This review is very close to my heart, but that in no way accounts for the rating. This woman knows her baked goods. For years, this woman has fed me, and she isn't even my mother! She's actually someone else's mother, Dillinger's mother, and surreptitiously runs a small baking business under her actual job.
When she contacted me about these magical brownies she baked for functions, I was immediately intrigued. I'd never heard of a red wine brownie, but with my knowledge of wine and its pairings, I'd imagine that the two would go together fabulously. So there she went, making me a batch. As it went, I showed up on the day I was to go back home, and she didn't have enough time to freeze them, so it's my fault entirely that the photos are ugly, but I think the brownies are gorgeous.
The brownies themselves were extremely rich, and I was content eating one or two. The glaze was beautiful and shiny, and for the record, both the glaze and brownies had Syrah in them that hadn't been completely cooked down so that you could taste it. And the flavor was really prominent. The particular Syrah had a nice flavor of blackberries, primarily. It had some chalkiness, but that wasn't prevalent in the brownies at all. It made the glaze amazingly moist, but not drippy at all, and it was very firm.
The brownies were a little chewy for my tastes. You all know that I like everything, desserts included, medium rare, but Lisa cut all the edges off and berated me for coming early. The wine soaked up into the brownies, which were very, very moist and had a deep, rich flavor. The wine brought out the dark chocolate, and it made the brownies pop. The brownies were very tiny, but once you eat them, you immediately understand why. It's extremely hard to eat more than one or two in one setting because of how rich and buttery they are.
Lisa sells these on her website and around the Shoreline and at various functions. You can special order them if you ask her nicely!
Brownies and Beyond
www.browniesandbeyond.comLabels: 9, brownie, chocolate, dessert