A Family Recipe

 Many years ago my paternal grandmother's family (Fairchild) printed a family cookbook. Everybody was asked to submit recipes, it was printed up and made available for purchase at the next reunion. For the record, I did NOT submit the recipe for "Chicken Stew" that is under my name. My father submitted it under my name and to this day I perceive it as a way to criticize my chicken and noodles, in which he thought I used too much salt. In any case, I take my cooking and recipes much too seriously to start an ingredient list with "one dead chicken." He could be a real asshole sometimes. 

I've decide to occasionally  (oh, the discipline it takes to not type "weekly" or "monthly" and then perfectionize myself out of doing it the first time I fail to meet a deadline - so I am sticking to occasionally) occasionally try one of the recipes and post it here or on the family Facebook page or both. 

Yesterday we had a dressed down Christmas, with just the two of us, and I decided not to cook. We had frozen lasagna and salad from a bag (although I did jazz that up with some marinated onions). I didn't regret it, except later in the evening I said I wished I would have made a dessert. So today on day two of my self-imposed weekend of complete relaxation I decided to do a recipe from the Desserts section. I flipped past a lot of fruit desserts, though tempted by Crazy Cobbler, flipped past Sugar Cream pie, even though I am sure Craig has never had the Official State Pie of Indiana, and landed on Brownie Pudding, a recipe by Patsy Dillon, whose relationship to me I do not know. She must be back a generation or two. 

As I read through and assembled my ingredients (mise en place y'all) I thought "ooh, if this is good I will be able to recommend it for people who don't eat eggs!" BUT, the dough (not a batter, a DOUGH) was so stiff I could hardly stir it, let alone POUR it into a pan, so I added an egg. With the addition of the egg it was a normal, thick brownie batter. While this was in the oven I did some internet research. Recipes of this type are often called "Hot Fudge Cake" or something of that ilk. One that I found was very similar to this except the batter had two additional tablespoons of butter and 3/4 cup of milk. Those changes would probably correct the batter consistency without the addition of egg. 

This is what it looked like after I poured the boiling water on it. 

I think the photo even captured the steam. 

Just out of the oven, looks like a regular brownie -                    amazing aroma, very chocolatey!

Underneath the brownie is a warm hot fudge sauce!

I served it with ice cream

and whipped cream and a cherry. After all, it IS a holiday!

This recipe with some adaptations will probably be on repeat. I will make some changes to the fats and liquid to loosen up the batter and I will probably add some espresso powder because this would be a great mocha brownie and sauce.