I’m ashamed to admit this, but my mom was on Pinterest before me. It’s kind of a funny story, really. A couple years ago, she called to tell me about this amazing, new fangled thing that I would absolutely love because I’m a neurotic organizer who happens to love baking. “You should see the cupcakes!” et cetera, yada, yada. And I flat out refused to see those cupcakes. I was a junior in college. I was preparing for midterms and stressing about internship interviews, all the while participating in resume-building (and fun) club activities. I was even a little miffed about the cupcake comment because I hadn’t had a cupcake in weeks. I hadn’t been able to bake since my life was terrible, horrible, and whine-whine-boo-hoo. It was actually quite sad. I told my mom I was too busy for her shenanigan website. Then my aunt called. Then my friend. At this point, I was just being stubborn.
Finally, I was home for Thanksgiving my senior fall (about 5 months later- apparently the extent of my stubbornness) and my mom shoved me in front of her laptop. Her Pinterest account was open and I swear those cupcakes were singing. Or dancing. Maybe both. I was immediately sucked into the lovely vortex that is Pinterest, created my own account, and stayed up until 3 in the morning (6 am East Coast time, which is where I was coming from) to Pin all the things. And it hasn’t stopped since. Now, I have three accounts. It’s absolutely ridiculous. One account is my personal one that has thousands of Pins and reveals more about my personality than should be allowed on the Internet (in a nutshell: wine, awesomeness, more wine, chocolate, baking, and nerd stuff), another is dedicated to super nerdy things I refuse to put on my own account (this way no one will ever be able to prove how much of a nerd I am), and the last, most recently created account is dedicated to brownies (and other desserts), just like this blog: http://www.pinterest.com/brownietheory
So I thought in celebration of all things Pinterest, I’d share a brownie recipe I found on this most wondrous of sites: German Chocolate Brownies.
Keep in mind, I don’t like German Chocolate Cake. My family loves it, which is why I made these -I am all that is giving and gracious- I’m just not a huge fan of coconut. I actually taste tested coconut water once. The guy who harangued me into trying it to me took one look at my face after my skeptical sip, took back the cup he had given me three seconds earlier, shook his head, and then threw the cup (and remaining filmy water) in the trash. I tried to apologize, but he admitted that he didn’t even like it. SO HA! Anyway- I made these brownies, and although the odds were most decidedly not in their favor, they were delicious. (And everyone else liked them, too. I’d hazard to guess that 68% of my coworkers who tried these brownies have German Chocolate Cake every year for their birthday and they all said they’d be happy to eat these instead.)
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German Chocolate Brownies
Ingredients:
For Brownies:
1 ½ cups butter, melted and slightly cooled
5 eggs
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
¾ tsp salt
1 Tbsp vanilla
2/3 cup cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
For Topping:
1 cup evaporated milk (full fat)
3 large egg yolks
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, diced into 4 pieces
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cup sweetened, shredded coconut
2/3 cup chopped pecans
Directions:
To prepare the brownies: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 13 by 9-inch pan with foil, leaving an overhang on two sides. Grease and lightly dust with flour, set aside.
In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs until frothy and pale, about 1 minute. Add sugars and salt and whisk until well combined. Stir in vanilla. Sift cocoa and flour over top, pour in melted butter, and mix until just combined (it will be slightly lumpy). Pour batter into baking pan and bake until toothpick comes out with a thin coat of batter (these are best gooey), about 30 – 35 minutes. Cool completely.
To prepare the topping: In a medium saucepan, combine evaporated milk, egg yolks, brown sugar and butter. Cook mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla then mix in the coconut and pecans. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature. about 30 minutes, then spread over cooled brownies (for cleaner cut brownies cover and chill in freezer, about 15 minutes).
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I linked the Pin above, which leads to the original recipe. I changed a few things here because I’m a lazy baker and I have this irrational dislike of using more than 4 eggs in a recipe (except in sponge cakes and custards- a dozen eggs is a necessary and delicious evil for those recipes). I also don’t waste my time with 8×8 brownie pans. I swear, every brownie recipe I see is for an 8×8 pan. Do these people not have friends or big mouths? Also, be sure to watch these. They’re not good if you bake them too long and as these require more effort- don’t let them go to waste! It’s better to be a gooey brownie than a dry one.
brownietheory 
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