French Chocolate Brownies

Ah, another baking challenge from the "Tuesdays with Dorie" group chosen by Madame Chow's Kitchen. This time it is French Chocolate Brownies on page 92-93. I have decided not to include the project recipes so that I do not deter from the sale of the book by Dorie Greenspan.

Her intension with these brownies was to maintain a soft moist texture, and powerful chocolate flavor of a French fondant cake. As is goes I'm not a chocoholic and definitely not a brownie person. But that just makes it easier for me not to succumb to those voices that usually lure me to dessert. Luckily my official tasters do not share my tastes.

The brownie batter is quick and easy to make so I figured I had the time to do a little twist on Dorie's twist. The little treasures in this batter are rum soaked raisins. Now what would a project be if I didn't tweek it just a little. So I added walnuts for "J" and soaked the raisins in Vanilla Schnapps (yes, very conservative tweeks but, I just love the fragrance of vanilla).

There is no chemical leavening added to this recipe either so beating the eggs as instructed, until they are light and fluffy is essential. It is the reason these brownies are so light and cake-like. It is also the reason the top cracks into a million pieces and is difficult to cut into neat squares. Although I would probably never serve these to guests I gave them a taste (afterall someone had to be first). My conclusion: the raisins and light texture are what makes these brownies a bit above average. My official tasters were very pleased to have something out of the ordinary to test. So, thank you Dorie.