From Scratch: Brownie Sundaes

From Scratch: I'm going to start a new series on the blog! Ever since I got married and had my own kitchen to cook in, I've been interested in making things from scratch, that I would ordinarily buy. Don't get me wrong, I didn't grow up in an overly processed foods family, in fact, my Mom would refuse to buy certain things I begged for at the grocery store on Saturdays, saying oh I can make that for us. And she did! I've been trying to take that a step or two or three farther over the years and I now have an ever growing arsenal of my favorite recipes for things I would have normally bought before. So I'd like to share some of those here from time to time.

We had company over for dinner this past week. I needed a dessert for the evening and was in the mood to make ice cream. When I was trying to come up with a flavor, I remembered when I was a kid and at church we sometimes had brownie sundaes with the boys and girls club. For some reason this stuck out in my head so vividly. I thought that it would be fun to do that, especially since there were kids coming over for dinner.

I'm starting this series off with three from scratch recipes!

* I'm not always this ambitious when it comes to making things from scratch. I love to do it when I have the time and it just so happened I HAD the time this week to make a dish with three separate components.

Ice cream: Recipe can be found here. I added vanilla bean and seeds to the milk and cream mixture.

Chocolate Sauce: forget the hershey's syrup. this sauce is so much tastier and high fructose corn syrup isn't the main ingredient or and ingredient at all.

~ from seeded at the table

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups sugar
• Pinch of salt
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla

Combine the water and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium while stirring with a whisk to dissolve the cocoa. Stir in the sugar until dissolved. Bring to a boil while stirring occasionally and heat for 3 minutes, watching carefully to avoid boiling over. (Turn down the heat, if necessary.) Remove from the heat and mix in the salt and vanilla. Let set to cool. Use a funnel to pour into a clean glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Store in the refrigerator for up to two months. 

Chocolate Chip Brownies: The best I've ever made!honey and jam's version of alice medrich's best cocoa brownies

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks, 5 ounces or 141 grams) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups (9 7/8 ounces, 280 grams) sugar

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2 7/8 ounces, 82 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, cold

1/2 cup (66 grams, 2 3/8 ounces) all-purpose flour

2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.
Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and microwave for 1:30 minutes. Remove and stir until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot. It looks fairly gritty at this point, but don’t fret — it smoothes out once the eggs and flour are added.

Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Stir in the nuts, if using. Spread evenly in the lined pan.

Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack.

Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares.

Serve all three in a bowl, for a trip down memory lane!