Double Fudge Brownies or I Love Paula Deen

Paula Deen needs to be related to me. I don't think any television cook has ever made me as happy as she has. The recipes in her magazines never fail to delight my guests and are so easy! Even her layer cakes are, well, a piece of cake.

Anyway, before I drool all over the keyboard, here is the recipe for my 'go to' brownie. I made a little icing for them - the recipe included below. But honestly, if you let the brownies cool and sit overnight, they really don't need icing. The flavors will have deepened and the fudgy texture develops. Or, like Josh, you just might need your brownies to have icing.
Enjoy!

Double Fudge Brownies
Paula Deen Holiday Baking 2007

1c. sugar
3/4c. firmly packed brown sugar
3/4c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4c. Swiss Mocha flavored instant coffee mix
1 1/4c. all purpose flour
3/4c. chocolate chips
1 c. butter, softened
4 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 13x9" baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, beat all ingredients except chocolate chipson medium speed until smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.

3. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Bake for 30 min.

Icing:
Combine 1c. powdered sugar, 1/4c. cocoa, 1 t. vanilla and 1/4c. milk. Add extra powdered sugar until spreadable consistency.

Mom's Halloween Birthday

It is my Mom's birthday. On Halloween, I know. We actually like having her birthday on Halloween because it gives us a good excuse when we are trying to get out of another brutal Halloween party. This way we can hand out candy to the cute little kids, and then turn out the lights and watch a movie when the older, more obnoxious 'trick or treaters' come around. This year A & J opened their home to the party. A good idea because they are in a new neighborhood with lots of young families so we had adecent turn out of cute little kids. It also gave A a chance to practice her baking skills with me as we attempted my mom's birthday cake. I say attempt because I hate making layer cakes. I never end up with an even looking tower. It's always lopsided or one layer is careening off the top.

To stack the deck in my favor, I chose a cake from my beloved Paula Deen. Her cakes look amazing, are easy to prepare and I am sure cannot fail. This specific one is out of her Christmas Baking 2007 magazine which mom picked up for me in the States. I have poured over this magazine so many times that I probably know where every recipe is in it. The cake turned out really well with nice, even layers. The icing tasted really yummy the night we made it and was ten times better the next day. I think I will use it on cupcakes in the future. The layers of cake were light and moist and did not rise up with too much of a dome so the cake stayed flat. Next time I will partly freeze the layers first before icing as it was a little difficult with them slightly warm. I used the Pam Baking spray again and the layers fell out of the pan perfectly.

When we sliced the cake open, it looked so even and delicious. It tasted even better. The cake went a long way. It is quite rich and half the cake fed 9 people generously. Looks like alot of work, really wasn't. Oh, and the orange and black balls on top are malt balls, Halloween edition. Ciao!

Chocolate Malt Cake
Paula Deen's Holiday Magazine
Ingredients for cake:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 cup malted milk powder - such as Ovaltine
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Malted Milk Balls for garnish

Ingredients for icing:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup cocoa
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup malted milk powder
5 cups powdered sugar

Directions for Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 - 9" cake pans.
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder.
In a small bowl, combine milk and malted milk powder, stirring to dissolve.
Add milk mixture, oil and eggs to flour mixture, beating at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.
Add sour cream and vanilla, beating until just combined.
Pour batter evenly into pans, and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool and then remove from pans. Spread icing between layers and on top and sides of cake. Garnish with malted milk balls.

Directions for icing:
In a large bowl, beat butter and cocoa powder at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
In a small bowl, combine cream and malted milk powder, stirring to dissolve. Add cream mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed to combine. Gradually beat in icing sugar until spreadable.

A Twist on the Marshmallow Brownie

I don't like to mess with recipes. Sometimes I will add chocolate chips or change the type of liquer used, but for the most part I stick to what is written. Baking is too much of a science to mess with it, and while I admire greatly those cooks who can create and change a recipe, I know it will never be a skill of mine.

Somehow, though, shortly after making the Butterscotch Marshmallow Blondies, I got the brainstorm to rearrange the chips used and create something new. I won't say that this is the brownie winner of winners, but I would make it again with some changes especially because I like the taste of brownies better than blondies.

The only difference I made to the blondie recipe a couple of posts down is to switch the chocolate chips in for the butterscotch and the butterscotch in for the chocolate chips. The only problem with this is that I think butterscotch chips are genetically made different than their chocolate kin and work well as a dough base, whereas the chocolate chips kept the dough kind of dry.

You will also notice in the picture that the marshmallows blew up in the oven and left craters in the top of the brownies. There goes all the gooey marshmallow goodness in the middle of the bars. To remedy this, and I wish I would have thought of it earlier, I would have mixed the marshmallows into 2/3's of the dough and spread into the pan and then spread the remaining 1/3 dough over the top so that the marshmallows were encased inside. That would have been brilliant and way yummier.

So the bottom line is, the switch was do-able and delicious, it just needed more fine tuning. All in all, I love this recipe whether I eat it as chocolate or butterscotch.
Ciao!

Browniebabe of the Month

I really do have a love - hate relationship with Brownies. I love eating them, I hate making them. So it was with great trepidation that I decided to make an entry for Browniebabe of the Month hosted by Once Upon A Tart.
I am not sure what I do wrong exactly. They burn, they sink in the middle, they stay goo-like, they taste like a bad chocolate cake. In every way, my brownies to not make the mark. Well I cant say that entirely. My Malt Brownies are delicious and I wrote a whole post on them, but I do not think that that is a norm with me. The humidity in the air must have been just right or maybe I greased the pan properly or maybe my eggs were fresher than normal. Whatever the case, they worked and I have had at least three failed attempts since. What a big disappointment.
You will notice that my entry is from the blondie family, and for good reason. I honestly think it is the cocoa that is messing me up. I don't think I can properly see what color the batter is turning in the oven. Are they getting too dark? Are they still way too fudgy? So maybe without the chocolate base, I had the chance of being successful.
Turns out, my theory may have been correct. They turned out really nice. I know the pic isnt great, but you have to take my word for it. Even Justin, with a definite hangover, managed to eat an entire one and declared it delicious.
I didn't make many changes to the recipe except to add more baking time. The recipe can be found in various forms on Allrecipes by searching Marshmallow Brownies or Butterscotch Blondies.
Just be forwarned the mixture, before baking, looks like not even close to enough batter and way too many marshmallows. But never fear, those marshmallows turn into the gooey Blondie product in the end.
Ciao!

Marshmallow Butterscotch Blondies
1/2 cup butter
1 cup butterscotch chips
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
Using a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Pour in the butterscotch chips, stirring occasionally until smooth. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, stir together the brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
Mix in the melted butterscotch chips, then the flour, baking powder, and salt until smooth.
Stir in the marshmallows and chocolate chips last.
Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking pan. The batter will barely cover the bottom of the pan.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in preheated oven. Cool, and cut into squares.

Chocolate and Laundry

A night at home and piles upon piles of laundry to do. I don't think that laundry is ever a chore that you can fully say "I'm done!" and walk away. Sadly, no matter how much I wash, there is always twice as much spilling out of the basket. Now I wish I had taken bathrooms when Josh and I first divied up chores.

In amongst the sorting and folding, I felt like chocolate last night. Well I felt like baking and the chocolate craving followed. Here I thought we had bought so many groceries and yet I found myself with very little cocoa and flour and no chocolate chips to be found. That made my choice of recipes quite limited so I settled on these peanut butter chip brownie cups. These are circulating throughout the blogging world but I think they actually originated on Allrecipes. I have a few versions in my files but this one seems to be the best. I would certainly use smaller muffin papers so they look prettier but Josh's office is not picky about such things. They just want to eat. The reviews were raves and I honestly don't have any suggestions to make them better. The recipe said I would end up with 16 and I had 26, I guess it depends how big you make them. Mine were 4 bites, give or take. Actually, if baked in the mini foil papers for Christmas they would be very yummy one biters, though I think the bake time would need to be played with. Also, 25 minutes was perfect, not too gooey and not too dry.

Ciao!

Peanut Butter Brownie Cups Makes 24
Ingredients
1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
3/4 cup cocoa
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package Peanut Butter Baking Chips

Directions
Heat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper or foil bake cups.
In large microwave-safe bowl, place butter. Microwave until melted.
Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs; beat well. Add cocoa; beat until well blended. Add flour, baking powder and salt; beat well. Stir in peanut butter chips.
Divide batter evenly into muffin cups; Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until surface is firm; cool completely in pan on wire rack.

Another Flop - Brownies, What A Surprise

So I really want to try all the recipes floating around my house, really I do. But I am starting to shy away from the strangers. They aren't so friendly lately.

Last night it was getting late and I really wanted to make brownies for Josh to take to work. I pulled out a new recipe that I had found in my Grandma's cupboard when we moved her. For some reason we had never made it before which shocked me because Grandma is big on bar cookie recipes, even though many of them have not worked for her either. This one came from a Robin Hood Flour magazine insert, though, which makes me wonder why it wasn't better. Normally the recipes that come from product labels and their adverts are quite good.

OK, so this one was partly my fault and partly the recipes. I am going to post the recipe eventually so that someone else can maybe try it and see if it was actually all my fault. Chances are it was. The recipe is in two parts: a chocolate shortbread crust and then a gooey egg and coconut mixture that is supposed to ooze into the shortbread layer during the second baking. The shortbread layer tasted bad when I made it - not enough sugar maybe and too much shortening? - but I baked it and it came out really nice. The second layer I messed up. It calls for eggs and brown sugar to be beaten as if you are making a pecan tart filling. I only had white sugar and figured that there would be no harm, so much coconut and chocolate chips were being added that they would even it out. Not so. The white sugar made a coconut meringue type substance that baked crispy on the top of the brownie and stayed gooey in the middle. When I tried to cut the darn things, the crisp layer seperated from the gooey layer which seperated from the shortbread layer.

Josh and I did taste the final result and it was quite good, the shortbread layer was actually a welcome change from the intense sweetness of the coconut layer. I think if I saved it and served a heap of vanilla icecream over top, no one would notice the unattractive nature of the squares. (Josh did manage to cut 4 squares that looked presentable). It definitely would be a good brownie icecream pairing.

So try them out if you think the brown sugar mistake might have been the only problem. Like I said, Robin Hood flour has never steared me wrong before. Must have been me.
Ciao!

Black Bottom Coconut Dream Bars
Crust:
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2c. shortening
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted

Combine flour and sugar. Add shortening and chocolate, mix until blended. Press into ungreased 9" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Filling:
2 eggs
1 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1 1/2c. coconut
1c. chocolate chips
1/2c. walnuts
1t. vanilla

Beat eggs until thick and light in color. Gradually beat in sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy.
Mix flour and baking powder, fold into egg mixture.
Stir in coconut, chips, nuts and vanilla. Spread over baked crust in pan.
Bake 35 minutes or until light brown. Cool and cut into bars.

Success

After Sundays frustration with the oven, I was determined to make proper granola last night. I suppose I could have eaten the last dregs of Kashi cereal in the cupboard and not bothered to do anything at all (except watch some Frasier and sip a glass of Chardonnay), but I hate to eat the bottom of the bag of cereal. I always feel that there must be something wrong with it. Why hasn't it been eaten up by now? Is it even remotely fresh at this point? Or will I chip a tooth and be more miserable than I was after the granola disaster? In the end, more work for better cereal. And it was definitely better. I ran out of cranberries but we discovered dried pineapple at Community Health and Josh fell in love with it. So that was chopped up along with the usual fare and I stirred the brown sugar in before the oil and honey which i think made it mix better. The real solution to the burning, though, was to use a 35o degree oven and cook until barely 15 minutes had passed. It was golden and chewy and crisp at the same time and, this morning with yogurt, was absolute heaven.

My other project last night was to use up the jar of Nutella in the fridge that taunts me. What is better than Nutella licked from a spoon? I could devour that calorie laden spread if I didn't come up with some ways to use it. I had never heard of baking with Nutella which is odd because it has the texture and creamy-ness of peanut butter so it should be quite versatile. Once I started reading blogs, I realized I was not the only one with a Nutella obsession. Cheesecakes, crepes, cookies and cakes were experimented with and deamed worthy of the Nutella goodness. So I found a cookie recipe at Alpineberry that seemed simple and had at it. This cookie is similar to a peanut butter cookie in terms of crumb and texture but the addition of cocoa and chocolate chips adds an incredible richness. Josh's office loved them this morning with coffee and I think they just might be worthy of a recipe card...

Ciao!

Nutella Cookies

(makes 30 cookies)

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

7 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temp.

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup light brown sugar

2/3 cup Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup toasted & skinned hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350F.
Sift together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside dry ingredients.

Cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in Nutella and vanilla extract. Mix in egg.

Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated.

Add chocolate chips and hazelnuts.

Drop tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for about 11 minutes until the edges look set. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then carefully remove to cooling racks.

And now for something yummy...

Because I love cake and I am forcing myself to not bake in lieu of healthier food, I am just going to post every yummy recipe I want to make but can't. So there!

Ina Garten’s Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake
½ pound unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 extra-large eggs at room temperature
¼ cup grated orange zest (from 4 large oranges)
3 cups all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
¾ cup buttermilk at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups good semisweet chocolate chunks
Syrup:
¼ cup sugar
¼ cups freshly squeezed orange juice
Ganache:
8 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan.
2. Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the orange zest.
3. Sift together 3 cups flour, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the orange juice, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately in thirds to the creamed butter, beginning and ending with the flour. Toss the chocolate chunks with 2 tablespoons flour and add to the batter. Pour into the pan, smooth the top, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, make the syrup. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the sugar with the orange juice until the sugar dissolves. Remove the cake from the pan, set it on a rack over a tray, and spoon the orange syrup over the cake. Allow the cake to cool completely.
5. For the ganache, melt the chocolate, heavy cream, and coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

Chocolate Coconut Buttercream Cupcakes

Of all the yumminess in the baking world, I think cupcakes are pretty far up the list. This flavor is our favorite. It was discovered while trying Crave in Kensington for the first time. Their cupcakes are heaven and big and expensive. So if this is anything like that one was, then Josh will love me forever and I won't need Crave anymore... and all that from a cupcake.

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cupcakes
24 regular cupcakes / 350 degree oven
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
1-1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition.
3. Measure the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and espresso powder into a medium sized bowl and whisk to combine.
4. Measure the milk and vanilla into a measuring thing.
5. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.
6. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 3/4’s full. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Coconut Buttercream Frosting
1-1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
1-1/2 cups coconut, sweetened flaked
1. Beat butter briefly, scrape bowl.
2. Add the sifted powdered sugar and milk. Beat until smooth.
3. Add coconut and mix until combined.