Brrr-ownies

Brownies are like chocolate chip cookies, there are a zillion recipes out there. Do you have a favorite recipe you always make? Or are you like me and you keep trying new recipes? I first saw this recipe on my friend Susan's blog. I bookmarked it and bought the mints immediately. Then what do I do? I forget about them. I was looking for toffee chips and burried in the basket were the mints. These are my favorite kind of brownie, gooey, chocolately with the addition of the flavor of mint.

The gooeyness of these made it hard to cut them into nice squares. I wonder if chilling them would have helped? Regardless they were delicious. This recipe goes in the make again soon file!!

Brrr-ownies (found on page 103 of Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan).
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 5 pieces
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 cup (6 ozs) York Peppermint Pattie Bites (or equal weight of patties) chopped into bits
Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8 inch square baking pan with foil. Butter the foil and place the pan on a baking sheet.
Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Put the butter in the bowl, top with chopped chocolates and stir occasionally until the ingredients are just melted - you don't want then to get so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the pan of water.
With a whisk, stir in the sugar. Don't be concerned when your smooth mixture turns grainy. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla and whisk vigorously to bring the batter together and give it a shine before gently stirring in the salt and flour; stir only until incorporated. Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in the peppermint pieces. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with the rubber spatula.
Bake the brownies for 30 to 33 minutes, or until the top is dull and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out almost clean. (The tip of the knife may be a touch streaky) Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature.
When they are completely cool, turn out onto a rack, peel away the foil and invert onto a cutting board. Cut into 16 2 inch squares.

I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday's, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday's and Tuesday's at the Table.

Brownies & Key Lime Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches

You know how a lot of people seem to be in search of the best chocolate chip cookie recipe? For me, it's the best brownie recipe. The Omaha paper had a best brownie contest a few weeks ago. I submitted my favorite recipe. My recipe wasn't chosen but it was fun to enter. When I saw Tiffany of A Spoonful and a Heap had chosen Chocolate (Walnut) Brownies for this week's SMS, I wondered if this one would end up being my new favorite.

The recipe calls for 45 to 50 minutes of baking time. Since my oven tends to run a little hot, I set it for 40 minutes. I didn't check it before the 40 minutes were up. I should have. 40 minutes was too long. Not that these are overdone, they're just not that "ooey gooey" brownie that I love. The flavor was pretty good but I like my "ooey gooey" brownies to be really chocolatey. These didn't have enough chocolate for me. They also tasted a little salty. I think that means when I didn't think I'd put the salt in, I already had :).

In honor of National Ice Cream Day, Suzy at Kitchen Bouquet is having an Ice Cream Social. All week, I've been contemplating what to make. Since these brownies came out a little dry, how about using the not so "ooey gooey" brownies for Ice Cream Sandwiches?

Recently, I've seen a couple of recipes on the blogsphere for Key Lime Pie Ice Cream.
After some searching, I found this Food Network Recipe. As luck would have it, I had all of the ingredients on hand. No trip to the store required, that's a good thing. I omitted the lime zest. My experience with zest in ice cream, is it all seems to gum up in one spot. Also, no graham crackers needed since, I was using this for ice cream sandwiches.

I wish I had planned in advance to make these brownies for ice cream sandwiches. I'd have used a different pan, one where they would have been thinner. I decided to take a chance and cut them in half. I had some casualties, so I have multiple sizes of Ice Cream Sandwiches.

If you like the flavor of key limes, this ice cream is for you. It's very tart but the chocolate sandwiches help balance it out. I can't wait to try Ice Cream Sandwiches again and this time I will plan in advance.




Key Lime Pie Ice Cream
Courtesy of Food Network

1 1/2 cups sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup lime juice
1 teaspoon lime zest
4 to 6 graham crackers, for garnish
Directions
Mix ingredients together and refrigerate until cold. Pour into ice cream maker and mix for 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to another container and place plastic wrap on ice cream and cover container tightly with a lid. Place in freezer for several hours.

When ready to serve, garnish with graham crackers.

Black Bottom Brownies - SMS

As you're reading this post, we're enjoying the sunshine of a Caribbean cruise. We're enroute from Fort Lauderdale to the Cayman Islands aboard the Crown Princess.

Brownies are one of those desserts that can so easily overbake. I have the hardest time telling whether or not they are done. These were no exception. The cream cheese filling began to brown, so I pulled them out a few minutes early. The texture and flavor were perfect. Not sure what I did but my cream cheese seemed a little too soft and as a result my chocolate chips sank down on top of the chocolate layer. Everyone at my house loved these, they were gone in no time!!!




Thanks to Cynthia of Bakingtherapist for choosing a yummy recipe. Check out the other baker's creations here!

SCORE!! - Snow Flecked Brownies - Sweet and Simple Bakes

No I haven't taken up hockey or football. I finally feel like I've scored with a Sweet and Simple Bakes recipe. If you've been following my Sweet and Simple Bakes posts you know I have had less than baking perfection with my recipes. The main reason for my flops has been because I didn't own a scale. I knew I needed to be the proud owner of a scale in time for this month's Sweet and Simple Bakes because these flops were getting frustrating.

Since we've had a lot of sweets lately, I decided to cut this decadent recipe in half and use a 9" square pan. Measuring by weight is so much easier than measuring in cups. Also, everything I read indicates how much more accurate it is as well.

I always have trouble knowing when brownies are done. This recipe said when these were done the tops would take on a slightly paler speckle color. Mine didn't seem to do that, so I baked them the required time and just hoped they weren't overdone.

These brownies are so delicious! I used a combination of milk chocolate and semi sweet chocolate chips for the chopped chocolate. I will be making these brownies again. I want to try different types of chips next time I make these. Maybe even some toffee chips.

Thanks to Rosie and for hosting Sweet and Simple Bakes. There's lots of creative and talented bakers in Sweet and Simple Bakes, you'll be able to check out their brownies here on 12/2.



Snow-Flecked Brownies

Ingredients
375g best quality dark chocolate
375g unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
6 eggs (large)
350g caster sugar (superfine)
1 teaspoon salt
225g plain flour
250g white chocolate buttons or chips, or white chocolate chopped into chunks (or your own choice of chocolate)
2 tsp icing sugar, for dusting

Tin measuring approx 33cm x 23cm x 5.5cm

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/350F.

Line the sides and base of a 33 x 23 x 5.5com baking tin with foil or baking parchment.

Melt the butter and dark chocolate together in a large heavy based pan.

In a bowl or wide mouthed large measuring jug, beat the eggs together with the caster sugar and vanilla extract.

Allow the chocolate mixture to cool a little, then add the egg and sugar mixture and beat well. Fold in the flour and salt. Then stir in the white chocolate buttons or choped white chocolate. Beat to combine then scrape and pour the brownie mixture into the prepared tin.

Bake for 25 minutes, You can see when the brownies are ready because the top dries to a slightly paler brown speckle, while the middle remains dark, dense and gooey. Even with such a big batch you do need to keep checking on it: the difference between gungey brownies and dry ones is only a few minutes. Remember, too, that they will continue to cook as they cool.

To serve, cut into squares while still warm and pile up on a large plate, sprinkling with icing sugar pushed with a teaspoon through a small sieve.