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“Baked” bakers: What’s in Your Fridge Friday?
(What’s in Your Fridge Friday is What’s in Your Fridge Thursday this week because the fridge owners are going to be at a book signing tonight at Whole Foods. Read on…)
Quit The Man, stock up on flour and sugar and create a baking sensation in a tucked away corner of a city already full of bakeries. But Matt and Nato stood out: their homemade marshmallows fluffy, their brownies legendary. Their hip take on baking soon caught the eye of everyone from Oprah to Martha Stewart and within a few years of opening Baked became more than just a store.
Baked and its bakers, who specialize in cutting edge flavor combinations, became a baking sensation.
Matt and Nato, who also sell marshmallows, brownies and granola online, have just released a book called “Baked: New Frontiers in Baking”, and tonight and Saturday are your chances to pick their brains on all things baking.
They will do a free cooking demonstration tonight at 5:30 p.m. at Whole Foods downtown, and at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, they will do another free cooking demo at the Texas Book Festival.
First, have a glimpse into Matt’s fridge, then, after the jump, Nato’s fridge PLUS the recipe for their infamous brownies:
What three things are always in your fridge? Matt: Pecorino Romano, Hot sauce, butter…though there is always a few bottles of dark beer and a bottle of cheap white chillin’ Nato: Apple juice, Parmesan cheese, tomato paste…combined with a few boxes of pasta, this is sustenance for weeks
What’s your favorite condiment? Matt: Hot sauce goes on everything…pizza, pasta, eggs, you get the idea. Nato: Mayo. Wish I could say that I whip it up myself, but that is not the case…the jarred stuff will do just fine.
If you had to live on a single baked good for the rest of your life, what would it be? Both of us: Chocolate chip cookies…it’s the perfect way to start and end a day…
The Baked Brownie
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbps. dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72 percent cacao), coarsely chopped
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tsp. instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the side and bottom of a 9-by-13-inch glass or light-colored metal baking pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt and cocoa powder together.
Put the chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.
Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a spatula (not the whisk!), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then cut them into squares and serve.
Tightly covered with plastic wrap, the brownies keep at room temperature for up to 3 days.
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By mom
October 31, 2008 6:51 PM | Link to this
Thanks for the new recipe! It’s refreshing to learn a spin on baking!