Beacon Hill Brownies

Sometimes you just need to bake. Well, I do anyway. Waking up early in the morning to jog, I return home to my kitchen with still so many hours left in the day. My hands itch to do something. My mind itches to create something. Look, there's still so much baking sugar in the cabinet, and the beauty of the orange-sherbet sunrise that peeks through the glass doors from my backyard would pair so perfectly with the aroma of warm pastries...I just need to decide what to make.

Another upcoming work event served as the perfect excuse to test out a recipe at 6:30 in the morning. I could have turned to my iPhone and started looking up random delicious things until one caught my eye (my usual plan of attack when I don't have a baked good already in mind), but yesterday I had another intriguing source to turn to.

On a weekend trip to Grand Junction, Colorado this summer, my mom, her friend, and I stopped in a little antique store on Main Street to do some shopping. One of my favorite finds there was an actual copy of Betty Crocker's Cooky Book from 1963! I'd seen the reprinted (2002) edition of the book countless times at Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores, but I thought it was awesomely awesome to own the original, even if the edges were fraying and the first page had completely detached from the rest of the spiral binding. I purchased the book for $10, carefully wrapped it up (along with a 1938 edition of The House at Pooh Corner I had bought), and placed it on my bookshelf when I got home, afraid that handling it too much might tear its already worn pages.

I probably should have opened it first.

Inside the old cookbook was more than just Betty Crocker's "cooky" instructions. The cover turned out to be hiding a small collection of other recipes behind it--handwritten, copied, typed, torn from magazines, and cut from the backs of packages--all that the previous owner of the cookbook had left inside! What a treasure trove! A total time capsule surprise! So I knew whatever next recipe I tried ought to come from this little collection. It would make such a good story.

One of the recipes was for no-bake Peanut Butter Balls and came with no directions--only ingredients. There was a recipe from Amish Friendship Bread and two more recipes for alcoholic beverages (Amaretta and Irish Cream). No, none of those would quite do. The next recipe, however, was from the back of a dated-looking box of Baker's unsweetened chocolate (circa 1960s/70s-ish). "Beacon Hill Brownies" it read. I hadn't made brownies in forever. Perfect.

Luckily I had my own, much more modern box of Baker's unsweetened chocolate (circa 2010-ish) in the cupboard ready for business.

The official recipe for Beacon Hill Brownies can be seen below, though I halved it for my taste test using only 2 eggs instead of 2 1/2 (half of 5), whole wheat pastry flour as always, no walnuts (I prefer my brownies plain and traditional--fudgy in the middle and crispy on the edge) and an 8x8-inch pan. Baking time also had to be cut down to about 15-20 minutes instead of the full recipe's recommended 35-40. The result, however, was a beautiful plate of perfectly-textured brownies that my whole family enjoyed. If you work where I work on Wednesday afternoon, you might just get to try one as I will definitely be baking these again for a larger crowd....