Meatless Monday: Brownies on the Lighter Side

I have often made the statement that "I don't bake" right? For years I have stood by my mantra of being a cook and not a baker....but after hearing Tom Colicchio chastise many a chef on Top Chef for a similar mantra, I decided I couldn't stand on that principle anymore. So I have started slowly, cheating with mixes and taking baby steps to doing some real baking. I have a huge chocolate fan on my hands, also known as my husband, and a step-daughter also with mad-love for the baked good, so I have been experimenting a little more each week.

Recently, when I saw the Cooking Light recipe for classic fudge brownies I had to give it a go! And having recently purchased my first digital kitchen scale, I was determined to follow the recipe to the letter. Actually one of the reasons I have shied away from baking has been the lack of creative freedom I always thought it had, Now I am learning there is still room for changes and creativity, once you get the basics down pact! Even with this recipe I made a few changes (like no nuts for my no nuts in brownies gang) and felt good about the results.

The recipe and Cooking Light as a rule always recommends that for the best light recipes, you have to have quality ingredients where it counts. In this case, I went high quality chocolate:

And because it was baking, I worked really hard to prepare a proper mise en place:

One big change I made was to substitute half of the sugar for Splenda. I wasn't brave enough to make a full substitution but thought the half and half would work out well. I also substituted dark chocolate chips for the chopped chocolate portion of the recipe. The batter seemed a good consistency and into the oven it went:

Now here was a case of me not reading the ENTIRE recipe before proceeding. I missed the pan size portion of the recipe. Their recipe calls for a 9x9 but at the bottom mentions you can use an 8x8 but need to cook them about 5 minutes longer. Missed that completely so it is entirely possible I pulled these out three times before they were done! But they did come out looking good. The real test was going to be my two chocolate treat experts. Husband demanded a second one after inhaling the first.

This is the picture of my step-daughter when I joked about taking the brownie from her:

So this recipe is a keeper...and I look forward to perfecting it a bit. Personally I thought they were a little too fudgy but the experts all chimed in that they were perfect as is...maybe I will just make a batch with nuts for me sometime!