Brownie Goo Turned Gold

You know you've baked something good when, after taking one bite, your husband starts to giggle. It's a good feeling, knowing how to make people smile. Honestly, I think it's a big part of why I love baking so much. Yes, the act of baking is fun. And yes, the act of eating said baking is really fun. But I also love the feedback. I guess a bit like a comic needs his audience, as a baker, I need the oohs and ahhhs that come (hopefully) after someone takes a bite of something I've made.

Friday night my husband, a puppeteer, had a couple of his fellow puppeteer friends over. Usually they meet elsewhere to film and practice puppeteering until the wee hours, leaving me all by my lonesome every Friday night, so it was a real treat to have some company this time around (saving me from my typical Friday night -- bowl of cereal, What Not to Wear marathon, early bedtime). Having guests also allowed me to bake (rule #1 in our house: no baking unless there are more than two of us to eat it). Having bought several boxes of brownie mix on sale a few weeks back, I decided I should keep it simple and use one of them. But as I reached down to retrieve the box from the pantry shelf, my eyes fell upon two bags of leftover white chocolate chips and semi-sweet chips and a bag of leftover mini marshmallows. Well, might as well throw those bad boys in too right? Neither bag had more than a half cup left, so they were of no use anywhere else.

So, I made my brownie mix and threw in half of each addition, sprinkling the other half on top, like this:

I baked these for thirty minutes, but they still weren't done. After I baked them for another ten they were still gooey as all get out. Argh. Unfortunately, my husband's friends were going to be leaving soon and in order to abide by rule #1, they needed to eat these brownies, gooey or not. So, though embarrassed, I served them the terribly undercooked, quasi-pudding brownies.

Thankfully, no complaints were filed, and they graciously ate every last crumb. My husband has such nice friends. Later that night, before I went to bed, I eyed the brownies again. They had had time to cool, so I thought I'd see if the consistency was any better. Oh baby. The pudding had solidified into a fantastic fudge. The marshmallows both inside and out were still gooey, and the chips held their shape just long enough before yielding to add a bit of crunch. Turns out, severely undercooking brownies only means one thing: if you have the patience to wait it out, you're going to get one hell of a good brownie. And all the oohs and ahhs your ego desires.

This brownie is definitely more than the sum of its little leftover parts. But that's often the case in baking right? Yummy + yummy doesn't just equal double yummy. It's more of an exponential yummy. Consider peanut butter and chocolate. Am I right?