Tate's Bakeshop Beach Brownies

As much as I love posting on this blog, and I do, I love reading other blogs. One of the first blogs that I came across when I was discovering the oh-so addictive world of food blogging was Cookie Madness. I usually try to take a peek at what Anna's baking, and I've gotten some great recipes from her site. One day, she posted about the Tate's Bakeshop Cookbook -- specifically their chocolate chip cookies. I went on over to Amazon and read the reviews of this book, and it wasn't that long before I'd found a nice used copy to add to my shopping cart. This cookbook is outstanding! There are so many recipes that I'd like to try, and I also really want to take a field trip up to the Hamptons to check this place (and several others) out! Anyone want to join in?

These brownies are my first foray into the book. The name immediate caught my attention. Beach Brownies anyone? Umm, I like the beach, and I like brownies -- sign me up! These are a brownie take on s'mores, one of my favorite things in the world, and I think that there are several s'mores brownies floating around the blogosphere. Baking Bites has a S'mores Cookie Bar that I made last summer, and let me tell you, it's outstanding! I'm always up for a new take on the S'more, and I definitely wanted to try these.

These brownies are not for the faint of heart, though. It's a huge batch of brownies, and mine was a little bit bigger because I had to use two 8x8" pans rather than a 9x13" pan. The recipe calls for quite a bit of butter, nearly 3 sticks, and quite a bit of chocolate. In case anyone might wonder (because I had no idea) one bag of chocolate chips is 2 cups of chocolate chips. So, for this recipe, you'll need almost 2 bags of chocolate chips or 21 ounces of chocolate. I suggest making these for a crowd, or for a few really hungry boys.

They're worth it though! These brownies are so sinfully delicious. Dudley's favorite part was the graham cracker base, but my favorite part happened to be the chunks of milk chocolate floating in the brownies. Or maybe it was the marshmallows -- I could never quite decide. At any rate, they're a fantastic summer brownie, and I was so sad when I went to have another one and I found out they were all gone.

Oh, I did make the very famous Tate's chocolate chip cookies, and they're every bit as good as their reputation. In fact, they're so good that they were devoured before a picture could be taken. I'll have to make more!


Beach Brownies
Tates Bakeshop Cookbook

Graham Cracker Base:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
7 tablespoons salted butter, melted

Brownie:
1 cup salted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon vanilla
5 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 oz milk chocolate, chopped
12 large marshmallows, cut in half

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make the base: In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Spoon the mixture into a glass 9x13" pan and pat down evenly to cover the bottom only. Set it aside.

To make the brownies: In a medium saucepan, heat the butter and sugar, stirring until the butter and sugar are melted.
In a large bowl, add the chocolate chips. Pour the hot sugar mixture over the chocolate chips and stir till it is melted. Add the vanilla and mix. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
In a medium bowl, mix the flour and salt together. Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and stir until they are just combined. Stir in the milk chocolate.
Pour mixture into a prepared pan and spread it evenly. Place the marshmallows, cut side down, evenly over the top. Try to arrange it so that each brownie has a marshmallow half on it.
Bake the brownies for 35 minutes, or until they are slightly firm to the touch. Do not overbake.
Let the brownies cool, then cut them.