Dessert: Classic Brownies

Mother’s Day was this past weekend. My husband made a request to bake some brownies for my mother-in-law.

Last year’s Food Network magazine came incredibly handy as it was all about chocolatey desserts. This is the recipe that I used. Do note that this is the full recipe that they had and I halved most of the ingredients as I used a square pan which was maybe 8 by 8 inch or so.

CLASSIC BROWNIES
(from Food Network magazine Chocolate Lover’s Cookbook)

Makes: 36

Ingredients
Cooking spray
2 sticks unsalted butter
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a 9 by 13 inch baking dish with foil, leaving a 2 inch overhang on two sides; coat the foil with cooking spray. Melt the butter and chocolate in a large saucepan over low heat; let cool slightly. Stir in sugar and eggs. Whisk in the flour, cocoa powder and salt.
2. Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool on a rack, then cut into bars.

The only substitute used here was the semisweet chocolate was instead semisweet chocolate chips. Also, I forgot to set low heat when melting the butter and chocolate so not sure if that changed the consistency. It might have since I felt like the recipe didn’t make as thick as I’d like but it did rise a little in the oven.

However, we did leave before my in-laws had a chance to try this out. My husband told me they said it was delicious and liked it. My only concern was not that it wouldn’t taste good but that while adjusting the recipe to a lesser portion, it would change the consistency. It did look like it had a decent consistency if not thinner than usual brownies.

 Do you like making brownies?
My next project is to make vegan brownies. Hopefully I’ll work on that soon! 🙂

What’s Up Sunday aka Mother’s Day Recap

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!
Hope you are all having a happy and relaxing Sunday!

Obviously, I consider myself a cat mom so I kind of get to celebrate Mother’s Day at home. But then, my weekend was given to my mom, my aunt who is visiting and my mother in-law. Hence why there is no streams or post yesterday.

Today is really just a last minute buffer post as I prepare for next year. I took a few days off this week mostly because I’m done with burnout but still wanted some time to relax and do the stuff I like, plus, I wasn’t really in the mood for writing. Apologies for that!

Quick Update on what I’m Watching, Reading & Playing (aka nothing much)

I could do a segment on the typical what I’m watching, reading and playing but to be honest, I’m really doing none of those things except for rewatching a second time Refresh Man, which is one that I had finished like a day before I rewatched it. So it is kind of anti-climatic. Plus, I finished Riverdale Season 1 yesterday so that’s done as well. Gotham and Client List is still sitting in the waiting to be finished pile but I haven’t wanted to jump back in yet. In terms of reading, I’m deciding what to read next so nothing to report on that. As for playing, I finished Pinstripe the other day and by Tuesday, all the playthroughs will be up on the Game Warp channel and the review will go up next week as well. I have to start the featured game of May, Little Nightmares.

Mother’s Day Weekend

Saturday

Mother’s Day weekend is a huge juggle of time with a few prior must-dos.  We decided to do a lot of celebrating on Saturday. We started the morning with a dinner with my mom and my aunt and took them to breakfast at Allo Mon Coco. It was really tasty and a lot of fun to chat and just relax.

In the evening, we went over to my in-laws and spent some time. We ordered in from St Hubert and all some nice chicken meals. I made brownies as our gift to them. Not sure how they liked it though since this is a new recipe. I’ll be sharing the recipe next week. It was a lot of fun. We put on a super odd movie with Dolph Lundgren which I can’t remember the name of anymore.

Sunday

Sunday was pretty chill. I went over to my mom’s to spend some time with her and my aunt for lunch. Then we headed out to do some shopping at the mall. We had a bit of spare time so despite the rain, we decided to head to the garden center and take a peak. My mom picked up some vegetable plants: tomatoes and peppers as usual and she decided to try her luck at planting okra this year despite my failure last year. I think it could be a success for her since she takes much better care of her garden than I do. Maybe I’ll give an update on that later in the summer. As for myself, this what I got. That is only the first part and the container gardening and front yard for now. I’ll be heading back next weekend to pick up more, especially since I really need to pick up a ton of soil before I can really be ready to garden.

Finally, to wrap up a fantastic weekend spent with family, we went over to my mom’s to have dinner which was incredibly delicious as always. I’m sorry that this is the shot during dinner. I just forgot about taking it before.

That’s it for the Mother’s Day recap!
How’s your Mother’s Day? Did you celebrate? Have fun? Was it relaxing?

Regular programming of daily posts should resume tomorrow! Needed some time off last week but I think I’m cool now! Missing writing a little.

BBQ Dessert: Apple Brownies

The past Sunday was an evening at my girl friend’s place for BBQ.  Her and her husband both provided the main meals and we each had to bring a little something.  As always, I never pass up the chance to bake.  I’ve been craving the opportunity to bake but with moving and Fantasia and work, it just didn’t fit in.

Usually, I’d flip through my crazy amounts of cookbooks and dig something out but this time, I decided to go search on the internet for Summer desserts for BBQ. Among a list of 10 recipes or whatnot, I decided on this one: APPLE BROWNIES!

Ever since I’ve become intolerable of chocolate, I’ve pretty much stayed away from brownies.  And before that, I wasn’t much of a baker so I never ate a lot of that anyways.  Either way, I’ve never heard of Apple Brownies.  So I was curious about how they would turn out.

Here’s what it looked it out fresh out of the oven!

Fresh out of the oven!

If you are interested in trying this out, you can find the recipe following this link:

http://www.beyondkimchee.com/apple-brownies/

Making Apple Brownie is pretty quick and simple.  The most time consuming part might chopping up the apples.  I did this all without an electric mixer and it still turned out rather well.  They asked for a 9×13 inch pan however mine is 0.5 inch longer and wider so the brownies were thinner than they asked for, I believe. However, it tasted pretty good.

There are a few modifications that were made to the recipe.

• Omit vanilla (ran out)
• Used gluten-free flour (Cloud 9’s from Costco)
• Omit baking soda (ran out)

Compared to normal, the changes are very little this time.  It was a sudden decision so I didn’t even realize that I had ran out of these.  My mom bakes also, so it could be that she used the last bit and we never got around to replenishing it.

Despite the changes, Apple Brownie (or any fruit brownie) would be something I’d revisit.  Its soft and fluffy, fruity and just so delicious.  Brownies in general are in the sweet area so if you’d like to lessen the sugar that shouldn’t affect it much.  I thought it was a good balance.  This is a healthier option.

I just wonder what other variations I can make, such as what other fruits.  Maybe strawberry and rhubarb.  I’ve only done crumb bars for that.  Or maybe plums or peaches? I’m guessing something with a more solid texture.

Do you like brownies? Have you tasted any other than chocolate brownies? Would you give these a shot? Do you like apples (in desserts or simply as a fruit)?

Rocky Road Brownies (aka Happy Father`s Day!)

Today is Father’s Day and for this year, we (my boyfriend and I) decided to make my boyfriend’s dad a home cooked meal along with dessert (my specialty).  This morning, while my boyfriend was at work, I decided that we’d make some nice oven-baked ribs and Chicken Stir-fry with Rocky Road Brownies.  Call me crazy, but I’ve never made brownies.  Never was a big fan of it since my mom never did like the really sweet desserts, especially when its too much chocolate, and now that I have my own health issues, I don’t eat chocolate either.  Anyways, its Father’s Day and the father rules, so I decided that instead of making the traditional cake, I’d make some nice Rocky Road Brownies.

I found the recipe on Martha Stewart site yet again and here’s the recipe:

http://www.marthastewart.com/337331/rocky-road-brownies?center=307033&gallery=275527&slide=281818

I don’t have much to say about this recipe.  It was straight-forward, easy to do and turned out to be a big hit.

Simply when it came out of the oven, it looked so delicious and smelled mouthwatering.  Look at it:

I used (as instructed) chocolate chips (which I ended up with not enough for the topping part) and marshmallows,

but instead of the nuts they mentioned, I used almonds.

The biggest problem was cutting it into pieces because of the marshmallow sticking together,

but my boyfriend took the honors of doing it and it turned out looking decently well and everyone enjoyed it a lot.

Here’s a slice of what it looked like:

If you ever have a chance, do give this one a shot.  I think it’ll be a big hit at any party! Easy and delicious, what more could we ask for, right?

To all the fathers out there, Happy Father’s Day!