Chocolate hummus might be your new favorite dessert—here’s how to make it
People are raving over dessert hummus for tasting like brownie batter & being healthy! You can make it at home easily with your food processor.
Melissa Rorech, Reviewed.com
- Maida Heatter’s Palm Beach brownies are a rich chocolate culinary classic – with good reason.
- Heatter developed the brownies after seeing a similar recipe that had been submitted by a Palm Beach deli to a local newspaper.
- The recipe for Palm Beach brownies is easy to follow, and has a decadent result.
It’s been nearly 40 years since a famed brownie named after Palm Beach starred at a 1988 all-American feast prepared by notable chefs in the nation’s capital, but in the age-old luscious-brownie debate, this Palm Beach recipe still shines all these years later.
OK, some might say there perhaps has been no greater brownie in Palm Beach than the late inimitable socialite and philanthropist Mildred “Brownie” McLean, the so-called Duchess of Palm Beach, who died in 2019 at age 101, but as far as the all-American rich-and-chocolatey brownie goes?
It was another maven who celebrated Palm Beach with an unforgettable sweet: The Palm Beach Brownie is by late cookbook author and sultana of sweets Maida Heatter, who, like McLean, also died in 2019 at a centennial-plus age (102).
Heatter said she developed the recipe after seeing a similar one that had been submitted by a Palm Beach deli to a local newspaper. The name of the deli was not included in multiple news reports about the Palm Beach brownies’ origin.
The recipe for the brownies appeared in Heatter’s first cookbook, “Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts,” published in 1974.
Anyone who has baked and/or tried Heatter’s Palm Beach brownies knows they’re easy to devour. Not that Palm Beach doesn’t have other equally delicious brownies today, including the rich brownies Swifty’s featured on Mother’s Day at The Colony, 155 Hammon Ave.
When Heatter was inducted into the Cookbook Hall of Fame in 1998 at the James Beard Award, she famously took to the stage for her acceptance speech while carrying a Versace shopping bag, from which she pulled 50 Palm Beach Brownies to toss to the cheering crowd — a moment that has become legend in the culinary world.
Ten years before, Heatter’s Palm Beach Brownies starred at a charity fundraising all-American feast at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., in May of 1988 with 18 other premier national chefs and their best dishes, those brownies were said to be irresistible.
Yes, the lobster-stuffed squash blossoms, wild-mushroom terrine and other dishes were tasty — by such chefs as Paul Prudhomme, Larry Forgione and Pierre Franey — but those brownies?
You be the judge. Here’s the recipe for Palm Beach Brownies as printed in The Palm Beach Post in 1988:
8 ounces unsweetened chocolate
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter
5 eggs, graded large
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon almond extract (optional)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2½ Tablespoons instant espresso or coffee powder
1½ Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3¾ cups granulated sugar
1⅔ cups all-purpose flour, sifted and unbleached (sift before measuring)
8 ounces (2 generous cups) walnuts, cut or broken into large pieces
Adjust rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat the oven to 425°. Line a 9-by-13-by-2-inch pan with foil, shiny side up. Butter the foil with soft or melted butter; set aside. Place the chocolate and the butter in the top of a large double boiler over hot water on moderate heat, or in a 4- to 6-cup heavy saucepan over low heat. Stir occasionally until melted and smooth.
Remove from the heat and set aside. Meanwhile, in the large bowl of an electric mixer, whisk the eggs with salt, optional almond extract, vanilla extract, espresso or coffee, cocoa, and sugar at high speed for 8 to 10 minutes until thick and fluffy. On low speed, add the chocolate mixture (which may still be warm) and, scraping the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula, beat only until mixed. Then add the flour and beat again only until mixed. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir/fold in the nuts.
Turn into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 35 minutes, reversing the pan front to back once during baking to ensure even baking; for about the last 10 minutes, cover the top loosely with foil to prevent over-browning. At the end of the 35 minutes the cake will have a thick crust on top, but if you insert a toothpick into the middle, it will come out wet and covered with chocolate. Nevertheless, it is done. Do not bake it any longer — the brownies will set up as they cool, and will be fudge-like in the center. Remove the pan from the oven and let stand at room temperature until cool.
Then cover with a length of wax paper or baking pan liner paper. Now the brownies must be refrigerated for several hours or overnight. Then, since the top will be crusty and the middle will be wet, use a serrated bread knife to cut. Cut into small squares; the brownies are extremely rich.
Wrap individually in clear cellophane, wax paper or foil or package in an airtight container with wax paper between the layers. Do not let them dry out. Makes 32.
