The Mother Sauce

For lack of showering her with outlandish gifts, Hallmark cards, or overpriced flowers, I am posting today for my mother. Happy Mother’s Day from clatter! My mom and I had a conversation about the blog this past week, and she mentioned I should be posting three to four times a week. Ha! Maybe if I quit my day job! She might have been kidding, but it did get me thinking about clatter and how my combination of time shortage and garrulous propensities keep me from writing more often. So while I can’t promise to write more frequently, I will promise to write less today. Sorry - it’s the best I can do.

Besides this posting, my other contribution to the Mother’s Day celebration today was making brunch for three generations of mothers in my family. Since I’m not a mother myself, I got stuck working the event, along with my brother-in-law (the dynamic duo, back again, after our wildly successful Easter brunch). Of course, being “stuck” in the kitchen is precisely where I wanted to be, so there was no complaining on my end (except maybe for the aftermath of the kitchen disaster he and I created in the process). In case you were wondering, our brunch menu consisted of: spring salad with caramelized fennel, toasted almonds, and shaved parmesan, drizzled with a sherry-maple vinaigrette; open-faced croque monsieurs (or madames with a poached egg upon request), complete with smoked ham and prosciutto, topped with a gruyère/comté mornay sauce (quick lesson: this is the cheese variety of béchamel - one of the five MOTHER sauces of French cuisine); roasted red potatoes with thyme and fresh basil; and bellinis. Not bad, eh? Beats the Mother’s Day Brunch Special at IHOP anyway…

Feeling full and tired from the Mother’s Day celebration this morning, I retreated to my apartment balcony for a lazy afternoon of sipping on sun tea and reading. But once the sun went behind the clouds, I decided I would work the double shift and get back in the kitchen. Maybe I wanted an excuse to use that well-sought out ancho chili powder I bought last week, or experiment with possibilities for an upcoming catering event, but mostly, I had a hankering for something sweet and needed to do something about it, stat. I suppose I could have run down the street, flailing my arms like a crazy person until I caught up with the ice cream truck I faintly heard in the distance earlier today, but I’m still fairly new to the neighborhood and would prefer to make a more glowing impression on my neighbors if I can help it. So instead, I decided to try out Baked’s famous Spicy Brownies in my kitchen.

I’m sure the two guys behind the tiny Brooklyn bakery who created this brownie deserve all the attention they’ve received (they seem pretty well-humored and cool, after all), but having Oprah tell the world that they’ve created the best brownie she’s ever eaten certainly doesn’t hurt (now if only clatter could get that kind of publicity…). I’m pleased to admit that I heard about and was intrigued by Baked before the Oprah phenomenon, but it wasn’t until I saw their recipe in O magazine for the Spicy Brownie last year (http://www.oprah.com/food/The-Baked-Spicy-Brownie) that I knew I could bring Baked’s innovations into my own kitchen (subsequently I’ve tried out a couple of other recipes out of their cookbook). I’ve been holding onto this particular recipe until I could get my hands on some ancho chili powder. Now that I had, I wanted to finally put this alleged OMG-shrieking brownie to the test.

With a hint of cinnamon, dark chocolate, and that ancho chili powder, this brownie definitely creates a different kind of sensation in the mouth than your typical brownie. It’s good, but it lacks the kick I was expecting to make it worthy of its name. If/when I make these again, I’d definitely increase the amount of chili powder so that there’s no question that this brownie is indeed "spicy". I suppose my elimination of the ginger may have altered the flavor a little, but in my experience with the ginger + chocolate combination, it’s not the best idea (don’t get me started on my recipients’ reactions to MS’s chewy chocolate ginger cookies I made a couple of years ago). I’m sure Baked does something extra and top secret than their dumbed down version printed in O that make its Spicy Brownie really special, so I’ll be sure to visit the bakery next time I’m in NYC to see for myself (but because I want to go, not because Oprah told me to!). For now though, my chocolate craving has been fulfilled, and luckily for some unsuspecting co-workers, there might be a plate of brownies in the office kitchen tomorrow…