t you can use the ring part of the lid on a large mason jar, and spray them lightly with oil and dust the inside of the rings with cornmeal. Cover the pan with as many rings as it will hold then dust the the pan inside the rings with more cornmeal.

     

   • To bake, mist a 1/3 cup measuring cup with oil, fill it with dough, and pour the down into the ring. It should be about 2/3 full. I found that for the mason jar lids a little more than a 1/4 cup worked perfectly. Fill all the rings then sprinkle with cornmeal over each muffin. The dough will spread out as it cooks so don’t fret.

     

   • Cook for 12 minutes on both sides. After they are done remove them from the griddle or pan and let them sit in the rings for 2 minutes then pop them out.

     

My site was hacked at some point in the last few weeks and I didn’t realize it. So if any of you were redirected to some random site or something else, I am sorry. I have rectified the issue and all is well. It gave me an excuse to clean WordPress house.

Now as far as recipes forthcoming, Easy English Muffins are coming this weekend. Yaaay!! (Trying to write that post is how I found out I had been hacked.)

I don’t know about you but I love Hawaiian BBQ restaurants. We used to have one near our house but for some reason it closed and turned into a sushi bar. I was kind of sad to see it go, but I digress. So I searched on the internet to find the marinade or sauce or whatever it is that they use to make the meat so tasty. I looked and looked and tried some recipes but none had that perfect flavor.

Fast forward a few years…we were at a friends house for a birthday and someone was there cooking the most amazing Hawaiian BBQ’d meat. I asked for the recipe but they couldn’t tell me because they said they really didn’t know all that was in it. Defeated, I let my wife know and figured I had to savor the food right then. Later on in the party my wife and I and one of her friends were sitting down talking about the food. I mentioned my sadness again at not having the recipe and her friend (Fina) said it was easy. I was dumbfounded, the person with the answer had been in front of me the whole time. I didn’t even think to ask her. She told me what the basic ingredients were and I was so excited so I made it a few days later and low and behold the tastiness was found at last. Thanks to Fina for her insight.

Now to go along with the meat you need to add the famous Hawaiian Macaroni Salad and sticky rice they always serve with the meat. I have added the salad recipe below. As for the sticky rice I will leave that up to you and your rice cooker.

Oh and don’t forget the Sriracha!!

Hawaiian BBQ Feast

Me and a lot of direction from my wife’s friend Fina.

The Meat and Marinade

• Boneless skinless Chicken Thighs, beef short ribs, or any kind of meat you want to use.
• 1 C. packed light brown sugar
• 1 C. soy sauce (I don’t recommend the Dark kind, it’s too strong, the regular cheap-o will do)
• 4-5 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 1/2 T. fresh ginger root chopped
• 1/4-1/2 large onion sliced

Marinade Directions

1. In a bowl, mix the brown sugar and soy suace together. Keep mixing until almost all the sugar is dissolved in the soy sauce.
2. Add in the garlic, ginger and onion and mix.
3. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes.
4. Put meat into a zip lock bag and pour mixture over it. Depending on how much meat you have you may need to make more marinade and split this into 2 different bags. Let this marinade for at least 4 hours.

For the Grill

• 13×9 Pyrex dish or smaller depending on the amount of meat you have
• 1 stick of butter (trust me this is the linchpin)
• 4-5 green onions sliced small

Grilling Directions

1. Place Pyrex dish on the hot grill if you have room otherwise you can put it in the oven.
2. Add the butter to the Pyrex so it starts to melt.
3. Add the meat to the grill and cook to perfection.
4. When the pieces of meat are done place them in the Pyrex to let swim in buttery goodness until all are done and add the green onions.

Hawaiian Macaroni Salad

Courtesy of food.com

• 3 C. cooked elbow macaroni cooled (if its hot the mayo will melt and it will be a mess)
• 1 C. Mayonnaise
• 1/4 C. milk
• 1/4 C. grated carrot

Directions

1. Pour all ingredients in a bowl and mix.
2. Refrigerate until you are going to eat it.
3. Add more mayo if it needs it before you eat it.

Sticky Rice

Follow direction on package.

I want to say right off the bat that I am not a big turkey fan but this recipe and the way I prepare it, make it very tasty. The main part of of this recipe is the brine. After you brine it you can cook the turkey whatever way you want. If you have never brined a turkey or chicken or whatever, the brine makes the meat super moist and juicy. Now the way you cook the turkey, like I said, is up to you. Now that said, I know you are going to laugh at me for this, but I use my Ronco Rotisserie to cook the turkey each year. I’m not as fortunate as some awesome people to have a double oven so this is my way to keep the oven from being monopolized by a huge turkey. The oven can be used for other things like rolls and scrumptious apple pies.

Here is my baby in action…isn’t she a beaut’.

Super Moist Turkey

Adapted from Good Eats

Ingredients

• 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
• For the brine:
• 1 5 Gallon Bucket with lid
• 1 c. kosher salt
• 1/2 c. light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 T. black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 t. allspice berries
• 1 1/2 t. chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water
• For inside the bird:
• 1 red apple, sliced
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 6 leaves sage

Directions

2-3 days before

1. Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.
2. Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you’d like to eat

1. Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.
2. When you are ready to cook the bird, remove the it from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine. Once thoroughly rinsed pat dry with paper towels
3. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey’s cavity along with the rosemary and sage.

Now if you are going to use an oven, I would suggest following the instructions below, you can also see the video on how to cook it here.

1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
2. Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan.
3. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.
4. Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

I don’t know if you noticed but recently I updated my WordPress theme. It’s responsive. Whats responsive you might ask. Well lets do an experiment. Grab that handy dandy little smartphone out of your pocket. Got it? Good. Now open up the browser so you can surf the web, in the address bar up there type in bestrecipesevar.com. Okay now the let the magic happen, I will wait here til you are done.

Done now? Good. I don’t know if you noticed or not but this site is now much more readable on a smaller display. This is the responsive part I mentioned earlier. The site will shrink and grow according to the size of the screen or browser window you have open. You can try it on your desktop computer too. Make it big… now grab the corner or the side of the window and make it smaller. It’s like magic!!

Now the reasoning. I don’t know about you but I am increasingly using my phone to read recipes. This way we don’t have to squint or try to shrink the page our my browser to see the recipe. It’s all there in an easy to read format. I have also done some minor design tweaks that make things better all around. Yes for now the image slider at the top is missing but I promise, it’s coming back. Internet Explorer users may see some weird things for a bit, but those are getting fixed. Also if you see any weird things that I may have missed just let me know in the comments of this post.

Now for the other fun things. Super Moist Thanksgiving Turkey recipe is coming down the pipe soon. So is Hawaiian BBQ Feast. Hellfire and Damnation Chili too, among others. I pledge to be more posty. I just need to get over the fact that not so great images are alright to have on here instead of perfect ones.

Now let me tell you a story. My wife found this recipe a few years back somewhere on the internet and copied it down to a recipe card. I love this potato salad so much I wanted to put it on here so you all could partake of its goodness. So I took that card and had it on my desk at home for a long time, meaning to add it.

Well Labor day comes around and I decide to get it up here. Well guess what, it disappeared. I looked all over for it, even at work on the off chance I took it there. No luck. So it has been a month and still there was no sign of it. I was really sad that I couldn’t find it.

Well the other day my wife sent me a text to check my email and that I would be super happy. So I took a look and low and behold she had found it in her email. She had sent the recipe to a friend so it was in her sent messages folder. GO WIFE!

Now about this potato salad. It’s awesome, really its the best potato salad I have ever had. I’m, not joking. Usually potato salads are kind of bland, and either over egg-y or overly potato-y. This one is perfect, and that is why I was sad that I couldn’t find the recipe. Oh and did I mention it has bacon. Yes I said bacon! Tasty tasty bacon. I could go on forever about bacon, but I won’t I will let you get to making this awesomeness.

Best Potato Salad Ever

Found somewhere on the interwebs.

• 6 hard boiled eggs
• 10 potatoes (boiled)
• 1 C. mayo
• 1/2 C. ranch dressing
• 1/3 C. dill pickle relish (i just slice up pickles and add a bit of juice)
• 2 T. mustard
• 1 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 t. pepper
• 1/8 t. paprika
• 1/8 t. celery seed
• 1 lb. chopped cooked bacon (crunchy)
• 1 onion chopped (browned in the bacon grease)

Directions

1. Chop the eggs and potatoes to the sizes you like and put them in a large bowl with the cooked onion and mix.
2. In another bowl mix together mayo, ranch, relish (pickles), mustard, salt, pepper, paprika, and celery seed.
3. Pour the the mayo/ranch/spices mix in with the eggs and potatoes and mix to combine.
4. Right before you serve it mix in the bacon. This will ensure the bacon is still crispy.

How many of you used to, or still eat Hostess Cupcakes? I know I did back in the day. I stopped eating them because I don’t know if I trust what they put into them. So when I saw this on Cooks Country, I just had to make them. These are heaven in chocolatey, creamy form. They are oh so good. You won’t be able to stop at just one, I sure can’t.

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Better than Hostess Cupcakes

Cooks Country
Makes 12 cupcakes.

Cupcakes

• 1 C. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/4 t. Salt
• 1/2 C.boiling water
• 1/3 C. cocoa powder
• 1/3 C. semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 T. instant espresso (I don’t use this)
• 3/4 C.sugar
• 1/2 C. sour cream
• 1/2 C. vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 t. vanilla extract

Filling

• 3 T. water
• 3/4 t. unflavored gelatin
• 4 T. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter , softened
• Pinch salt
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 C. marshmallow fluff (such as Fluff or Kraft Jet-Puffed Creme)

Glaze

• 1/2 C. semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 T. unsalted butter

Instructions

1. MAKE BATTER Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 12-cup muffin tin. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Whisk water, cocoa, chocolate chips, and espresso in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla and mix until combined. Whisk in flour mixture until incorporated. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out with few dry crumbs attached, 18 to 22 minutes. Cool -cupcakes in tin 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.
2. PREPARE FILLING Combine water and gelatin in large bowl and let sit until gelatin softens, about 5 minutes. Microwave until mixture is bubbling around edges and gelatin dissolves, about 30 seconds. Stir in butter, vanilla, and salt until combined. Let mixture cool until just warm to touch, about 5 minutes, then whisk in marshmallow creme until smooth; refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Transfer 1/3 cup marshmallow mixture to pastry bag fitted with small plain tip; reserve remaining mixture for filling cupcakes.
3. ASSEMBLE CUPCAKES Microwave chocolate and butter in small bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, about 30 seconds. Cool glaze to room temper-ature, about 10 minutes. Following photos 1 to 3 at left, cut cone from top of each cupcake and fill cupcakes with 1 tablespoon filling each. Replace tops, frost with 2 teaspoons cooled glaze, and let sit 10 minutes. Using pastry bag, pipe curlicues across glazed cupcakes. Serve. (Cupcakes can be stored in airtight container at room temperature for 2 days.)