THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — 3B
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TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2021
Hail the ‘king’ of the brownies
2 ripe bananas
1 large egg
1 cup packed light brown sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
¾ cup all-purpose fl our
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup creamy peanut butter
Arthi Subramaniam
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
There are brownies, and then
there is the king of brownies.
I’m talking about ones with ba-
nanas and peanut butter that would
get Elvis Presley’s blessings.
The signature trademark of a
good classic brownie is that it should
be chewy, gooey and not overbaked.
It does not have to be fancy and
topped with swirls or glazes. Nor
does it need to feature hard-to-fi nd
ingredients. A recipe free of fuss will
be just fi ne.
If it has a nice sheen, that’s
great. If it is a crackly top, that is
great, too. And if it strikes the right
balance between chewy, cakey and
fudgy and has a deep chocolate
fl avor, that’s the best.
I like a fudgy brownie but not
one that is so ridiculously rich that
I can’t even get halfway through it.
Or I have to wash it down with cold
milk or water. At the same time,
I am not crazy about thick cakey
brownies where the fl our dominates.
A brownie also needs to be one
that is intensely chocolaty but not
bitter. One that is sweet but won’t
hurt my teeth. And one that can
remain moist even after a couple of
days.
It’s easy to overbake brownies as
it is often hard to tell when they are
done. The usual visual cues that in-
dicate something is browned enough
on top don’t work here because the
brownies are already, well, brown.
Determining the doneness through
the aroma can be tricky, too.
The best way to check for done-
ness is to insert a toothpick or a
cake tester in the center of the
brownies. If the tester comes out
with a few moist crumbs sticking to
it, the brownies are baked perfectly.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9-by-9-inch baking pan.
Combine the banana, egg, ½ cup
of brown sugar and vanilla extract
in a bowl with an electric mixer until
smooth.
Combine the remaining ½ cup
brown sugar and butter in a small
saucepan. Cook over medium heat,
stirring often, until the sugar has
melted.
Remove from the heat. Add choco-
late chips and stir until smooth.
Beat the butter-chocolate mixture
Pam Panchak/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-TNS
into the banana mixture. Add the
Bananas and peanut butter make the “King of Brownies” super tasty without making them greasy.
fl our and cocoa and stir to combine.
Transfer the batter to the prepared
pan.
Drop spoonfuls of peanut butter
not chewy, but super soft. And they
On the other hand, if it comes out
plain wrong to call it a brownie
over
the top of the batter and then
are rich but not greasy. Although the
clean, they have been overbaked.
anymore.
drag
a butter knife through it to create
banana and peanut butter fl avors
The sky’s the limit when it comes
In “Flavor for All: Everyday
swirls.
are unmistakable they don’t smack
to the add-ins. Nuts, chocolate
Recipes and Creative Pairings”
Bake for about 25 minutes, until
you in your face.
chunks, dried fruits, mint chips, co- by James Briscione and Brooke
the
edges are set and a toothpick
They are the kind of brownies you
conut fl akes and cream cheese work Parkhurst, a recipe that is boldly
inserted
into the center comes out
can go bananas or nuts over. And
well when mixed into the batter,
titled “The King” of Brownies
slightly
moist.
and so do pretzels, graham crackers caught my eye. Like the famed Elvis who knows? The king of rock ‘n’ roll
Let cool completely in the pan
might have, too, if he knew about it.
and marshmallows.
sandwich, the brownies call for ba-
on
a wire rack before cutting into
Salt accentuates the sweetness,
nanas and peanut butter that act as
squares.
Store in an airtight contain-
so be sure to add a dash of it in the both moistening and fl avoring agents.
er or tightly wrapped in the refrig-
batter. For a hint of spice, a little bit
Chocolate chips are melted with
erator for up to 10 days.
of ancho chili powder or cayenne
butter and brown sugar and blended
Makes 16 brownies.
The bananas and peanut butter
pepper can do wonders.
with bananas, fl our and cocoa powder.
‘THE KING’ OF
BROWNIES
There are add-ins I avoid at all
costs, and curry powder, potato chips
and bacon are among them. They
are just not my type of fl avoring for
brownies. Also, when things like
matcha are added, I think it is just
After the batter is poured into a pre-
pared pan, spoonfuls of peanut butter
are dropped on top and then dragged
with a butter knife to create swirls.
After about 25 minutes in a
350-degree oven, the brownies turn
are moistening and fl avoring agents
here, making the brownies super
soft. Then there is the mesmerizing
aroma. While the banana-y presence
is unmistakable, it does not smack in
your face.
— Adapted from “Flavor for All:
Everyday Recipes and Creative
Pairings” by James Briscione and
Brooke Parkhurst (Houghton Miffl in
Harcourt; October 2020)
Not fresh, but
still a fine flavor
■ Sun-dried tomatoes are the next best option to off-the-vine
Arthi Subramaniam
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In these off-season months
when you cannot fi nd sun-
drenched tomatoes, go with
the next best thing — sun-
dried tomatoes.
Dehydrated tomatoes,
whether they are dry-packed
or preserved in olive oil, are
sweet, tangy and add a burst
of fl avor in salads, pasta,
quick dips and pesto. They
make a colorful topping on
pizzas, focaccia or crostini
and are ideal for an anti-
pasto.
A creamy Parmesan po-
lenta, for instance, is elevated
when topped with oil-packed
sun-dried tomatoes cooked
with garlic, broccoli rabe and
broth. Or how about tossing
roasted green beans with
sun-dried tomatoes that have
been whisked with Kalamata
olives, lemon juice, fresh
oregano and goat cheese.
Fusilli salad sings with
an antipasto tone when the
cooked corkscrew-shaped
pasta is combined with
sun-dried tomatoes, salami,
provolone cheese, artichoke
hearts and peppadew
peppers. Garlicky chicken
meatballs studded with
chopped sun-dried tomatoes
and jalapeno is a delight for
the senses for a weeknight
dinner.
The shriveled fruits are
minimalists because they
only have four requirements
— good plum tomatoes, a
little salt, plenty of sun and
plenty more patience.
You can thank the sun for
their concentrated tomato
fl avor. When tomatoes dry
under the summer sun, their
water content is drawn out,
leaving them richer in taste
and deeper in hue. And they
retain their antioxidants
and vitamins.
Lisa Mantella, 65, who
was born and raised in the
Calabria region of southern
Italy, remembers helping her
mother to dry tomatoes dur-
ing the months of July and
August when the sun was at
its strongest.
Her mother would moni-
tor the weather forecast in
the local newspaper and on
the radio. If it was predicted
to be sunny and dry for at
least three or four days, it
was time to pull out a table
to the balcony and dry the
tomatoes.
“It had to be nice, hot and
dry. There could not be any
humidity in the air,” empha-
sized the O’Hara resident
who is a part-time pastry
chef at the Pittsburgh Field
Club in Fox Chapel.
Only the elongated and
sweet San Marzano to-
matoes with pointed ends
would do. The tomatoes were
cut lengthwise in half and
sprinkled with a little salt
to draw out the moisture.
Then they were laid out on
a kitchen towel over a tray
in a single layer with the cut
side facing the sun.
Round, juicy tomatoes
were avoided because they
took longer to dry.
The tomatoes were left
out all day long, anywhere
from three, four days or more,
depending on the sun. Dried
tomatoes can lose up to 93%
of their original weight. Ms.
Mantella determined they
were ready by their appear-
ance — the tomatoes needed
to have shrunk to three-
fourths of their original size.
She was only 5 or 6 years
old when she fi rst began
helping her mother. Her job
was to lay out the halved
tomatoes on the tray after her
mother had cut them and to
move the tray around so they
received full sun all day long.
The plum tomatoes were
from her family’s 40-acre
farm, where they also grew
eggplant, green beans and
broccoli.
“Even though I’m Ital-
ian, I have never liked raw
tomatoes. My mother never
liked them either,” she said,
laughing. “I like them only
when they are cooked.”
Dried tomatoes eaten
alone are chewy to the point
of being sometimes leathery
and usually last three or four
months. When hydrated in
olive oil, they can last six
months. The oil imparts fl a-
vor to the dried tomatoes and
helps them stay fresh. Ms.
Mantella cautions that the to-
matoes need to be completely
Andrew Rush/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-TNS
Spaghetti served with piquant sun-dried tomatoes and pistachio pesto.
covered with olive oil and
stored in tightly sealed jars.
Dry-packed and oil-packed
tomatoes are interchange-
able in recipes. To make
dry-packed tomatoes less
chewy, hydrate them in water
or stock fi rst. Oil-packed
tomatoes can be used as is,
but sometimes the excess oil
needs to be patted off.
Ms. Mantella continued
sun-drying tomatoes after
getting married and moving
to Pittsburgh. Sometimes she
uses her oven to do the job.
“Pittsburgh summers can
be humid and not consistent,”
she said.
She grows San Marzano
tomatoes in garden pots and
lays out the halves in a single
layer on a parchment paper-
lined baking sheet. She then
places them in a 170-degree
oven for about 12 hours,
checking on them occasion-
ally.
Just like her sun-dried
tomatoes, the shrunken, oven-
dried ones boast an intense
fl avor.
“To tell the truth, they are
almost the same,” she said.
cook the sun-dried tomatoes
for 3 to 4 minutes or until
soft. Remove the tomatoes
with a slotted spoon and
transfer to a plate. Reserve
the cooking water.
SPAGHETTI WITH
SUN-DRIED
TOMATO AND
PISTACHIO PESTO
Drain the tomatoes. Trans-
fer to a blender. Add 4 table-
spoons of the cooking water,
1/4 cup of pistachios, 1/4
cup of olive oil, garlic, salt
and crushed peppers. Puree
until smooth.
Taste and add more salt
if needed. If the pesto is too
For the pesto
3 ounces sun-dried tomatoes dry, add a little more of the
cooking water.
1/4 cup shelled salted
For the pasta, bring a
pistachios, plus 2
large pot of salted water to a
tablespoons chopped
boil and cook the spaghetti
nuts for garnish, divided
according to the package
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon
directions until al dente.
olive oil, divided
Drain the spaghetti,
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
divide among the plates and
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
drizzle with remaining olive
1/4 teaspoon crushed
oil. Sprinkle with the pesto,
red peppers
chopped pistachios and a
little pepper. Serve warm.
For the pasta
Serves 2.
7 ounces dried spaghetti
Olive oil
Coarsely ground pepper
— Adapted from “365: A
Year of Everyday Cooking
For the pesto, bring a small
and Baking” by Meike Peters
pot of water to a boil and
(Prestel; October 2019)
Garlicky, nutty, sweet
and tangy, this sun-dried
tomato pesto has every-
thing going for it. Use
leftover pesto as a spread
on toast or with roasted
chicken.
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