Follow the River North

Today is B’s last day before going back to work full time, and he’s not exactly thrilled about it. He’s still suffering from jet lag, as am I, but the effects are different for each of us. Mine has me up at 6am, whether I want to be or not, and still wide awake come the hours just past midnight. His has him dragging through the afternoon, all the way into the evening. Given the extra time I have on my hands, I decided to bake him some 힘내 brownies.

Marshmallows are a funny thing. In their raw form, is there anything less appealing? But they’re filled with memories for most of people, I think, and definitely for me. Specifically, the bonfires we used to have on my grandparents’ farm at Thanksgiving. Even more specifically, the time my little brother caught one of his on fire while roasting it and, in an effort to extinguish it quickly, flung it about wildly until he managed to set his eyebrow on fire.

I always buy marshmallows when I come across them, thinking they’ll be useful to have on hand. They usually sit in my cabinet for about a year until I throw them out. In an effort to make good on that initial instinct, I decided to top today’s brownies with a few.

I don’t tend to like very sweet things, which is part of my aversion to the general idea of marshmallows, so to accommodate for the added sweetness, I revved up the salty/bitter factor in my usual recipe, adding more butter, more salt and more chocolate. I also added a little coffee extract for balance. I didn’t realize it until I was writing the recipe out, but the adjustments in the amount of butter and chocolate resulted in what you might call a half-cup brownie recipe. You’ll see why below. But, allegedly, that’s how pound cake got its name — you just threw in a pound of everything.

The marshmallows got a bit more toasty than I was aiming for, which is possibly just one of the pitfalls of having a tiny oven — everything cooks a little unevenly. Next time, I’ll try sticking them on just before the brownies begin to set and see how that goes.

They were still lovely and crisp on top and chewy underneath — I just wish they were a bit more melted (while my brother would panic when his marshmallows caught fire, I’d light them up intentionally).

It’s a simple recipe — not many bells or whistles, but they are nice. Maybe you’ve also got some marshmallows hiding away in a cupboard somewhere getting stale. If so, give these a shot.

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