Triple Crown Brookies

So the other night I was listening to the last regular season baseball game and it was announced that Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers won the Triple Crown (leading the league in batting average, RBIs & home runs). This is the first time that's happened since 1967--before I was born! There's not that many things I can say that about any more! At the same time I was just finishing up these Caramel Apple Bars, and was quite fond of the oatmeal base that recipe uses. And earlier in the day I had seen a recipe for "Brooksters" on Serious Eats (a combination of brownie + cookie). I've previously seen this type of bar called Brookies, which I think--in the word-merging scheme of things--is a little more appropriate.

With this extraordinary concurrence of events, I was inspired to try a triple level bar cookie. Instead of following the rather laborious Brookster recipe, however, I just used my favorite brownie recipe and a variation of the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with this combination, but I may be the only one to publish it at the same time as the Triple Crown!

Oatmeal layer (adapted from the Caramel Apple Bar recipe from Bake or Break linked to above)
1 + 1/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To make bar removal really easy you can prepare a sling with parchment paper and grease an 8" x 8" pan. I didn't make a sling or even grease my pan, however, and I didn't find it too difficult to get the bars out.  Combine dry ingredients and then pour in melted butter. Mix until crumbly. Pack into pan and bake for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Brownie layer (my original post is here, but I'll include again since it's such a quick recipe)
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I usually use walnuts)

Melt chocolate and butter over medium heat. Take off heat and stir in sugar, then egg and vanilla (mixture should turn a little glossy). Stir in remaining ingredients and spread over the oatmeal layer. Bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on how fudgy you want the brownie level.

Chocolate Chip Cookie layer (adapted from the Toll House recipe)
6 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons brown sugar (instead of measuring each sugar out exactly, I just eye it until the total amount comes to 3/4 cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 egg

1 + 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Combine sugars, salt and vanilla. Pour in melted butter and egg and mix well. Stir in flour and baking soda--dough will be very soft. (If you make regular cookies with the leftover dough, let it firm up for a few hours in the fridge before cooking.) Spoon over brownie level. I did not cover the whole surface, just plopped several spoonfuls over the brownies and spread them a bit. Cook for another 20 minutes, or until cookie layer just starts to brown.

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This recipe is for my dad, who is a big Tigers fan. Also, he's the only person allowed to call me Brookie (or sometimes Rookie). Here's a silly picture of us at a Yankees game a few years ago...

Seven Layer Bars

This recipe has been around forever. I have also seen these called Magic Cookie Bars and Hello Dollies. I loved the recipe as a kid: both the fact that you could make it all in the pan, and then of course how good it was, especially if you like super sweet things!

You can see from the recipe card (why oh why, was margarine--or in this case "olio"--in all my recipes from the '70s??) how we used to make it. Today I'd use peanut butter chips instead of butterscotch...though the recipe is obviously open to a myriad of variations!

1. 1/2 cup (one stick) butter - can be melted right in a 9" x 13" pan!
2. 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3. 1 cup coconut
4. 12 oz. (one package) chocolate chips
5. 12 oz. (one package) peanut butter chips
6. 1 can sweetened condensed milk
7. 1+1/2 cup chopped (not "shopped") nuts

Bake in a 350° oven for 30 minutes.

A corridor of chips (I made this in my zig-zag pan) before adding the sweetened condensed milk.

Zig Zag Brownies

Do I make too many brownies? Perhaps...especially considering I live by myself. But I just got this silly "edge brownie" pan as a Christmas present from my brother, so I was kind of obligated to try it out, right?! (That's a special spatula that came with it in the lower right corner.) Now every piece has at least two edges, some have three. I used my standard brownie recipe, using 1 & 1/2 the ingredients, then topped it with a peppermint frosting and drizzled over (rather sloppily) melted chocolate chips.

Verdict? Chewier, but not necessarily better (or worse). Now what do I do with all these brownies?!

My Favorite Brownies

These are Marion Cunningham's "Parker Brownies." I wrote the recipe down years ago (see below) and had no idea where it came from, but a little web search has settled the mystery. I don't have any of her cookbooks, so it must have been reprinted in another source. Anyway... I have tried many brownie recipes over the years, but always come running back to this one! Chewy, but not quite fudgy, these come out on the thin side--so you just have to eat a larger piece!

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup (or more) chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and grease an 8" x 8" pan. Melt the chocolate and butter over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla, then the egg. (It should become kind of glossy.) Finally add the dry ingredients and nuts. Spread in pan and bake for 30 minutes. Isn't that easy?!

Brown-Butter Toffee Blondies

OK, this photo is actually from last fall when I made these bars, but I'm out of sweets and making these tomorrow! I cut this recipe out of my local newspaper, but not sure where it originally came from...

10 tablespoons butter

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1+1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup (or more) chopped walnuts

1/2 cup toffee bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9" x 9" pan, then put down a 9" strip of parchment with overhang on either side (so you can lift the bars out later) and grease that as well. Melt butter over medium heat until it turns golden brown; let cool. Combine butter, sugars, egg & vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. Stir in dry ingredients, then nuts and toffee bits. Pile into pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. Cool completely in the pan, then lift parchment out. Cut into 16 squares (or 9, or 4, or not at all). Store in an airtight container.