raspberry laced bittersweet chocolate cinnamon brownies

I told you a couple of weeks ago that I would be baking cookies over the next few months to give away to my friends as a way to redirect my focus from the twins not being home for Christmas this tear.   I swear I meant to write year! That is hilarious…  So far it’s not working. I love baking cookies for everyone but it’s doing little to help me get my head wrapped around waking up Christmas morning to wait for a phone call.

The girls have been after me for years to set up a Skype account. Apparently Meg and Sara clean their homes together while they Skype. Kate and Meg cook together… When Kate was home a few weeks ago, she set up my account. Tuesday night, I finally took the plunge. I’m not sure what I was expecting but when Meg popped on my over-sized computer screen my heart skipped a beat. There she was, a little delayed but there all the same, talking and laughing. I wanted to jump inside my computer.

It was so weird watching the tiny image of me in the bottom left hand side of my screen, at the same time that I was watching her. I never realized how similar her mannerisms are to mine. It was like watching someone mimic me! Her smile, facial expressions and hand gestures were my mirror image and yet I never noticed it before. It was really distracting! I’m rambling.

I’ve decided that I don’t think social media is a good thing. It makes being away from home too easy. When I lived away, I called Mom and Dad once a week. Sunday night we would speak quickly with each other because ‘it was long distance!’. Occasionally,  a letter would be written or received but for the most part we just missed one another.

Call me old-fashioned but I think it was better when you had to deal with being homesick. It made everything real… Living with Facebook, tweets and Skyping  creates immediate, abbreviated, distorted communication that suppresses the need for intimacy. Be that as it may, we do live in the age of ‘instant communication’ and my not liking it isn’t going to change a thing. My daughters are building their lives a long way from home and being homesick would also change nothing. So there it is. I have to get better at Skyping!

I test drove these brownies with the witches and with their approval made them again for my friend Anne.

raspberry laced bittersweet chocolate cinnamon brownies

preheat oven 350*F and move rack to bottom third of oven

grease 9″ pan

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

2 teaspoons vanilla

WHISK FLOUR, SALT, cinnamon AND BAKING POWDER IN MEDIUM BOWL THEN SET ASIDE.

MELT CHOCOLATES AND BUTTER IN MICROWAVE IN A LARGE MICROWAVE-SAFE BOWL ON HIGH FOR 45 SECONDS, THEN STIR AND HEAT FOR 30 SECONDS MORE. STIR AGAIN, AND, IF NECESSARY, REPEAT IN 15-SECOND INCREMENTS; DO NOT LET CHOCOLATE BURN!YOU CAN ALSO MELT THE CHOCOLATE ON THE STOVE OVER MEDIUM-LOW HEAT.

WHEN CHOCOLATE MIXTURE IS COMPLETELY SMOOTH, REMOVE BOWL FROM SAUCEPAN AND GRADUALLY WHISK IN SUGARs.

ADD EGGS ONE AT A TIME, WHISKING AFTER EACH ADDITION UNTIL THOROUGHLY BLENDED.

WHISK IN VANILLA.

ADD FLOUR MIXTURE IN THREE ADDITIONS, FOLDING WITH RUBBER SPATULA UNTIL BATTER IS CREAMY AND WELL MIXED.

POUR BATTER INTO PREPARED PAN ANd sprinkle top with raspberries

Bake for 45 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean

Thanks for reading