Toaster oven baking: Alice Medrich´s cocoa brownies & brownie cheesecake.
Making a whole tray of brownies just for yourself may sound a bit much. But it was a Sunday, my first Sunday home alone with nothing to do and nowhere to be since a long time. I don´t know what you do on such occasions but I slob around the house in my harem pants (remember them? the trouser equivalent of Crocs? fashionable rather briefly in 2008?). I don´t brush my hair and I wear those odd socks whose partners long ago went to wherever it is that lost socks go. On days like those making a tray of brownies is easier than leaving home to buy one. Especially if you have a recipe in your to-do list that reads something like this
1) dump stuff in bowl, melt
2) add an egg and flour
3) shove in toaster oven
It reads like the back of a box of brownie mix right? Except that this is not just any brownie, it´s brownie that´s taken food bloggers by storm. Alice Medrich’s all cocoa brownies. I would give you the recipe, but I think that Deb over on Smitten Kitchen always says it so much better than I can. I did reduce the amount of sugar to 200 gm, and to me that tasted just about right.
So you may ask what someone who lives alone does with a whole tray of brownies. You eat some (with a good book). You palm some off on your favorite colleagues. A bunch go in the freezer. And the rest go in a cheesecake. Again, I must admit, I turned to smitten kitchen, reduced the sugar slightly and used 150 gm of brownies. The cheesecake layer was luscious, and so so easy.
The only problem was that when making the crumb crust I eyeballed the butter rather than measure it out, adding an extra lump for luck. Don’t do that! My crumb crust was greasy, falling apart, and kind of yuck.
como*solo 
Brownie cheesecake looks yummy. It’s a while since I’ve had that! I made cheesecake batter swirled into baked brownie recipe (these baked guys are awesome – such a good recipe!) .
I like how you describe harem pants as the trouser equivalent of crocs! Mismatched socks? Cute!
Thanks Shaheen! I had no other photo to use, and my sister’s comment was something along the lines of “FEET? in a FOOD photo! Grooossss!”.
Oh, these cocoa brownies! Your photos are making me drool for them all over again. After reading about them on Smitten Kitchen, I made a batch too…during the height of Washington, D.C.’s “Snowpocalypse,” when the federal government shut down and I didn’t leave my apartment for six days. So don’t worry, I was definitely eating the entire tray by myself and wearing the equivalent of mismatched socks and harem pants, too! 🙂
Snowpocalypse! 6 days in harem pants! How blissful! It´s hot hot hot here, we´d love a bit of snowpocalypse. 6 days might be a little too much though, I probably wouldn´t fit into my harem pants by the end of it.
Thank you for reminding me to make these! I made them last night, cut down the sugar like you said, and actually increased the recipe by 50% as my baking dish was too big …. they were a hit!!!
I love that these work even when made in your temperemental beast of an oven and my cranky little toaster oven!
I was lucky enough to try some of this batch of brownies. Delicious!