Tag

brownies

Smart Cookies: Scratch Brownies

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This month’s Smart Cookies recipe was inspired by a craving for some good old fashioned brownies. Usually, I will buy a store bought mix for brownies, and dress them up a bit like these Salted Caramel Brownies of yore. However, with last week’s deep freeze, I was out of brownie mix, and really not wanting to leave the comfort of my house for brownie mix, when I am pretty sure I had everything I needed in the house to make them from scratch.

Also, I really really couldn’t wait to use the new glass spout bowl for my KitchenAid mixer.

After a bit of research, I found a few recipes that I thought were doable, and created  my own version. So, for this  recipe, I used dark chocolate chips instead of baker’s chocolate as the base. Because of this, I didn’t need as much sugar as the chocolate chips have a bit of sweetness added. Also, I added some white chocolate chips to the batter, and they were twice as chocolatey.

Scratch Brownies
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour plus 1 TBS
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup dark chocolate chips (semi sweet chocolate chips would be fine too)
1 stick of butter
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish and set aside.

In a small bowl, toss the 1TBS of flour with the white chocolate chips and set aside (this prevents chocolate chips from sinking to bottom of the brownies).

In a large bowl, sift together  the 1 1/4 cups flour, baking soda and salt, and set aside.

In a double boiler (I use a heat safe glass bowl over slightly simmer water), melt butter and dark chocolate chips together, stirring occasionally. Once completely melted together, remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together sugar, eggs, and vanilla until well incorporated. Next, set the mixer to low, and carefully and slowly add the chocolate and butter mixture. Then, add half the flour mixture until just incorporated, and then the other half of the flour mixture. Be sure to not over mix.

Carefully, fold in the white chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the baking dish, and bake for 20-22 minutes.

These brownies would be great served warm with some vanilla ice cream, but we dug right in after dinner with tall glasses of milk.

To get a printable version of this recipe CLICK HERE!

For more information about Smart Cookies, click here. You can also try these other Smart Cookie Recipes.

For past Smart Cookie recipes, check out the links below:
Oatmeal Dark Chocolate and Dried Cherry Cookies, Lucy Cookies, White Chocolate and Cranberry Blondies, Chocolate Dipped Vanilla Biscotti,  Italian Butter Cookies with Lemon Glaze, and Salted Carmel and Dark Chocolate Truffles, Irish Creme Delights, Erin’s Light Lemon Squares, Salted Caramel Brownies, Cran Apple Cookies, Pumpkin Cookies with Cinnamon Glaze

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A Little Treat: Brownie Pops

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Cake Pops seem to be all the rage right now. In fact, all portable or teeny tiny desserts seem to be quite popular. My friend Jocelyn over at Grandbaby Cakes recently made two different kinds of pie pops (here and here).

I get the appeal. They are cute and usually decorated adorably. Also, miniature desserts also play into what I like to call “the fun size logic.” This is the logic that because something is smaller, you can eat more of them without any guilt. Kind of like fun size candy bars.
Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.
Anyway, I thought I would try my hand at these teeny tiny desserts, and I made brownie pops.
For this recipe, I used my favorite Betty Crocker box brownie mix and baked them according to the directions. Typically, I like scratch brownies best (like these), but I was afraid they would fall apart too easily. You can bake any kind of brownies you like.
Once the brownies were baked and cooled completely. I put them in the refrigerator for about two hours just to harden them a little more. The last thing I wanted was for them to be falling apart.
While the brownies were in the fridge I gathered up the rest of what I would need.
1 package lollipop sticks
1 package Wilton Candy Melts in white.
and rainbow sprinkles.
I cut the brownies into 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inch rectangles. I found that this size worked well.
I then inserted a lollipop stick into each brownie like so.
Next, I melted the candy melts in my double boiler. Once they were a smooth consistency I tipped the brownies in the mixture and then immediately in the sprinkles.
Ta Da!
A pretty and portable sweet treat. Maybe I will let the kids have two, you know because they are fun size.

Smart Cookies: Salted Caramel Brownies

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If you follow Home Everyday on Facebook, you’ll know I mentioned last night that I am on the salted caramel bandwagon. After making salted caramel dark chocolate truffles in February, I thought it was time to do something with this flavor combination again.

Leave to to Ina Garten, one of my favorite Food Network chefs, to give me the idea for this month’s Smart Cookie recipe.

The first time I make anything, I typically follow the recipe exactly and then I doctor it up or change what I don’t think my family will like. I do NOT think I will have to do that with this recipe. Everything is perfect. The only suggestion I might make is if you don’t want to make the brownies from scratch, I would say it is ok to use your favorite box mix and then add 3/4 of a cup of chocolate chips. Then, follow the rest of the directions.

Without further ado, here is the recipe or you can click here.

Salted Caramel Brownies

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter
8 ounces plus 6 ounces Hershey’s semisweet chocolate chips
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 extra-large eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee granules, such as Nescafe
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
5 to 6 ounces good caramel sauce
2 to 3 teaspoons flaked sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9 x 12 x 1 1/2-inch baking pan.

Melt the butter, 8 ounces of the chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate together in a medium bowl set over simmering water. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.

 

In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, sift together 1/2 cup of the flour, the baking powder, and salt and add to the chocolate mixture. Toss the remaining 6 ounces of chocolate chips and the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour in a medium bowl and add them to the chocolate mixture.

Spread evenly in the prepared pan.



Bake for 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Don’t overbake!



As soon as the brownies are out of the oven, place the jar of caramel sauce without the lid in a microwave and heat just until it’s pourable. Stir until smooth. Drizzle the caramel evenly over the hot brownies and sprinkle with the sea salt.


Cool completely and cut into bars.

WARNING! MUST HAVE MILK ON HAND! These brownies are tasty and very rich.

For past Smart Cookie recipes, check out the links below:
Oatmeal Dark Chocolate and Dried Cherry Cookies, Lucy Cookies, White Chocolate and Cranberry Blondies, Chocolate Dipped Vanilla Biscotti,  Italian Butter Cookies with Lemon Glaze, and Salted Carmel and Dark Chocolate Truffles, Irish Creme Delights, Erin’s Light Lemon Squares.

Big Kids Now: Cherry Cola (Pop) Brownies

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I know this week has been a little “kid heavy” in the way of posting, but here’s why:

 

My boys started school this week. They were SO excited. I don’t know if you can tell
However, for bearing with my crazy pictures of my knuckelheads, I will reward you with a recipe.
To celebrate heading back to school, and the boys having a great first day, Coco and I decided to make the boys a treat. 

 

I dug through my baking cabinet and found a box of brownie mix. I wanted something a little doctored up (after all this is a special occasion), and I found this recipe on the Betty Crocker website. I LOVE CHERRY POP (yes, I just said pop. I’m from Chicago, deal with it people). We always have cherry pop of some kind in our house as it is my favorite.
Anyway, what grabbed my attention about this recipe (other than containing cherry pop) is it only contains one egg. My boys have a slight egg white sensitivity, so I like to find recipes that have one or no eggs or can easily have substitutions for eggs. Also, the picture totally captured my eye. The kids like anything with a cherry on top.
So we baked. 

 

 

The kids loved, mom and dad loved. It doesn’t get much better than this people. 

Linking up with Adorned from Above.