frosted espresso brownies

These are incredible.  They are very very strong in coffee flavor – made with ground espresso beans that give them great chewy/crunchy texture.  Lauren – a 10 year old exclaimed that “they taste like Starbucks.”  I love them – the icing is sweet and delicious and although the brownies are very rich, they are addictive.  I nibbled throughout the day.  And now I’m full of caffeinated energy!  (I’m writing very late for me…after watching the entire Sound Of Music with my daughter…she ate them too!)  I also made an espresso brownie ice cream by chopping the brownies into small bits and adding them to freshly churned vanilla ice cream.  So very good!  I found these brownies  in Saveur Magazine.  The article listed three different and highly regarded brownie recipes.  Since I was familiar with the first two (Nick Malgieri’s and Kate Hepburn’s) and loved both, I decided that I had to try these – developed by Krystal Stone – an assistant at Saveur.  I tweaked the recipe just a little here and there.  There are a few special pantry items that you’ll need: chocolate covered espresso beans as well as instant espresso powder – so purchase before you decide to bake.  But they are well worth a trip to the store or a visit on the Internet.  Reserve a little extra time – they are not difficult but a little more time consuming than a regular brownie.

frosted espresso brownies (adapted from Saveur Magazine):
3/4 cup medium to fine ground chocolate covered espresso beans
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs (beaten)
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

icing–
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line a 8 or 9 inch square pan with tin foil.  These brownies are gooey and hard to get out of the pan – so line the pan with foil so that it comes all the way up the sides of the pan.  Once baked and cool, you can simply lift the whole big brownie out of the pan, flatten the foil, and cut as desired.  I might try them in mini muffin pans next time.  Try if you like.

Grind your espresso beans in a food processor.  Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder and set aside.

Bring 1/4 cup water to boil and whisk in instant espresso and dissolve.  Pour into a medium sized bowl.  Add the ground beans, sugar, brown sugar, cocoa, oil and vanilla and mix well.  Add the eggs and mix again, then add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly and bake for about 42-50 minutes.  As usual check often and before.  Let cool for about 10-15 minutes.

In the meantime, make the icing.  Bring the butter, milk, sugars, cocoa, vanilla and salt to a boil in a small saucepan.  Continue to stir and whisk as it comes to a boil.

Pour the  icing over the warm brownie (you may not need all of it) and let set and harden.  I found it easier to let sit overnight – but dig in when you like.  This is great in a light vanilla ice cream.  I think I’ll mix it into my next batch.

Enjoy!

chocolate chip meringue bars

These bars were my favorite childhood dessert.  I recently asked my mom for the recipe – but being that she is so neat and tidy (which is great), she often throws things away (not so great).  I suffer the same affliction at times.  Anyway, luckily my very good friend Michelle also loved these as a child (we were family friends so she was treated to my mom’s sweets).  And Michelle held onto the recipe!  It is a weird recipe and I had some doubts as I made them – but they were the same ones from my childhood.  I should tell you that these are very very sweet.  Not for the tame hearted sugar eaters here – but oh…for me – they are decadent and heavenly.  Rich and gooey.  I cut one up and put it in my vanilla ice cream last night and really, I felt so content.  My kids wouldn’t eat them the first night.  I said ok everyone – time for something new…my favorite… and I was met with groans of  “more dessert?”  And “can’t we just have a little candy tonight”  Oh boy.  The second night they tried it – and loved it – especially Sylvie and our neighbor Danika.  Greg said it tasted like cookie dough.  My friend Suzanne said a tiny square with her tea was all she could eat because she felt the sugar on her teeth (although she reported she’s excited to eat another small bite with lunch).  And her husband Jamie said yes, sweet, but good – and ate a hearty slice.  Again, this is not for everyone.

chocolate chip meringue bars:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar,  3/4 cup brown sugar for meringues topping (later)
2 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
semi chocolate chips – about 1 cup (or bittersweet might work great here! – next time I’ll try…to cut the sweetness)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.  (Line with parchment if you plan to invert on a pan – and cut neatly.  We just ate them out of the pan!)  Alternately line with parchment or foil – with an overhang so you can use as an aid to remove from pan.  Look to baking tips and pan prep for a visual.

Separate the eggs.  In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

Cream the butter with the sugars (remember just the 1/2 cup brown sugar) for 3-5 minutes – until light and fluffy.  Add the egg yolks one at a time until incorporated.  Add the water and vanilla and mix, scrape down, and mix again.  Add the dry ingredients by hand or on lowest speed until just combined.

Place dough in prepped pan and press to fill out evenly.  Spread and press the chocolate chips all around to cover.

With a hand mixer or in your stand mixer – whisk and beat up egg whites and slowly add brown sugar – on medium speed at first and then up to medium high until they get thick and hard peaks form (I needed to go longer here…although they were still good).  This should take several minutes.

Pour the meringue on top of the batter and bake from 45-60 minutes…but again, check often and before.  The top will get nicely browned and the middle will stay slightly gooey.  But I’ll be honest – it is hard to tell when these are done.  After poking around I realized I took the bars out too early – so I popped back into the oven.  If you need to, cut an edge and see what’s happening in there – but I will say even undercooked these are yummy.  Enjoy!

rocky road cookie bark

This stuff is heaven.  I really truly mean it.  Moist, very chocolaty cookies, filled with various chips, nuts and marshmallows all creating a mouthwatering texture and taste that seriously rivals most cookies I’ve eaten.  The free form shape adds to my delight (for reasons I can’t explain).  I made these for the last school fair and they were a serious hit.  I always double the recipe (the recipe below is doubled) and freeze a bunch for my son Greg who is normally not a crazy chocolate lover.  He takes these from the freezer and pops them in the microwave and eats them warm and gooey.  He  groans with pleasure and raves and raves and thanks me for making them.  Gotta love that at 13.  I like them with vanilla ice cream (what else is new).  This recipe is adapted from The Baker’s Field Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies by Dede Wilson.  She calls them Heavenly Hash Break-up Bars, but Greg (my son) quickly named them Cookie Bark but no matter what you call them they are good.  Seriously good.  So bake them soon and enjoy!!  *Reader – order the black cocoa now – so you will be ready to bake.  And if you live locally, come to my pantry!

rocky road cookie bark (or heavenly hash break-up bars – adapted from The Baker’s Field Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies by Dede Wilson):

2 cups all purpose flour
4 tablespoons black cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter (unsalted)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semisweet choc chips, 3/4 cup white choc chips, 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
1 1/4 cup toasted pecan halves
1 3/4 cup mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Toast nuts in 350 degree oven or toaster oven for 5-9 minutes.  Be careful not to burn!  Set aside to cool.  Pull butter out to soften and egg out to room temperature.

Whisk together the flour, black cocoa, baking soda and salt.  In another bowl, place all the various chips and nuts.

In the mixer, beat butter for a few minutes, add the sugar and continue to beat for a few minutes until lighter and fluffy.  Add the brown sugar and continue to mix for another minute or two.  Scrape down the bowl, add the eggs, one at a time until each is incorporated – then the vanilla.  Scrape the bowl again and mix a little bit more.

On the lowest speed, add the flour in 2 batches – mixing until almost incorporated.  Pull bowl from mixer and add all of the chips and the nuts and continue to mix (by hand – and I actually physically use my hand here) until all is just incorporated.

Divide the dough and place half on each cookie sheet.  Flatten the dough with your hands by pushing down with wet(ish) hands and get it basically as thin as the chocolate chips.  (You will use the marshmallows in the next step if your worried I forgot).

Bake for about 17-20 minutes – continually checking to see if they look done (the glossy sheen should be gone and they should feel dry on the top).  Place the sheet pans on the counter and place the marshmallows on top of the cooked batter – placing them evenly around – and squish each one in to the bark.  Be careful as the sheet pan is hot!

Bake for another 4-5 minutes until the marshmallows kind of melt or brown a tiny bit (although not necessary).

Let cool and cut with a knife free form, or break-up with your hands.  I found that I ucookie-bark-parchment-methonderbaked this last batch and they were really really good, although a little bit harder to handle.  Getting them off of the parchment was a little tricky, so I picked the whole piece of parchment (with cookie attached) and flipped it over a piece of tin foil and just peeled back the parchment.  That did the trick.  You can cut before or after.  These are great gifts as well.  I was baking for Gilda’s Club and decided to package them up in a little bag – nice for the holidays or just a little treat for a friend or family.

(my favorite) fudgy brownies

I’ve been making these brownies for as long as I can remember.  And they are truly fabulous.  Seriously yummy, fudgy and wet.  The recipe has been written up many times – always titled Katharine Hepburn’s Brownies.  Hard to believe, but I find the original recipe too sweet (I think because I add so many chocolate chips to the batter).  When I bake these, I generally  multiply the recipe by four.  I fill a (parchment lined) half sheet pan with the batter and once cool, I wrap and freeze the whole sheet.  I cut and serve as needed throughout the month.  The recipe below is for one 8 inch square pan – but I’ve cooked them in 9 inch rounds as well.  Just watch the baking time.  You can also double the recipe for a thicker brownie as these come out fairly thin.  And of course again, adjust the baking time.

favorite fudge brownies (adapted from Katherine Hepburn’s Brownie Recipe)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
chocolate chips to taste (I go heavy)
chopped walnuts to taste (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line the pan with foil so that it comes up the sides of the pan.  If you need two sheets, go for it.

Melt butter and chocolate in a medium-sized metal bowl over a pot with (about) an inch of simmering water.  Remove bowl from heat when melted and add the sugar.  Mix eggs with vanilla and add to the butter mixture.  Mix well.  Gently stir in the flour, salt and chocolate chips (and nuts if using) and mix until just incorporated.  Do not over mix.  Spread into pan and bake.  I don’t have a set time here – the key is to bake these until they are just cooked.  Set the time for 30 minutes, but then check every 5-7 minutes thereafter.  They should take about 35-40 minutes, but it really can change each time.  People often tell me that my desserts are good and I do think that half the battle is to not over bake.

Once cooked and cool – pull the foil (with brownies inside) out of the pan with two hands.  Then you can easily cut and serve.  Of course, you can just stick a spoon in there and start to eat when hot and warm out of the oven.  (OK, sometimes I do this.)These are fudgy and rich – and although I do like them with ice cream, they are really  great on their own.