Peppermint Bark Brownies

Here's a twist on an old favorite!

Peppermint Bark Brownies are always a huge hit at parties. They're delicious and SO easy to make! They're a beautiful addition to any holiday buffet/dessert table, especially if you put them in festive Christmas themed cupcake liners. =)


I found these at Michael's, a local craft store. They're mini cupcake liners by Martha Stewart. These will give you tiny, bite sized brownies!

The snowflake ones are my favorite!

(1) The Brownies

I like to make my brownies from scratch, with real melted chocolate! It's simply the best. Click here for the recipe. You can also use boxed brownie. Whatever you prefer will work!


Prepare your brownie recipe as indicated and fill mini muffin pans, lined with mini cupcake wrappers. You'll have a hard time getting the brownies out if you don't line the cups. Trust me, I speak from experience. =)


Bake at the temperature indicated on your brownie recipe, but keep your eye on it! It will bake in 15-20 minutes.

(2) The Toppings

Once the brownies are cool and ready to go, melt some white chocolate and use a fork to drizzle it over the brownies.


The trick is to dip your fork into the white chocolate and tap it a couple of times on the side of the bowl, to get rid of the excess. Then, hold your fork over the brownies and rapidly swing the fork from side to side.

You'll get "creatively messy" chocolate drizzles. =)

Crush up some peppermint candy canes. For step by step instructions on how to do this, click here.

Sprinkle with the crushed candy canes!

Let the brownies sit for 20-30 minutes, until the chocolate hardens. Serve on a pretty platter!

These are SO incredibly delicious- one of the best ways to make brownies! If you're a peppermint fan, you'll love these! I hope you will give these a try and enjoy them as much as my family does! Happy Holidays! =)

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownie Bars

Truth be told, I really didn't want to feature these on my blog at first.

I've seen these bars everywhere. Every other person who owns a food blog has already featured them. It's my goal to be innovative and creative with what I post, so that people can get fresh and exciting ideas/recipes from my blog. So I told myself that it was absolutely out of the question to give these a try. But every time I saw them featured, my mouth watered and I wanted so badly to try them...I really had to restrain myself. Many of my readers are huge foodies and frequent sites like Tastespotting, so I knew that this would be a "repeat" for them.

But remember last week when I wrote about being all up in a panic because my Pumpkin Pecan Pie was ugly? Well, during the several days when I struggled with my inner turmoil (of whether or not to post those ugly pictures), I decided to give this recipe a try. It would be my "back up pumpkin recipe," should my personality disorders triumph. (If this doesn't make any sense to you, read the Pumpkin Pecan entry. hehe)

And it really didn't help that I kept seeing them. They were sooo gorgeous and I was all up in a panic about pumpkin recipes, so I totally caved. Anyway, Hubby's a big chocoholic, so I wanted him to be able to try them.

They turned out really well! They were SO photogenic. And you know how much I love them pretty food pictures... =)


Whenever I bake anything chocolatey that calls for cocoa powder, I always use Ghirardelli. It's the best and it really brings out the flavor of your brownie/cake/whatever. You'll get a super deep and rich dark chocolate flavor. Good quality ingredients will make a huge difference in your end product.

First, make the brownie batter. mmmm...so chocolatey and delicious!


Spread it into your pan as the bottom layer. Reserve 1/3 of the batter.

Next, make the pumpkin cheesecake batter. Slowly pour it over the brownie batter in the pan.


Scoop the rest of the brownie batter over the cheesecake layer in small dollops throughout the pan.


Run a knife horizontally across the pan, in rows. Then run it vertically across the pan, in columns. Repeat to make more swirls.

Bake at 350 degrees, for 40 minutes. Refrigerate before serving.

I tried these when it was warm-ish, and then when it was completely chilled. Beantown Baker says that the flavor really comes through when it's chilled. But I preferred them when it was still gooey and warm. When we ate them the next day, we microwaved them. Soooooo yummy!

I cut them into tiny bit sized pieces, and put some poison toothpicks in them.

They're perfect for a Halloween party!

After I decided on featuring the Pumpkin Pecan Pie, I thought that I would just scrap this recipe and leave it out of the blog. But I really couldn't help myself because the brownies were so delicious and the pictures were so beautiful! Anyway, to those of you who have already seen this recipe featured, I apologize. But at least the pretty pictures provided a little bit of entertainment, right? =)



Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Brownies
Click HERE for the recipe.

Decadent Dark Chocolate Brownies

When I first set out to make these, I wasn't sure if I was going to feature them on my blog. But I took pictures anyway just in case I changed my mind later. Plus, I wanted to try out my new camera, so it didn't hurt.


Brownies are a classic American treat that everyone loves. But since they're a classic, they've been done by many and in my mind, isn't super innovative and blog worthy. However, I had mostly always made brownies from a box and was curious if homemade ones tasted any better. The box mix brownies are pretty delicious and they're quick and easy. So I set out to see if made-from-scratch ones are worthy of the time and effort. (The one time when I made them from scratch, they tasted the same as the boxed ones..but I was convinced that there were better recipes out there and that I just had to find The One!)

I was flipping through my new beloved Williams Sonoma Baking cookbook and came across a recipe for dark chocolate brownies. Having loved everything that I've tried from this book thus far, I decided that this would be the perfect recipe to use for my experiment! I was confident that this one would be better than the previous one.


The recipe called for 6 oz. of unsweetened chocolate, chopped. I pulled out my scale to weigh out the chocolate, but to my surprise, the baking chocolate I purchased had nicely packaged 1 oz bars! (Obviously I'm a baking novice! This was probably common knowledge...)

Melt butter with the chopped chocolate...


...to create this beautiful dark chocolate syrup!


In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla.


Then combine the two mixtures.

The batter was really pretty and swirled together when I was mixing it!


It should look like this when well mixed- really smooth and shiny.

Next, slowly fold in the flour.

When you're done, the batter will have thickened. Pour into a 8x8 pan (but I used a 9x13, because I wanted thinner brownies) and bake for 35-40 min (less for me because they were thinner.)

Aren't they gorgeous?? They turned out beautifully! And since I'm blogging about this, you can probably guess at the conclusion of my experiment.

Let me just put it this way: I will never, I repeat, never, bake brownies ever again from a box! These brownies were out of this world! I don't think I've ever had a brownie that tasted this good before. And I don't even like dark chocolate. No joke. We had it with a side of vanilla bean ice cream and it was incredible!

They were rich, fudgy, and sooo decadent. I can't even begin to describe how good they were. The only word I can use to describe them is: "Mmmmmm!" I encourage everyone to try this recipe this weekend and see for yourselves just how incredibly mind-blowing these brownies are! And be sure to leave a comment if you do- let me know how you liked them!

Recipe:

Classic Dark Chocolate Brownies
Essentials of Baking, Williams Sonoma, p. 53

6 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3/4 (6 oz) cup unsalted butter, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
3 large eggs
1 3/4 (14 oz) cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

Position a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 350 degrees. Butter an 8x8 inch pan. Place the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler placed over barely simmering water. Heat, stirring often, until the butter and chocolate melt. Remove from over water and set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla until blended. Whisk in the chocolate mixture until blended. sprinkle all of the flour over the mixture and whisk slowly just until blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly with a rubber spatula.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost clean or with a few moist crumbs clinging to it, 35-40 minutes. Be careful not to overbake. Transfer to wire rack and let cool completely.

Chocolate Ganache Mint Brownie Bites

My friend Jerr, who's so passionate about baking that she's going off to pastry school in September, gave me this recipe. It's a big crowd-pleaser and it's usually gone within minutes when I show up with them at parties! They're little bite sized brownies, filled with mint chocolate, and covered with dark chocolate ganache. For all you chocoholics out there, you won't be able to stop at just one!

Start with a good brownie recipe. You can also use a box of store-bought brownie mix if you have it handy and find it to be more convenient. You'll need a set of 24 mini muffin pans. I love my mine.. every girl should have these! They make the cutest brownie bites and mini cupcakes that are prefect for entertaining.

Once they are done, put them on a cooling rack or plate to cool for about 5 minutes.

You'll need a mint chocolate candy. Mint Andes work really well and those are what I ususally use. However, I was in the candy aisle and couldn't resist these cute Mint Chocolate M&Ms! They're not only really yummy but pretty as well!

While the brownies are still warm, push two M&Ms (or half of a Mint Andes) into each mini brownie.

While you wait for the brownies to cool completely, start on the chocolate ganache topping (leave out the rum when using this recipie, subsitute it for Bailey's if you're in the mood for something extra). Ganache sounds fancy and complicated, but it's only really dark chocolate chips with heavy whipping cream! It really couldn't be easier to make!


For the ganache, the chocolate that you use is crucial to how it tastes. I've tried many different brands of chocolate, and I have found that Guittard dark chocolate chips are by far the favorite of all the people who have tasted my dark chocolate ganache. It's a bit more pricey than the other chocolates in the baking aisle, but totally worth every penny! Your product is only as good as the ingredients you put into it.


Once the brownies have cooled, spread the ganache over the top of the mini brownies. Coat the entire tops if you're a big chocolate fan, or add a mini drizzle if you don't like your brownies to be too chocolatey.


For added flair and extra mint chocolatey flavor, add an extra M&M on top!

TA-DA! Take them to the next party you attend and watch them disappear!