February 12, 2010

Decadent Brownies with Peter Riley

Peter Riley on a fly fishing adventure

An avid outdoorsman, Peter Riley can cook with the best of them. Peter’s an excellent griller with wild game as his specialty. You can easily find him plank cooking on his BIg Green Egg at his Atlanta home – rain or shine. But, little did I know, Peter can also bake.

Peter dropped by our house one evening holding a baking pan of homemade brownies, still warm from the oven. Peter and my husband dove in with their hands, ignoring the pre-cut brownie squares that Peter had made earlier. I thought my husband was going to make himself sick – eating right out of the pan. Peter rambled off the recipe from memory and Davis quickly jotted it down on a scratch piece of paper.

The recipe has sat in my spice drawer for months and every night when I cook, I glance down at the chicken scratch list of ingredients. Somehow, I have refrained from making this decadent dessert because I know that when those brownies come out of the oven, Davis and I will easily consume the entire pan in just a few of days. What makes it even harder to resist is that the ingredients for the brownies are so short and simple – I always have them on hand.

Well, it is Valentine’s Day and I am giving in to my craving.

Make these brownies your own and top them with butterscotch chips or white chocolate just before baking or serve them warm with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. Look for a good quality cocoa powder such as Droste Cocoa and my all-time favorite vanilla extract - Nielsen-Massy Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract (avoid imitation vanilla).

Recipe:

Peter’s Decadent Brownies