infernal brownies

So, I've been wanting to make something from the Black Oven blog since it started -- because it's not just funny, the recipes all look really good! I'd been thinking of trying her brownie recipe first (because who doesn't like brownies?) but hadn't really thought about it too much. Until I was browsing the King Arthur catalog before placing an order, and spotted BLACK COCOA. Black Cocoa for my Black Oven brownies? Too good to be true! A week later, this arrived (along with assorted other yummy cooking things):



But was it really black? You be the judge:



Pretty close to black, I say. That's black cocoa on the left, natural process cocoa on the right. And on hands and counters, it looks even blacker. Seriously, I looked like I'd been shoveling coal! So, I got to work, making the recipe but replacing the baking chocolate with the equivalent in cocoa powder and oils (I used a little less than 1/2 black cocoa, natural process for the rest). It passed its first test with flying colors -- the batter was probably the tastiest brownie batter I've ever eaten, and everyone else in the house agreed. Then it was time to bake -- and the result was, well, pretty evil looking:



We couldn't wait for them to cool, so I cut few pieces as soon as possible and wow, these are some dark chocolate brownies!! So cool!! Ta-da!



We loved them. Unfortunately....the following day was when we all started getting sick. So I ended up eating, maybe one of them. Evan ate several though, and said they were great. Emily hated them though -- and she will eat ANY crappy brownie on the planet. She just didn't like the color, mainly. (Although there is a slightly odd taste from the black cocoa -- I saw it described somewhere as slightly chalky, like the taste of the chocolate cookies in oreos.) So I promised her that future batches of these brownies would actually be brown. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of this black cocoa!