This is one of the easiest, most indulgent desserts I can tell you how to make. It is easy to prepare, takes limited pantry staples as ingredients and the end result is delicious and satisfying. This dessert happens to be one of my brother in law’s favorites. I can tell you he never told me that it was his favorite but it is one of the few desserts he rolls straight from dinner into eating without a break. (That’s a big deal for this guy.) This dessert is a cross between a brownie and a pudding. It is baked in a small pan inside of a larger pan that is filled with water, creating a “bain-marie” AKA (if you aren’t Frenchie, oui oui!) a hot water bath. This type of baking creates a shell on top of the dessert that is delicate and crisp and when you scoop the first warm portion out it reveals the dense fudgy, pudding like layer underneath. I love this dessert with ice cream and mixed berry sauce drizzled on top. The tartness of the sauce plays well with the richness of the brownie and ice cream. Every step of this is easy, I promise! And you can certainly only make the brownie pudding and have a nice ultra rich dessert.
Easy Sunday Brownie Pudding (Ice cream and berry sauce recipe to follow)
*Adapted from Ina Garten
Ingredients
1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, cooled a bit
4 large eggs
2 C sugar
3/4 C cocoa powder
1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
Vanilla ice cream, for serving *Recipe follows.
Mixed Berry Sauce, for serving *Recipe follows.
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Lightly butter (using your butter wrappers) a 9×9 square baking dish (or 9×13 for a thinner dessert *reduce your baking time by 15 minutes if you use a bigger pan).
Melt the butter and set aside to cool.
Add 4 eggs to mixing bowl.
Add 2 cups of sugar along with it.
Get buddies to help you…
Beat eggs and sugar until very light yellow and ‘ribbon’ like. (5-8 minutes), looks like this:
Add cocoa, flour, salt and vanilla to the egg/sugar mixture. Here’s the cocoa:
The flour: (yes it is customary to get out a sifter and make this super-official but to me that is annoying and doesn’t give any different results. No thank you on dragging more things out of the cupboard!
Have your buddies help you with the salt, they like to help.
Add the vanilla you plan on using, I just used the vanilla bean paste I had out for making my ice cream.
Mix only until incorporated. (Start slowly so your dry ingredients don’t end up all over your kitchen!)
Add the melted butter, and mix again only until batter is incorporated.
Looks like this:
Would you like to try the batter?
How about you?
Go ahead…
I wish this one wasn’t blurry:
Now fight over the beater and who gets to lick more of the batter…
(Yes this batter has raw but trustworthy eggs in it… it won’t stop the kids from trying it. Sorry! They come by it honestly and are batter-fiends like their Dad.)
Pour the batter into your greased baking dish.
Smooth it out.
Of course I forgot the picture that goes here… Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared dish and place this pan inside a larger baking pan. Add hot tap water to the larger pan to come halfway up the side of the brownie batter prepared dish and bake for 55 minutes (9×9 pan) 40-45 minutes (9×13 pan) at 325 degrees. A toothpick inserted into the center of the dish should come out 3/4 clean.
Remove from oven, let cool for a few minutes. Scoop out into bowls, serve warm with ice cream and berry sauce! The center will appear very under-baked, as it should be. The dish is a combination of a brownie and a pudding. Scoop and serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
I completely forgot to photograph this dish at the proper time. This happens to be later, when all of the sauce was gone, there was one scoop of ice cream left, no whipped cream and the brownie was cooled (not looking as pudding-like but fudgy and delicious nonetheless). Ooops. Sorry! I promise one day I’ll get used to this blogging thing and have a beautiful photo of this.
Lonely cold brownie pudding with lone scoop of ice cream. (Still yummy.)
RECIPES for mixed berry sauce, vanilla bean ice cream and brownie pudding (without pictures):
Mixed Berry Sauce
1 bag frozen mixed berries
1/3 C sugar
1/4 C honey
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C juice (orange, pomegranate etc.)
Bring all ingredients to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve.
RECIPE:
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (I have a Cuisinart 2 QT ice cream maker, this is the easiest recipe I know)
3 C cream
1 1/2 C milk (whole or 2%)
1 C granulated sugar
1 T Vanilla Bean Paste (Or vanilla Extract)
Add ingredients to a medium sized bowl, whisk well. Pour into chilled ice cream maker bowl. Process 25 minutes. Serve immediately with warm brownies and top with berry sauce.
RECIPE:
Freshly Whipped Cream
1 C fresh whipping cream
2 T powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Beat all ingredients until stiff peaks form. Serve on top of brownie, ice cream and berry sauce.
Are you satisfied yet?
Here’s the brownie pudding recipe again, without photos.
RECIPE:
Easy Sunday Brownie Pudding
*Adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten
Ingredients
1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, cooled a bit
4 large eggs
2 C sugar
3/4 C cocoa powder
1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
Vanilla ice cream, for serving
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly butter a 9×9 square baking dish (or 9×13 for a thinner dessert). Melt the butter and set aside to cool.
Beat butter and sugar until very light yellow and ‘ribbon’ like. (5-8 minutes)
Add cocoa, flour, salt and vanilla bean paste/vanilla. Mix only until incorporated.
Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared dish and place it in a larger baking pan. Add hot tap water to the larger pan to come halfway up the side of the dish and bake for 55 minutes. The center will appear very under-baked, as it should be. The dish is a combination of a brownie and a pudding. Scoop and serve warm.
Now it is time for a nap.
2 Comments
I still love this dessert perfect anytime!