Obama Bars

Isn’t it breathtaking how with the stroke of a pen, but more importantly, a commitment to high ideals and the rule of law a new president can, overnight, change the way a government behaves?

In one bold stroke after another President Obama (oh how wonderful that sounds!)  put a deadline on closing Guantanamo, ended rendition,  forbade the CIA from torturing, put new restrictions on government employees with regards to future lobbying positions, restored funding to international organizations distributing contraception, and committed himself to giving the press forthright answers on a regular basis. And all this happened on his first three days in office, without any reference (although the inferential silence was deafening) to George Bush and his cronies. It was astonishing only in that prior presidents (including Democrats) of recent memory never thought to do it or had the courage to do it.

Would that you could change people’s tastes as quickly. No matter how many desserts a bakery may offer, the top sellers are always brownies, chocolate chip cookies, apple pie, lemon bars, pecan pies, date/apricot bars, gingersnaps, sour cream coffee cakes, and chocolate fudge cake. All of them about as American as, well, apple pie.

Why? Because they are easy to make at home, easy to store, inexpensive for the most part, don’t require a lot of ingredients or experience, and are, in a word democratic in their appeal. And when they’re not homemade, they offer the comfort of Mom, even if, like Hilary, she didn’t stay home and bake cookies.

So when President Obama, the first president to use a Blackberry, restores so-called, old fashioned values, it’s time to celebrate with a recipe that does the same.

Nothing satisfies me more than a warm brownie or chocolate chip cookie, but why do I always have to choose one or the other? With this recipe, I don’t: a chocolate chip cookie dough is dropped amidst a sea of brownie and baked to fudgy, chewy goodness. It reminds me that life isn’t about black and white, be it skin colour or political opinion, but about creating something much better together.

Obama Brownies

The recipe for brownies comes from my book The Brownie Lover’s Bible. The recipe for the chocolate chip portion, is adapted from Flo Braker’s new book Baking for All Occasions. Both of us use unorthodox methods to create our recipes:  she uses an old baker’s method for mixing ingredients, while I melt the butter with the sugar, not the chocolate. Both small changes create big differences in texture and flavour.

You can, of course, divide the batters in half, and you will have three distinct baking possibilities: brownies, chocolate chip bars, and Obama Bars. All three store in the fridge or freezer for a long time, so if you only feel like making one today and another next week, don’t worry; wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and foil, refrigerated or frozen, you can pick up where you left off a week or a month later.

Lisa Slater’s Classic Brownies

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2  cups granulated

12 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped

6 eggs, whisked lightly

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 tsp kosher salt

1 Tbsp espresso powder dissolved in hot water

1 cup instant flour

1 cup chocolate chunks

1. Preheat the oven to 350F if baking Obama Bars. 300F if baking only the brownies.
2. Line a 9″x 9″ x 13″ x 2 1/2″ pan with overhanging parchment paper, if making the Obama Bars. The height of the pan is important: there’s a lot of batter, these are thick bars and otherwise it won’t all fit.
3. If making only the brownies, line a 9″x9″ pan with overhanging parchment paper.
4. Place the butter and sugar in a large saucepan over low heat.
5. Stir from time to time to incorporate the two. You don’t want the butter so hot that it gets oily.
6. When the butter is fully melted and the sugar well integrated into the butter, you will have a thick mass. Remove from the heat.
7. Add the chopped chocolate and stir gently with a rubber spatula until the chocolate is melted. If there are still bits and pieces of chocolate, set the pan over low heat and warm for a few seconds.
8. Use a metal whisk to stir the eggs, vanilla, coffee and salt into the chocolate mixture. At first the batter will feel flabby but with constant stirring it will come together into a thick, shiny mass.
9. Add the instant flour and whisk only until blended.
10. Add the chocolate chips and mix to incorporate.
11. If you want to bake some brownies, pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake no longer than 30 minutes until the center is slightly puffed.
12. Remove from the oven and cool, then chill before slicing.
13. Or, if you’d like to store the batter, put it into a sealed container in the fridge or freezer until ready to use. Let it come to room temperature before using since it’s hard to work with chilled.
14. If you are making Obama Bars,  take large scoops of chocolate chip dough and place them randomly in the bottom of the pan. Fill the open spaces with equal amounts of brownie batter.
15. Top the chocolate spread with a small spatula to make a more or less even layer.
16. Scoop the remaining chocolate chip dough over the brownie patches, and the remaining brownie batter over the chocolate chip dough. Spread as evenly as possible without mixing the two batters.
17. Bake for about 45-55 minutes. Because the bars are so thick, there is a risk of over baking. Shake the pan from time to time to see if it is liquid underneath; if it is, it’s not ready. As soon as it stops jiggling, remove the pan from the oven. The bars will continue to bake as they cool and will firm up in the fridge.
18. Refrigerate until completely chilled and slice into 24 big, tall, bars.

Flo Braker’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 Tbsp finely ground espresso coffee

1/2 tsp baking soda

8 oz butter, room temperature, cut into 1″ cubes

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups chocolate chunks

1 cup total toasted pecans and walnuts, coarsely chopped

1. If making a chocolate chip cake, line a 9″x13″x2 1/1″ pan with parchment paper.
2. Preheat the oven to 350F.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle, mix on low speed the flour, sugars, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and coffee.
4. Drop the butter into the dry ingredients, a cube at a time, mixing only until the dough looks crumbly, about a minute or two.
5. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix for about 1 minute. The dough will be thick.
6. Add the chocolate chips and nuts and mix for about 1 additional minute.
7. If making Obama Bars follow from step #14 above in the brownie recipe.
8. If making the chocolate chip cake, drop blobs of dough into the prepared pan and spread to an even layer with an offset spatula.
9. Bake for about 35-40 minutes: the centre will puff slightly. Do not overbake!
10. Remove from the oven and cool. Chill. Remove from the pan by running a knife around the edges and lifting the ends of the parchment paper. Remove the parchment paper and slice into 32 pieces.