About a month ago an advertisement postcard from Blue Apron appeared in my mailbox. This visionary company strives to increase home cooking by making it easier to fit making dinner into our busy lives. Each week a box of ingredients for three dinners that serve either two or four is delivered to your doorstep. Hello Fresh and Plated also offer this service. I make dinner almost every night for my family. I know from experience it gets tough sometimes. I was intrigued and wanted to learn more about Blue Apron’s service. Besides, I have been conceptualizing the possibility of sending ingredient boxes for the herbal bake shoppe recipes. I could not resist seeing first hand how Blue Apron operates.
My reaction: totally impressed. The box came beautifully packed; everything was there for three entire dinners all with clear recipe instruction cards and bright attractive photos. Individually packaged ingredients were clearly marked. The food was fresh and in pristine condition. Most importantly perhaps, the recipes tasted good, delicious. I skipped the next week because the meal selections seemed those my kids would not like. This past week I received my second box. Same reaction: totally impressed, but also surprised and excited because included as an ingredient for one of the side dishes was a package of dried hops flowers! Blue Apron is after my heart using not just regular herbs like parsley, cilantro, garlic, pepper flakes, but also one that people may not think to use in cooking. My goals for the herbal bake shoppe are right up this alley.
Last spring I was experimenting with hops myself and made these brownies because hops seemed a perfect herb addition to a day end dessert. Hops, best known for its use in beer, has traditional use as a relaxing, sleep aid. I chose brownies as a medium because they are my son’s favorite. I think he fell asleep a bit earlier after trying them. I was not trying to do that, just hoping he would offer me an opinion. The fact that he ate them was a good sign.
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| Servings | Prep Time |
| 12brownies | 20minutes |
| Cook Time | Passive Time |
| 35-40minutes | 25minutes for making hops tea |
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- For hops tea
- 1 tbsp dried hops flowers
- 12 ounces water
- For brownies
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder (Dagoba)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2/3 cup organic unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup hot hops tea
- 2 cups organic granulated sugar
- 3 organic eggs
- 1 1/3 cup organic all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup organic coconut flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 5-6 Hershey's chocolate bars 4-6 ounce bars
- Combine dried hops flowers and water in a small saucepan and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. Reduce to lowest heat setting, cover with lid slightly ajar and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover tightly with lid. Steep for 15 minutes.
- Strain hops tea through a fine sieve, pressing on hops flowers to extract as much liquid as possible. Rinse saucepan. Measure ½ cup of hops tea and return to saucepan. When ready to use in brownie batter, heat tea until comes to boil.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a 9 inch square pan by measuring a 12 inch piece of aluminum foil, turn pan upside down and place foil shiny side down over pan and shape by turning down sides and corners. Remove foil, turn pan right side up and place shaped foil into pan, pressing gently into place. Coat foil with butter either very soft or melted and spread all around with pastry brush or crumpled wax paper.
- Combine butter and chocolates into top of double boiler and place over hot water in bottom on moderate heat. Cover and heat until almost completely melted. Remove from heat, stir, and allow to sit covered until completely melted. Stir in hops tea and allow to cool slightly.
- In electric mixer, beat eggs for on high speed 30 seconds, no more, just until frothy and a bit increased in volume. Decrease to low speed, gradually add sugar, beating only 2-3 seconds after each addition. Add vanilla extract, salt, and chocolate mixture, scraping sides with rubber spatula and beating just until barely mixed.
- Add flour, continue to scrape bowl with spatula and beat until mixed. Stir in chocolate chips. It is important not to over mix batter to assure moist and fudgy consistency of brownies.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake for 35 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out barely clean. Do not over bake.
- As soon as brownies are removed from oven, place Hershey bars in a single layer onto warm brownies and as they melt, spread with an offset spatula to smooth and coat for a thick chocolate icing.
- Cool on wire rack for 45 minutes then refrigerate until completely cool before cutting. Slice with a sharp knife into 16 2inch squares and dust with powdered sugar. These can be wrapped individually and freeze nicely.
*Using organic ingredients whenever possible will make your baked goods all the more nourishing. For these brownies, use organic butter, sugar, eggs, and flour if available.
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**I am not advertising for the companies I mention, just describing my personal experience with them.
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