NIQUE EATS

Hello, world.

I'm finally using this thing. I've been sitting on this blog and domain for six months now. I had so many excuses for not investing time into scraping something together, and I realize now that a lot of them were fear-based. I was afraid that with all the beautiful food blogs and photographers out there, my severely cracked iPhone 6S wouldn't be able to capture images that would be up to par. Not only that, but was I up to par? With my amateur photography skills, lack of "food props" that seem to be industry standard, lack of any lighting equipment, would I really be able to stand out and make something resonant with this blog? And that's just the documentation. Are my recipes good enough? Different enough? Are there enough people out there who share my tastes and Google search history, looking for the same things I was before I started creating instead of dreaming? Would they find me, and find my recipes and my tastebuds trustworthy?

Anyway, fear-based.

Six months into owning my corner of the internet, and about a year and some odd months into turning my millennial side-hustle into a genuine lifestyle I'm trying to pursue, I've come to the realization that the old saw about never waiting for the perfect moment because there's no such thing as the perfect moment has a ring of truth to it. I'm not going to have everything I want in place for the kind of caliber of creativity I want to express for a very long time. I've been waiting for things to be perfect and settled before embarking on something with real consequences because I hate feeling unprepared.

You see, I'm one of those idiot perfectionists who won't start something unless I can confidently say it will be done perfectly. If not, it just won't get done at all. For me, it has always been worse to fail at something than not try at all. And when you perceive any result below the standard you set for yourself as absolute failure, that means you don't try your best at things all that often, because anything short of perfect means that you weren't good enough.

Baking changed my outlook entirely, because it forced me to fail. As frustrating and disheartening as it was (and still is) to fail at something I love, baking is not just something you can wake up and do perfectly. The beginning was rough. Cookies that were cakey, cakes that were bready, everything sticking to every pan. I was (and still am) lucky to have people in my life who ate what I made anyway. Maybe they didn't notice and I was just nitpicky, or maybe my friends are just really nice people. Either way, I knew I had to do better. Every mistake became an opportunity to learn, and I faced that trial and error period armed with a determination I have never felt studying any of my three switched majors in college, nor during any of my internships in the music industry. I think the fact that I could physically see and taste my own growth was a huge factor in fueling my ambition.

So I'm going to channel that same determination into this blog. It's going to be rough, it's not going to be what I want at first, but I'll figure it out and make it something I can be proud of.

Which brings us to these brownies. 15 minutes to get everything in the pan. Minimal prep work, no stand mixer required, and a great starting point for any aspiring baker.

Plus, they're green. Like I am at all of this shit.

Matcha Brownies with a Chocolate Drizzle and Crushed Pistachios:

Yields enough batter for a 13"x15" rectangular pan. Which is a lot.

Ingredients:

Brownies:

4 sticks of butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
2 cups light brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs, room temp
1 tbs vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup matcha powder, or to taste

Chocolate drizzle:

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
4 tbs butter

Crushed pistachios, for garnish.

Method:

For the brownies:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or otherwise grease your pan. Line with parchment (some overhang on the sides of the pan facilitates cleanup), then grease the parchment thoroughly.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and matcha powder. Whisk thoroughly or sift together to incorporate. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar.
Add eggs to butter and sugar mixture, one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Scrape sides of the bowl to ensure thorough mixing.
Slowly add flour mixture to egg mixture, about a cup at a time. If not using a stand mixer, mix my hand with a spatula, only until no more streaks of flour can be seen. Overmixing can lead to a glutenous, bready texture.
Once combined, pour batter into the prepared pan. Center on middle rack in the oven. Bake for ~25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean.
Let brownies cool completely before drizzling the chocolate or slicing, to ensure clean, even cuts.

For the drizzle:

Make a double boiler: fill a small pot with water about an inch high, and bring to a boil. Place the chocolate chips and the butter in a heat-safe bowl. Lower the heat to a simmer, then place the bowl on top of the pot, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water.
Whisk until smooth. Remove from heat, and drizzle over cooled brownies (a spoon works just fine for this).

Top with crushed pistachios.

Profit.