Blazing Brownies

Jim: Well, it got so that every piss-ant prairie punk who thought he could shoot a gun would ride into town to try out the Waco Kid. I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille. It got pretty gritty. I started to hear the word "draw" in my sleep. Then one day, I was just walking down the street when I heard a voice behind me say, "Reach for it, mister!" I spun around... and there I was, face-to-face with a six-year old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass. So I limped to the nearest saloon, crawled inside a whiskey bottle, and I've been there ever since.

I watched Blazing Saddles tonight. Always a good time.

Now, I rarely drink "hard" alcohol, preferring a cold beer after a day of work or an occasional glass of red wine. But I do have some on hand for recipes (such as bourbon sausage gravy, which is in the sidebar recipe column and bourbon gravy to go with turkey), and sometimes for "medicinal" purposes. But what about bourbon and chocolate? As in the form of brownies.

Bourbon has a complex and almost caramel-like sweetness, which heightens the flavors in desserts and makes plain vanilla and chocolate flavors just "pop". It adds a grown-up twist to a classic, the result of which is rich, moist and gooey.

Chocolate Bourbon Brownies.

After cooking, the bourbon isn't an obvious taste, but it lends it a depth of finish, a smoky sweet hint to the bittersweet chocolate that's added into the cooking chocolate. The chilling/sitting time in the recipe is important. The texture changes as the brownies chill. This also gives the bourbon flavor some time to develop, though it is very subtle.

I think I could crawl into these and not come out, but they are going to a coworker and his girlfriend, as a thank you for helping me with a house repair I needed extra hands for.