Saturday: Brownies In Your Rice Cooker
I have tried this recipe twice so far. It failed both times. I had to finish the thing by putting my rice cooker's pot in my toaster oven. But I think the real problem was not the recipe, but the fact that my rice cooker's pot fits in my toaster oven.You see, my rice cooker is a pint-sized Winnie the Pooh number that looks like something straight out of a Playskool catalog. Predictably, my branch supervisor (who is a middle aged man) found it adorable. He thought it was the cat's meow--especially when he discovered that it plays the Winnie the Pooh theme song when you turn it on. I think it was Nick D. who agreed with me that men here can demonstrate the aesthetic sensibilities of a 13 year old American girl...
Anyway, give it a try in your rice cooker. If it doesn't work, just scoop it into your oven-micro thing and finish it off. It's tasty, even if the brownies aren't brownie-shaped.
The Recipe
INGREDIENTS
250 ml (1 cup) white sugar
125 ml (1/2 cup) butter
2 eggs
30 ml (1 tbsp) cocoa
2 ml (1/2 tsp) baking powder
2 ml (1/2 tsp) salt
150 ml (2/3 cup) flour
5 ml (1 tsp)
175 ml (3/4 cup) chopped nuts (optional. My filthy-minded-yet-piously-Catholic-grandmother used to say that this is what made your brownies "male." Insert eye-roll here.)
1 chocolate bar of your choice, crumbled (optional)
1 more chocolate bar "spare" --in case you eat the first one.
DIRECTIONS
Mix sugar, butter, and eggs.
In a separate bowl, mix cocoa powder, baking power, flour, salt.
Add this to the liquid mixture and mix well.
Stir in your vanilla, chocolate bar pieces, and nuts, if any. Hey, stop snickering! You know what I meant. Honestly, you're just as bad as Granny.
Place in a greased rice cooker and bake for 60 minutes.
If the rice cooker thing isn't for you, scrape the mixture into a 20 cm (8") square pan and bake 1 hour at 190° C (375° F) for about 20 minutes.
The Notes
Take your butter out of the fridge ahead of time to soften it. This makes it loads easier to work with.
You can tell it's done by inserting a toothpick or clean knife in the middle and pulling it back out. If it comes out clean, it's ready to eat.
If you can get your hands on mint candies, you could add them to Christma-fy your brownies. But I haven't tried this yet.
The Resource
Hokkaido AJET & their Publications
I have absolutely no financial or personal interest in this, but just like the nation-wide AJET, HAJET (as it's called) puts out some nice publications. The reason I'm plugging them is because I found Japan on a Full Stomach in my apartment's library and it makes a good all-purpose cookbook. Also, the recipe I just gave you is from this book, so I figured it would only be right to publicize them when I cited the book.
All of the recipes are provided in US/metric. They have handy conversion guides and a bilingual food glossary in the back, as well as articles on stain removal, how to cook _____, and finding foreign food.
Along with your typical cookbook sections: (breads, breakfast, salads, etc.) there are special sections for Japanese food, oven-less dessert recipes, and holiday treats.
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HAJET also publishes two vegetarian guides, so if you don't eat meat or are looking to cut down, those might be helpful.
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