My junior year of college I bought my roommate E Weezer’s “Pinkerton“. I had no idea at the time that it would go down as one of the more ill-advised decisions of my life.
In junior high school, I had enjoyed “The Sweater Song” just as much as the next girl and couldn’t help but love the retro video for “Buddy Holly”. Truth be told, I still have “Say It Ain’t So” on my iPod. Despite his deliberately foppish hair and self imposed celibacy, I even found Rivers Cuomo a touch charming. E and I had geeked out over Weezer on multiple occasions so it seemed a perfect gift for her. And while the gift was for E, it was carefully chosen. I accepted that it would come part of my life and knowing E’s slightly obsessive tendencies, I knew I would be subjected to repeated listenings. It seemed an album I could live with.
I could never have anticipated the painful torture E would rain down on me when I handed her that CD. It looked so innocent, that thin plastic disk. Little did I know that it would become my arch nemesis. E listened to that album on an endless loop for nearly four months. I would come home to a dorm room drowning in emo and inner turmoil. Every night I fell asleep to songs about lesbians and feelings and girls and the unbearable burden of being white, talented and rich. One night, as I drifted off as E played “Pink Triangle” for the fifth time in a row, I mumbled, “If I have to hear this fucking song one more time, there will be bloodshed”. That solved that problem.
Now it’s not that I don’t love overkill; hell, it is practically my middle name. It is just sometimes there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. I worried about this as I threw together these 3×3 brownies, frankly. I decided to go balls out and just start dumping things in to this basic brownie batter and see what happened; it looked promising but you never know. Three kinds of chocolate and three kinds of nuts? Could it be too much? Turns out the answer is a definitive no. No there is nothing wrong a with a brownie full of cocoa, bittersweet, and semi-sweet chocolate. Yes, if one kind of nut is good then three kinds will make it even better. I rushed these a bit as I was short on time and didn’t allow them to fully cool; as a result some of them crumbled a bit, but it didn’t make a lick of difference. Even the brownie shrapnel tasted delicious. These were super ooey, gooey brownies studded with the perfect amount of nuts. Once you make these you will not even think of using a mix ever again.
Trust me; it isn’t too much. It is just the right amount of overkill.
3×3 Brownies
Adapted from Taste of Home
1 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cup chopped nuts, toasted (I used hazelnuts, walnuts and pecans)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used a mix of semi-sweet and bittersweet)
In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to butter mixture. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips.
Spread into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. (I like to line with parchment to prevent any sticking and then grease the parchment.) Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Mmm… brownie shrapnel.
We’re permitted our occasional indulgences… and this holiday season, when I say “occasional” I mean every day.
Man, I am trying to limit it to the ACTUAL days. Trying being the operative word.
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Mmmm. El Scorcho. Love.
I think El Scorcho was my favorite on the album. I actually really loved Pink Triangle as well, but it was pretty much killed for me.
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ohhh yum. I can only imagine what those would taste like with dark cocoa powder, my fave.
I used Ghiradelli and it was pretty damn great.
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My mom told me she worked in a factory one summer that played Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville a couple of times an hour. ALL WEEK LONG. If that song comes on now, she starts shrieking in pain and terror.
One of these brownies could bring her back pretty quick, though…
These brownies are like those chest paddles, shocking you back to life.
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There is no such thing as too much Weezer (and definitely not something to be ashamed of I have 3 albums in my Ipod)… too much chocolate though, maybe. But I’m kinda weird.
However, these brownies don’t look like overkill to me. They look incredibly delicious.
It was NON STOP! And I d like them, but for the love of God.
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I would be dead of jealousy right now if I hadn’t made triple chocolate cookies yesterday afternoon (and then eaten approximately ten of them).
Cannot. stop. at. just. one.
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Like the only way to make pork taste better is to wrap it in bacon, the only way to make brownies taste better are more nuts, more chocolate, and yes more butter please. Nicely done.
Why, thank you. MMM, butter. I heart butter.
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I had the same music problem with a roommate once. It’s amazing how quickly you can come to a musical accommodation when you start playing bagpipe music. There’s nothing, and I mean nothing in the whole wide world, like the pipes and drums of the Colestream Guards to bring someone to their knees begging for the bliss of silence.
Like Iocane powder though, you must slowly build up an immunity. My father suggests 7:30 a.m. every Saturday morning while children are growing up (bonus: it gets the same kids out of bed).
And the brownies were, indeed, yummy!
7.30! Inhumane I tell you. Wow.
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I NEED this. No, really. I just drooled on my keyboard.
And it is so easy to make! It can be yours.
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One of the things I really like about you is your over-the-topness. I fully support it. I don’t think there can ever be such a thing as too much chocolate.
I say: why do less when you can do more? Thanks, Lisa.
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He has self-imposed celibacy? He hates himself doesn’t he?
I think that is the only answer, frankly.
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Mmm…yeah, I just drooled a little bit, too. I might have to hit up the grocery store after work – I love that you added hazelnuts!
I adore hazelnuts…totally underrated.
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Weezer has that effect on people. You either hear them once and can listen to their music forever or you hear them one too many times and even the first chord can make you a raging maniac.
I’m in the former camp.
I do like them, but I had to take an extensive break, that is for sure.
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Since you obviously love brownies as much as I do, check out this super cool pan that assures that every brownie has that wonderful crunchy edge to it. I’m all for fully loaded brownies!
I have seen this!! I think I love the chewey centers the best, though.
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Take heart that at least it wasn’t Weezer’s green album…that shit is WAY overrated.
And mmm…brownies…
Yes, I agree–I actually DID like Pinkerton until all the joy was wrung out of it.
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I used to work in a diner with a ’50s jukebox. You don’t know what pain is, young lady.
Oh, that sounds pretty damn awful.
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My ability to filter out background noise is now unmatched. Even the most annoying TV commercials leave me unphased (Mitsubishi, I’m looking in your direction).
Yeah, I am generally decent wit filtering out, but it was torturous. Nonstop I tell you–NONSTOP.
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I was that girl. Except my drug of choice was Ben Harper, rather than Weezer. Tomato, tomahto. Who knows more about oppression and pain than young white girls at a women’s college?
I was a Women’s Studies major–God. Did I think life was SO HARD.
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Pretty…although, I think I might’ve just felt my ass sigh in resignation. I couldn’t be sure.
Ha! I brought this to a party–cannot be trusted around them.
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“I brought this to a party” – but who (or what) did you leave with? And how did you resist putting in dates and figs and cumin?
I once had an album in college that I played incessantly much to my roommate’s chagrin although it was not on a CD player so there was no repeat button. End of semester. Fast forward to new semester in September. First sighting of last year’s roommate (who was much bigger than me) and as I start to shrink into the bushes he says hello and then tells me that he actually missed the album to the point he went out and bought it! Inasmuch as I loved that album I could quite understand this.
I left with no one…but I did have my dignity. Doesn’t happen often… Also, I have not ONCE cooked with dates. You cast false aspersions.
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Oh my. I’m not a big chocolate person but add a little nuts and I morph into a chocoholic. Those look hella good.
I was such a U2 fanatic when I was in High School, I listened to nothing else. Everyone who knew me when now hates U2.
As for Weezer? Meh. I like them in small doses.
I can’t imagine having to listen to them 24/7. You poor little lamb, you.
I know, the hardship I have had to face in my life. It is almost unbearable.
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