Brownies Are the Answer to Everything

Sugar High Friday #35 is being hosted this month by Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, and she chose figs as the theme. I wasn’t sure what to do with figs as I’d only ever bought them once before. Consequently, after buying some for SHF, they sat on my counter until it got to the point where they had to be used immediately. But I still didn’t know what to do with them. So I chopped up the figs and threw them in a pot to simmer. I added a little sugar and cooked them until they looked like jam. But I still didn’t know what to do with them. So I added some balsamic vinegar and cooked the mixture little longer. I tasted it and decided I was happy with the flavour, removed the figgy jam from the stove and let it sit while I tried to figure out what to do with it. My Dorie book was sitting close by so I flipped through the pages trying to figure out what recipe could benefit from the addition of figs. Brownies. Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies. Brilynn’s Remixed Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies with Figs. Done.

Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies (From Baking From My Home to Yours)

Prep time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 25-30 minutes
Cooling time: at least 30 minutes
Makes: 16 squares

Ingredients:
¼ cup all purpose flour
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp finely ground instant espresso (the book called for coffee, but….)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup, coarsely chopped pecans
4 oz/112 g bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions:
1. Place the rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325°F/170°C.
2. Butter an 8”x8” square ovenproof cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter the paper and dust with flour. Tap out excess.
3. Whisk the flour, cinnamon and salt together.
4. Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed medium saucepan over low heat. When the butter starts to melt sift the cocoa over it and add the instant espresso. Stir and continue to cook until it’s all well blended (a couple of minutes). Remove from heat and cool for 3 minutes or so.
5. Using a whisk or rubber spatula, beat the eggs into the saucepan one at a time. Next, stir in the sugar and vanilla – be gentle when adding – don’t beat too vigorously – you don’t want to add air to the batter. Add the dry ingredients, nuts and chopped chocolate. Scrape the batter into the pan.
6. Bake for 30 minutes, at which point the brownies will still be gooey but the top will have a dry papery crust. Transfer the pan to a rack and let the brownies cool for at least 30 minutes.
7. Turn the brownies out onto a rack, peel away the paper and invert onto a cutting board. Cool completely before cutting them into squares.

**For my figgy remix, cook figs as above, and then when scraping batter into the pan add a layer of the fig jam and top with the remaining batter.

To see some other bloggers who have made these fantastic brownies, click here, here, or here.

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Figs + SHF + Dorie Greenspan + Brownies