TWD - Best Ever Brownies

That's the actual title of the brownies. Now, I haven't eaten one yet, so I reserve judgement until the end of this post when I've finally consumed one. But what I can tell you right now is that these are the most hippest brownies, ever.

How are they so hip you ask? Well just check these babies out! They are chevron patterned and anyone in the hippest squares know that chevron is every where (you really notice this if you have to visit a Target and that means it must be hip.)

Too hip

Now how did I make this hippness? I took a tour around my pantry and found a few items that screamed "put me in your brownies now!" Said items were coconut cream and Speculoos. Double take, what's Speculoos? Trader Joe's, my friend, introduced me to this peanut butter looking stuff that is made out of ground cookies. It's crazy! And crazy good. Instead of peanut butter, it's cookie butter. I love butter.

I subbed out 1/4 of the butter in the recipe for coconut cream and then mixed 4ish tablespoons of the Speculoos in with about 4 tablespoons of some more coconut cream, melted it, spooned it on top and then swizzled with a knife. Tada, chevron!

It really smells good. Really, super, really.

Here's the recipe in all it's original best-everness hosted by A Beautiful Mess.

Just had a piece, I think I need to test the rest of the pan before I can make my judgement. I don't take these things lightly (neither does my scale).

TWD - Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

Some things are better the next day like chili or lasagna and for me, these tarts. I baked them on Sunday and after they cooled, my husband and I took a bite and said "hmmm" (not a good hmmm, just a so-so hmmm). Now, to be fair, I did change the recipe up a bit. I made mini tartlets (even tinier tarts) and instead of the white and dark chocolate chunks and biscotti called for in the recipe, instead I added a little marzipan filling and topped with an almond and some smoked sea salt. Sounded like a winner, eh? Well the next day when I tried one for my morning snack, I was much more pleased. I really enjoyed the filling combination, but I think the crust was just not my favorite. I don't care for chocolate tart crust...I know, I know you are saying it's chocolate for crying out loud. What's wrong with you girl? Well I'm sorry, I don't care for it and you can't make me eat it!

Oh, that reminds me of a story when I was a wee, little lass. My mom would make spaghetti with mushrooms. I hated the mushrooms, hated them....hated them. They were gross tasting, gross texture and just gross. Well, apparently, I complained a little too much one day and was unappreciative of my mom's efforts and my dad very clearly stated, "You aren't leaving this table until you eat every one of those mushrooms. This isn't a restaurant."

Well after eating my gross mushrooms, I realized that they might not be gross and that they might actually be quite tasty. I rather enjoy mushrooms now, in all forms, shapes and colors.

Now one thing has always puzzled me about my dad's statement, it seems that any restaurant I go to doesn't take kindly to substitutions or changes to the menu items. I wonder where this magical restaurant that my dad was referring to is and can I order chocolate tartlets without chocolate tart crust there?

Hmmm...

Like the stand? I got it at Target for $8 on sale...nice!

Well here is a link to the recipe, http://spikebakes.tumblr.com/ AND a video of Julia herself. Here is another, http://www.goodeatsblog.com/ and another http://cookbookhabit.blogspot.com/ and finally here, http://awhiskandaspoon.com/2012/02/21/twd-chocolate-truffle-tartlets/

Take care, bye bye now. Bye, bye.

p.s. Thank you to the those who commented on my last post, it was very comforting.

Malbec Brownies

This is a post that's been long awaited, promised before Christmas, but lost in time. Since this week has been balls to the walls busy (hehe)...I didn't get a chance to bake anything blog worthy, so I said to myself, "self, why don't you post about those brownies you promised you would share?"

"OOO, that's a good idea. I should do that."

"Bravo, bravo."

The bravo comment made the conversation weird so I just turned and walked away.

So what makes a "balls to the walls" busy week? Well my night job consists of cake decorating for the the super fabulous and this week's superstar cake was a 3-tier silver beauty with 3 electric guitars! It turned out great but really, really tested my cake faith. I had to rebake 3 of the 4 cakes (3 tiers take 4 batches of cake). The first batch, I dropped a tiny, little bottle of butter rum candy oil into my mixer whilst it was whirring away. That caused a bit of raucous. The bottle's top broke off and made a butter rum chocolate cake (which I'm going to try sometime for real), I would have just baked this one, but some of the glass actually broke in the mix. Down the garbage disposal it went...so sad. This calamity also messed up the beater blade! Dang it!!!!!!! Luckily KitchenAid has a warranty, so new blade is on its way. Thank you KitchenAid.

Nextly, the other 2 cakes I had to rebake were because of the untrustyworthyiness of my oven. Oh well. Cake faith tested and I made it through. Yeah me. Booya!

Ok, on to the recipe. This is based on a brownie recipe I found on Allrecipes.com (great site), but I wanted to add a little somethin' to it. I've been drinking malbec's lately and had this one from Layer Cake Vineyards. Besides being called Layer Cake, it is really outstanding. I really thought the brownies would pair well with the wine, but instead of just adding a teaspoon or two, I really wanted a strong flavor. I researched a bit and decided on reducing a cup of the wine by about half on the stove. That did the trick. It made a delicious sauce that was perfect in the brownies. I suggest the Layer Cake Malbec, but I can see many wines being very beautiful in this recipe.

The M is actually for Mason.

Malbec Brownies

adapted from allrecipes.com http://allrecipes.com/recipe/brookes-best-bombshell-brownies/detail.aspx

1 stick unsalted butter (4 oz.), melted
3 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup reduced malbec wine*
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey’s works very well)
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish, two mini muffin pans or two square cupcake pans. If you use the muffin pan or cupcake pan, you will have a little batter left over. Perfect for making a small pan for yourself to stash in the freezer.

Combine the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix in the reduced wine and beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, until thoroughly blended.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until blended. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish or scoop into muffin/cupcake pans.

Bake in preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes for pan or 20 - 22 mins for mini muffins and 18 mins for cupcake pans. Remove, and cool pan on wire rack before cutting. Brownies will need to cool completely in muffin/cupcake pans before they can set up enough to be easily removed from pans.

*Simmer 1 cup of malbec wine (Layer Cake Vineyards) for 15 mins or so over medium heat until you have reduced it by half. If you have reduced it to less than a ½ cup, you can add water to the wine until you reach the ½ cup mark.