Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Hello! It's December 30th here right now. Only 1 hour away from the last day in 2011. I'm not saying that is has been a tough year (even though it kinda is) but I'm just hoping 2012 is going to be better. Waaay better.

Anyway, last sunday, when some of you were celebrating christmas, me and my family celebrated my nephew's fifth birthday. It wasn't a big celebration, just a simple dinner with our close family at one of our favorite middle east cuisine restaurants. And since it was a birthday, it wouldn't be complete without any cakes. So my sister asked me to make a chocolate fudge brownies I've made a couple of times before. I found the recipe a couple months ago and since the first time I made it, many people had come to me and say 'please make that cake again!'. So then i made it.

It might not look pretty. After all I'm no pâtissier so pardon me if my food presentation is not good. But hey, at least it tastes super delicious. I just can't stop eating it. Here I'm gonna give you a warning. Don't you ever make it when you're on a diet. It would just ruin everything because a small slice of this brownies wouldn't be enough.

Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownies
(Adapted from The Flourishing Foodie)

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, unsalted
2 1/4 cups white granulated sugar*
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups Dutch cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white unbleached flour
2 cups 60% bittersweet chocolate chips**


* You can just make it on your own with caster sugar and a high speed blender, and maybe the other blenders would work just fine too.


** One for the dough and one for the topping. I used 100 grams of sweet choco chips for the dough (1 cup is about 175 grams) since I couldn't fine the 60% bittersweet one here anywhere, and it worked just fine.

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Line a 9x13" baking pan with tin foil. Fold the tin foil over the edges of the pan, so it will be easier to remove the brownies. *

3. In a saucepan on low-medium heat, melt the butter and sugar until the sugar has melted and the mixture has become translucent. Continue to stir ensuring the sugar does not burn to the bottom of the pan.

4. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and vanilla with a hand mixer. Don't worry if the mixture becomes hard and pasty, this is normal. Add in the butter/sugar mixture and continue to beat for 2 -3 minutes until there are no lumps of cocoa powder and the mixture resembles a soupy liquid.

5. Add the flour and stir the mixture with a spatula until the flour has combined and there are no more white lumps. Add 1 cup of chocolate chips and stir.

6. Pour the batter into the baking pan and place in the oven on the middle rack. Bake for 30 minutes. If you prefer your brownies more dense and less gooey, bake for 35 - 40 minutes.

7. Remove the brownies from the oven and pour the remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips on top of the brownies. Let the chips melt and then spread them around with a knife. Let the brownies cool for 30 minutes and then serve warm with a glass of soy or regular milk.

Hound Fall Winter 2011

I just found out about this indie fashion label from Chicago called Hound. Call me late but now I'm totally in love with its Fall Winter 2011 collection. Here are some of the collection.

They look so simple yet magical and dreamy. Not to mention that I have a huge girl crush on that model. Too bad I can't find out who she is. I have to say that I adore the colors so much, especially the coral color of that stella dress (second picture). I just want it so bad that since I saw it earlier I've been daydreaming about wearing it to a few events. I might as well dream about it later tonight in my sleep. But why does it have to be so far away? And honestly even though it's here, I still don't have that much money to spend on a dress.

Anyway, this collection is lovely right? Are there any collection that you really like lately? Feel free to share!

Sleepless Nights

It's kinda hard to believe. Finally, after struggling for a couple weeks in this mean place people usually call school, here I am. You might think after being away so long now I'm gonna have a lot of stories to share with you. And yeah I do have a looot of stories and thoughts, but if pointless things about how tired I am of school things don't count, then I have nothing. Well almost nothing (since it's pretty obvious I'm gonna share something with you guys right now).

I just had my two-weeks-final-exams. I don't know how long it usually takes in your place, but in my hometown, two weeks is quite a long time. It has some benefits actually. While some other students in other schools take two until three tests per day, we only take two maximum so it basically gives us more time to study and focus. But still, some of us had sleepless nights. Or at least not sleeping until 2 in the morning and already has to get up at 4.30. This kind of days are the ones that make me feel thankful of all the songs in one of my playlists. And yep, that's the thing that I wanna talk about here. I'm calling it 'Sleepless Nights' playlist.

The songs in this playlist are the ones who've been my best friends during my crazy nights. They're slow enough to keep you relax and focus yet upbeat enough to keep you up at night. There are a lot of them. But here, I'm just gonna write 15 favorites of mine.

1. Bombay Bicycle Club - Always Like This

2. Blueboy - Always There

3. Remy Zero - Fair

4. Band of Horses - The Funeral

5. Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better

6. The Weakerthans - Left and Leaving

7. Frou Frou - Let Go

8. The Summer Set - Old Mexico

9. Arctic Monkeys - Reckless Serenade

10. Andrew Bird - Sovay

11. Belle & Sebastian - Step Into My Office, Baby

12. Iron & Wine - Such Great Heights

13. The Summer Set - Where Are You Now

14. Tegan and Sara - Where Does The Good Go

15. Bonnie Somerville - Winding Road

Whether you're facing your final exams, finishing your projects, or just anything that makes you have to be awake until late night, listen to these songs. If you don't have this kind of playlist, then these 15 songs can be a good start. If you already have one, then they will be a great addition. It would be great too if you can share with me your favorite songs that's best listened at night or just simply anything - don't even have to be songs- that usually can keep you up at night.

I hope you enjoy this playlist.

Just A Little Something

Have you ever pushed yourself too hard to get something or to somewhere, that you ended up not caring about anything else? You forgot to have fun, did the things that you actually love, just because you thought you have to get to that somewhere. And by the time you got there, you realized it's not somewhere you need to be at nor want to. It was just somewhere you thought you should be at, because everyone else was telling you that. Have you ever gone through that? No? Well then, lucky you!