'Sin and redemption in single bite'
"I don't know how much of the story I should tell you," Russ Vernon said, blue eyes X-raying me across the cafe table.
I tried to look harmless. "All of it," I whispered.
Vernon's son, Rick, had already agreed to give me West Point Market's recipe for its legendary Killer Brownies, the caramel-drenched chocolate bombs that helped turn a Midwestern gourmet-foods store into a Mecca for food lovers from coast to coast.
The brownies are rich enough to curl your toes, but with such a serious jolt of chocolate that they escape being cloying. They're sin and redemption in a single bite.
Like their many imitators, Killer Brownies feature two brownie layers separated by a ribbon of caramel. But the caramel in the Killer is more appealing than the thick, tooth-challenging layers of other choco-caramel creations. The caramel obviously is baked right into the brownies, yet remains separate from the fudgy chocolate layers. Even more puzzling, it oozes but doesn't leak.
This year is the 25th anniversary of the Killer Brownie. The boss' son had handed over the recipe too easily.
I figured there was a catch the wily elder Vernon was tempted to reveal to me. He fidgeted and stalled, and then spilled the cocoa beans.
"They're made with a Betty Crocker cake mix," Vernon said in an undertone. "We buy it by the case."
Maybe it was the early hour. Maybe it was the long drive the evening before from his semiretirement home in southern Ohio. Or maybe the store owner figured the 25th anniversary of the brownies was reason enough to divulge the secret. But, of course, there was a problem.
"It's part recipe and part preparation," Vernon said, hinting only that the baking procedure is "tedious."
Later that afternoon, Rick Vernon e-mailed a faux recipe to me. It made no mention of a cake mix, but it did include detailed instructions for the procedure. Eureka. All I had to do was merge the clues from father and son into a single recipe. I had just three days to perfect a recipe the Vernons have been tinkering with for years.
The original recipe came from Brown Deer Market, a fancy-foods store in a suburb of Milwaukee. Russ Vernon tasted a caramel-chocolate brownie there on a food-scouting trip in 1981, and couldn't get it out of his mind.
"When I got back I kept thinking about that brownie," Vernon said.
He arranged to swap his storied chicken salad recipe — made with creme fraiche, sliced almonds, chicken breast meat and tarragon — for the brownie recipe, and a legend was born.
Cut here if needed?"Our customers know us for our perishables and our prime meats. The city knows us for our Killer Brownies," Vernon said.The brownies have fans all over the world. Vernon began freezing and shipping the brownies in the early 1990s, and has filled orders from as far away as Saudi Arabia. The store's eight bakers make about 2,500 brownies each week, a number that soars to 15,000 during the December holiday season. The hefty price — $1.59 per brownie — hasn't slowed sales.Could I clone the legend? The Vernons and their head baker, Apryle Griffith, dropped a few hints. Griffith let slip that the caramel layer is a substance that is "liquid at room temperature." Aha! Ice cream topping."The type of caramel you use is very important," Griffith said. "If you use the wrong kind, it will bake into the batter."Rick Vernon supplied the name of the brand of chocolate chips scattered over the caramel layer — expensive Callebaut from Belgium. He also warned that if the brownies are overbaked, they get crunchy on the bottom — a tip I relearned first-hand when I made my first test batch.
End cut hereAccording to Rick Vernon's directions, the brownies are baked in three steps. The bottom layer is briefly baked, rapped on the counter to make the batter fall, and baked a few minutes more. When cool, the partially baked layer is slathered with caramel, dotted with chocolate chips and frozen. When everything is rock hard, the top layer is added and the brownies are baked some more. Freezing keeps the caramel layer in place and prevents the bottom layer from overbaking.Even so, the brownies must be removed from the oven before they appear to be done. My advice is to test your oven temperature for accuracy and then just trust the timing in the following recipes. If you're going for the contest prize, you can tinker with the time in later test batches until you achieve the texture of the original Killer Brownies.I'm printing both the store's official recipe and the one I made from a Betty Crocker cake mix. Both produced excellent brownies that were very similar to the Killer Brownie.
Cut if not using Blondie recipeRick Vernon also supplied the recipe for the store's newest brownie, the Platinum Blondie. Over the years, West Point has sold a slew of Killer Brownie spinoffs. The current crop includes Raspberry Suicides, Peanut Butter Crazies, Killer Blondies, No Nuts About It and the Platinum Blondie, a chewy brown-sugar blondie sandwiched with caramel, studded with crushed toffee and chopped macadamia nuts, and encrusted with baked-on apricot jam.Like the original, it's a killer.
21 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature3/4 cup Droste cocoa powder2 cups sugar1 and one-half cups cake flour4 eggs2 teaspoons vanilla1 cup walnut pieces1 ounce Kraft caramels4 to 6 tablespoons whipping cream1 cup semisweet Belgian chocolate chips1/2 cup confectioners' sugarIn a mixer bowl, beat 10 tablespoons butter until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk together 6 tablespoons cocoa, 1 cup sugar and three-fourth cup flour. In a small bowl, lightly whisk together 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add egg mixture alternating with cocoa mixture to butter until well incorporated. Stir in one-half cup walnuts.Spread mixture evenly in a buttered and floured 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 to 6 minutes, until the batter has risen in the middle. Remove from oven and tap pan firmly on the counter to make brownies fall. Be careful, some batter may splash out at this point. Place brownies in oven for another 5 to 6 minutes. Brownies will not be fully baked at this point. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate at least 3 hours, or until thoroughly chilled.In a double boiler, heat the caramels with 1 tablespoon butter and 4 tablespoons of the cream until melted and smooth. If necessary, stir in remaining 2 tablespoons cream to achieve a consistency that is pourable when warm, and thick but oozing at room temperature.Pour caramel mixture over chilled brownie layer, taking care to push the caramel into the corners. Sprinkle with the chocolate chips. Freeze at least 4 hours, until caramel is very firmly set.Make another batch of brownie batter, as before. Carefully spread batter over the frozen caramel and chips layer, being careful not to disturb the caramel or chips. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until the center looks done. Because of the chocolate and caramel layer, the toothpick test or shaking the pan are not good methods to determine doneness. Brownies will fall as they cool; this is desirable.Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight. This allows the caramel and chocolate chip layer to set. Cut into squares and dust with confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator or freeze. Bring to room temperature to serve.
1 box (18.25 ounces) Betty Crocker Super Moist German Chocolate Cake Mix12 tablespoons butter, melted3 tablespoons cream3/4 cup walnut pieces2/3 cup caramel ice cream topping2/3 cup Callebaut semisweet chocolate chipsPowdered sugarHeat oven to 350 degrees. By hand or with a mixer, mix dry cake mix and butter. Beat in cream. Stir in walnuts by hand. Spread half of the dough in the bottom of a lightly buttered and floured, 9-inch-square baking pan. Bake 5 minutes. Remove from oven and bang on counter to make brownies fall. Bake 3 to 4 minutes longer. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until cold.Spread caramel topping over brownie layer. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Freeze until firm.Crumble remaining dough and scatter evenly over caramel layer. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 to 25 minutes, until top is dry. Cool completely, then refrigerate until firm. Cut into squares and dust with powdered sugar. Store in refrigerator or freeze. Bring to room temperature to serve.
