TBB - Woody's Black and White Brownies

This week's challenge for Rose's Alpha Bakers was Woody's Black and White Brownies (recipe can be found in The Baking Bible). I started out thinking I'd make the brownie portion only since it closely resembles the awesome Barcelona Brownies which I've blogged about here. However, these brownies are super chocolatey (a plus for me, not so much for hubby), so I decided to top them with something sweet, that would compliment the brownies well and be super quick and easy. That's when the bag of Kraft caramel bits whispered in my ear, "use me" (don't judge!). I had some leftover chocolate glaze in the freezer for a little drizzle, and voila!

It made sense at the time when I decided to make only half the recipe. As I ate another piece just now, this time it was a cold one from the fridge with a deliciously dense and fudge-like texture, I'm left wondering what I was thinking.

I pushed the nuts into half of the pan and swirled them around the batter using my magic little finger (it was clean) :o)

The Magic Finger

The nutty one is for hubby

The nut-less one is mine.

The candy I used to decorate my piece is actually called a chocolate covered powerberry. It's a fruity jelly-like center covered in dark chocolate from Trader Joe's.

ABC - Fudgy No-Butter Brownies

I'm late, late, late, but better late than never, I suppose. These Fudgy No-Butter Brownies were awesome! I was skeptical at first but I have to admit, it worked.

The ABC bakers had interesting challenge this month. Bake a gluten free brownie without butter. Mission impossible, you say? Not so much.

These delicious gluten free brownies were baked about a month ago for the Pi(e) Day celebration at work. I baked the batter in a 9" Pyrex pie pan and so the "Brownie Pie' was born :o)

"Brownie Pie"

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you all good health and good food in 2014 :o)

I just realized that we're starting our 5th (yes, FIFTH!!!) year of ABC baking! Wow, time flies. But I couldn't have done it without you! A big Thank You to all the ABC members for baking their hearts out every month.

Is there a better way to kick off a new year of ABC baking, than to bake with chocolate? Add some cream cheese to the mix and you have a recipe for a decadent dessert! I love brownies and I love cheesecake. When I saw the recipe for Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies in the King Arthur Flour catalog a little while back, I knew I had to put them in the ABC list. So, here we are...

Mocha Cheesecake Brownies

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

Brownie Latte Cheesecake

Let's say, you need to make a birthday cake for someone very special. What do you do? I'd really like to know. Please feel free to leave a comment, telling me about your approach.

Here's what I did for my husband's birthday cake. I stared at all my cookbooks in the bookshelf for a long time, and then grabbed a couple of them and browsed through them, hoping "the" recipe would just jump at me. Pretty scientific, huh? :o). Well, it sure did! I was sold as soon as I saw this beautiful picture of a slice of this rich and decadent Brownie Latte Cheesecake from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle. This would be the first time I had made a cheesecake for any birthday. One could argue it's not traditional. My argument: you're getting two desserts for the price of one, so who cares! :o) The fact that Tish gave it two thumbs up certainly helped a lot too!

Happy birthday, sweetie!

A slice of heavenly Brownie Latte Cheesecake

ABC - Congo Brownies

For this month's ABC recipe I wanted something quick and easy so I picked Congo Brownies from Flo Braker's "Baking for all Occasions". This recipe couldn't have been easier (or tastier for that matter). I really like my KitchenAid standmixer but every once in a while I enjoy making a quick dessert that only requires a bowl and a whisk. This was one of those desserts. Since it's made with melted butter, I could even use my butter straight from the freezer (time-saver!!!).

If you're wondering, what are Congo Brownies, you're not alone. I have no idea where the name came from but basically it's a brownie that consists of two layers; the bottom layer is a blondie and the top layer is dark chocolate brownie. I made these last week and took them with me to the bake sale. I decided to call them "Double Decker" brownies :o) They were a huge hit. I did manage to save a piece for hubby and myself otherwise I wouldn't have much to talk about in this post :o)

Look at that fudginess in the middle and the crunchiness on top!

Here are my tasting impressions: the bottom layer was buttery and caky with wonderful caramel undertones from the (dark) brown sugar. The top layer was super chocolaty and fudgy. The crunch from the toasted nuts (almonds) added a nice contrast. Definitely a winner!

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby enjoyed his Double Decker brownie very much. He gave it a 9 out of 10!
• Changes to the recipe: omitted the salt in both layers and used salted butter (hubby accidentally bought salted butter instead of unsalted, so I figured this would be a great way to use it without any negative effects). I subbed half of the granulated sugar in the brownie layer with dark brown sugar. I think it gives brownies a slightly chewier texture and it keeps them most. Instead of "hiding" the nuts (almonds for me) in between the two layers, I thought the nuts deserved to be noticeable and that's why I put them on top. Because of that change, I decided to forgo the chocolate glaze/drizzle on top.
• If you'd like to give these brownies a try, you can find the recipe on Cookstr.com. You won't regret it!
• Don't forget to check out the ABC blog roll.

HCB - Barcelona Brownie Bars

I have been meaning to make these brownies for so long. When this week's "Free Choice" came around for the Heavenly Cake Bakers, I set my mind on making the Barcelona Brownie Bars in my mini brioche molds, and I did.

Unlike any other brownie recipes I've made, this recipe calls for adding a little bit of cream cheese to the batter. This adds both flavor and moisture. Interesting, huh? That's what I thought anyway. I happened to have a 1 oz piece of leftover cream cheese in the fridge, so I decide to make half the recipe (yes, I'm lazy!) :o)

SMS - Black Bottom Brownies

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe, Black Bottom Brownies, was chosen by Cynthia of Bakingtherapist's Blog. This recipe combines two favorites: brownies and cheesecake. I love both so I figured I'd like them even better together.

I never had or made Cheesecake Brownies before so this was certainly exciting. However, the thought of making a plain vanilla cheesecake batter to pour on top of the brownie batter didn't sound that exciting to me. What could I change to spruce things up? What goes with chocolate? Hmmm... pretty much anything. Looked in my fridge and there was my answer. Raspberries it is then!

Spread the brownie batter evenly in the pan.

Pour the raspberry cheesecake batter on top, sprinkle with mini chocolate chips, and in the oven it goes.

About 45 minutes later, it looked like this. Now it has to cool completely.

I made half a batch and after 45 minutes, I removed the brownies from the oven and set them outside in 30 degree F weather to cool for about 4 hours. Then it was tasting-time. Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, I cut the brownies into cute little hearts. Mmmm... the creamy raspberry cheesecake complimented the dense and fudgy brownie beautifully. My only criticism would be that the brownie edges were overbaked and very dry. I expect some of that, but in this case, you could easily cut off a whole inch on all sides to get to the fudgy part. Next time I'll use cake strips.

Used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to make it look extra special :o)

If you'd like to give these a try, pick up a copy of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book or go to Cynthia's blog for the recipe. Thanks for such a great recipe pick, Cynthia!!

Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby and I enjoyed these brownies a lot. The cheesecake part was perfectly creamy and the raspberries gave it a nice fruitiness with a little tang. The brownie part was dense and fudgy, and very chocolaty. I liked the combination of both. Would definitely make this again.
• Made only half a recipe and used a metal 8" square pan.
• Instead of using all granulated sugar, I used half granulated sugar, half brown sugar. The latter helps in creating moist and fudgy brownies.
  
• The recipe calls for a significant amount of eggs. I wasn't too worried about the 2 whole eggs and 1 egg yolk in the brownie batter. However, the cheesecake batter required 3 whole eggs for 8 oz of cream cheese. That's a very high ratio of cream cheese to eggs and I don't like desserts to taste "eggy". So I used 2 eggs instead.
• Instead of regular cream cheese I used a 8 oz tub of raspberry cream cheese bagel spread from my favorite bakery, Panera Bread. I added about 1/4 cup of thawed out raspberries to the batter.
• The batter looked pretty runny to me so I added 1 Tbsp of flour to it. As a general rule of thumb, it's always good to add 1 Tbsp of flour to cheesecake batter to prevent it from cracking or sinking because the flour acts as a stabilizer.
• Sprinkled about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of mini chocolate chips on top of the raspberry cheesecake batter.
  
• Baked it in a 300F oven with convection ON for 45 minutes.
• Don't forget to check out what the other SMS bakers thought of this week's recipe.
  

SMS #2 - Brooklyn Brownout Cake

Whoohoo! I joined my first online baking club called Sweet Melissa Sundays. The idea behind it is to bake every recipe from Melissa Murphy's book called "The Sweet Melissa Baking Book". I would like to thank Lorelei from Mermaid Sweets for setting this up.

The kick-off was last week but I wasn't able to participate. This week's recipe, Brooklyn Brownout Cake, was chosen by Elyse from Elyse's Confectionary Creations. This cake consists of two layers of devil's food cake, a brownie/ganache filling, and a chocolate ganache glaze for the finishing touch. It really doesn't get any chocolatier than this. It's pretty rich so a small slice goes a long way. If you like chocolate, you have to make this cake. Check out Elyse's blog for the recipe.

First I made Melissa's fudge brownies (sans walnuts). These dense, chewy, and very chocolaty brownies reminded me of the brownies I had at the Ghirardelli shop while visiting San Francisco. Speaking of Ghirardelli, I used Ghirardelli's unsweetened chocolate in both the brownies and the chocolate cake. Since I didn't have a 9" square pan, I used alu foil and turned my 9" x 13" pan into a makeshift 9" square pan :o)


While the brownies were baking, I started working on the chocolate cake batter. At first, the batter seemed grainy which worried me a bit. It wasn't until I added the melted chocolate and oil mixture that it became smooth. I used two 8" round cake pans and baked the cakes for 35 minutes.

For the cake's filling, I found the 3/4"-1" brownie cubes to be too large so I cut them into 1/2" cubes instead. In hindsight, I would have done what Elyse did and mash the brownies into the ganache. Some slices showed a hole in the filling which I didn't like too much. I did use my hands to mix the brownies into the ganache and boy, was it fun to lick my hands afterwards. I felt like a kid again! After washing my hands, I sandwiched the filling between the two cake layers and poured the ganache on top :o)


If you look close, you'll see a few air bubbles on the surface of my cake which means I stirred my ganache too much. That "defect", and my desire to decorate the cake somehow, prompted me to sprinkle half the cake with finely chopped white chocolate for a bit of contrast.


Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby and I loved this cake. Each bite takes you on a tastebud-rollercoaster: first there's the fudgy chocolate cake, then the chewy and sometimes crispy brownie filling (if you get part of a brownie edge), followed by the satin smooth chocolate ganache. A glass of milk (or if you're not big on milk like me, a big glass of water) is highly recommended.
• Although the cakes deflated and sunk a bit, I saw it as an opportunity to fill this "empty space" with 1/2 to 2/3 of the brownie crumble :o)
• I used a thin knife which I dipped in hot water before cutting the cake for neat looking slices.
• The food processor is your friend when you need finely chopped chocolate, whether it's for cake decoration or making ganache.
• Don't forget to check out the other SMS bakers on the blog roll. Also, you might want to consider joining us. It's a lot of fun :o)