Brownies in Brazil

Oh, dear cooking blog! How I´ve abandoned you! You´re practically Jim´s cooking blog now. That´s OK. You´re in good hands.

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Are you living in Brazil? Are you tired of paying too much for defrosted brownies that just aren´t the same as Grandma´s, or even TGI Fridays´s?

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Well I have the solution for you! This easy brownie recipe can be made right in the comfort of your Brazilian kitchen! No ingredients have to be imported! No boxed brownie mix required!

I followed the recipe from this website exactly. Then I copied an idea from this website and put doce de leite on top of the brownies before I put them in the oven.

Some tips to help you ´´translate´´ this recipe in your Brazilian kitchen:

*The recipe calls for an American stick of butter. This is approximately 115 grams. Brazilian sticks of butter are typically 200 grams. I bought manteiga com sal and used a little more than half of it.

*The word for powdered cocoa in Portuguese is cacau em pó. We went to a huge supermarket to buy it. In the aisle with chocolate for baking and other types of chocolate (like ice cream topping), we found exactly one brand of cacau em pó. It was Garoto. It came in a box. It looks like this. It was 10 reais! I thought it ironic that, in a country where cacau grows in abundance, I could only find one brand, and it was expensive. But you´ll only use about half of the box, and maybe your supermarket will have other (cheaper) brands. (But if not, IT´S WORTH IT! Remember, you´ll pay like R$15 for a crappy brownie in a restaurant.)

*the recipe calls for parchment (wax paper) to line the pan. I just slathered the glass baking pan in margarine and it worked fine.

*the doce de leite recipe says to use an entire can of doce de leite. I thought that was too much. I bought one of those little buckets (400g) and used about 1/3 of it, and it was plenty.

*To make your brownie experience extra special, buy some American-style milk to drink with it! Brazilian milk is great, with its practicality and long shelf life and all, but the flavor just isn´t the same. When you´re in the cold section of the supermarket buying your butter, pick up some Batavo pasteurized milk. It looks like this. It´s only like, 1 real more than the Brazilian-style milk. I love how the translation of ´´skim milk´´ is leite magro.

Thank you so much to my great friend Crystal for the recipe and tips!!

Enjoy! Try not to eat too many at once, or you´ll end up with a stomach ache, like I did.

Here´s the recipe, copied from Inside a Black Apple:

You need: 1 medium sized pot, parchment, and an 8" sq. baking dish

Ingredients: 1 stick butter (8 tbsp)
1/2 c Brown Sugar
1 c White Sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 c flour
1/2 c cocoa
Pinch salt
Tbsp Vanilla
1. Preheat Oven to 390F (200C) 
2. Melt butter in pot over stove
3. Remove butter from heat, let cool about a minute, then add sugars (just use the pot as your bowl...it saves you more dishes). Mix well.
4. Add eggs, flour, cocoa, salt, and generous tablespoon-splash of vanilla, and mix well.
5. Line baking dish (I use a glass one) with parchment, pour in batter, and pop in oven.
6. Bake 20-25 minutes, I test with a knife in the center and remove when only a few little crumbs cling to the knife.
7. Cool one hour or overnight.