Fudgy Brownies

So for those of you who have been living under a rock, or have just lost track of time, today is Valentine’s Day. For some this means snuggling up to your cuddle-bunny, pudding-cup, sweetie-pie, etc., feeding each other romantic meals by candlelight and sharing fancy desserts. For others, like myself, it means well… nothing. I don’t mind, really. I have brownies to keep me company.

In case you didn’t know, I only have three brownie recipes on here. I have no idea why I have so little; I love chocolate, and fudginess, so why do I only have three recipes? Probably because I love a certain kind of brownie: the kind of brownie made from a box. Those brownies have everything I’m looking for: deep dark chocolate color, rich chocolate taste, crinkly paper-thin tops, and chewy fudgy texture. I may be wrong, but I think a lot of bloggers have trouble finding that perfect balance in a scratch recipe.

When I decided to make brownies, it was 6 in the morning on a Saturday. I looked through my “To Bake” list and found like one brownie recipe: s’mores brownie. When I looked through the saved recipes on Foodgawker, none of the brownies caught my eye. Then I looked on Pintrest, and the same thing happened. I looked on foodgawker again and these Fudgy Brownies looked promising. They have the crinkly top and the deep dark color along with the look of pure chewy fudginess going on in the center.

This recipe calls for a technique I have never seen in brownies. Instead of adding leavening, you whip up egg whites and sugar. For some reason I could not get my egg whites and sugar to whip to the soft peaks I wanted, but I somehow made it work. The rend result was a semi-crinkle crust, and a dense fudgy interior.

The flavor of this brownie is the thing that really shines through, though. The flavor rivals all scratch brownies I have ever had. Even my roommate, who has only ever eaten one kind of brownie her entire life: Pillsbury boxed mix, said these were really good. So there may be hope for made-from-scratch brownies yet.

Happy Valentine's Day! <3

Fudgy Brownies

Slightly adapted from Juanita’s Cocina

Makes a 9-inch square pan

Ingredients

8 tbsp. unsalted butter

½ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder, sifted

¾ cup dark brown sugar

2 eggs, separated

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

½ tsp. salt

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted

1 cup sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch square pan with tin foil. Grease tin foil with cooking spray; set the pan aside.

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Once completely melted, remove from heat and whisk in the sifted cocoa powder (sifting the cocoa powder helps remove those pesky clumps and makes for easier mixing). Stir until smooth. Beat in the brown sugar, egg yolks, vanilla and salt. The mixture will be granular. Mix in the flour until combined. The mixture will be very thick.

Beat egg whites in a large bowl until foamy. Gradually add the sugar. Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form. Fold the egg white and sugar mixture into the chocolate mixture, making sure not to over mix.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Allow brownies to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool to room temperature before slicing.  

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

All right, so remember those Chocolate Kiss Krispies I shared will y’all last week? Remember what I said about not going out and buying that strawberry drink mix just for the glaze? Well, you probably should have because I have a recipe that will delight the artificial strawberry lover in you. (That is made to be a good thing).

I remember after reading this post on Sprinkle Bakes I immediately saved the recipe. It’s a No Bake Strawberry Milk Cheesecake. I always liked chocolate milk as a kid, but I did try strawberry milk every once in a while. And although it has been several years since I have had strawberry milk, I still remember the taste, but only because of Neapolitan ice cream.

I planned on making this back in the Spring/Summer of last year, but I never got around to it. Then Peabody took up suggestions for birthday cake and she made the same cheesecake for her fiancé, so that’s when it clicked that I really need to get my act together and make this thing. That, plus the fact this cheesecake is pink and therefore perfect for Valentine’s Day.

 I would like to mention this is only my third cheesecake ever! My first was this delectable pumpkin cheesecake picked from the Cake Slice Bakers group and this amazing chocolate and peanut butter mousse cake, again from the Cake Slice Bakers.

This cheesecake isn’t really a cheesecake at all. At least it doesn’t taste that way. It just tasted like an ice cream cake, which is pretty dang awesome! The creamy batter (if I can call it that) it subtly sweet and tastes like childhood. And instead of making the funfetti crust Heather made, I decided to go with just a chocolate teddy graham crust because chocolate teddy grahams were all I had. I think the chocolate crust and strawberry milk filling is a great combination, though. I didn’t add the whipped cream on top, but if you did, this basically would be a Neapolitan ice cream cake.

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

Adapted from Sprinkle Bakes

Makes 6 cheesecake cups

Ingredients

Crust

50 g chocolate teddy graham crumbs

Pinch of salt

½ tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

Cheesecake

½ cup heavy whipping cream

4 oz. cream cheese, soft

¼ cup strawberry drink mix (such as Nestle Nesquick)

½ tbsp. sugar *

Directions

Line a muffin tin with six paper liners.

To turn the teddy grams into crumbs, just put them in a food processor and pulse until you get fine crumbs. If you don’t have a food processor, put the teddy grahams into a ziplock bag and crush with a rolling pin. Whisk together the crumbs, salt, and sugar in a small bowl. Pour in the melted butter and mix until the crumbs are moist. Place 1 ½ tbsp. of the crumb mixture into each paper liner.

In a large bowl, beat the heavy cream to soft peaks. Add the softened cream cheese and beat until combined. Sift in the strawberry milk powder and sugar. *I used 25% less sugar strawberry Nestle Nesquick, but if you use the full sugar, just omit the ½ tbsp. of sugar in the recipe. Fold the milk powder and sugar to combine. Evenly distribute the cheesecake filling between the six cups (I used a medium-small cookie scoop and put three dollops into each tin).

Freeze cheesecake cups for 2 hours, or until firm, before removing them from the tin. Let the cheesecake cup sit at room temperature for a few minutes before serving. Store uneaten cheesecake in the freezer.  

Chocolate Kiss Krispies

I know I haven't been posting on this blog as much as I usually do. School is tough. I'm taking Calculus  II, Physics I, Chemistry II, Engineering, and History of Technologies, so please, allow me to be a little scrambled with posts. It's not that I haven't been baking, because trust me, I have! The thing keeping me from posting is my work load. By the time I remember to write a post or edit pictures, or even take pictures, it's 10 or 11 at night. Hopefully this weekend will be a little less bah and I can take some photos and write. With that said, lets get to the topic at hand: rice krispie treats!

The other day I saw this recipe for chocolate rice krispie treats that sounded absolutely amazing! They consisted of cocoa rice krispie cereal, Hershey’s kisses, and hot chocolate mix! All that chocolate sounded perfect, so I set out to make them.

Even though I adapted these quite a bit, I still think they taste absolutely fantastic. The kisses melt when added to the hot butter and marshmallow mixture, creating pockets of creamy milk chocolate. And who doesn’t like pockets of chocolate?

And how many of you are fans of a really compact marshmallow treat? And ones that love it when they fall apart? Well these rice krispie treats are sort of both. They are firm enough to hold their shape and don’t fall apart when you pick it up, but these are soft enough that if you wanted to pull it apart, like I do, these give way easy. It’s like a magic rice krispie treat!

In the spirit of the upcoming Valentine’s Day, I added a strawberry milk glaze on top. Now you can top this with whatever you want, because this really doesn’t use much strawberry milk powder, and I don’t want you going out and buying some just for this glaze, although it I pretty, and sets up nice and crunchy like.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Kiss Krispies

Adapted from The Sweet Chick

Makes one 9-inch square pan

Ingredients

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

5 oz. mini marshmallows

3 cups Cocoa Rice Krispie cereal

12 milk chocolate Hershey’s kisses, roughly chopped

Directions

Line a 9-inch square pan with tin foil. Grease foil with cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium sized pot, melt together the butter and mini marshmallows over medium heat. Once both the butter and marshmallows have completely melted, take off the heat and add in the cereal and chopped kisses. Stir to combine, making sure all of the cereal is completely coated in melted marshmallow.

Pour the marshmallow mix into the prepared pan, using your hands to spread it to all corners. Wetting your hands with help the mixture from sticking to your hands. Let the mixture cool before topping with the glaze.

To make the glaze: combine ½ cup confectioners’ sugar, 1 tsp. strawberry milk mix, and 1 - 2 tsp. hot water. Add water by ¼ tsp. until you get desired glazing consistency. Drizzle glaze over top of the marshmallow treat. Cut into desired shapes. (I got 9 treats plus some giant scraps with the heart cutter I used) 

Baked Red Velvet Donuts

So Valentine's Day is just two weeks away, and I'm going share some love-dovey, chocolatey, and all things pink goodies. I hardly ever sync with the holidays on this blog, but by golly I'm going to try this time. So here we are, talking about red velvet donuts!

Red velvet anything just sounds so fancy, don’t you think? The only red velvet cake I have ever had was over this past summer, on my trip to London. The frosting was absolutely delicious, but the cake part was sad, very, very sad.

However, that letdown has not stopped me from saving a few red velvet recipes. I like trying new things (when it comes to baking at least), that and my need to be fancy fueled my need to make something red velvet. 

These donuts cannot be any simpler to make. I believe these were in and out of the oven in about 30-40 minutes starting from measuring out the flour to popping them out of the tray.

These donuts are firm enough to hold their shape when dunked in milk, but soft enough to be enjoyed without any kind of dunking involved. A tinsy hint of chocolate shines through these donuts, and it is oh so lovely. These are not too sweet either, lending most of the sweetness from the lovely thick glaze that sets on top.

Red Velvet Donuts

Slightly adapted from Taste and Tell

Makes 5 donuts

Ingredients

Donuts

1 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup + 2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour

½ tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

¼ cup sugar

1 egg white, room temperature

¾ tsp. pure vanilla extract

¼ cup buttermilk

1 tsp. red food coloring, (I used AmeriColor Super Red)

Glaze

1 tbsp. hot water

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

½ tbsp. milk

¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 6 cup donut pan with cooking spray; set aside.

In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, melt together the butter and chocolate. Stir occasionally until the two start to melt. Continue to stir until fully melted into one another. Remove from heat and let the chocolate mixture cool.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg white and the sugar until frothy. Add the cooled chocolate and whisk until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla, buttermilk, and food coloring. Mix until combined.

Gradually fold the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing just until combined. The batter will be very thick and puffy. Transfer the batter into a piping bag or ziplock bag. Cut a corner and pipe the batter into the greased donut cups. Bake for 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the donut. Cool in the pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, dip in the glaze.

To make the glaze: stir the hot water, confectioners sugar, milk, and vanilla. Use immediately. This will make enough to glaze the tops of all five donuts with a little left over.

Chocolate Muffins

Chocolate is a magical thing, don't you think? The rich color makes me feel so warm and the taste just kind of melts into your tastebuds. It really does make everything better.

And muffins are a special treat too. Muffins basically say it is ok to eat cake for breakfast, and who doesn't love eating cake for breakfast. I remember when I was little and someone had a birthday, my sister and I would get to have a huge slice of sugary cake for breakfast until all the cake was gone. Good times. But back to muffins. I have always jealous of how luscious store-bought muffins look. The muffins are baked oh so high, the crumble topping is crunchy and sweet, the chips are evenly distributed, the insides are soft while the tops are dense.  

Due to me jealousy, every once in a while I try my hand at making muffins that rival the store-bought muffins. The trouble is this though: the chocolate never really comes through. I have the same trouble when making chocolate cake. Oh how I love chocolate and oh how sad it I am when I can’t taste the lovely chocolate flavor.

This muffin recipe is definitely the best I have used for chocolate muffins. They are perfect in almost every way. The top of the muffin is everything I can hope for: dense and fudgy. The muffins also bake up nice and tall with a lovely dome shape. While the muffin bottom is soft, springy, and quite delectable, I wish there was just a tad more chocolate flavor. Maybe by adding some mini chocolate chips this muffin recipe has the potential to be one of the best. 

Chocolate Muffins

Slightly adapted from Flax and Twine

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

7 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

5 tbsp. unsalted butter

¾ cup milk

½ cup plain yogurt (I used Oikos)

½ cup (96 g) sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 2/3 (200 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners. Set aside.

In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water melt the chopped chocolate and butter together. Stir until combined. Take the bowl off the simmering water and set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the milk, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla. Whisk until combined. Stir in the cooled chocolate. Mix until combined. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Pour the chocolate mixture over top the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Distribute the chocolate muffin batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. I used a medium cookie scoop, a tbsp. cookie scoop, and a half tbsp. scoop for each muffin cup. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the muffin. Cook the muffins in the pan for 5-10 minutes. These are best enjoyed right out of the oven, but 10 seconds in the microwave with make them good as new.