Recipe #7: Ultimate Double Chocolate Brownies

Having some peppermint baking chips in my cupboard, I decided to take a regular chocolate brownie recipe and add the peppermint baking chips to make another mint brownie.  I chose to use the following recipe from the 2003 Taste of Home's Christmas Cookies recipe collection.

Ultimate Double Chocolate Brownies
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup butter or margarine, melted, divided
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks

In a large bowl, combine cocoa and baking soda; blend in 1/3 cup melted butter.  Add boiling water; stir until well blended.  Stir in sugar, eggs and remaining butter.  Add flour, vanilla and salt.  Stir in the pecans and chocolate chunks.  Pour into a greased 13-in x 9-in x 2-in pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan.  Cool.

The only change I made to the recipe was to add about 1 cup of peppermint chips to the batter and then I sprinkled the rest of the chips on the top of the brownies after they came out of the oven.  The chips did not stick to the top very well, so I waited until the chips melted and I spread them over the top the brownies.  Since the melted peppermint chips did not fully cover the brownies, I also melted about a cup and a half of vanilla chips, mixed in some peppermint extract and spread that over the top of the melted peppermint pieces.

The Review

on a scale of 1 to 5

• Overall Rating: 4
• Recipe Difficulty
• Rating: 2 (Mild difficulty)
• The recipe calls for a little more than just simply mixing the ingredients together with the addition of the boiling water, but overall the recipe comes together fairly quickly and easily.

• Taste
• Rating: 4 (good)
• The brownie has a good chocolate taste.  I could not really taste much of the peppermint in the brownie itself from the addition of the peppermint chips.  
• The chocolate of the brownie blends well with the peppermint topping.
• The taste of the topping reminds me of peppermint bark, which I guess it really is since it is a mixture of melted white chocolate chips and peppermint.

• Texture
• Rating: 4 (good)
• These brownies have a good, dense texture. 
• Just like peppermint bark, the topping is a bit firm and has a tendency to fall off while one eats the brownie.

• Husband's Opinion
• The husband likes the brownies and says that if he had these brownies before the previous mint brownies, he would really like them.
  

• Hints and tips
• Since the butter needs to be divided (in half), I simply melted each 1/3 cup of butter in separate bowls so I did not need to divide the entire amount after it was melted.
• Using my stoneware baking dish, I had to cook the brownies for 5 extra minutes (for a total of 45 minutes).

• Would I make these brownies (bars) again?
• I definitely would make the actual brownie recipe again, though I would make the mint topping from the chocolate mint bar recipe instead for the top if I wanted to give them a minty taste. 
• I don't know if I would add the peppermint chips next time, especially to the batter since it did not make much difference in the taste of the brownie itself.

Break from Brownies: A Very Cinnamony Thursday

I did not make any brownies last weekend because we were busy with other activities. 

Yesterday, I apparently had a craving for cinnamon and sugar because I made three different treats coated with cinnamon and sugar: cinnamon rolls, snickerdoodles, and pie crust cookies.

To make the cinnamon rolls, I used this sweet dinner roll recipe and split it in half.  Half of the dough I made into dinner rolls and the other half I made into cinnamon rolls.  Instead of using all white flour, I substituted 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour and then just used 2 1/4 cups white flour. 

Snickerdoodles are one of my husband's favorite cookie recipes.  I find this recipe works best for us.  It appears I was a little heavy handed with the cinnamon in the coating mix.

The final treat I made was pie crust cookies.  I did not make any pies yesterday; instead, I used the pie crust recipe from the Kitchen Aid mixer cookbook and used half of the dough to make the cookies.  I rolled the dough out until it was very thin, coated it with butter, and covered with cinnamon and sugar.  I then baked them for a little over 8 minutes at 450 degrees F. 

Now we have plenty of cinnamony treats to enjoy for the next few weeks.

Do you have a favorite cinnamon recipe?

Recipe #6: Caramel Brownies II

Caramel Brownie

I've decided to stay on the trend of trying out slightly more complex brownie recipes that include another flavor in addition to chocolate.  With the recent start of fall, I felt that caramel brownies would be a good choice.

Nearly all the recipes I looked at on allrecipes.com included the same basic ingredients and the same basic steps.  All the ones that I looked at involved using a cake box mix, usually German chocolate.  I decided to go with the recipe for Caramel Brownies II for no real specific reason except that it looked good. 

The Ingredients

The Bottom Layer

The Chocolate Chips

The Finished Product

The Review

on a scale of 1 to 5

• Overall Rating: 4
• Recipe Difficulty
• Rating: 3 (Moderate)
• The process of mixing the ingredients is relatively simple.  It takes a little bit of time to melt the caramels since it is important not to overheat the caramels, so the cook cannot be in a hurry. 
• The unwrapping of all the caramels is a bit time consuming as well.

• Taste
• Rating: 4 (good)
• With a layer of chocolate and caramel in the middle, how can one go wrong with the taste?  
• I noticed that the chocolate and caramel dominates the flavor so the taste of the actual brownie portion is lost.

• Texture
• Rating: 4 (good)
• These brownies are extremely soft and chewy because of the caramel.  Even after the brownies cooled completely, the caramel stayed soft and chewy.

• Husband's Opinion
• I don't have my husband's official opinion except that he said he liked the brownies when he first ate one.
  

• Hints and tips
• Definitely begin this process with melting the caramels and wait until they are nearly all melted before mixing the other ingredients
• I found that I had to cook the brownies for an additional 10 minutes past the recommended time.  This might come from the use of my stoneware pan.
• I recommend that you cook the brownies until they appear set in the middle since you cannot use a cake tester or toothpick to test the doneness.
• When you place the remaining brownie batter on the top of the melted caramel, you do not have to worry about the batter completely covering every portion of the base.

• Would I make these brownies (bars) again?
• The richness of the caramels would keep me from making these brownies very often, but it is an effective recipe that I would use again if I felt the urge for caramel in my brownies.
• I would be interested in trying this recipe again with a different flavor cake mix, like dark chocolate.

Recipe #5: Chocolate Mint Bars

This week's recipe came as a request from my sister.  She saw the recipe for Chocolate Mint Bars in the Cooking Light Special Edition 2011 magazine.  The recipe can also be found at this link.

While not officially titled a brownie, the bottom layer has a typical brownie like texture and it just looked extra yummy, so I had to make it.

I will admit that I did not follow the recipe exactly because I went ahead and used three whole eggs instead of two eggs and the egg substitute, and I used whole milk instead of fat free milk because that is what I had in the house.  I also did not have two full cups of powdered sugar, so I only made three-fourths of the peppermint filling, but it seemed to be enough to cover the bottom layer.

The Review

on a scale of 1 to 5

• Overall Rating: 4
• Recipe Difficulty
• Rating: 3 (Moderate)
• There are three separate stages to this recipe that requires some extra time to complete.  The mixing of the ingredients does not require any extra skill, but having to wait at least one hour between each stage takes some extra patience and advance planning.

• Taste
• Rating: 4 (good)
• The bottom layer has a good chocolate flavor.  With the use of chocolate syrup, it does not have a strong fudgy taste, but the chocolate taste still goes well with the topping.
• The mint topping is delicious and I think that it could be used to make homemade peppermint patties.
• The chocolate glaze on top is also quite yummy.

• Texture
• Rating: 4 (good)
• These bars are soft with a dense cake-like texture.  Not exactly fudge-like, but close.
• Even though these bars are kept in the fridge, the top layers are just soft enough to make it easy to bite through without falling apart and making a huge mess.
  

• Husband's Opinion
• My husband is a big fan of these bars as are his coworkers.
• Their main statement is that these are rich enough that just eating one leaves the eater satisfied.

• Hints and tips
• Give yourself plenty of time to work on this project so you do not feel rushed to get them together.
• I actually made these brownies the day before and let the bottom two layers sit (covered) in the fridge overnight before I added the glaze.  I then let them sit in the fridge for another four hours before I cut them.
• Keep them in the fridge for as long as possible before serving them.  This will keep the top layer from melting and making a mess. 
• I also cut these into smaller bars than the recipe calls for, so I was able to share them with more people, and the smaller pieces (about 1.5 inches square) seemed to be enough to satisfy.

• Would I make these brownies (bars) again?
• Definitely!  I love mint candies, and this bar reminded me of peppermint patties.  I think that the next time I will make the full batch of the middle filling (and maybe a little extra) and add a little more peppermint flavoring to make it stronger.

Recipe #4: Chewy Peanut Butter Brownies

This week I decided to shake up the experiment a bit and make some peanut butter brownies.  I was actually looking to make some peanut butter brownies that also had chocolate mixed into it (hoping it might taste a little like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup), but I did not have all the ingredients on hand for the recipes that I found, so I ended up selecting Chewy Peanut Butter Brownies at allrecipes.com.

The only change I made to the recipe is that I used butter instead of margarine.

The Review

on a scale of 1 to 5

• Overall Rating: 4
• Recipe Difficulty
• Rating: 1 (Easy)
• The recipe itself is well written and easy to follow.  All one has to do is measure the ingredients and mix them in a bowl.

• Taste
• Rating: 3.5 (decent)
• I have not had many peanut butter brownies, so I really do not have much to compare these to.
• The peanut butter taste is not too strong, but is strong enough that you can tell that the peanut butter is present.
• The brownies covered with semi-sweet chocolate also have a good taste and provides a good balance between the two flavors (although not quite like a Reese's)

• Texture
• Rating: 4 (good)
• These brownies are chewy just as the title suggests.
• They have a more cake-like texture.
• I used chunky peanut butter, which adds a little crunch to the brownie that reminds the eater of the peanut butter's presence.
  

• Husband's Opinion
• The husband says that he does not like these as well as the first three brownies.
• This opinion is supported by the fact that he has only eaten one.

• Hints and tips
• I would highly recommend the use of a Measure-All cup to measure the peanut butter.  The ability to push the peanut butter out of the cup after measuring means that all of the peanut butter will end up in the batter.
• I covered half of the brownies with semi-sweet chocolate to add a little chocolate taste to the brownie.

• Would I make these brownies again?
• For an alternative to chocolate brownies, these are pretty good and I would make them again, especially if I did not have any chocolate around the house.

Recipe #3: Mmm-Mmm Better Brownies

Mmm-Mmm Better Brownies - how can anyone resist such a title for a recipe.  Since this recipe claims to be better (and because it uses oil instead of butter and I have some oil I need to use up before it goes bad), I decided to make it this week's trial recipe

The first four ingredients are easy to mix together by hand.  Since this recipe calls for oil instead of butter, one does not have to take the time to soften or melt the butter before mixing it all together.

This time I made sure to mix the dry ingredients together with a wire whisk to ensure that the cocoa was not lumpy before adding it to the oil and sugar mixture.

I've had this neat pan for a number of years now and have never used it, so I decided to give it a try today.  As you can see below, the brownies came out of each square without falling apart.  I reduced the cooking time to 15 minutes, and they seemed to have come out just right.

The Review

on a scale of 1 to 5

• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Recipe Difficulty
• Rating: 1 (Easy)
• There is no extra work involved in mixing together these brownies.  Just measure the ingredients and mix them together in the bowl.

• Taste
• Rating: 3.5 (decent)
• The first brownie I tried had an overpowering oily taste, so I decided to let the brownies cool down even more and try again.  The second sample did not have this oily taste.
• The brownies have a lighter chocolate taste than the recipe from last week.   
• While mostly dense in texture, they do not have a strong fudgy taste.
• Texture
• Rating: 4 (good)
• The brownies (as I made them anyways) had a mostly dense texture.  The middle of the brownies are a bit sunken, so more batter is likely needed.
  

• Hints and tips
• Apparently it is important to also let these brownies cool completely before eating or you might taste more of the oil than you would like.
• If I use this baking pan again for this recipe, I will likely double the recipe so the brownies will have a thicker middle.

• Would I make these brownies again?
• I would most likely make these brownies again if I did not have any butter or if I was in a hurry to make a dessert.  They were certainly quick and easy to make.

Sarah's Banana Bread Muffins

I have a bad habit of buying bananas but not eating them fast enough.  Part of the problem is that right now I sometimes crave bananas, but they give me a little bit of heartburn, so then I regret eating them. 

Since I had some bananas ripening very quickly on my counter, I decided to make some banana muffins.  Going on to Allrecipes.com, I chose to make Sarah's Banana Bread Muffins.  I chose this recipe because I love banana bread and I wanted my muffins to taste the same.  I also wanted them to be somewhat healthy, but I chose to follow the recipe as written (this time), so I don't know how healthy this recipe really is.

I decided to go ahead and mix up the batter by hand.  Since this recipe called for oil instead of butter, the ingredients mixed together nicely with a wire whisk.

Three mashed bananas.  My bowl almost wasn't big enough.

All the ingredients mixed together.  This recipe actually called for mixing the dry ingredients in until the batter is smooth instead of just until moistened.  The muffins came out moist, so it appears that overmixing is not a danger with this recipe.

Often when I make muffins, I have trouble filling all twelve cups.  For this recipe, there is plenty of batter and I had to fill the cups nearly to the top. 

Perhaps my biggest complaint about this recipe is that the ingredients are not written in the order that the baker needs to use them.  I did not like having to search the list to discover how much of each ingredient I needed to add.

The muffins are delicious, and they do taste like banana bread.  Next time I make these muffins, I plan to use some whole wheat flour and I might even experiment with using some brown sugar instead of using all white sugar. 

You may be asking why didn't I just make some banana bread if that is what I wanted instead of muffins.  I prefer to make muffins because they are easier to freeze so I do not feel like I have to eat an entire loaf of bread in a short amount of time before it goes bad.  Also, I like the convenience of having the bread already made in single serving sizes.

Cooler Weather = More Baking

With temps in the upper 70s and lower 80s this week, I have loved being able to keep the house open and enjoy some better baking weather.

On Saturday I had the opportunity to make some homemade French bread using the recipe that came with my Breadman bread machine.  For years I resisted buying a bread machine, but I am thankful that I finally took the plunge a couple of years ago.  The simplicity of just adding all the ingredients to the pan and letting the machine take care of the rest makes baking bread a much more pleasant experience.

I also decided to make some homemade wheat bread using this recipe from Allrecipes.com.  Typically when I make this bread, I don't include the full amount of honey and I leave out the cornmeal, but this time I decided to follow the recipe exactly as written.  With the full 1/3 cup of honey, I found the bread to be a little too sweet for my taste, especially for making sandwiches. 

I plan to make some banana muffins in the next day or two since I have some bananas that are quite ripe sitting in the kitchen.  Now to find the perfect recipe to try . . . .

Recipe #2: Hershey's Ultimate Chocolate Brownies

Chewy, fudgy, smooth, and yummy: adjectives that all adequately describe this week's recipe that comes from the back of the Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chip package and is available online.  I remember trying a recipe on the back of a package of chocolate chips before, so I thought I would give it a try again.

Hershey's Ultimate Chocolate Brownies came out much more like a good fudge brownie box mix.  The recipe was a little more complicated than last week's recipe, but most average bakers should be able to handle the recipe just fine.

 The initial process of mixing the cocoa powder with half of the melted butter and boiling water seemed strange, but it resulted in a nice smooth chocolate base that I think added to the richness of the batter.  This recipe only called for two cups of sugar which resulted in a less-sweet and less-gritty brownie compared to Brooke's Best Bombshell Brownies.

The Review

on a scale of 1 to 5

• Overall Rating: 4 
• Recipe Difficulty
• Rating: 3 (moderate)
• The initial steps of mixing together the cocoa powder, butter, and boiling water takes extra time, but the resulting brownie is well worth it.

• Taste
• Rating: 5 (good)
• The brownie has a nice chocolate taste that does not overwhelm the taste buds with too much chocolate or too much sugar.
• Note: I did not make the frosting that was listed on the package to go on top of the brownies.  I typically prefer unfrosted brownies and wanted to try the brownies alone before trying them with frosting on top.
• Texture
• Rating: 4.5 (pretty good)
• The baked brownie had a good, dense texture. 
  

• Hints and tips
• Make sure you start boiling the water before you begin mixing the brownies but don't let it quite reach boiling before beginning or else too much of the water will evaporate.
• The brownies taste pretty good right out of the oven and they still taste great many days after baking.

• Would I make these brownies again?
• Definitely.  The only trick will be that I will need to make sure I give myself a little extra time to mix them together.

Recipe #1: Brooke's Best Bombshell Brownies

Recipe number 1 comes from allrecipes.com.  I love this website because I can search for new recipes and save them in my own personal recipe box without having to have a stack of recipe books lying around my house.

Brooke's Best Bombshell Brownies attracted my attention because it makes a 9x13 pan of brownies.  The simple list of ingredients also lead me to try this one first because I did not have to go to the store before making the treat.

I will admit that I had to make one ingredient substitution.  I did not have any semi-sweet chocolate chips in the house, so I chopped up some squares of semi-sweet chocolate instead.

I don't think one can go wrong with a cup of melted butter as a beginning for a recipe.

Three cups of sugar--yikes!

I went ahead and added the dry ingredients all at once.  In the future, I will be a good girl and at least whisk the ingredients first in order to break up the clumps of cocoa.  The cocoa did not remain in clumps once it was done baking, but I did have some moments of doubt about how it would all turn out.

I think my bowl is a little too small for this size of recipe.

The final product

The Review

on a scale of 1 to 5

• Overall Rating: 3.5 
• Recipe Difficulty
• Rating: 1 (easy)
• The recipe is simple and straightforward and the directions are easy to follow
• Taste
• Rating: 4 (pretty good)
• The recipe has a good chocolate taste, but the brownies come out very sweet and almost candy-like (I think due to the three cups of sugar).  I prefer my brownies to be a little less sweet.
• Texture
• Rating: 3 (okay)
• While not completely cake-like in texture, the brownies are not exactly fudge-like either.  They tend to fall in between both categories.  I also found the brownies to be a bit grainy (again I think due to all the sugar).

 

• Hints and tips
• The brownies taste better after they have had a chance to cool completely.

 

• Would I make these brownies again?
• I would make these brownies again if I needed to make a batch for a large gathering of people.
• I might try making them with a little less sugar and see how they turn out.

Welcome to the Quest!

As a child, my mom typically made brownies from scratch.  She had a tried and true recipe that she always used that resulted in a cake-like chocolate treat.

Exposure to brownies made from a box mix introduced me to brownies with a more fudge-like consistency.  Since that time, I have desired to find a made-from-scratch recipe that more closely resembles the box mix. 

It would be simplest to just stick to the box mix brownie, but I prefer to make my treats from scratch.  Also, I do not always keep box mixes in my pantry, so I would like to find a great go-to recipe that I can make with the products I have on hand when the mood for a brownie treat hits.

Each week I plan to

• try a new brownie recipe
• follow each recipe exactly as they are written
• critique each recipe

Don't be surprised if during the week I include some other new recipes and look at other baking related issued.  Please keep in mind that I am an amateur baker, so I hope to find recipes that the average baker can handle.  Who knows, perhaps my baking skills will increase with all this practice.

Please join me as I seek to create a list of great brownie recipes!