Brownies

Grand Marnier Brownies with Hard Ganache
(based on another of my mother's recipes)

ingredients
brownies

3/4 c. cocoa powder
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
1 1/4 c. cake flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 c. water
2/3 c. mayonnaise
1/3 c. + 2 T Grand Marnier
1/2 T vanilla
1/2 c. chocolate chips
a pinch of cinnamon

ganache

chocolate chips
cream
Grand Marnier and/or rum

methodology
1. Preheat oven to 350*. Sift dry ingredients (cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, salt) together. Putting the brown sugar through a seive may take a while, but try to get the lumps out.

2. Mix in water and mayonnaise.

3. Mix in Grand Marnier, vanilla, and chips. Add a pinch of cinnamon if you want.

4. Bake in a 9" x 13" pan for 30 minutes. Or in a round 9" cake pan if you're me and that's all you have.

5. Melt the chocolate chips with the cream as in a standard chocolate ganache (most use about 1/2 c. cream and 8 oz chips, but that will be probably more than you want. Remember not to heat it too hot or the chocolate will burn and it will all go to hell). Add some Grand Marnier. Drizzle over cooled brownies. Yay.

Notes

These were fairly successful, both on the giving-baked-goods-to-guys-I-like front and the taking-to-a-karate-party front. They would have been better if I'd used the zest of an orange to emphasize the Grand Marnier.

I've somehow gotten a reputation amongst the karate people as a bit of a baker. Next semester I'll have to come up with something else, lest they think I'm falling down on the job.