Cooking with Alicia & Annie: Marshmallow Brownies

Yup, I just entered another blogging event!  Getting crazy, I tell ya. 

Amanda from Amanda’s Cooking mentioned to me a few months ago (yeah, I know) in an email  that I might like to check out a blogging event called Cooking with Alicia & Annie.  I panicked at first but after looking at the blog page for it and checking out some of the recipes I realized that I could do this.  For those of you that haven’t participated you should check it out. I don’t think there’s an “easier” blogging event out there. They have something for everyone with a TON of recipes to chose from, both savory and sweet.  I, of course, went for the sweet.  :)  Oh, before I forget…you can win prizes!  Pretty cool! You pick  a recipe from Alicia’s or Annie’s site, make it,  blog about it, and then you get a chance to win a prize. Easy, right?!

I’m laughing right now….you know why?  Because those of you who have been reading my blog for a while are, I’m sure, NOT surprised by my choice in recipes. Bars and blondies, no big surprise there, right?  :) Don’t be fooled by that title while Alicia calls these Marshmallow Brownies they are NOT brownies.  I’m unofficially renaming them Marshmallow Goldies.

The recipe called for chocolate chips which might have helped the brownie cause but I left ‘em out.  Besides leaving out the chocolate chips I also tossed out the nuts and used coarse sea salt. (‘member this post?)  Thinking back I should have upped the salt and sprinkled some on top.  While these won’t usurp snickerdoodle blondies from their prime spot at the top they are worth giving a try!

Marshmallow Brownies/Goldies

1/2 cup butterscotch pieces

1/4 cup butter or margarine (go w/butter)

3/4 cup flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt (coarse sea salt)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1 cup miniature marshmallows

1 cup chocolate chips (I omitted)

1/4 cup chopped nuts (I omitted)

Instructions

Grease bottom and sides of 9-inch square baking pan. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, melt butterscotch chips and butter, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; cool to lukewarm. Add flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla and egg; mix well. Fold in miniature marshmallows, chocolate chips and nuts just until combined, about 5 strokes. Spread in prepared pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Do not overbake! Center will be jiggly but becomes firm upon cooling.

 

Technorati Tags: bars,blondies,butterscotch chips,marshmallows

A New Favorite “Salted” Blondies

I really love this blondie recipe.  I saw the photo for it on Tastespotting, followed it over to The Delicious Life, and made the original recipe which was a very yummy Heath Bar Blondies.  Sarah is right in that this is the easiest dessert. 

The Heath Bar Blondies went so fast I didn’t get to take any photos.  (Monica, I stink!) Because they were so good I had no problems baking a second batch a day or two later so I could photos to share with you.  I did though decide to shake things up a bit.  The photos you see here are of the second batch made with Ghirardelli white chocolate chips and (half ) topped with macadamia nuts.   Next time the whole thing gets nuts!

I think what made me fall in love with these blondies was the occasional hint of salty from the coarse sea salt I used.  I now realize what everyone was talking about last year when they were topping everything with a sprinkling of sea salt.   You guys know what you’re talking about.  Who am I to question!

This just may be my new “go to” recipe for blondies.  (Nope!  This recipe won’t be used as the base of my beloved snickerdoodle blondies!  :)) I’m certain butterscotch chips would be a yummy addition but I’m thinking chopped PB cups next.

Heath Bar Blondies Recipe

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9×9 baking pan. (You can use an 8×8; the blondies will just be slightly taller.)

Into a large mixing bowl, sift together: 1 c. all-purpose flour, ½ tsp baking powder, 1/8 tsp baking soda, and ½ tsp salt (I used coarse sea salt. For the second batch I wasn’t as careful to measure a 1/2 tsp which meant I added a granule or two more).

In a large bowl, beat together 1 c brown sugar with 1 stick melted butter. Add 1 large egg and ¼ tsp vanilla.

Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture along with 1 c. coarsely chopped Heath bars.  (I used Heath baking pieces with the first batch & then white chocolate chips for the second.  On the second batch I also topped half the pan with a handful of chopped macadamia nuts.) Pour batter into pan.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool (if you have the patience, I didn’t which is why you see a missing piece!) before cutting into squares.

I know I posted a lot of photos but I couldn’t help it.  I just LOVED these blondies.  They were also delish nuked for about 1o seconds and topped with vanilla ice cream. :)

Technorati Tags: blondies,Heath Bar,macadamia nuts,white chocolate

S'mores Brownies two ways

I'm sure it's not a shock to read that I love s'mores (desserts).  Here's the crazy thing, I've never had an actual s'mores. You know,  everyone's fave campfire treat, the kind with the marshmallows roasted over an open fire. I've made toaster oven s'mores and many other s'mores like desserts but never the real deal.

These first S'mores Brownies were pretty good and were made using a boxed brownie mix. Unfortunately I overcooked the brownies and thus the graham cracker crust a bit.  The brownies sit atop a  graham cracker crust and  its crowning glory is a yummy layer of oven melted marshmallows.  Sandwiched between the two (should have been) a gooey fudgy brownie. Sounds good right? So you know I was bummed when I sampled one and found my brownies were not gooey or fudgy. 

I made these for Devon, one of the twins to take to school along with a pan of white chocolate blondies but because they didn't turn out as well as I wanted I didn't send them. Against my better judgement Devon convinced me to send in two for his teacher to try.  (He came back with the message....she liked them!) I didn't follow a recipe just an idea of what I wanted.  

The second S'mores Brownies I made were inspired by the ones I saw on the blog, Joy the Baker.  Being that the Twins had baseball practice and it was moved indoors I figured I would take the brownies to practice but after taking them out of the oven I realized that they would be a bit messing to cut and serve.  I took the recipe's concept of adding marshmallows and graham cracker pieces into the batter to make it "smores" and instead of making homemade brownies I used a box mix.  (Original recipe provided below) I did add a bit more marshmallows and graham cracker pieces which lead to their being a tad difficult to cut.  While I liked these, especially warmed up and topped with vanilla ice cream, I wasn't crazy about them.   I've come to realize while the concept of a s'mores brownies is a good one it doesn't translate well.  In both of these the brownie was the dominant taste. Don't get me wrong some (brownie lovers) might enjoy both of these  but for me s'mores are more about the gooey marshmallows and graham crackers than the chocolate.  If you want something that is reminiscent of those yummy campfire treats give these a S'mores Bars or even these.

S’mores Brownies

     adapted from Bon Appetit, October 1991

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup graham cracker, roughly crushed with your hands
• 12 big marshmallows  (I also diced 6 additional marshmallows and stirred them into the batter. These marshmallows dissolve when baked, so you can leave them out, or throw them in.  Up to you!)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9×13-inch baking pan with 2-inch-high sides. Combine first 3 ingredients in small bowl. Stir butter and chocolate in a medium sized bowl over a  heavy  saucepan of simmering water.  Stir chocolate and butter in this double boiler until melted and smooth.

Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Stir in warm chocolate mixture, then dry ingredients. Fold in graham crackers.  Pour batter into prepared pan. Dot with 12 large marshmallows.  Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 30- 40 minutes minutes.

Marshmallows will be browned and puffy but will deflate as the brownies cool.  Cool for at least 20 minutes than slice with a sharp knife, cleaning the knife with hot water if it gets too messy and sticky.  Serve or wrap individually in wax paper for storing.

Answer this question to enter this giveaway.

Technorati Tags: s'mores,bars,brownies,marshmallows,graham crackers,chocolate

Snickerdoodle Blondies Peabody style

Sorry (Peabody) my photo isn't the most appetizing! Actually my honey snapped this photo for me using the light box he made me.

I baked these  on one of the nights I was sick as the kids were nagging me to make them something. Remembering that Peabody had recently posted a snickerdoodle blondie recipe and my family's love of snickerdoodle blondies I decided to give her recipe a try.  It helped that with the begging came an offer of help.  (Thank you, Devon, I know Mommy was very grumpy that night!)

I didn't tell the kids that this was a different snickerdoodle blondie recipe.  I wanted to see if they noticed anything different. (I have little foodies in the making and their taste are pretty discriminating.) Julia, good news lady, you won, I'm not sure what you won but  my children,especially Devon think you're a genius.  :-)   I think the biggest difference is the nutmeg that Peabody's recipe calls for.  I didn't get all scientific and I'm certain if you look at the recipes side by side there are others, mascarpone one, but in my humble, know nothing opinion I think that  it was the nutmeg.

I didn't make any changes to the recipe, following it exactly. When I first checked the blondies (5 minutes prior to when the recipe said) they looked done. They had puffed up a bunch and were quite brown but they didn't pass the tooth pick test. Yikes, by the time they were done and still fudgy my blondies were not so blonde.  Fortunately they were still quite good though I had to cut away about an inch in from around the edges.  With all that said there were no complaints and were gobbled up quickly.  It was only during the first stuffing of their mouths that they mentioned something tasted different and asked was I "messing" with the recipe?!  Nope, I wasn't "messing" with the recipe just trying a new one I explained.  No more new ones, we like the old one  was their response. :-)

Technorati Tags: snickerdoodle,blondies,bars

She says brownies, I say blondies!

Miss Bunny from the blog, Bunny's Warm Oven mentioned in an email that she had a peanut butter brownie recipe that she thought my family would enjoy.  She also said that it was made in one pot!  The idea of dirtying only one pot had me making a batch that night for the Twins' baseball practice.  It didn't hurt either that Bunny recommended them.  Folks, Bunny, I'm sorry but these aren't brownies.  They're blondies!  Peanut butter blondies and they are GOOD.  Better than good.  I've already made them two times and I'm thinking about making up another batch.  Besides being terrific these bars were quick and easy to put together!  

I followed the recipe with my only change being instead of using vanilla extract I used vanilla bean paste. I really like how blondies taste using it instead of regular extract. I also tested my blondies (not brownies) two minutes earlier than called for and took them out when the tooth pick still had a few moist crumbs clinging to it. They were purrrrfect!  I hid a few for a photo shoot when I had a moment and they were still moist and yummy.  I actually (third day) warmed up the last one in the microwave and topped it with some Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream.  I don't even know how to describe just how good it was.  

   

I don't have photos but I also made this recipe which I saw on Bakerella.  The brownie part was good, nice and moist but I the "cookie" was dry. Unlike Bakerella I didn't add a frosting.  If you click here you'll see that Nikki of Pennies on a Platter  also made them but used peanut butter cookie dough instead of chocolate chip cookie. 

FYI~ Sorry if I haven't stopped by and commented.  I've been crazy busy! Both Twins had a project due tomorrow and one of the Twins has TWO MORE due THIS Friday.  Oh and in case you were wondering two of the three projects were just given this past Monday.  After Friday things should settle back down & I'll catch up on my reading & commenting.

LiveJournal Tags: bars,brownies,blondies,chocolate,peanut butter

New Year's Eve goodies

I volunteered to make desserts for a New Year's Eve party we were attending at a neighbor's house.  For me that was rather daring as I'm very leery about making anything to bring to an adult function.  I have found that adults are much more critical and down right picky.  On the other hand I LOOOOOVE baking for my children, their friends and teammates.  Everything I bake for them is always well received and if someone doesn't like something (rare) they are always very polite when telling me so!  By the end of the night everything was gobbled up which I'll take as a sign of success!

The first dessert I made was one the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Bars which I blogged about earlier this week. 

The next dessert I made was one I found over on My Baking Addiction.  Jamie made her Chocolate Toffee Trifle in stemless wine glasses which I thought would translate well into minis. I figured after eating and drinking so much no one would have room for a full sized dessert.  Also if everything was bite sized it would be easier for everyone to try a bite of all three desserts with limited waste.  My minis were good in theory but in practice, I was beat and didn't have the patience to pipe everything into my shot glasses.  Instead they got the trifle in a large trifle bowl...self serve style!

Have I admitted to not really liking "plain" brownies or chocolate pudding? Have I also mentioned that for me cool whip and toffee are just okay BUT in this dessert something magical happens with these ingredients!  I couldn't get enough (didn't want to look like a piggy) of it.  I loved the the various textures and the taste of everything combined!

The last dessert I made was one I found on the inside of the wrapper of Ghirardelli's white chocolate bars.  On the wrapper it was called Ghirardelli Classic White Blondies. I found the recipe online under the name Classic Blondies.  Which ever name you chose to call it by it was very good and was the first to go.  (I think it helped that you didn't need any serving utensils, plate, or napkin!) It's texture was more cakey than fudgey (sp?) but not overly so as I have found that I don't care for cakey blondies or brownies.  I didn't make any changes to the recipe other than baking mine in a 11x7 inch pan.  I also lined it with nonstick foil before greasing it.

Here's a photo of the three desserts displayed in all their glory (ha-ha)!  The food wasn't  set out yet  so the table looks kinda bland but once they placed the food, the table looked very nice.

LiveJournal Tags: white chocolate,raspberry,cream cheese,blondies,chocolate,toffee,trifle