Brownie Pudding

I have been absent. This weekend I went away for my friend Haley's bachelorette party. Sun, friends, food and Pin the Macho on the Man (yes, like the donkey game, only x-rated). I'll talk more about the food later. But for now, let's talk about the dessert I topped off my disastrous meal with the other day.

Brownie Pudding. Tastes exactly as it sounds. Do you like the fudgy, half-baked center of a Brownie? Do you like Chocolate Pudding? Then you will thoroughly enjoy this dessert. (Why do I always sound like a damn infomercial??) This was intensely rich and very enjoyable with vanilla ice cream. I cut Ina's recipe in half because I was only serving 2 and let's face it, we would have consumed the entire thing if it was there.


Brownie Pudding
Recipe adapted from Ina Garten
(Serves 4)

1 stick unsalted butter, plus extra for buttering the dish
2 large eggs, at room temp
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup flour
1 vanilla bean, seeded
Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 325. Cream butter and sugar for 5-10 minutes until pale yellow and slightly thick.


Add the seeds from one vanilla bean. See the lovely specks of vanilla? Do you see?


In a separate bowl, sift together flour and cocoa powder. Slowly add to wet ingredients.


Place in buttered baking dish. Then place that baking dish in a larger baking dish and fill with hot tap water, so that pudding baking dish is submerged in one-inch of water. Bake for an hour.


Serve with vanilla ice cream and eat slowly, like they do in the single-lady-at-home-eating-chocolate commercials. Just because.