Chocolate Graham Cracker Brownies

I think if I had a rewind button for life, I might've used it tonight when I decided to make these brownies...ok well maybe not now that they're done, but a few minutes ago I definitely would've pushed rewind.

I had some leftover chocolate graham crackers that I wanted to use up, hence the recipe I found on http://priscillabakes.blogspot.com Her brownies look absolutely beautiful, and tonight I knew that I wasn't in the mood to even try and make them pretty. Perhaps it's b/c I just finished reading some really boring stuff for school, who knows. 

So these brownies have no flour or butter in them...but for all of you who think you'll be saving on calories, just wait. The chocolate ganache isn't necessarily healthy...and it hates me. I've never made it before until tonight, and it turned out fine--that is until I dropped the not-yet-set ganache brownies on the floor. Thankfully only the top layer of ganache messed up and the brownies were fine. Oh yes, it went everywhere. I thought about taking a picture like I've seen people do with baking messes, but this was too depressing to capture.

The Bachelor Final Rose Part 2 comes on tonight (YAY Molly!) so I was too impatient to let the ganache set up, which of course it wouldn't do anyway b/c it really does hate me. Please ignore how horrible these pictures are, but I promise you these brownies really are great. They don't have the usual texture of brownies; it's slightly crunchy and thicker than a fudge brownie. The graham crackers crumbs really act like a great thickening agent. 

Final point: make these. The ganache was a bit rich for me, and since we're not on good terms I would say that it's not absolutely necessary to make. You could just melt some chocolate chips over this and call it a day. But for now I'm still in emotional turmoil over The Bachelor and have to see who the next Bachelorette is going to be! So sorry for the gross pictures, but just keep in mind that I'd spent 15 min. cleaning up ganache off the floor...and my pants, so I'm probably a little fussy. 

P.S. On a side note, I started taking a cake decorating class so soon you'll be seeing a plethera of hopefully pretty cakes. Just don't judge my decorating/baking skills from the aesthetics of these brownies. :)

This is about how thick the batter should look after the 3 min.

They have potential to look much better, but The Bachelor is more important for me to sit and wait around for the dumb ganache to harden. Whatever they still taste good.

Ingredients:

16 chocolate graham crackers

2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup light brown sugar

 1 tbsp. instant coffee granules

2 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup chocolate chips or chunks

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Lightly grease an 8 x 8 inch pan. Crush the graham crackers finely. Pour into a bowl and add cocoa and salt. Mix well and set aside. In a large bowl, combine eggs and sugars; beat with an electric mixer at a high speed until thickened, about 3 min. Stir in the coffee granules and vanilla. Fold in chips/chunks and the graham crumb mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20-25 min. Make sure not to overbake. Let cool completely in the pan and frost with ganache. 

Ganache:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 cups chocolate chips

Microwave cream until bubbly and hot. Fold in chips and stir until thickened and smooth. Spread over brownies. Let harden and cut into squares. 

**My family LOVED the texture of these brownies by the way! Chocolate graham crackers in a brownies=awesome!

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

How the candied pecans looked coming right from the stove.

...and how they look separated. They're all glossy!

When these came out the kitchen smelled like warm pumpkin and cinnamon.

Yet again it's another cold Saturday here in Memphis where the ice is coming down like mini hail. The weather predicts that soon it'll turn into snow. Yesterday the temperature was 63, and now it's 33 and icing...and people wonder why they're always sick here. I wanted something warm since it's so messy and cold outside, so what better than some warm bread?

I found this recipe from http://www.joyofbaking.com It's a pumpkin bread with nuts and a swirl of cream cheese. I thought it looked pretty, and I had the ingredients, so I decided to make it. One bad thing about this bread is that it uses up a lot of dishes. Another bad thing is that after I finished everything (cleaning included), I looked down to see that my cream jacket I have on has nice little splots of orange pumpkin bread batter all over the front. This is what I get for wearing cream I guess. It's kind of like when you eat spaghetti it's inevitable that you'll be wearing white that day.

Moving on from my inability to bake with dirtying myself, this bread tastes amazing...well ok the batter tastes really good, the bread is still baking in the oven. I did tweak the original recipe slightly though. I added some maple syrup and I made some candied pecans to go on top for an extra layer of crunch. If you didn't know--I'm all about multiple textures. I hate eating something with one texture; it's just not fun. If you look at the ingredient list and freak out that there's so much sugar and butter in it, remember that it's making two whole loaves of bread. It's not like you're eating 2 sticks of butter on your own, which reminds me of Kate Hudson in Bride Wars where she was in her Butter of the Month club. :)

Ingredients

Cream Cheese Filling:

8 ounce package cream cheese, room temperature (I used reduced fat)

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 & 1/2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

Pumpkin Bread:

1 cup pecans or walnuts

3 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 15-ounce can of pure pumpkin 

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 & 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in center of oven. Butter and lightly flour two 9 by 5 x 3 loaf pans. Set aside.

Toast nuts by placing on a baking sheet in oven for 8-10 min. Cool completely and coarsely chop. Set aside.

Cream cheese filling: In a food processor, process cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and process just until smooth; add eggs one at a time, processing just until incorporated. Don't over process. Stir in flour. Set Aside.

Pumpkin Bread:

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten. Add sugar and melted butter and whisk until blended. Whisk or stir in pumpkin, water, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and toatsed nuts. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and stir JUST until the ingredients are combined. Do not over mix b/c it will make the bread tough.

Divide the batter in half. Take on half and divide it evenly between the two prepared pans. Divide the cream cheese filling in half and place each half of filling on top the two pans of batter, smoothing the tops. Top with the remaining half of batter. Bake breads for about 50-60 min, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Place pans on wire rack and let them for for about 10 min. before removing breads from pans. Can serve warm, cold,or at room temperature. Store leftovers in the refrigerator or else freeze for later use. 

Candied Pecans:

From my last experience with cooks.com, I should've known NOT to use their recipes again...but I'm a nice person and I thought I'd give them a shot. Their candied pecan recipe was again a joke, so I had to tweak that too and hopefully it'll turn out ok.

Ingredients

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

5 tbsp. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 & 1/4 pecans

Bring salt, sugar, cinnamon, and milk to a boil. Let boil on medium heat for about 5 min. I put in a candy thermometer and it read about 220 degrees F. Let the mixture thicken and remove from heat. Add in vanilla and pecans. Pour on wax paper and let set, separating with a fork. 

Chocolate Blood Orange Bars

Well, you  win some and you lose some. I almost didn't put this recipe on here, but it was just b/c the form wasn't what I wanted...but they taste so good I had to. Last night I had the idea to make an orange bar instead of lemon bars. Rather than use a graham cracker crust, I made a chocolate graham cracker crust. Sounds pretty good right? It does taste good...really good, but let's just say it's a mystery how it turned out. 

I've always been fascinated with blood oranges. One b/c they're oddly a dark red, and two b/c the name kind of scares me. Well the name might have put a curse on these bars, but you'll have to find out for yourselves. 

This was my crust; it was absolutely perfect.

My added ingredients.

The finished product! It looks pretty doesn't it...just wait until it's cut open.

Here's a square.

...and the inside. 

Now if you recall, I used a chocolate crust...and the crust/bottom of this is clearly not chocolate. What happened? Who knows...it's a mystery, but I think it's kind of cool actually. The only bad thing about these bars was that they are very goey, but all you have to do is chill them overnight and they set up perfectly. This could be for a number of reasons: I would add more flour than just the 1/4 cup I got from one recipe, the glass pan wasn't the best choice to cook them in, and they needed to set in the refrigerator longer. B/c I  got impatient and wanted to see what they looked like, I only let them chill for 30 min. 

I'm hoping that by tom. they'll set up some more, but oh my goodness they taste so good. It's like eating an orange truffle in a gooey mess of goodness. If any of you have any suggestions for this, let me know. They are definitely best served cold and chilled.

Ok so confession time: I have to come out of the closet and admit that I like my brownies and bars a little gooey...a lot gooey, so of course I loved these when they first came out. Then the next day I loved them even more when when were cold and had hardened a bit. The orange and chocolate are completely blended together--one doesn't overpower the other. Feel free to leave any comments on my creative endeavor. But point being: if you like your bars on the fudgier side, follow my instructions and let them chill. If you like them to be a little cakier, add more flour and reduce the amount of eggs. Either way they definitely are a must to make.

Ingredients

Crust

1 & 1/2 cups chocolate graham crackers, crushed finely

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa, sifted

5 tbsp. butter, melted

Combine all ingredients and press firmly into a 9 x 11 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 5-7 min.

Filling

4 eggs, beaten

2/3 cup blood orange juice (about 3 medium-sized oranges)

1 & 1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. orange extract (optional)

1 tsp. orange rind

1/2 bar of dark chocolate, broken into little pieces (optional)

Combine beaten eggs and sugar until smooth. Add orange juice until well blended; add orange extract and orange rind. Add in dark chocolate pieces and pour over graham cracker crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 min. Chill in refrigerator or let set and serve at room temperature.

Cocoa Butterscotch Krispies

  

In my defense, I really had no plans on baking anything today. After finishing reading for one 

of my literature classes, I decided to go get some popcorn or something to equip for my next book I have to start for another literature class (such is the life of an English Lit. major). So as I'm glancing over our pantry, I see a box of Cocoa Krispies that in a week or so will go bad...and I felt sorry for them. So then I look up and see an opened bag of mini marshmallows that will also go bad in a week or so. Then something inside me took over and the next thing I know I'm whipping up a batch of cocoa krispies! I swear it was an out of body experience. 

I didn't want just a boring cocoa krispie though, so again a light shines upon a half leftover bag of butterscotch chips screaming at me to be used. So I decide to add a middle layer of butterscotch and M & M's (for a little crunch and rainbow :))

10 minutes later out come probably one of the best rice krispies I've ever had. They are sweet, but sooo good. The butterscotch really marries the marshmallow and chocolate flavor together wonderfully. I highly recommend these if you love rice krispies. These are also great b/c they're made in a smaller pan, thus they're bigger. I hope you enjoy my sweet creation. :)

Ingredients

3/4 bag of mini marshmallows

5-6 cups Cocoa Krispies

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 bag of butterscotch chips (about 1 & 1/4)

3/4 cup M & M's

Directions

Lightly butter an 8 x 11-inch pan with butter or margarine (I used butter flavored cooking spray b/c I was lazy). Melt butter or margarine with marshmallows in the microwave; add Cocoa Krispies. Add half of mixture into prepared pan. Melt butterscotch chips in microwave for about 1 & 1/2 min. Spread over Cocoa Krispies and add 1/2 cup M & M's. Add remaining Cocoa Krispie mixture on top. Top with remaining M & M's. Let set until firm or set in the refrigerator for a few min. 

Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Pretzels

I recently had an inclination to try and make pretzels for the first time. I scanned through a few recipes online and all of them called for around 5 cups of flour, which seemed like a lot to me. I thought it would end up making way too many pretzels than I wanted. I finally settled for this recipe on cooks.com, and boy was it a mistake. I've never seen a recipe have such ambiguous language in it!

All of the mixings ready to be beaten until "smooth and glossy"

The shape that I formed looked like a calzone.

 

All formed into their pretzels shapes and ready to be put in the oven.

My personal favorite was to wait until the dough was "satiny." What is that even supposed to mean? Then it was supposed to be "soft" butter...does that mean butter softened or a spreadable butter? Another favorite was that the batter was supposed to be beaten until it was smooth and glossy. Dough doesn't get glossy! So I basically just used the recipe as guidelines and took over for myself...not like I had any option.

The end result tasted just like a pretzel! They weren't bland necessarily, but I might add more brown sugar and cinnamon in my b/c I have a huge sweet tooth...more like a sweet mouth. But they taste great, not an overload of sugar that will make your teeth rot. They also make the house smell like those little pretzel places at the mall that when you pass, you feel like if you don't have a pretzel at the very moment--you'll die. :) Definitely try and make these though! Pretzels taste so much better when they're hot and soft compared to those hard store bought ones. They would taste wonderful with a skinny Cinnamon Dulce' Latte from Starbucks.

Ingredients

Pretzel Dough

1 pkg. active dry yeast (or 2 & 1/2 tsp.)

1 cup warm water

1/2 cup nonfat dry milk

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

3 cups flour (I used whole wheat flour)

Topping

2 1/2 tbsp. butter, melted

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions (with no help from cooks.com thank you)

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast with warm water; add dry milk and stir. Let stand 5 min. until  yeast foams or bubbles. Beat in 1/3 cup butter, salt, egg, 2 cups flour until well blended. Beat in 1 more cup of flour. Let dough stand for 15 min.

Sprinkle some flour on top of dough and turn onto a floured board. Knead for about 1 min., or until "satiny." Spray a large bowl well with nonstick cooking spray. Turn dough into this bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled, 1-2 hours. 

Turn onto lightly floured board. Roll to 12 x 14 inches. Spread half the dough with 1/4 of melted butter and sprinkle with 3/4 of sugar and cinnamon mixture. Fold unfilled dough over filling; press edges together (mine looked like a calzone). Cut into 12 strips. Separate strips and twist if the dough separates. Form into pretzel shape (see my picture if it helps...it's almost like a heart with the center touching the bottom). Lay pretzels seam side down on cooking sheets sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Use a baking brush to spread the remaining melted butter across the pretzels and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon and sugar on top. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 min. or until slightly brown and firm to the touch. 

Marbled Nutella and Peanut Butter Brownies

So it's a cold and rainy day here in Memphis...and what better way to beat the blues than to bake! Though really, it's not like I ever need an excuse to bake something. I realized that what makes baking so fun is that I always get excited to bake something; there's never a moment when I dread going into the kitchen and making something tasty. 

With these three ingredients, how can you go wrong really? 

This is the syrup I used in place of the hazelnut extract that I wasn't able to find anywhere.

With that being said, I found this recipe on cookiemadness.net, thus I'm of course giving all credit to Anna who is a baking genius. I, however, did tamper with the recipe just a bit. Instead of using a dark chocolate bar with hazelnuts in it, I bought a package of hazelnuts and toasted them. Then I added 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips to the Nutella swirl mixture. 

I know that Nutella has a hint of hazelnut flavoring, but I wanted to make it more prominent with the addition of the actual hazelnuts themselves. Plus I thought that the batter might need some hazelnut flavoring as well. I searched two grocery stores for a hazelnut extract and came up empty-handed. On the way home as I was trying to think of an alternative, it hit me that I have some sugarfree hazelnut coffee flavoring syrup. I was weary of how good it might taste in a dessert, but on the bottle it said that it can be used in baking. So I added a tsp. to the peanut butter brownie mixture and it gave it a nice, subtle hint of hazelnut. Yum.

Ingredients

Peanut Butter Brownies

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. hazelnut syrup (regular or sugarfree)

Swirl Mixture

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 tsp. butter

1/4 cup Nutella

1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted (toast in a oven at 350 degrees for about 10 min. or until fragrant)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x11 inch pan with aluminum foil.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until slightly crumbly, but able to be smoothed when stirred with a spatula. Beat in vanilla and peanut butter. Add eggs one at a time just until mixed--don't overmix. Add baking powder and salt until well blended. Add flour until it is just incorporated and spread peanut butter mixture into prepared pan.

To make the swirl mixture, place chocolate chips, Nutella, and butter in a microwave-safe bowl and heat until smooth (about 1 1/2 min.). Add in hazelnuts. 

Drop spoonfuls of Nutella mixture of peanut butter brownie batter and drag a knife through to make a marbled pattern. Bake on center rack for 30 min. or until brownies begin to pull away from the side of the pan and center seems set. Cool pan on a wire rack. When brownies hit room temperature, chill them for an hour or so. Lift from pan and cut into squares. 

Funfetti Friday!

Funfetti Cookies (I made mine a little large)

You  can use whatever food dye you want in the frosting, but I used pink of course :)

 

Funfetti Cake Balls

This is what they look like all mixed up and about to be put in the refrigerator.

My cat Cinnamon sat patiently watching me while I was baking in the kitchen...but I think he got a little tired from all that staring. 

So if you are one of those people who are stuck with having to bring dessert somewhere and have no time to make anything, here's two good recipes using a Pilsbury Funfetti Cake mix. Yes funfetti is supposed to be a kids cake, but why can't adults enjoy the sprinkles in a white cake too? The cookie recipe came from Pilsbury's official website, and if you wanted to add a special flavor try adding vanilla or coconut extract. The cake balls recipe comes from allrecipes.com, but you can also use any kind of cake to make these. I've made a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting from a mix and dipped them into semisweet chocolate. I've had great reviews of those red velvet cake balls too...they almost look like a glorified truffle.

Now if you think that you're too grown up to eat funfetti cake, make it for the kids b/c if it has sprinkles, they're going to be sold on it. I think these would be a great dessert to take to a kids birthday party. For a baby shower you could decorate the cookies with a blue or pink frosting (I used pink of course b/c I'm a girl and will put pink on everything). 

Funfetti Cookies

1 (18.9 oz) Pilsbury Most Supreme Funfetti Cake Mix

1/3 cup oil

2 eggs 

1/2 (15.6-oz) vanilla frosting

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, oil, and eggs; stir with spoon until thoroughly moistened. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. With the bottom of glass, dipped in flour, flatten to 1/4-inch thickness. 

Bake for 6-8 in, or until edges are lightly golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Spread frosting over warm cookies. Immediately sprinkle each with sprinkles. 

Funfetti Cake Balls

1 (18.9-oz) Pilsbury Most Supreme Funfetti Cake Mix

1 can of vanilla frosting

white or milk chocolate to coat (about a package worth of of chocolate)

Bake cake according to instructions on the box.  Let cake cool slightly and crumble into pieces. Add frosting and form into balls. Let them set in the freezer for about 3 hours. 

Put parchment or wax paper on cookie sheets. Remove cake balls and coat with chocolate; place on cookie sheets. Let set in the refrigerator for chocolate to harden.