Twitter: Good for the tastebuds, not so much the waistline (A review of Bake!)

Several of my Twitter friends have recently purchased Nick Malgieri's newest book Bake! and have been Twitterbaking some of the recipes. I was intrigued by the orange-almond scones (loving scones as I do), and I happily joined in on the New Orleans praline pound cake when Andrea forwarded me the recipe. Their discussion and Kayte's post of Florida brownies pushed me over the edge, and when the baby girl and I were on a date to the library this week, I picked up Bake! to see for myself.

Oh my!

I made the Florida brownies tonight. They were pretty easy to throw together while our lasagna was baking. Melt butter and unsweetened chocolate. Whisk eggs with vanilla and salt and then sugar. Then let the standmixer whip it all for ten minutes until it's light and fluffy. Add the butter and chocolate mixture and then a little bit of flour. The recipe says to bake it for 35 minutes, until "firm but not dry." When I tested the middle, there was still wet batter in the middle, so I let them go for 5 more minutes, at which point they were definitely done. I probably should've taken them out a couple of minutes earlier to get the "moist crumbs" clinging to my testing knife.

They're supposed to be refrigerated overnight, and I'm sure they'll be even better tomorrow. But when I was removing them from the pan, the corner of the brownie slab just accidentally broke off and accidentally fell into a bowl where a bit of vanilla ice cream was just accidentally waiting. Seriously: oh my!

I've been trying to be good and not purchase any more cookbooks, but I'm afraid I need my own copy of Bake! I already purchased ingredients for four more recipes at the store tonight. This one's a keeper!