Everybody Eats: Bring out the bourbon for tasty fudge brownies

I recently took a tour of a bourbon distillery. As a non-bourbon drinker, it was an odd way to spend a Friday afternoon, but I was in Louisville, Ky., for a long weekend with friends. It seemed like the thing to do.

I walked carefully across the distillery's scarred wood floors, listening as our tour guide spoke about grain, sour mash and the fact that a competitive company's softball team beat theirs every year. She said it was OK because their bourbon was better.

At the end of the tour, I bravely picked up a glass to sample three types of bourbon and tried desperately not to be that person who coughed when swallowing the amber liquid. The look on my friends' faces told me I was not successful, but I didn't care because our guide said something that intrigued me.

'They next time you're baking brownies,” she advised in her Southern drawl, 'substitute bourbon for the water. You'll thank me.”

I always have a bottle of bourbon in my kitchen. I don't drink it. I like to saute mushrooms and onions in bourbon when my husband grills steaks. I have a bottle of brandy leftover from a cake recipe and a bottle of vodka I purchased to make vodka-infused strawberries. Basically, any hard liquor in my house is there because of a recipe.

I should really start buying the miniature bottles you find in hotels and on airplanes.

The tour guide told me I could use a boxed brownie mix for her bourbon-instead-of-water substitution, but if I'm going to make brownies, I'm going to make brownies. As it turns out, a lot of people feel this way, with my Google search resulting in dozens of recipes. I chose this one because after a weekend away, I need a snack that's somewhat good for me.

BOURBON FUDGE BROWNIES

1/4 cup bourbon

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups sugar

6 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bring bourbon to a boil in a small saucepan; remove from heat. Add chocolate chips, stirring until smooth.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups and level with a knife. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Combine sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well combined. Add vanilla and eggs; beat well. Add flour mixture and bourbon mixture to sugar mixture, beating at low speed just until combined.

Spread batter into a 9-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.

Source: 'Cooking Light” magazine, March 2003.