White Chocolate Brownies

A couple weeks ago, we determined that we needed something brownie-like to snack on. Rather than make our usual Ghirardelli brownies, we made the original recipe brownies from the Fat Witch bakery cookbook. Those brownies have more butter and sugar than chocolate or flour, and are very tender and moist rather than chewy or cakey.

After polishing off that pan, I wondered how a white chocolate version would work. For some reason, we had 2 1/2 bags of white chocolate chips in the cupboard; I must have purchased them for some reason but have no memory of it. That's what happens when you get old, folks. So we tried it. Not only did we substitute white chocolate for semi-sweet, we also lowered the amount of sugar, flour, butter, and eggs by small increments.

Mr Minx said, after eating a couple, "I think I prefer them to the chocolate version," and our friend Fran said, "these are addictive." I said, "mmmfgmbbmmm!" (Because my mouth was full.) Despite calling for one less egg than the original version, these tasted eggy, like a custard in cake form. They were very moist in the center, even when cold from the fridge (though I recommend eating them at room temperature).

The batter is very runny, due to the amount of butter and eggs, so any add-ins will sink to the bottom of the batter. For that reason, it's probably best to leave them out; I only include them in the recipe because I used cranberries and pistachios when I baked the bars. You can clearly see the dried cranberries at the bottom of the bars in the photo above. An addition that I think would be completely dynamite is finely grated (Microplaned) citrus zest. Which is what I'm going to try next time.

White Chocolate Brownies (adapted from Fat Witch Brownies)

12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup high-quality white chocolate chips
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup flour
Pinch salt
About half a cup of your favorite nuts and/or dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, pistachios, pecans, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Fit an 8" x 8" square baking pan with a piece of parchment large enough to cover the bottom and long enough to extend a couple inches above the lip of the pan. Fold the excess paper over the top of the pan and secure with a couple of large paperclips so it won't flop down over the batter (which will be very liquidy, so don't skip this step). If you don't have parchment on hand, you can grease and flour the pan; the cookies will just be a little harder to remove later.

Place butter and white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 30 seconds, remove bowl from oven, and stir. If the butter isn't completely melted, put it back in for another 15 seconds. Repeat if necessary, but keep in mind that white chocolate will burn fairly easily. Stir vigorously to make sure the white chocolate is as melted as possible. The butter will separate; don't worry about it. Set aside for a few long minutes to cool.

Cream the sugar, eggs, and vanilla until thick and pale. Mix in the cooled white chocolate. Add the flour and salt and mix well until completely combined. Stir in fruit and or nuts.

Spread batter into prepared pan and bake for between 40-45 minutes until a toothpick comes out with only a few moist crumbs on it.

Cool completely before cutting into squares.



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Your Chocolate in My Peanut Butter (and vice versa)

When I was a kid, I was a big fan of Doctor Dolittle, a 1967 movie about a man who could talk to animals, starring the hunky Rex Harrison. I even had a stuffed pushmi-pullyu--allegedly a cross between two animals with unique horns (a gazelle and a unicorn, and yes I know the latter is fictional) despite not having any horns at all. It looked just like a two-headed, buttless llama. How the poor creature pooped, I do not know, but I loved my little stuffed beast anyway. I still have it, actually, 40-umpteen years later.

Why do I bring up this inconsequential trivia? Because that's how I roll. And I thought it was an apt introduction to my latest baking invention--the two headed-brownie. Or is it a two-headed blondie? It's both, really. Half of the bar cookie is a blondie, flavored with creamy peanut butter and studded with chocolate chips. The other half is a brownie with peanut butter chips. Together, the combination makes for one decadent, peanut-butter-y treat with more than a hint of chocolate.

I used a large baking pan and made standard 3/4"-high cookies, but you can certainly pack the dough into an 8"- or 9"-square pan and bake it for an extra 15 minutes or so, if you want something impressive that shows the layers more obviously. Just make sure to cut them into fairly small pieces, as these babies are rich.

Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar Cookies

For the blondie layer:
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup chocolate chips

For the brownie layer:
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa powder
Pinch salt
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 9 x 13 pan.

To make blondies: Whisk together the melted butter and sugar in a bowl. Stir in the egg, vanilla, and peanut butter and beat until well incorporated. Stir in the salt and flour until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chocolate chips.

To make brownies: Whisk together the melted butter and sugar in a bowl. Stir in the egg and vanilla and beat until well incorporated. Combine the cocoa, salt, and flour. Stir/into the butter sugar mixture until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the peanut butter chips.

Scrape the blondie batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth the top. Dollop the brownie batter on top as evenly as possible and spread slightly with a spatula to fill the gaps. Try not to mix or marble the two batters.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Allow to cool before cutting into squares.



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Spiced Sweet Potato Snack Cake

Now that the holidays have been over for a while, it's time to resume our monthly stitch 'n' bitch meetings. Every month my girls and I get together to work on knitting projects and to talk about life. All of the meetings so far have been at my house, so I have been supplying the snacks. Usually, there is one savory snack in the form of a dip of some sort, and a sweet treat. The sweet is usually a bar cookie or brownie, and I try to make sure I do something completely different every month.

I keep wanting to make a blondie that comes out with a chewy texture. Seems that the only way to do that is to make bar cookies with a Toll House cookie-type batter. Dry additions are ok, but adding wet stuff, like pumpkin or shredded carrots, changes the texture completely. But I do it anyway. I suppose it doesn't matter that the texture isn't exactly what I want--the end result of all of my various experiments has still been delicious.

I almost ended up with something close to what I was looking for last month. Lots of butter + sugar and not so much flour should make a rich, chewy, vanilla "brownie" sort of snack. But then I found that container of mashed sweet potato in the fridge, left over from something I had made earlier in the week. It was completely unseasoned, and would go to waste otherwise, so it went into the batter, too. I also tossed in the last of a bag of Heath bar chips and some pecans. For flavoring, I was lazy--hey, it was Friday night, after a looong week--so instead of measuring out individual spices, I just tossed in some instant chai mix.

The end result was pretty damn good. While not exactly chewy, the sweet potato-enriched bars were super moist, lightly spiced, with little surprises of nuts and buttery toffee bits. Great served a room temperature, but simply smashing served warm with a dollop of ice cream on top.

These might be a good way to sneak some nutritious vegetables into an item the kids will eat, too.

Spiced Sweet Potato Snack Cake

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup mashed sweet potato
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons instant chai tea mix
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup toffee bits
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
Powdered sugar, for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9" square baking pan.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla and sweet potato.

Mix together the flour, chai mix, and salt. Stir into the butter/sugar mixture until well combined. Stir in the toffee bits and pecans. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until just a few moist crumbs cling to an inserted toothpick.

Cool completely in the pan before cutting into bars. Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top to add a bit of contrast to the shades of mid-brown.



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Caramel Apple Cobbler

I love apple pie, but I don't like making pie crusts. There's just not enough counter space in my little kitchen to roll one out properly. Sometimes I use store-bought crusts; they're ok, but not quite good enough. So I was a bit stymied as to what to do when there were too many apples in the crisper.

An apple crisp would be a perfect solution, but I found out recently that Mr Minx really doesn't like crisps. Unbelievable, I know. He made the announcement after I had made a rather large peach crisp, which resulted in my having to eat just about the entire thing myself. (I loved it!) If not a crisp, then what? I didn't think a traditional biscuity-cobbler would work as well with apples as it does with a juicier fruit, but found a couple recipes for cobblers topped with a sweet cookie-type batter. That seemed absolutely perfect.

A combination of brown sugar and Lyle's Golden Syrup (a British product found in some supermarkets) makes a lovely caramel-y sauce for the apples. Chunks of nuts in the batter add a lovely crunch to the topping. The result is delicious when eaten warm with a scoop of ice cream, or cold, straight out of the pan.

Caramel Apple Cobbler

For apples:
6-8 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon flour
2 ounces unsalted butter
1/2 cup Lyle's Golden Syrup
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
Pinch ground cardamom

For cookie topping:
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 stick of butter (4 oz), melted
2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 cup flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole almonds, crushed roughly
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 425°F.

To make apples: Place apples, brown sugar, flour, and butter in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat until butter and sugar melts and starts to bubble. Add the golden syrup and spices. Cook for about five minutes. Remove from heat and pour into a 8" or 9" square baking dish.

To make cookie topping: In a mixing bowl, beat together brown sugar, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients, minus almonds, in a smaller bowl. Add flour mixture to sugar and butter mixture and stir until combined. Stir in almonds. Dollop batter over apples in baking dish.

Place baking dish on a sheet pan to catch drips. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until crust is nicely browned and firm to a light touch.

Dust with powdered sugar and serve warm with ice cream or chilled without.

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Pumpkin Spice Cake

Have you all noticed that Autumn is the time for pumpkin spice everything? Starbucks kicked off the Pumpkin Spice season in August, with the release of their pumpkin spice latte. I'm not normally a PSL gal--I prefer the more Christmas-y gingerbread or peppermint mocha flavors--but I jumped on the bandwagon when I discovered that PSLs are really quite tasty when iced. A jumbo one of those really hit the spot on the long-ass drive back from Pittsburgh.

Once Starbucks opened the floodgates, a plethora of pumpkin products hit the grocery store shelves. Everything from coffee creamer to yogurt got the pumpkin spice treatment, and it's a wee bit excessive. I've tried the yogurt and thought it was just ok. The Weis brand ice cream was decent enough (and Weis ice cream isn't particularly good, IMHO), just pumpkin-y enough. The other stuff I won't try for you, but feel free to leave a comment if you have.

Various pumpkin-flavored Entenmann's products, Chobani yogurt, coffee creamer,
ice cream, Tastykakes, cookie dough, and pudding, all available at Weis Market.

My contribution to the season is a pumpkin spice cake. It's somewhat like a blondie, but moister, and, filled with pumpkin and all of the spices that make pumpkin pie so good--cloves, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger. I also added some toasted pumpkin seeds for crunch.

This pumpkin spice cake makes a nice snack on its own, but is especially good with a scoop of pumpkin spice ice cream. Hell, drink a PSL on the side, too, if you want. Just don't blame me when you start turning orange like a human jack-o-lantern.

Pumpkin Spice Cake

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup pure pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup toasted shelled pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 8x8-inch baking pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the melted butter and brown sugar until completely smooth. Whisk in the egg until fully incorporated, then add the pumpkin, spices, and salt, stirring well. Add the flour and baking soda and stir until no white bits of flour are visible. Fold in the pumpkin seeds.

Spread into prepared baking dish and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, about 30 minutes. Cool to room temperature before cutting into squares and serving. Cover and refrigerate uneaten cake.



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More is More

As they say, less is more. But sometimes more is more.

I was looking for a quick desserty-type thing to whip up on the weekend, and found a one-pan cookie cake recipe on the Joy the Baker site. She tossed bananas, walnuts, and chocolate chips into a batter that was both stirred up and baked in a cast iron skillet. Being cast iron skillet-less myself (heresy, I know), I opted to bake my cake in an 8-inch square glass baking dish. Since the recipe called for melting butter, I decided to go a little further and make brown butter. And in addition to chocolate chips, banana, and nuts, I tossed in some Heath bits, well, because they were there. The chocolate chips and toffee bits melted a bit in the hot pot, turning this cookie cake into a cookie and candy cake. Pretty tasty!

If you don't eat it all in one go (I don't recommend doing that), store it in the fridge. The candy part will harden quite a bit when cold, If you want a chewier, cakier texture, allow your serving to come to room temperature before eating.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Almond Toffee Cookie Cake (inspired by Joy the Baker)

1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 ripe banana
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark chocolate chunks
1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds
1/4 cup Heath bar bits

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Melt butter in a large saucepot over medium-high heat. Cook for several minutes, stirring occasionally, until the butter ceases to make sputtering noises and begins to brown and smell nutty. Remove from heat and stir in sugar until completely combined. Mash in banana, then add the egg, stirring well. Whisk in the vanilla, then add the cinnamon, flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Stir well with a wooden spoon to incorporate all of the flour.

Fold in the chocolate, almonds, and Heath bar bits. The heat from the pot will melt the chocolate and Heath bits a bit. Pour into a greased 8x8 baking pan. Smooth top and bake for 18-20 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

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Matcha Sesame Blondies

We did a lot of baking over the past few months, because turning on the oven was a quick way to warm up the house. We got kinda stuck on making bar cookies though. They're fast and tasty and can be made in myriad variations. Both brownies and blondies are versatile, but there are some flavors that don't go as well with chocolate as they do without. Take green tea, for example; its delicate flavor and aroma can easily be muffled by chocolate. (Though I must confess, the warm chocolate bundt cake at Yokozuna in Ocean City, MD, tastes swell with a side order of green tea ice cream.) The same goes for sesame. And since we had both in the cupboard (courtesy of regular orders from Nuts.com), we combined them in a blondie-style bar cookie.

We modified the Toll House cookie recipe by cutting it in half. (Hence the odd 3/8 cup sugar measurement. Just use a cup that has a 1/8 mark on it and measure out either three 1/8 cups or one 1/4 cup and one 1/8 cup and you're golden.)  The matcha powder we used is actually a drink mix that already contains some sugar and milk powder. If you'd prefer to use the actual additive-free tea, you'll need much less than 1/4 cup. Up the brown sugar content to 3/8 cup and add a couple tablespoons of the tea at a time until it tastes the way you like. You want to taste the tea, but you don't want it to be too green or vegetal. (Or maybe you do, if you're into that sort of thing.) The sesame seeds add a subtle nutty crunch reminiscent of poppy seeds.

Matcha Sesame Blondies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/8 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons matcha green tea powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
1/3 cup black sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl and set aside.

Cream together butter, sugars, matcha tea powder, and vanilla  in large mixer bowl. Add egg, beating well. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in sesame seeds.

Grease 8" or 9" square pan. Spread dough evenly into pan (it will be stiff). Bake for 25-30 minutes until no longer wet and middle has sunken somewhat. Cool on wire rack before cutting into 12 or 16 bars.






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Carrot Cake Blondies

I love carrot cake, but don't always want to go through the whole rigmarole of making the typical layer cake and frosting, or doing math to make a single layer cake. I had been wondering what blondies would be like with some carrots and spices added. Would they be chewy, or cakey?

Turns out, when a quarter cup of bourbon is added to the batter, they turn out cakey. And super boozy. Probably not the thing I should be taking to work for a lunchtime dessert, but....I did. Kinda takes the edge off of things, you know?

Carrot Cake Blondies

1 stick butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup bourbon
1 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
1/8 baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups shredded carrot (approximately two medium carrots)
1/2 cup chopped, toasted walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in the egg until well combined, then add the vanilla and bourbon.

Mix the dry ingredients and spices in a bowl. Combine with wet ingredients. Stir in carrot and walnuts.

Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.
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