Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Brownie Buttons

I needed a quick treat and these were quick! I accidentally read the recipe wrong and added 1/3 cup flour and they still turned out. The perfect bite size treat. The lemon zest added a nice little something extra.
Brownie Buttons from Baking by Dorie Greenspan
Grated Zest of 1/2 Orange (or lemon)

1 teaspoon Sugar
1/4 Cup + 2 Tbls Flour
Pinch of Salt
1/2 Stick (4 Tablespoons) Unsalted Butter, Cut into 4 Pieces
2 1/2 Ounces Bittersweet Chocolate, Coarsely Chopped
1/3 Cup (Packed) Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
1 Large Egg
For the optional Glaze:2 Ounces White Chocolate, Finely Chopped

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter two miniature muffin pans, each with a dozen cups, and place them on a baking sheet. If you're using the orange zest, combine the zest and sugar in a small bowl, rubbing them between your fingertips to blend: set aside. Whisk together the flour and salt. Melt the butter, chocolate, and brown sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over very low heat, stirring frequently with a heatproof spatula and keeping an eye on the pan so that nothing overheats or burns. When the mixture is smooth, remove from the heat and cool for a minute or two.Stir the vanilla, egg and the zest into the chocolate mixture. When the mixture is well blended, add the flour and stir only until it is incorporated. You should have a smooth, glossy batter.Spoon the batter into 16 of the muffin cups, using about a teaspoon of batter to fill each cup 3/4 full. Put 1 teaspoon of water in each empty cup.Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until the tops of the buttons spring back when touched. Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 3 minutes before carefully releasing the buttons. Cool to room temperature on the racks.

To make the glaze: Melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Stir constantly and don't leave the chocolate for even one minute- white chocolate scorches easily. As soon as the chocolate is smooth, remove from the heat.One by one, dip the tops of the buttons into the chocolate, twirling the buttons so that you get a little swirl at the center of each one and the excess chocolate drips back into the bowl. Refrigerate the buttons for 15 minutes to set the glaze.

Storing: Covered, these will keep at room temperature overnight. If you wrap them air tight, you can freeze them for up to 2 months.

3 comments:

Prudy said...

I've had my eye on this one. Yours looks better than the cookbook-don't tell.

steph- whisk/spoon said...

how cute!!

Anne said...

Oh man I made these a few weeks ago and had to email Dorie to tell her how much I loved them, lol! Yours look wonderful!