Just Desserts: Cu Ju's Rum-Soaked Brownie

I’m no stranger to homemade food, but there are some things that are best consumed from a box. It’s hard to do a righteous cheese dip without a crockpot of Velvetta, for example. Macaroni certainly tastes better when its pasta comes in celestial shapes. And let’s face it – when you’re 12 years old, you can’t party hard without a box of Funfetti cupcake mix.

But there’s one treat that, until recently, I thought I couldn’t consume in Beijing unless I whipped together one of those quick, box mixes courtesy of Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker: the brownie. The few made-from-scratch versions I’ve tried around town have proven too dusty, too thick, and frankly, too expensive, so I always have my eggs, oil and mini-marshmallows on hand just in case I get a craving. The First Love at Cu Ju changed all that.

I’m selling my tabletop oven. Heck, I’ll even burn my boxes of Duncan Hines. This brownie is a square of moreish, fudgy perfection whose recipe can only be outdone by itself plus a shot of Cuban rum. But for once, it’s not the alcohol that will have you rolling on the floor. The catalyst is the rich batter of excessive chocolate and butter.

This boozy dessert changes lives – just ask Cu Ju owner and rum aficionado Badr Benjelloun. He says it was through this brownie, consumed for the first time at a Thanksgiving dinner in Florida back in 1998, that he first realized his passion for rum.

“My friend’s 90-year-old French grandma asked for some rum to go with the brownie, saying it was ‘too dry,’” he says, adding that later, the gran used this excuse  again to nab a second helping of her son’s Jamaican gold rum. “I figured if she did it at her age, I wanted some too.”

Cu Ju
Daily 6pm-late. 28 Xiguan Hutong, Dongcheng District (6407 9782)
东城区细管胡同28号
500m northwest of Zhangzizhonglu station (Line 5)

Photo: Mitchell Masilun