Beef Moussaka and Chocolate Brownies, pt. 1

So, I've decided to start writing a cooking blog. Apparently, according to my friends, I have an uncanny ability to describe food and instantly make the listener wish to eat whatever it is I am describing. I love to cook, I love to bake. This blog will monitor my adventures in the kitchen as I cook for my friends and try out new recipes!

Let me just note here something about my recipes... I study in the UK, so my recipes are from both the US and the UK, which makes measuring a bit of an adventure most of the time. 

What's on the menu today: Beef Moussaka and Chocolate Brownies 

Chocolate Brownies
Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, about 225g
6-8 oz. unsweetened chocolate 
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour

To start off, let me just point out the temperature conversion. The recipe calls for 325 F, but I will be using 160 C/140 C fan. As I am a student, the variety of my cooking gear is slim, so for baking these brownies, I used a circular glass dish. 

First, I melted the butter and chocolate in a heavy medium saucepan over low heat, stirred until the mixture was smooth, and placed it to the side to cool while I moved on to the main bulk of the brownie ingredients. 

In the largest mixing bowl we have, I hand-beated with a giant whisk the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy by cracking the eggs in the bowl first then slowly streaming the sugar in as I whisked. Then, I whisked in the chocolate mixture (in smaller streams), vanilla, and salt. Once those ingredients appeared mixed, I added the flour in small batches, whisking furiously, until fully blended. 

With a tired wrist but a bowl full of chocolate, I poured the batter into my prepared baking dish, smoothed the top, then placed it into the oven (at last).

Now, the recipe itself calls for 35 minutes of baking time, until the the tester inserted into the center comes out with crumbs attached... here is where my problem arose. Whether it was the innate confusion in temperature conversion, the glass baking dish, or a possibly possessed oven, but I had to keep my brownies in for an hour and 15 minutes! Currently they are cooling, but once they are, I am ready to dive in and see how they turned out! (Hopefully before my guests arrive...)

Initial Impressions: Looks very moist! The dish is covered in a thin, slightly crispy, light brown layer of brownie that slightly sunk after I took the bowl out of the oven (oh well, experimentation!)... I snuck a little taste of the crispy topping, and it has a nice buttery undertone to it that complements the chocolate I used nicely (standard baking chocolate, but this time I chose the slightly-tinted-with dark chocolate baking chocolate).

Beef Moussaka post to follow in a few hours!