Dutch Oven Brownies

The other day, when I was working up the chocolate chicken recipe, I thought to make it a whole chocolate day, and decided to make a great dessert, too.  My first thought was a chocolate cake, but I decided to make brownies instead.  I looked up a good recipe, tweaked it a little and here it is!

I’ve recently been discovering just how much I like molasses as a flavoring.  It sweetens, but it also adds a depth and richness.  I don’t know how else to say that.  I really like it.


10” Dutch oven

9-10 coals below
18-22 coals above

Ingredients

Soft butter, for greasing the pan
Flour, for dusting the buttered pan

4 large eggs

2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp molasses

8 ounces melted butter
11/4 cups cocoa
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 16 oz bag chocolate chips


I started by lighting up a lot of coals.  While that was catching, I broke the eggs into a bowl and began whisking.  I beat them for a good 15 minutes or so, until they were smooth, creamy and getting a bit fluffy, a light yellow.  I was surprised just how thick and airy the brownies ended up (airy for brownies, that is). I added in the sugar and molasses, and whisked it all together.

I got out the 10” shallow Dutch oven and put about 24 or so coals on the lid to preheat.  Then, I buttered the base of the Dutch oven pretty heavily, and dusted it with flour as well.  I was planning on cutting and serving the brownies directly from the Dutch, so I didn’t put any parchment down.  Had I been planning on extracting it as a disc, like a cake, I would have cut a parchment circle and put it down.

While the lid was heating, I added all of the remaining ingredients into the bowl and whisked and stirred some more.  I worked it until it was smooth, which didn’t really take long.   I held back some of the chocolate chips for later.

I poured the batter into the Dutch oven, and took it out to the coals and put the lid on.  Then, I adjusted the coals to the numbers shown above, and marked the time.  After 15-20 minutes, I rotated the oven a quarter turn, and the lid as well, to prevent burns from hot spots.  After another 15-20 minutes, I turned it again, and lifted the lid to check on the progress.   I checked it with a toothpick in the center. Almost done!

After about another 10 minutes, the toothpick came out clean, and I pulled it off the coals.  I brought it in and let it cool, uncovered.  It’s tough, but I encourage you to resist the urge to eat it too quickly.  Let it cool, at least until it’s just barely warm.  While it’s still hot, scatter the remaining chocolate chips over the top and let the residual heat melt them.  Another alternative topping is to sprinkle it with powdered sugar through a sifter.

We loved them! Especially after eating the chocolate chicken.  A week or so later, my son cooked this up (increased for 2 12” Dutch ovens) at his scout campout, and won his troop the Golden Spatula!



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Chocolate Chicken

...What?

Chocolate what?

No. Stinking. Freaking. Way.  What are you thinking?  Chocolate chi--  What?

See, it all started when my wife was preparing a lesson for church on Sunday about God’s love.  She found this funny quote that says, “Chocolate is proof that God loves us all!”  While we talked about ways to work that into the lesson (involving a handout with Hershey’s Kisses), I got an idea in my head for a day of cooking with chocolate.

I did some research, and I found a great brownie recipe (which will follow another day), but I wondered what to do for the main dish.  I thought about a mole of some kind, and I started looking for recipes.  I found, instead, a recipe for a chocolate-based barbecue sauce.  Immediately, I thought of the cashew chicken I had done in the previous post.  I would do a dredged, crispy fried chicken, and then dry-bake on the sauce!

Though many of the processes are the same as that last dish, there are a few differences, so I’ll write it out again.

Dutch Oven Chocolate Chicken

12” Dutch oven

20+ coals below for frying

10 coals below for baking
30+ coals above


8” Dutch oven

12+ coals below


2 lbs boneless & skinless chicken breast tenders
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp paprika

4 tbsp. unsalted butter
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small yellow onion, minced
1 1.5 oz. chocolate bar, broken into chunks
1 8ox can tomato sauce
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp molasses
2 tbsp. vinegar
2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp coffee grounds or powdered coffee substitute, like Pero
2 tbsp  Dijon mustard
2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper


First of all, make sure that the chicken is fully thawed before you even start.

I started out, as I usually do, by firing up some coals.  Once I had a few that were getting a bit white, I spread about 20 or more out on the table and put the 12” Dutch oven on it to preheat, with a few tbsp of olive oil in the bottom.

While the coals and the Dutch oven were getting ready, I prepared the chicken.  I mixed the flour and spices in a bowl first of all.  I was working with boneless, skinless chicken breasts, so I sliced them into 1” strips and dredged them into the flour mix.  I set them aside on a plate.

When the Dutch oven and the oil was hot, I put in the chicken to fry.  I covered the bottom and still had only placed about half the chicken, so I did it in batches.  I cooked the chicken about ten minutes or so and then turned each piece over using tongs.  While the first batch was cooking I chopped up the onion and minced the garlic. When both sides were nice and crispy, and I could see that the insides were cooked through, I pulled them off, and put in the second batch.  Somewhere in here, I also added in some fresh coals to the fire to get hot and ready.

While the second batch was cooking, I put my 8” on the coals and melted the butter.  The onions and garlic went in with a little salt to sweat.  Once those were translucent, the remaining ingredients went in to simmer and melt.

When the second batch of chicken strips were done, I pulled it off the coals and added in the first batch, with the lid on, to keep warm with the residual cast iron heat.

When the sauce was looking nice and smooth, I tasted it and adjusted it.  I found my mix to be a little chocolate-heavy so I added in more mustard and vinegar.  You can adjust it how you like.  In the ingredients list above, I backed off on the cocoa a bit to compensate.  I poured about half of the sauce over the chicken in the Dutch open and stirred it up to coat it over all of the pieces.

Then, I set up the dry-bake.  I put the 12” Dutch oven on about 10-12 coals, and put a LOT of good, fresh coals on the lid.  Then I lifted the lid and put an old circular grill on the Dutch oven as a spacer for the lid.  You can see it in the picture.  I put the lid back on.  Now, there’s a thin space where moisture can escape.  In the past I’ve done that by hooking bent nails over the rim of the Dutch oven.  This time, I had this grill that worked very nice.  When you do that, however, you need to put a LOT more coals on top, as shown in the instructions, because the lid doesn’t trap the heat and moisture.  In this case, the chicken is already cooked, it’s just a matter of dry-baking the sauce on like a glaze.  I let it bake for about another fifteen minutes, stirring it once.

Finally, it was ready.  I served it with a side of steamed veggies, and did the brownies for dessert.  A chocolate day!

Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Mole-Style Roast

It all started because I wanted to do something DIFFERENT...


...but I didn’t know what.

That’s nothing new, really.  I find myself in that position a lot.  I want to cook, but I don’t know what I have ingredients for, and I don’t know what I’m up against, etc... I do like to push myself, though.  That’s one reason why I love to do the challenges with Andy over at http://backporchgourmet.com.

I even considered asking him if he was up for a challenge.  In the end, I thought about chocolate.  I wanted to try using chocolate in a savory dish.  I’ve done chocolate brownies, chocolate cakes, chocolate cookies, etc...  But never have I done a savory chocolate meal.

My mind went instantly to mole.  There are two nationalities who really know how to do chocolate.  One is the Mexicans and one is the Dutch.  Oh, and the Swiss, too.  I loves me my Toblerone!

As I looked at various mole recipes online, I found a lot of things in common, and, as I expected, a lot of things different. There really IS a lot of things you can do and still call it a mole.  And really, I wasn’t so much wanting a TRUE and TRADITIONAL mole. For example, almost all of the meats I’d seen in mole recipes were chicken or pork.  I could have done that, sure, but I had this small beef roast that I wanted to try.  I didn’t see any beef mole recipes.  Maybe they’re out there, maybe not.  I didn’t see any.

So, I don’t know if I’m supposed to be able to do beef or not, but I did.

I also thought it would be cool to do the roast medium rare.  I’m not sure why I wanted it that way. Maybe it just sounded fancier.  In the end, it ended up rare, because of a bad calibration on my thermometer. It truly tasted GREAT, though.

Mark’s Dutch Oven Mole-styled Roast

12” Dutch oven

20 + coals below, then
14 coals above and 12 coals below

8” Dutch oven

6-7 coals below

• 1 2-3 lb beef roast
• salt
• pepper
• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil

• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• ½ cup beef broth (you might want more)
• 2 1 oz cubes semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons raisins or dried cranberries, finely chopped
• 3 oz (1/2 6 oz can) tomato paste

It started off by lighting up some coals.  As they were getting white, I seasoned both sides of the well-thawed roast with plenty of salt and pepper.  This was set aside to soak into the meat.

When the coals were hot, I dusted the inside of the 12” Dutch oven with a bit of oil and set it on top of the coals to preheat, and to season a bit.  After a while, I added some olive oil to it and let that heat to shimmery. I laid the roast in and seared it for a few minutes on each side, to get some good carmelization going.  Once that was in place, I adjusted the coals for the roasting and relaxed.

After about forty-five minutes, It was time to make the mole sauce.  I also made some veggies as a side dish at this point, but that’ll be a subject for a different blog, on a different day.

The mole sauce was simply a matter of mixing the ingredients in the 8”and putting it on the coals.  I let it simmer slowly, melting the chocolate and combining the flavors.  While the roast is still cooking, spread a coating of the sauce on.

Carefully watch the temperature of the roast.  When the internal temperature gets to 140, take it off the coals, but leave it in the Dutch oven to rest. The residual heat of the Dutch oven will bring the temperature up to about 145 or 150 degrees, which is a nice, comfortable medium doneness.  (Like I said earlier, I had problems with my thermometer, so it did turn out quite rare. Still, it was delicious.

I served it with the veggies on the side, and a drizzle of more sauce on top, to the rave reviews of my children.  I know it’s good when they give me the thumbs up!




Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Zebra Cake

Last saturday, I did a lot of cooking, preparing dishes for the publishing company’s photographer.  Like last fall, she was to come out and shoot some pics of food for the cover of the next book.

I'd actually made this cake a long time ago, for my wife's birthday, but I'd done it with boxed cake mixes.  The basic idea is to make a white and a chocolate cake mix, marble and swirl the two mixes together, and then decorate it as a layer cake.  This time it was done from scratch as you'll see.

In “Best of the Black Pot”, I included, at the end of each chapter, a few extra recipes from our family collection. I adapted them a little, to be cooked in a Dutch oven, but most of those, I haven’t actually tried.  As I was planning this Saturday’s Dishes, I decided to give this one a test!

When digging through our family recipes, looking for things to add in to the Dessert chapter, I found this series of pages all about making your own basic mixes, and storing them for when you want to bake.  So, my first step was to mix up the mix.


Basic Cake Mix

10 ½ cups flour
⅓ cup baking powder
8 cups sugar
½ cup corn starch
1 Tbsp salt
4 cups shortening

I started by measuring out the flour into a sifter, then sifting it into the bowl.  I actually used a cake flour.  I did get a really fluffy crumb on the cake, so that might have been part of why.  Then I mixed in the rest of the dry ingredients.  Finally, I cut in the shortening with a pastry blending knife.  Once the shortening was pretty well blended, I mixed it in some more with my hands.  Finally, I put it in a zip-top baggie, well-labeled.


The Cakes

2x 12” Dutch ovens

10 coals below
18 coals above


Once the mix was made, I started a lot of coals.  I was going to need on the order of 60 for both ovens.  It took a while for them to all start and get a uniform white going on.  Once they did, I put 25+ coals on each Dutch oven lid, and brought the Dutch ovens in to the prep counter.

I got out two bowls for the cake mixing.


White Cake

3 ⅓  Cups Basic Cake Mix
3 egg whites
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

This one was a pretty straightforward mix. I just added the ingredients together and beat them with a hand mixer. The egg yolks got discarded.

Chocolate Cake

9 Tbsp cocoa
2 ½ Tbsp butter
3 ⅓ Cups Basic Cake Mix
2 eggs
1 Cup milk

For the chocolate, I mixed the butter and the cocoa powder together first, then added them into the other ingredients.  Again, I mixed it with a hand beater until it was smooth.

I noticed that the white cake was considerably thicker than the chocolate, so I added some more milk to try and even the consistency. The recipe reflects that added milk.  You might still have to adjust one or the other.

I sprayed the bottom and sides of each Dutch oven with cooking oil spray, and sprinkled some flour liberally across the oil.  In retrospect, I think I would also cut a circle of parchment and lay it across the bottom.  Getting the cake out was a bit of a challenge.

Then, I got two big serving spoons, and one spoonful at a time, poured in a bit of white cake mix, then a bit of chocolate, into each Dutch oven.  I continued alternating until both bowls were empty.  Then I took a spoon and swirled around through the mix. I took care not to “stir” it or to “mix” it, my effort was to simply swirl it a bit more.  One or two passes through, no more.

I took the Dutch ovens out to the coals, and put the heated lids on, adjusting the coals for heat above and below.

While the cakes baked, I cut a couple of 12” discs of cardboard out of some empty boxes in my garage. These would help me to extract the cakes.

The cakes themselves only took about 25 minutes to bake. I used the old toothpick method to determine doneness.  You simply stick in the toothpick, then if you can pull it out clean, with no batter, it’s done. Be careful, too, because cooking too long can dry out your cakes.

Once they were brought inside, I put on a couple of heavy-duty leather gloves. I put one of the cardboard discs on the top of the cake in the Dutch oven, and ran a spatula between the cake and the Dutch oven side to separate it.  Then, I flipped the Dutch oven over, turning the cake onto the cardboard disc.  Then, I inverted it back onto a cooking rack.  The parchment would make that easier as well.  I did that with both Dutch ovens.

Once they cool, then, it’s just a matter of decorating the cake.  We used chocolate and buttercream frosting for the zebrastripes.  I let my son and a couple of neighborhood girls (who are definitely NOT his girlfriends, right?) handle the icing and decorating. I think they did a pretty good job, don’t you?.

--Order your pre-release copy of "Best of the Black Pot", Mark's first Dutch oven cookbook!  It will be released April 10, and shipped soon after!



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.