Last week, I recieved a small package in the mail. Upon opening it, I discovered it was from Hawke’s Winery, a winery located in Healdsburg, CA. If you aren’t familar with them, you should check them out-they make great Cabernets, and are very reasonably priced. Anyway, we belong to their wine club, and they sent all wine club members so home-made Butterscotch-Coconut Brownies that Paula Hawkes made. They were really good-chewy, salty, sweet – everything you would want in a treat. I went to their website where Paula has some recipes posted, and discovered that these are the easiest brownies you could ever make. It only takes one pan to make them! Yeah, not too many dishes to wash. So I made a batch of the brownies, which is a nice small batch (8×8 pan), which is a good thing since you’ll be tempted to eat them all. It’s a simple recipe, with ingredients you probably always have on hand, and can be made quickly at the last minute. Just allow time to cool, or they’ll be too soft. (Also, make sure you cook them long enough. I didn’t test mine, and I pulled them out of the oven after 25 minutes, and when I turned the brownies out onto a board to cut them, the center of my brownies stayed in the pan because they weren’t cooked through. Oh well, fewer to eat…)

HAWKE’S WINERY (PAULA HAWKES) BUTTERSCOTCH-COCONUT BROWNIES
1/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt (or a little less if you used salted butter)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 8 x 8 inch pan.
Melt butter in a medium, heavy saucepan. Stir in the brown sugar until incorporated. Cool slightly. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients into the pan. Stir to combine. Fold in the coconut. Pour and spread into prepared pan. The mixture will be very sticky-use a rubber spatula and gently pat it out to fit your pan. Bake for about 25 mintues. Cool, cut into very small squares (about 1 x 2 inches). They will keep for about a week, tightly covered.
Note: If you don’t like coconut, you can substitue chopped nuts or leave it out entirely.
Note: This recipe doubles easily. Use a 9 x 13 pan instead.