Chocaholics Beware

I was going to do a post today on the new Martha Stewart magazine Christmas edition that I just got, and I will probably do that in about 5 minutes; but, I have to share this first. And once you have picked yourself up off the floor from the chocolate induced coma you will thank me. Promise.

It's no secret that I love the Barefoot Contessa. I watch her show just about every morning and I love her more and more every day. When I find out little things like she used to work in nuclear energy research, or be an adviser on energy policy to the White House, I just want to give her a big big hug. She's awesome. Anyway, she did a 40th wedding anniversary episode the other day for her and her husband, it was really cute, and her dessert almost killed me dead. She said when Jefferey was in college she would send him care packages full of brownies so she decided to make him a brownie pudding for their dessert, cute huh?

Ok, here goes...2 questions:

Do you like chocolate?
And when you eat brownies do you like it when they're just out of the oven all warm and gooey and you totally eat the ones from the middle first because they're the gooiest? If yes this ones for you:

Brownie pudding, she says its like brownies and pudding in one, I say its basically warm brownie batter that you have an excuse to eat that way. I read the reviews on it and people were like, "Oh, it's too rich," or "Oh, it's just warm brownie batter;" both of which sound fabulous to me.

What you need:

2 sticks of butter, plus extra for buttering the dish
4 large eggs at room temperature
2 cups of sugar
3/4 cup of cocoa powder
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
seeds scraped from a vanilla bean*
1 tablespoon of framboise liquer, optional. I didn't use it.
Vanilla ice cream for serving
* (I find this unnecessary, I just put in vanilla extract, or you could use a few tablespoons of extra strong coffee to bring out the chocolate flavor. I went to buy the vanilla beans? They are EXPENSIVE. I mean like $8 for 1 bean)

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 325. Butter a 9 x 2 x 12 dish.
Melt the 2 sticks of butter and set aside to cool
In a bowl with an electric mixer or your kitchen aid with a paddle attachment for you fancy folk, beat the eggs and sugar on medium speed for 5-10 minutes until very thick and light yellow.
Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder and flour together and set aside.
Once the egg mixture is ready, reduce speed to low and add the vanilla seeds and framboise and the cocoa powder mixture, mixing only until combined.
With the speed still on low, add the melted butter and mix again until just combined.

Pour the mixture into your buttered dish and place it in a larger baking pan. Fill the second pan with the hottest tap water until half way up the side of your brownie dish. Bake for exactly one hour. The center will appear very under baked. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

This is what it comes out looking like:


But when you start to serve it the top cracks open almost like a creme brulee to reveal this warm soft brownie center:

So good. I hope you enjoy it, we sure did.

First photo from food network brownie pudding recipe.