Ingredients
- From Food 52
Preparation
Step 1
Tahini swirl: Make sure your tahini (use white and/or black) is well-blended. I'm a fan of turning on the blender or food processor to re-emulsify the tahini when it's got that clear, oily layer floating on a hard, chalky bottom. Then, blob it over the raw brownie batter in the pan and use a knife or a skewer to create a marble pattern. Finish with a sprinkle of black and white sesame seeds, then bake.
Condensed milk: We nabbed this tip from Stella Parks' forthcoming book (just you wait—it's going to be wild), BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts. Sweetened condensed milk, eased into the sea of dark chocolate with a skewer, caramelizes into golden stickiness in the oven (because you're essentially making pockets of dulce de leche!). And imagine if you mixed that condensed milk with some coffee before you swirled it in...
Jam: We used raspberry, but blueberry, strawberry, or cherry would be good, too. And don't forget lemon curd. If your jam is too stiff to swirl, mix in a teaspoon of water until it has a thinner consistency.
As dreamt up:
Peanut/almond/sunflower butter
Softened, honey-sweetened goat cheese
Pumpkin butter
Skip the condensed milk and hightail it straight to the dulce de leche
Peppermint patties: Chop them into 1/4-inch pieces and evenly distribute them over the brownie batter. They'll melt and spread into fun shapes under the heat of the oven.
Ritz crackers: Crush up buttery Ritz crackers (saltines would work, too!) and sprinkle them over the top of the brownie batter. And here's a fun secret: We actually used the crushed Ritz in place of the flour in Alice Medrich's cocoa brownies, by simply substituting an equal amount of Ritz crackers by weight (65 grams) and plowing forth.
Oreos: Self-explanatory. You can crush them to bits or, do as we did and smash each one gently to maintain the shape of the cookie.
As dreamt up:
Animal crackers, Nilla Wafers, or graham crackers
Pretzels
Candied nuts
Soft-baked granola
Dried tart cherries, plumped up in water and drained
Amaretti cookies, à la Dorie Greenspan
Roughly chopped chocolate-covered espresso beans
Chocolate streusel: We used the topping of Melissa Clark's Chocolate Streusel Pound Cake. Mix 1/2 cup flour with 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 1/2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Then rub in 4 1/2 tablespoons of cubed, cold unsalted butter so that you have large crumbs. Stir in 1/3 cup of chocolate chips, chunks, or shavings, then spoon over your brownie batter. This would also be good with a hefty dose of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Peanut butter cookie dough: We stirred together a simple flourless cookie dough (1 cup peanut butter + 1 egg + 1 cup sugar + 1 teaspoon vanilla), added a handful of chocolate chips, and then rolled it into teeny balls that we nestled on top of the brownie batter. They held their shape as the brownies below solidified, which made for delightfully doughy, crumbly mounds perched atop the dense, chocolatey base.
Black bottom: Mix together 8 ounces of softened cream cheese (or goat cheese!), 1/3 cup granulated sugar, and 1 large egg until smooth-ish (petite lumps are okay). Mix in a handful of chocolate chips and spoon all over your pan of raw brownie batter. The cream cheese mixture will relax to cover more of the pan as the brownies bake.
As dreamt up:
Your favorite cookie dough (like World Peace or oatmeal-chocolate chip)
The chunky topping of a fruit crumble
Sesame crumble (no need to bake it ahead of time)