espresso banana brownies to feed a crowd

I hate making piddley pans of brownies. Who's idea was that anyways! 9 x 9? Who are we trying to kid?! Get me a proper pan, and I'll bake you a proper cake. I deplore wasting time, so I won't waste yours. Normally, I'm not quite this perturbed with the size of any food or meal, I just want it to be good. But quite frankly, it just doesn't seem worth my time and effort for only a few squares of chocolatey goodness. Sure, I could just make a double recipe and use multiple pans, but why not just one cake of a nice size? Enough questions - straight to the answers. I also have this thing where most everything I make has to have something healthy about it. I don't know, it's just a quirk. But it keeps me from ever feeling guilty about eating, ever. I have somehow gotten over any type of restrictive eating habits. Eat and be merry. If it is a bit better for me, then all the merrier. Adding bananas to this cake tastes good too. Stash expired bananas in the freezer, not only for banana breads or cakes, but for nearly any cake. Yes, this cake has a lot of butter. But, it tastes good. Besides, it mostly contains ingredients that are pronounceable, and I find recipes like this to be fairly easy to digest. It's not perfect, by any means but, at least it wasn't made in a factory, where I don't even get to savour the glorious smell of baking in my very own home. It is rewarding, and it is likely, that if you are in enough of a hurry to get this in the oven, it is possible to burn off a fair number of calories in the process. These are divinely yummy with ice cream, but will also hold their own. The pan is large, but it doesn't mean you'll want to share. Espresso Banana Brownies to Feed a Crowd 2 cups butter 1 cup dark chocolate (73%) vanilla 1/2 cup cocoa 2 cups sugar 2 cups flour 6 eggs 2 very ripe bananas 4 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk 2 shots espresso, or very strong coffee 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 2. Melt the butter and chocolate. 3. Combine the eggs, and bananas until mashed together. Add vanilla, cocoa, and sugar. Stir in the butter and the chocolate. Stir in the sugar. 4. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. It will resemble a creamy frosting in consistency. Grease a cookie sheet (13 x 18 inches), and evenly spread the batter with a spatula. 5. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 6. Combine the condensed milk with the espresso, and drizzle over the top of the cake (no need to wait for it to cool).
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Artigiano

Perhaps I am not the only one, but some Sunday mornings I just need a bit of perking up. And while I love the cappuccino's Jeff makes on our Saeco automatic, it is always enjoyable to try something new. A couple dreary Sundays ago, we went to check out Calgary's newly opened Caffè Artigiano on 332 - 6th Avenue SW. I had heard that the coffee is good, but more importantly to me, that the espresso is good too. This was great news, and I had to go check it out. Caffè Artigiano has been imported to Calgary from Vancouver, and comes backed with a very strong and loyal following.

Artigiano wants to be the best. For a coffee shop, the service was - well service! Hooray! More importantly, Artigiano aims to provide its customers with top-notch stuff. They search the world over for the best beans including beans from the "Cup of Excellence" program. They also have one of the most coveted coffee machines, the Clover. It brews each cup of coffee individually, but is also commercial-grade. It would be really interesting to do a coffee-tasting at Artigiano, and compare the flavours of different coffee's on the Clover.

All of their cappuccino's are served with with a bit of artistic whimsy. Latte art is featured on their cappuccino's, and this one is a simple heart. It feels kind of like a nice little surprise, why not make the world a beautiful place one cappuccino at a time?



The espresso was very flavourful, and very rich! While it wasn't the best espresso I have ever had, it was probably the second best. I liked the flavour, and thank goodness it wasn't bitter. I think the crema was not quite as good as I have had. It is a step in the right direction, and I'll try it again soon.

More latte art. Caffè Artigiano has been the home to several Barista Champions, nationally and internationally. These cappuccino's look pretty, but were also nice and strong; you didn't need a lot of milk to cover up the taste of inferior coffee.
The quality of this breakfast sandwich Jeff had was an unexpected treat! It had a lot of flavour from basil and capicollo. Jeff liked that the cheese also had flavour. The funny thing was that this sandwich encapsulates all the items Jeff puts in his weekend omelets.

One side of the shop; where the coffees are made.
Caffè Artigiano - 332 - 6th Avenue SW, Calgary, AB T2P 0B2 (403) 699-9855, also several Vancouver locations

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When in Rome....

Photo courtesy of www.santeustachioilcaffe.it

Yes it is a silly phrase, but it is wonderful to say when you are in fact in Rome. And when in Rome, go check out Il Caffe Sant’Eustachio. So far, it is the home of the only real espresso I have had in my life. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have had my share of espresso, both the good and the bad. In fact, I think I became all the more fanatical about a good quality espresso after I began to relate it to the meaning of the musical term “con espressione.” Literally, it means “with expression”, but I like to look at the similarities in the spelling between “espresso” and “espressione”. A good portion of both words are virtually identical, giving us “espress”. OK, perhaps not that interesting….

However, when you begin to play a musical passage, particularly the music of Brahms which requires a rich and resonant sound from the horn player, while simultaneously thinking about the type of work that must happen to make a proper espresso, in which the intense flavour of the coffee beans are quickly pressed, and pushed, and heated into a glorious drinkable cup; then the music begins to transcend the notes at face value, and adds another layer of musical flavour, in which you press and pull out the sound of the notes in the same way the flavour of espresso is pushed and pulled out of the beans. So, as a musician, you can say that I think about espresso a lot; my work requires it and I guess I wouldn’t be doing the music justice otherwise. Oh darn!

You don’t like espresso? Are you sure? Do you think it is bitter strong coffee? If that is what your experience has been, fair enough. Try, try again. To me, espresso is more like the heart and soul of coffee. You almost smell it more than taste it. It should be rich and flavourful, and most certainly with the coveted crema on top. You can add a little sugar, but it shouldn’t be a necessity. Of course, a good espresso is the base for many other “coffee drinks”, but don’t let the espresso itself be elusive. It can, and should be a rewarding experience when you finally get one that is “right”. For great reads on espresso, check out "Explaining Espresso", by Jeffrey Steingarten's article for November 2000 Vogue Magazine, or a compilation of these essays at "It Must've Been Something I Ate". Genius, and hilarious at that.

So finally, I couldn’t have been more gleeful than to stand in front of Sant’Eustachio with so much excitement and anticipation. You can say that it was painful to wait even one more second to enjoy this espresso. I knew it had to be good, but I wasn’t really sure in which ways. It comes with sugar unless you ask for it not to, and most Italians I have met seem to do this as habit regardless. So I figured Sant’Eustachio is simply doing everyone a service, and went along with it. I have never seen anything like it. The spoon was literally floating, nearly unabashedly, effortlessly, on top of the crema. The crema itself was also nearly a centimeter thick, unbelievable. Yum. It was like a little bit of whipped coffee on top the richest espresso I have ever had. Ideally, you are to consume an espresso within 10 seconds of its production, and who am I to argue? But I’ll tell you, it was not bitter even one bit.

Sant'Eustachio, www.santeustachioilcaffe.it: Piazza Sant'Eustachio n. 82 (between the Pantheon and Piazza Navona), Roma, (39) 06.68802048
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