Joy the Baker

In my kitchen this past week I’ve managed to burn my Thanksgiving brussels sprouts, make a bum batch of chocolate brownies, crack my favorite coffee mug and somehow spill a half bottle of red wine under…UNDER my refrigerator.  Additionally, since my kitchen seems to be a vortex of ill fate, I’ve refused to do the dishes.  It wasn’t a pretty sight, friends.  I was just about due for an intervention.  

I was just about ready to throw a stick of dynamite into my kitchen and hope for the best.  Instead I opted for one last shot… mostly because sticks of dynamite like the ones they have in cartoons are hard to find… maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places… whatever the case,  I preheated the oven, kept my head down, and… success!  Sweet, dense, chocolate and peanut butter success.  

This dark kitchen cloud seems to have passed, and I’ve managed to get all of my dishes in the dishwasher…. things are looking up and tasting pretty darn good too. 

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Everyone has their own way of enjoying toasted marshmallows.  It’s very much a personal thing… this I understand.

I like my roasted, toasted marshmallows extra crispy… extra well done.  I want that sucker on  the end of the misshapen close hanger, stuck right into the depths of the fire.  I want it to come out flaming.  That’s right, I’m a marshmallow torch girl.

Apparantely, the marshmallow torch is not how you make friends at all-girl sleep away camp.  I would always get groans of disapproval from the girls that were trying to keep their precious marshmallows just far enough away from the orange coals to perfectly toast them.  Maybe they were less than thrilled with my marshmallow torch because I usually managed to set at least one of their darling marshmallows on fire just out of sheer proximity.  I considered it a favor.  Them..?  Not so much.

But these brownies aren’t really about my summer camp misadventures, are they?  These S’mores Brownies are more about fudgy, dense chocolate that bakes up with graham cracker bits and toasted marshmallows.  Toasted, not torched.

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Settle in friends. You might be here a while. Come and experience the better part of 48 hours behind the camera with Joy the Baker in San Francisco.

From the Oakland Bart Station to the streets of San Francisco and back again. It’s a whirl wind trip. Hold my hand and play along.

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There are countless reason why I love making brownies.  All they require is a bowl and wooden spoon.  They’re moist and satisfy that deep chocolate craving.  But more sentimentally, brownies are one of the first things I remember making with my sister growing up.  We’d take out one bowl, one pan, follow the directions on the back of the unsweetened chocolate box, and about 45 minutes later- warm brownies!  We’d burn our fingers trying to get the hot brownies out of the pan.  But it was worth it to sit down with a plate of warm brownies and cold milk to watch episode after episode of I Love Lucy.  Those were the days.  These old school Fudge Brownies with walnuts and chocolate chunks were made in an effort to reach back to those days eating brownies on the living room floor with my sister.  The amazing thing is that one bite into the warm chocolate  took me right back to being 10 years old, baking with my sister.  It’s pretty remarkable what a brownie can do! Read more »