Did you know bourbon goes great with chocolate?

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Millions of people in the US are about to lose food benefits. If you are considering buying groceries to drop off at your local food bank, think about donating money directly to them instead. Food banks often buy food at bulk rates, so your money will feed more people than if you did the shopping yourself. And of course, the people in charge of food banks have a firsthand view of what foods are needed. 

Right, on with the alcohol...

Before we let some of my more pyromaniacal friends have the rest of the whiskey, I wanted to try something I read online. Apparently chocolate and bourbon go really well together. I've seen a few people claim that a judicious splash of whiskey can really bring out the flavor of chocolate. And so, I spiked my next batch of brownies.

We added more bourbon than necessary because, well, what else was I going to do with it?

I was kind of surprised this worked, but it did. If you add a generous splash of the bourbon (like, a smidge more than if you were using vanilla), the slight liquor burning helps the taste of the chocolate linger just a bit longer. The batter tasted so good that I only baked it because I had already heated the oven.

This is a reminder that Betty Feezor's brownies are delicious. Even the sight of the batter in the pan makes me swoon.

Most of the whiskey baked right out of the brownies, which made the kitchen smell interesting but left the brownies themselves tasting like I didn't do anything different. But since these were Betty Feezor's brownies, they were delicious anyway. I put a big spoonful of the apricot whip on them. It might look like I'm serving brownies with scrambled eggs on top, but these were really good.

So yes, if you add a lightly overflowing spoonful of bourbon to chocolate, it helps the flavor really pop. But it's kind of a waste of liquor if you try to bake it afterward. However, for chocolate recipes that don't go into the oven, this is really good.