Sweet and Salty Brownies

Fudgey brownies topping with pretzels covered in caramel. Mmmm.

Ingredients: Brownies (Where I found the recipe)

10 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 rounded  teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, cold

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Salted Caramel from here

1 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons salted butter, cut into 6 pieces

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon salt

Recipe: Brownies

Preheat the oven to 325F. Make sure there is an oven rack on the bottom third of the oven. Grease, then line with parchment paper the bottoms and two sides of an 8×8 pan. This helps when you lift the brownies out of the pan.

Add 1-2 inches of water to a medium saucepan. Heat the water until it’s barely simmering. Mix butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a medium heat proof bowl. Rest bowl over saucepan, make sure the bowl’s bottom does not get wet. (If it does remove some water)

Stir mixture occasionally until the butter is melted and everything is combined. Don’t worry if the batter if gritty.

Remove bowl from heat from 5 minutes until the batter is no longer hot. Stir in vanilla and then add eggs one at a time, beating hard after each one.

When the batter is shiny and well blended, add the flour. Stir until fully incorporated, then continue beating for at least 60 strokes. The batter will be very thick. Spread in lined pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Leave brownies in pan until fully cool, then remove from pan. Before making the ganache keep brownies in the fridge. Before putting on caramel, lay pretzels across the brownies.

Salted Caramel

Heat granulated sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula.

Sugar will form clumps and eventually melt into a thick brown, amber-colored liquid as you continue to stir. Be careful not to burn.

Once sugar is completely melted, immediately add the butter. Be careful in this step because the caramel will bubble rapidly when the butter is added.

Stir the butter into the caramel until it is completely melted, about 2-3 minutes.

Very slowly, drizzle in 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Since the heavy cream is colder than the caramel, the mixture will rapidly bubble and/or splatter when added.

Allow the mixture to boil for 1 minute. It will rise in the pan as it boils.

Remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of salt. Allow to cool down for about 5 minutes before pouring over the pretzels. Then add more pretzels to the top (it doesn’t matter if they’re broken or not.)

Enjoy!

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Fudgy Brownies

Finally! The perfect brownie. Chewy, fudgy brownies with white chocolate ganache, garnished with chocolate curls. They’re thin, but dense and super rich in chocolate flavor.

Ingredients: Brownies (I got the recipe here)

10 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 rounded  teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, cold

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

White Chocolate Ganache

2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

4 ounces white chocolate

Recipe: (Makes 15 brownies)

Preheat the oven to 325F. Make sure there is an oven rack on the bottom third of the oven. Grease, then line with parchment paper the bottoms and two sides of an 8×8 pan. This helps when you lift the brownies out of the pan.

Add 1-2 inches of water to a medium saucepan. Heat the water until it’s barely simmering. Mix butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a medium heat proof bowl. Rest bowl over saucepan, make sure the bowl’s bottom does not get wet. (If it does remove some water)

Stir mixture occasionally until the butter is melted and everything is combined. Don’t worry if the batter if gritty.

Remove bowl from heat from 5 minutes until the batter is no longer hot. Stir in vanilla and then add eggs one at a time, beating hard after each one.

When the batter is shiny and well blended, add the flour. Stir until fully incorporated, then continue beating for at least 60 strokes. The batter will be very thick. Spread in lined pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Leave brownies in pan until fully cool, then remove from pan. Before making the ganache keep brownies in the fridge.

White Chocolate Ganache

Put chopped chocolate into a small bowl. Pour heavy  whipping cream into saucepan and stir until simmering. Then pour half of the cream onto the chocolate and mix until smooth, then add the rest of the cream. Refrigerate the ganache for 45 minutes.

Put a bowl and the beaters (from the mixer) into the freezer for 15-20 minutes. When ganache has been in the fridge for enough time, remove bowl and beaters from fridge and scoop ganache into bowl. Whip the ganache until stiff peaks form, then spread on the cold brownies.

(Optional: Garnish with chocolate curls)

Enjoy!

Pastel Rainbow Cookies

I used to get rainbow cookies (another name for Italian Tricolors) all the time from Wegmans and I loved them but thought they seemed much too complicated to make.  Then I found a recipe in Good Housekeeping Cookbook (Good Housekeeping Favorite Recipes published 2006) and finally made them! . These are so much easier to make than they look, so they are perfect when you want to impress your friends!

Ingredients:

1 can (7-8 ounces) almond paste

3/4 cup butter (1 and 1/2 sticks), softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

pink (or red) food coloring

yellow food coloring

purple food coloring

2/3 cups apricot preserves or apricot cake/pastry filling (12 ounces)

3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

1 teaspoon vegetable shortening

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease three 8 inch square metal or disposable baking pans. Line the bottoms with waxed parchment paper then grease and flour them.

In a large bowl, with mixer at medium-high speed, beat almond paste, butter, sugar, and almond paste until mostly combined. (there will be a few small lumps.)

Reduce the speed and beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing after each one. Beat in flour and salt until just combined.

Divide the batter into 3 parts. Divide 2/3’s of the batter into two small bowls. Leave 1/3 of the batter in the large bowl. Stir in small amounts of different food coloring into each bowl. (I only used a few drops of each)

Spoon batters into pans. Smoothing with a spatula. They will be very thin.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the layers comes out clean, 10-12 minutes. Cool pans on wire racks for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the the pans to loosen layers. Invert layers onto racks, leaving the waxed parchment paper attached until they cool completely.

When the layers are cool, press the apricot filling through a sieve to remove large pieces of fruit. Remove wax paper from layers. Invert the purple layer onto a flat surface and spread with apricot filling. Stack yellow layer on top of purple layer and spread apricot filling on that layer. Stack pink layer onto of yellow layer.

In a small saucepan, heat chocolate and shortening over low heat. Stir frequently until melted. Spread the chocolate mixture on top of the pink layer (not on the sides); refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until chocolate is firm.

To serve, trim the edges off with a serrated knife. Cut stacked layers into 6 strips (it will be 6×6) Cut each strip crosswise into 6 pieces.

Enjoy!

Cherry Crisp Bars

Cherry crisp bars- sounds delicious right? They are. A soft shortbread crust beneath warm cherries and topped with brown sugar coated oats.

Ingredients: Crust

1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup brown sugar (I used dark)

Cherry Filling

two  16 ounce bags of frozen sweet dark cherries, thawed

3/4 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons cornstarch

Crisp Topping

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup quick oats

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 cup (1 and 1/2 sticks)  unsalted butter, softened

Recipe: Crust

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 8×8 pan.

Beat flour, butter, and sugar on high until soft and crumbly. Press into pan.

Bake for 15 minutes. Take out and cool.

Cherry Filling

Place cherries in a medium saucepan and place over low-medium heat. Cover saucepan and let cherries lose their juices for 5 minutes. Mix sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. When the 5 minutes are up, remove cherries from heat and add the sugar mixture. Put back on heat for about 5 more minutes. When the cherries have lost a lot of juice, drain them. And pour over the cooled crust.

Crisp Topping

Preheat oven to 350F

With your hands, pastry cutter, or fork, in a small bowl, mix all ingredients together. They should eventually form small light brown clumps. Generously sprinkle over the pan (the one with the crust and cherries).

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crisp starts getting golden brown.

Enjoy!

German Chocolate Cake Bars

I love German Chocolate Cake, but I’ve only had it once and I wanted to make it in bar form. They are awesome! I have to say I’m very impressed with myself 🙂 Though, I should clarify that it’s technically a rectangle cake with unfrosted sides, but whatever- if you cut it it bars their bars.

The cake part comes from

Ingredients: Cake

2 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet)

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate

6 tablespoons water

1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 and 1/2 cup sugar (divided)

4 eggs, yolks and whites seperated

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling

1 cup butter, softened

1 and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

8 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Frosting (from Country Living)

1 cup sugar

1 can (12 ounce) evaporated milk

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 and 1/3 cups (7 ounce package) shredded coconut

1 and 1/2 chopped pecans

Recipe: Cake

Preheat oven to 350F. Chop chocolates and melt them with the water in a bowl for 30 seconds, mixing until smooth. Let cool to room temperature. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Beat together the butter and 1 and 1/4 cups sugar for for five minutes. Mix in the chocolate. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, beat well after each addition. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in half of the flour mixture. Add buttermilk and vanilla mixing until combined. Now add rest of the flour mixture.

In a seperate bowl whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Now add 1/4 cup sugar and whip until glossy peaks form. Slowly fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter. Fold the rest of the egg whites in until you can’t see any.

Divide the batter into two 11×7 inch pans greased and cover in parchment paper. Bake for 30 minutes.

Filling

Mix softened butter and vanilla until throughly combined. Add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and the heavy whipping cream. Beat until creamy. <—– very easy Flip a cooled cake and smooth the frosting on one of them. Use about half the frosting.

Frosting

Melt butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, and egg yolks in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until thickened. About 5-10 minutes. Add coconut and pecans. Pour in with the rest of the frosting, mix and cool to room temperature.

Stack the unfrosted cake on top of the frosted one. Frost with the coconut-pecan frosting.

Cut into bars and enjoy!