Project Brownies: S'mores... the Finale

I saved the best for last. 

For all three brownie projects I tried to  "up" the level of the add-ins each time. The Nutella was pretty subtle, the raspberries definitely changed the flavor of the whole brownie.. but these... these are a whole different story. These brownies up the ante. 

Regular Ingredients: Brownie Mix, Water, Eggs, Vegetable Oil

Special Guests: Graham Cracker Crust, Milk Chocolate Chips, Marshmallows

This brownie took a bit of thought before I dove in. I wasn't quite sure exactly how things would work since I was mixing different types of textures and substances together. It sounds a bit like a science project but, in a way, baking is very scientific. 

I decided to start with a graham cracker crust. I used 2 cups of pre-smashed graham crackers +  4 tablespoons of melted butter + 1 tablespoon of sugar for good measure. Mix it all up in a bowl & press into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Bake it for about 10 minutes. 

After you bake the crust, add the regular brownie mix on top. I decided that the brownies alone were not enough "chocolate" for the chocolate layer in a s'more so I poured 1/2 the batter in... then added an entire bag of chocolate chips on top... then added the rest of the brownie batter on top of that. Then I put it in to bake. Note that the baking time for these brownies is going to be a bit longer than the standard 25 minutes. The brownies are not getting the heat from the bottom of the pan the way they would if the crust wasn't there so you'll have to bake it a bit longer. I would suggest to start with 30 minutes and then check it every 3-5 minutes until it is done. 

Eeeeeee! Now the best part!!!!

Once the brownies are done baking, take the pan out of the oven and switch it from "baking" to  "broiler."

Dump about 3/4 of a bag (or more) on top of your brownies and then place the pan under the broiler until your marshmallows are toasted. 

Seriously... this is the most important part. It is what elevates the brownies from good to unreal. The mallows get that caramelized flavor that only fire can provide. They become sweet and chewy and have just an amazing texture. So good.

The tricky part now is getting them cut and out of the pan. I decided to wait until they were completely cooled to try to cut them. It was not easy. The mallows like to stick to everything.... which is what makes them mallows. Anyway - I just powered through and tried to cut slow as to not pull off all the topping. Another suggestion would be to heat up your knife so it melts the marshmallows a bit before cutting - note, you'll probably need to rinse your knife a few times. Another way would be to lightly grease your knife (Pam, or something similar, works well) before cutting. Again, you'll probably have to rinse your knife a few times in the process. 

When all of the cutting is done you are left with a stupendous treat - S'More Brownies. 

Not to sound lame, but you'll definitely want s'more!

(Ok.. I knew it was going to be lame, and it is... but there had to be a s'more joke in there somewhere!!)

Cheers to the Cook!

S'more Brownies

1 box of brownie mix (I used Betty Crocker)

Ingredients for this mix:

2 eggs

1/4 cup water

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups of graham cracker crumbs

4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 tbsp white sugar

1 bag milk chocolate chips

1 bag mini marshmallows

Grease a glass 9x13 pan; heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix graham cracker crumbs, melted butter & sugar together in a medium bowl. Press into the bottom of your greased pan. Bake for 10 minutes. 

Meanwhile, mix brownie ingredients together in a large bowl with beaters until well combined. Once graham cracker crust has finished baking, empty half of the brownie mix onto the crust.  

Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

Add the remaining half of the brownie mixture on top.

Bake for abut 30-40 minutes in the oven. Start with 30 minutes and check every 3-5 minutes for doneness. Brownies should be a bit firm to the touch but still quite moist when you take them out of the oven. 

Switch oven from Bake to Broil. Sprinkle marshmallows on top of brownies. Place under the broiler until mallows have achieved desired color. (This is like camp - some people like them barely brown. Some of us like them 2 small steps away from charcoal. Do what you like!)

Leave in the pan to cool.

Cut into desired size using a lightly greased knife & serve warm. Or store in an air-tight container for up to 3 days. Remember not to stack on top of each other or the mallows will all stick together and you'll have one really big s'more brownie... which is... really... bad... because then you'd have to eat... all of it... by yourself.. horrible.. 

Project Brownies: Raspberry

Project Brownies: Raspberry

Part 2 of my social experiment had me adding fresh raspberries and chocolate chips to our brownie mix. 

 Again, gathered the usual suspects: Mix, Eggs, Water, Vegetable Oil

Added Special Guests: Fresh Raspberries & Chocolate Chips

 Hello, Raspberries!

 Now we will mash you!!

 You could also put them in a blender/chopper.. but I like a little texture so I opted just to mash them up.  Yum!

 I poured half the brownie mix in the greased pan - I opted for placing the fruit in the middle of the brownies so it would stay moist and not get too dried out by the heat of the oven.

 Then, as if raspberries were not enough, I sprinkled some chocolate chips around before spreading the rest of the brownie batter on top. 

 Off to bake!

 Beautiful! One note - I suggest baking these a few minutes longer than you would if you were making plain brownies. For the Nutella Brownies, I think I baked them for abut 25 minutes. For these - I would say at least 27-28 minutes. The fruit adds a bit of extra moisture to the batter and I think it could definitely stand to bake just a touch longer. Mine were pretty gooey... but still delicious... no complaints!

You can actually SEE the raspberries in this bite. Just saying.

Cheers to the Cook!

Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

1 box of brownie mix (I used Betty Crocker)

Ingredients for this mix:

2 eggs

1/4 cup water

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1 package of fresh raspberries

1 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet, but milk chocolate or white chocolate would be amazing, too!)

Grease a glass 9x13 pan; heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all above ingredients together in a large bowl with beaters until well combined. 

Empty half of the brownie mix into your greased pan. 

Mash fresh raspberries up with potato masher until they are pretty broken up and spreadable. Carefully spread them on top of brownie mix in the baking pan. Sprinkle 1 cup of chocolate chips on top.

Add the remaining half of the brownie mixture on top.

Bake for abut 27-28 minutes in the oven. Brownies should be a bit firm to the touch but still quite moist when you take them out of the oven. Leave in the pan to cool.

Cut into desired size & serve warm. Or store in an air-tight container for up to 3 days. 

Project Brownies: Nutella

I decided to run a social experiment using brownies. My undergrad degree is in Sociology and are few things I like more than doing social experiments. Ok, that's not true... but they are fun! And what makes them more fun? Brownies, of course!

I will admit for this project I went with box brownies... I am a die-hard "from scratch" kind of person but since the focus of this project wasn't so much the brownie base but the end result I decided to save myself the hassle and just go with a box mix. Don't tell anyone.

Gathering all of the complex ingredients: Mix, Eggs (in one of my new cute bowls!), Water, Vegetable Oil

And today's guest ingredient: Nutella 

Basically I made the brownies as the box directed and before I popped them in the oven, I swirled some Nutella onto the top. 

This is the end result - super delish, hazelnutty brownies. 

And easy-peasy. 

If you're wondering why I am doing this experiment it is because I am curious about a few things: 

1) If people really like brownies with stuff in them - or are most people more prone to like just plain brownies?

2) If they do like additions, what level of additions to they like - this is why this is a 3-part project

3) How many brownies can the people in my office eat before they get sick of them? Just kidding. That could never happen. Who gets sick of brownies?!

Since you're dying to know, the reaction to these brownies was fairly good. People liked the subtle hint of hazelnut that the Nutella added. A few people thought they were really sweet, which they were, but still managed to force them down (wink, wink) so I think they must have been ok. 

Cheers to the Cook!

Nutella Brownies

1 box of brownie mix (I used Betty Crocker)

Ingredients for this mix:

2 eggs

1/4 cup water

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup of Nutella

Grease a glass 9x13 pan; heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all above ingredients together in a large bowl with beaters until well combined. 

Empty contents of bowl into your greased pan. 

Measure Nutella into a small bowl. Heat in microwave for about 10-15 seconds on half-power (no higher than level 5). Stir and then drop into small spoonfuls around the top of the brownie mixture. 

Using a knife or spatula, swirl Nutella through brownies by doing a zig-zag pattern with the tip of the spatula the whole length of the pan. 

Bake for abut 25 minutes in the oven. Brownies should be a bit firm to the touch but still quite moist when you take them out of the oven. Leave in the pan to cool.

Cut into desired size & serve warm. Or store in an air-tight container for up to 3 days. 

Triple-Chocolate Scones

A wonderful friend sent me a big box of all sorts of fun baking spices from Penzey's a while back and I've been trying to use them to make some new, fun things. 

Some of the items in the box are normal - vanilla beans, cocoa powder, poppy seeds... but then there are a few I've never played with - double-vanilla extract, 3 different kinds of ground cinnamon, cardamom (umm.. this makes chai spice... it is amazing!). 

I have a great base recipe for scones that I adore and always gets me many compliments so I decided to break into the box and use something new to make up some scones for a treat - I chose Natural High-Fat Cocoa. Go big, or go home.. right?!

My scone recipe starts with sour cream with a bit of baking soda mixed in. 

 This is the sour cream right after I mixed in the baking soda - you can already see it getting fluffy.

 And this is after about 10 minutes. It almost doubles in size! The sour cream becomes unbelievably fluffy and airy. I like to think of it as a cool baking-science experiment.

 See all this butter... it goes into these scones. Yeeuummm.

I decided to chop up block chocolate to mix into the scones.

The chopped-up chocolate melts right into the scones and makes them super moist and chocolaty.  

 Once all the dry ingredients are mixed up, cut in the butter with a pastry cutter. 

 Pat the dough out to be about 3/4"thick; add more chocolate to the top before cutting into triangles

 Cut into triangles, put on a parchment-lined cookie sheet to bake.

Eat your scones with your favorite coffee beverage - that's the best way!

Cheers to the cook!

Triple-Chocolate Scones 

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk chocolate, roughly chopped
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips (milk or semi-sweet)

Directions

1. In a small bowl, blend the sour cream and baking soda, and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cover a two baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt. Cut in the butter. Stir the sour cream mixture and egg into the flour mixture until just moistened. Mix in the chocolate.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. Roll or pat dough into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle. Cut into wedges, and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
5. Bake 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown on the bottom. Do not over bake.
6. Cool on baking rack

Peanut Butter Brownie Bites

You know what the best invention was? Peanut Butter
You know what the second best invention was? Brownie Bites


You are cordially invited to the marriage of the two best inventions ever... Peanut Butter Brownie Bites!


Roughly adapted from a blog post on Baked Perfection but with a few tweaks here and there. 
Normally I do not use boxed anything... I am sort of a snob about it. But for these, I wasn't sure how a normal brownie batter would work out so I just sucked it up and used a box mix. (Don't tell!)

This is my crazy sous chef... he demanded I photograph him.

Prepare the brownie batter per the directions on the box but instead of making them in a 9x13 pan, make brownie "bites" in a mini muffin tin. I cheated and lined my mini muffin tin with little paper liners. I definitely think that mini cupcakes, brownies, muffins, etc. look better if they are liner-free but it is a work night and I am just that lazy today! So, paper liners it is. Scoop batter in the liners until they are about 3/4 full. 

My homage to Jackson Pollock... I'm just messy

Bake according to the box's instructions - but definitely start to watch them a couple of minutes early. Over-cooked brownies are no bueno! Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (or mostly clean if you like them super gooey!)


Once the brownies are out of the oven, take the back of a teaspoon and push a "sink hole" in the middle of each brownie. This creates a nice well for all your peanut butter goodness!

This is where I sort of digressed from the Baked Perfection recipe - I'm wild that way. I mixed a cup of peanut butter and about 1/3-1/2 cup of powdered sugar in a bowl. This gives the peanut butter 2 things - a sweater taste (sort of like Reese's) and a firmer texture. I then scooped it all into a frosting bag & piped little blobs of the PB magic into each brownie "well." 

The finishing touch - a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips. 

 And there you have them! 

Amahzing! (and pretty easy too!)
Cheers to the cook!