Days 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 - Brownies Go Climbing




Claims she's an underwear model,
but I don't believe her.  I do know she's
holding what's left of a pan of
Snow-Flecked Brownies.

     You sit on a slab of sun-warmed granite and bite into a smooth, rich brownie, rife with butter and laced with white chocolate chunks.  In that moment, you are certain this is nirvana.  Cumulous clouds in the distance remind you weather is shifting.  You may soon sprint for treeline to stay alive.   For this second, however, life is perfect.
    Summer hiking is the best, and I do so love to go with people who know where we are and how to get back to the car.  Chocolate sustains trekkers when they hike and climb.  Aside from that, the right chocolate will influence a hike leader to include you, make the baker essential and welcome on any hike.  There is always a place on the trip for "that woman who always brings chocolate". 
   Determined to be "that woman" and to go places I'd never ever find on my own,  I rose extremely early and whipped up brownies on several occasions this summer.  Brownies are so very portable, so easy to carry in your pack, nearly smush-proof.  Usually  Nigella Lawson's Snow Flecked Brownies ( page 46, Feast ) were staples.  Climbing companions, 20-something-year-old men, kept asking for these specifically, "that gooey brownie, the one with the white chocolate chips",  so they just kept turning up in the top of the backpack.  With minor adjustment for altitude, I make them just like Nigella says. 
    Except when I don't.  This time of year, I find myself competing  with hummingbirds for every last teaspoon of white granulated sugar in my pantry.  Some person keeps making all my sugar into syrup for the birds, tiny beings, but together they sure can eat a lot.  One morning brown sugar  brownies had to do, and nobody seemed to notice or care.  This recipe makes lots of brownies; they went up Eagle Peak and down the Arkansas in the same week, along the east ridge of Pacific Peak, up Handies Peak and Mount Rosa other days.
   Winthrop Beach Brownies from Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters, page 201, went out climbing when a man asked for brownies with cream cheese.  With the first batch, the bottom layer was fine, and the cream cheese layer was good, but the chocolate batter on top was stiff going on.  Consequently, the top layer's thickness was inconsistent, and cream cheese bubbled through in spots.  Nobody complained, and the flavor was wonderful, of course, but I wanted defined brownie vs. cream cheese layers.  In their beautiful and oh-so-fun-to-read  cookbook, Marilynn and Sheila Brass show these looking almost like little layer cakes.  Second try, the top layer batter again too stiff, I tried adding a little milk.  Don't do this, 'cause your brownies will be  too squigy.  For this baker, the best cream cheese brownie solution is as follows.  Make the Brass girls' Winthrop Beach Brownie batter, doubling the cream cheese filling.  Using a 9 x 13 inch pan, put all the firm, strong brownie batter on the bottom.    Spread the cream cheese layer over, as the Brass sisters describe.  Then get out your New Basics Cookbook, the one by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins.  Quickly do up a batch of  batter for Baby Brownies, page 655, which will be more liquidy, and pour them over the cream cheese filling layer.   Bake a little longer than directed by either recipe, for you have double the batch.  BUT keep an eye on things, you don't want these overbaked.  This is a convoluted route, but it is completely worth the rich, decadent, and clearly stratified little gems you have in the end. 
    Those Baby Brownies are outstanding on their own, too.  They were my go-to brownie before I revealed my fickle character and went over to the white chocolate chip side.