Oh yeah… Thank you, Smitten Kitchen. I just slightly adjusted the ingredients to simplify the items I had to buy, and to make it a little less bad for you. They are still extremely rich and delicious!
Caramel
- 1/2 C granulated sugar
- 2 T unsalted butter
- Heaped 1/4 t sea salt
- 2 T heavy cream
Brownie
- 3 ounces very dark chocolate (~70% cocoa), roughly chopped
- 4 T unsalted butter, plus extra for pan (notice you use less than a stick of butter for the whole thing – Smitten calls for 1 1/2 sticks!!)
- 2/3 C granulated sugar (Smitten called for 1 Cup of sugar here – after making them I think it could be further reduced to 1/2 Cup)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 t vanilla extract
- 1/4 t sea salt
- 2/3 C all-purpose flour
Make caramel:
- Smitten prepares parchment on a plate here – I ended up pouring the caramel directly on the plate and it worked out fine… I’m in Guatemala and didn’t want to buy parchment for the sake of one little dessert.
- In a medium, dry saucepan over medium-high heat, melt your sugar, stirring to break up large chunks, until it has turned a nice copper color.
- Remove from heat and quickly and carefully stir in butter. It may not incorporate entirely but do your best.
- Stir in cream and salt and return saucepan to the stove over medium-high heat, bringing it back to a simmer and melted again any sugar that solidified. Cook bubbling caramel for a few minutes more, until it is a shade darker.
- Pour out onto a large plate and transfer plate to your freezer. Freeze until solidified, which takes about 20 minutes.
- To separate the caramel from the plate, one swift yet careful hit with a utensil to the middle of the plate did the trick.
Meanwhile, or when your caramel is almost firm, make your brownies:
- Heat oven to 350°F. (Again, Smitten calls for parchment – not necessary!) Grease a 9 x 11 baking dish with butter or cooking spray (sides too).
- In a medium heatproof bowl over gently simmering water, melt chocolate and butter. Off the heat, whisk in sugar, then eggs, one at a time, then vanilla and salt. Stir in flour until just mixed – you don’t want to over stir the flour.
- Assemble brownies: Chop the caramel it into rough 1-inch squares. Gently fold all but a small amount of caramel bits into batter. Scrape batter into prepared pan, spreading until relatively even. Scatter remaining caramel bits on top. Bake in heated oven for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool thoroughly before cutting.
I’m so glad we started getting Bon Appetit magazine at home. It is so inspiring and so far everything has been super tasty!
- 1/2 cup chilled heavy cream
- 4 large egg yolks
- 2 large egg whites (reserve all 4 egg whites so you have backups on step 4…)
- 1/4 cup espresso or strong coffee, room temperature
- 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 ounces semisweet chocolate (60-72% cacao), chopped
Preparation
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Beat 1/2 cup cream in medium bowl until stiff peaks form; cover and chill.
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Combine egg yolks, espresso, salt, and 2 Tbsp. sugar in a large metal bowl. Set over a saucepan of gently simmering water (the recipe says not allow bowl to touch water, but I don’t know how it was going to reach 160 degrees without touching a little bit – I waited over 10 minutes!). Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is lighter in color and almost doubled in volume and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the mixture registers 160 degrees, about 1 minute.
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Remove bowl from pan. Add chocolate; whisk until melted and smooth. Let stand, whisking occasionally, until room temperature.
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Using an electric mixer, beat egg white in another medium bowl, gradually increasing the speed from slow/medium speed until foamy. With mixer running, gradually beat in remaining 1 Tbsp. sugar. Keep increase speed to high and beat until firm peaks form. Have patience here or you egg whites will not preform. Also, once they form peaks, STOP BEATING THEM!
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Carefully fold egg whites into chocolate in 2 additions; fold whipped cream into mixture just to blend (this is how the yummy fluffy texture is made).
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Divide mousse among six (ahem- FOUR) teacups or 4-oz. ramekins. Chill until firm, at least 2 hours. DO AHEAD: Mousse can be made 1 day ahead; cover and keep chilled. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.
I just ran 17 miles this morning, and these cookies make the perfect post-run treat!
- 3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 C)
- 1 t vanilla extract
- 1/4 C olive oil
- 2 C rolled oats
- 2/3 C ground fiber one
- 1/3 C coconut
- 1/2 t cinnamon
- 1/2 t fine grain sea salt
- 1 t baking powder
- 6 – 7 ounces chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped (or both)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.
- In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks/chips.The dough is a bit looser than a standard cookie dough, don’t worry about it.
- Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 – 14 minutes.
Makes about 3 dozen bite-sized cookies. I only eat my bananas while they are still on the green side. This is my favorite thing to do with the overly ripe spotted ones!
I have been baking so much with the BBA challenge lately, that i have ceased all other baking. I completely forgot that i have not made my Chocolate pretzels since starting this blog. We finished up our corn muffins pretty quickly, and today, i had a hankering for these. By the time i finished writing this post, i have had more than my fair share of these cookies. I’ll run them off tomorrow!
- 1 1/2 t instant espresso powder
- 3 T boiling water
- 1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 C granulated sugar
- 1 t vanilla extract
- 1/2 t sea salt
- 1 large egg
- 2/3 C unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 packets Sugar in the Raw, for sprinkling
1. Stir espresso powder into the boiling water until dissolved; set aside. Meanwhile, put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until creamy. Mix in vanilla and salt. Reduce speed to medium-low. Mix in egg, cocoa and dissolved espresso. Gradually add flour, and mix until a smooth dough forms. Turn out onto a piece of wax paper; pat into a square. Wrap dough, and refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
2. Divide dough into 24 equal pieces. Roll into balls. Shape balls into 9 or 12-inch-long ropes. I just rolled them out on the wax paper that they the dough was refrigerated in to save on clean up. Twist each rope into a pretzel shape. Space evenly on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk egg yolk with 1 teaspoon water in a small bowl. Brush cookies with egg wash; sprinkle with sugar in the raw. Bake cookies until dry, about 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 week (but they won’t be around that long).
what a delicious dinner! it was sort of naughty. we had planned to make taco salads for dinner, but i had bought buttermilk for my next Bread Baker’s Apprentice challange recipe, and we had both been wanting to make pancakes for a while. I think these came out a little too moist and had a tendency to tear.
- 2 C all purpose flour
- 4 t sugar
- 1 t salt
- 1 t baking powder
- 1/2 t baking soda
- 1/4 t cinnamon
- 1 1/2 C buttermilk
- 1/4 C milk
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 t vanilla
- 3 T butter, melted
- 3 T semi sweet chocolate chips
- preheat oven to 250 F and heat skillet over medium heat. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, and mix wet ingredients in a separate, small bowl.
- when the pan is fully heated, add wet ingredients to the dry and gently stir until NEARLY mixed. (be careful to leave a few clumps)
- keep the cakes warm in the preheated oven.
these were a wonderful post race treat! the food at the Columbia Triathlon was not good. When i finished, all they had left was pasta salad, dried-out bagels, and puny bananas. APPARENTLY there were cookies and cliff bars earlier on, but the racers families ate them up DURING THE RACE! this is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I had not seen such moochers until i came to DC and ran the Army 10-miler. my jaw dropped when i saw overweight race bystanders loading boxes with the racers food.
For brownies, these were pretty healthy. They have a ‘B’ grade on calorie-count.com.
- 1 box of brownie mix
- 1 can black beans
- Preheat oven per box directions.
- rinse + drain the black beans, then return to their can and fill w/ enough water to cover. (about 1/2″ below the can rim)
- use an immersion blender to mix up the beans and water thoroughly. I blended them for about 3 solid minutes.
- stir bean mixture into brownie mix. spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray, pour in batter and bake per box directions.
so… it’s chocolate time again, let the cravings begin! working with what i have in our ‘pantry’, i decided to satiate my chocolate yen with a nice, semi-healthy, batch of bradley muffins. while fishing around, i found a box of cocoa and some semi-sweet chips and though, why not?unfortunately, i only had a big can of libby’s pumpkin on hand, so i had eyeball the halfway point, and figure out what to do with the second half of can…
i am so naughty!
- 15 oz. libby’s pumpkin
- 1 box devil’s food cake mix
- 4 T dutch process cocoa
- 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
- mix all the ingredients (chips last) and bake for 23 minutes at 350°.
these ‘muffins’ came out slightly crunchy on the outside, rich and fudgy on the inside. that is to say – PERFECT.
Filed under: DESSERT, DINNER, MULTISPORT | Tags: beef, brick, brownies, chocolate, potatoes
we biked and bricked the course this morning. it was 90° outside, but we biked it 10 minutes faster than last time, a month ago. the park was packed with cars and there were at least as many bikes on the road as cars. there are at least 8 good hills on the course, and on the last one, the man biking in front of me sort of slumped over off the road.
dinner: burgers:
initially, i didn’t really feel like grilling the burgers. didn’t we just eat burgers 4 days ago? but i REALLY COULDN’T after giving myself second degree burns with the spatula… i had left our metal spatula sitting apparently too close to the grill exhaust while it was preheating. i now have a very neat imprint of the spatula handle on my right palm.
joe ended up cooking the entire meal himself, while i pathetically clutched a cold beer can…
dessert: brownies:
before burning myself, i had managed to make the RICH DARK CHOCOLATE brownie recipe found on the back of the King Arthur flour bag. luckily, i made a half batch becuse these are really to die for.
- 1 C sugar
- 1/2 C butter
- 1/2 t salt
- 3/4 C Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder
- 1/2 t baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 2 t vanilla
- 3/4 C King Arthur all purpose flour
- 1 C semisweet chocolate chips
- melt butter in medium sized, microwave safe bowl. add sugar and heat heat again if necessary to make it smooth (maybe 30 sec. more).
- stir in cocoa, salt, baking powder, and vanilla until smooth.
- add flour and chocolate chips
- bake at 350 in a
yum. i had seen this in a couple places before, but not taken the initiative to make it happen. it just so happened that after making granola this afternoon, i had a few almonds left over, 6 apricots left in the package, and a hankering for chocolate. it was insanely easy to make (and kinda fun) and tasted SOOOO good.
ingredients:
- 6 dried apricots
- 3 T melted dark chocolate (or semi-sweet)
- 6 almonds, chopped (i had seen the recipe done with pistachios)
directions:
- dip the apricot in melted chocolate, sprinkle with chopped nuts, and place on plate in the freezer or refrigerator for chocolate to harden.
thank you bradley – wherever you are…
ingredients:
- 1 can pumpkin puree
- 1 box of devil’s food cake mix
directions:
- mix pumpkin puree and cake mix
- bake at 350 for 35 minutes
two skinny jenkins 