A funny thing and German Chocolate

And no the funny thing isn't the German Chocolate which I will get to in a moment.


The funny thing is I didn't think I posted my last post. By either lack of tech savvy on my part or some glitch on the part of my computer, my post was, well, posted. I had written about missing the blog, but wanted to hold off on putting it on line until I felt more confident with keeping to the commitment of blogging again. I didn't want to start all fired up only to find out that I didn't have the time to do the job properly.


Then came an email alert that a poster by the name of Our Family had commented on my recent entry. I slowly realized that I was "active" again. Soooo, here I am. Back again.


I'm excited to get talking food. I made a New Year's Resolution to try a new recipe every week and I am happy to report I've been sticking to it (unlike my plan to completely reorganize my office and read through back issues of about 50 food magazines, yikes! Well, there's always 2012.)


One of my experiments was for a recipe called German Chocolate Brownies. I came across it in Bon Appetit magazine's Reader's Favorite Restaurant Recipes section. The original recipe made about 54 brownies so I halved it and boy am I glad I did.


So delish, but soooooooo rich. I am not usually someone who believes in dessert in small quantities; it's dessert of goodness sake, live it up! But I would definitely say a little goes a long way when it comes to these brownies so have some guests to share it with.

It's a quick easy recipe that I highly recommend. The only labor intensive step is making the frosting, but I think an easy short cut would be using a can of store bought German Chocolate frosting instead.

German Chocolate Brownies

Brownies:
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs

Frosting:
3/4 cup half and half (I blended equal parts whole milk and cream)
1/2 & 1/8 cups sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes, room temperature)
3 large egg yolks
12 ounces sweetened flaked coconut (about 3 1/2 cups)
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 8x8 inch pan with aluminum foil, leaving enough extra foil for a 2" overhand on 2 sides. Butter and flour the foil.
Whisk flour and cocoa in small bowl. Using a mixer, beat sugar and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add flour mixture and beat until just blended. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread to edges using a spatula.
Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean with a few moist crumbs attached, about 23 minutes or so.
Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

To make frosting, stir half and half, sugar, butter, egg yolks and vanilla in large saucepan over medium heat until mixture thickens and instant-read thermometer registers 180 F, stirring CONSTANTLY, about 15 minutes ( do NOT allow the mixture to boil) **this is why you may want to opt for the store bought frosting as a short cut!
Fold coconut and pecans into topping. Chill 1 hour. Spread over brownies. Cut into small squares and ENJOY!!

DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before serving, if desired.