One thing I really miss about living in the United States is my oven. I didn't find a lot of use for it, but it was nice for the occasional pound cake, or for baking potatoes and things like that. And you really start to appreciate things once they are taken away from you - as was the case for my oven. Baking is not an essential part of Korean cuisine. We're more about... stir-frying. Steaming. Broiling. Sauteing. Boiling. Grilling. Fermenting. And a lot more time consuming stuff, but all of which do not require an oven.
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Sad, I know. But on the bright side, we find alternative ways to make traditionally baked goods. For example, I've made cookies with a frying pan, and cheesecake with a rice cooker. Strange, right? Surprisingly, though, they all turned out amazing. And last night, I discovered a brownie mix that could be done with just a microwave, and decided to try it out.
So this is what the box looks like. Authentic "Bakery" at Home, eh? With Belgian chocolate chips too! It's also by Tous Les Jours, a bakery chain in Korea.
Directions are so simple it's almost boring. You pour 55 ml of water into a bowl along with the brownie mix, and that's it. At first, the water seems to just disappear into the powder and you wonder if that's enough for batter, but if you keep mixing it, the consistency will turn into what you see in the photo.
Then you move it into a pan. Recommended size is 15 x 15 centimeters; luckily, I happened to have a casserole dish the perfect size.
Then you just pop it into the microwave and heat it for 4 minutes!
After 2 minutes of making batter and 4 minutes of microwaving, my kitchen smelled like heaven, or chocolate (same thing, anyway). The pan was super hot, as was the brownie. I cooled it by the open window - fresh winter air is better than a refrigerator in my opinion.
Don't they look pretty good? I was supposed to wait longer for it to cool but I couldn't resist and ended up cutting them up way too early. There's also a piece missing there in the top-right corner... very messy, no thanks to my impatience.
But it tasted soooooo good. Very fudgey and chocolatey. If I let it cool for a bit longer, it would have been a little crispy on the outside and chewy and smooth on the inside. Super sweet, too. It tasted like a heart attack, but totally worth it. Add a cup of milk to the set and all is perfect! I was saving it to share with my colleagues the next day, but instead I finished half the batch in one sitting. My brother finished the rest that night.
So. Delicious brownies in under 10 minutes! Not bad, if you ask me. If you're stuck in Korea without an oven and want to make some brownies, I really recommend this. It's obviously not the real thing, but it's a heck of a lot simpler and just as yummy!
TGIF! ;-)
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