Sunday, November 23, 2008

Brownies Galore!


I promised myself that I would take pictures of the brownies I baked last weekend before we enhaled them all. But after a few days of "oh yeah, I still have to take pictures of my brownies", all I've got to show for it this picture:

But, you can find beautiful pictures of the brownies cut up over at For the Love of Cooking, which is also the original source of this recipe.

Cocoa Brownies with Peanut Butter Chips
1 1/4 sticks of unsalted butter
1 1/3 cup of white sugar
3/4 cup PLUS 2 tbsp of cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
1 cup of peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and make sure rack is in the lower third of the oven. Coat an 8 inch baking pan with cooking spray or line it with parchment paper. I would recommend the parchment - it makes life easier.

In a large heat proof bowl, combine the butter, sugar, cocoa and salt. Set the bowl in a large skillet of water and simmer over medium low heat. Stir occasionally until the butter is melted and mixture is hot to the touch. The mixture will look slightly grainy. Remove from heat and cool until warm. Add vanilla and stir with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time mixing thoroughly after each one. When the batter looks well blended, smooth and shiny, slowly add the flour and stir until it's combined thoroughly, then stir vigorously for 30 strokes. Stir in the peanut butter chips. Pour into the baking pan and place a few more peanut butter chips on top.Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I needed probably closer to 30 minutes.

Pam at For the Love of Cooking made this recipe for a friend who loves rich chocolate. Definitely a good recipe for rich chocolate lovers because this one is more on the rich side. I thought it was good but didn't find that the peanut butter chips held up much to the flavour of the chocolate. Not that I'm complaining about the chocolate flavour.

If you don't already visit For the Love of Cooking, I definitely recommend you check it out. Pam has a load of great recipes and beautifully crisp pictures. I'm mainly a lurker on her blog, but visit it regularly.

I'm submitting these brownies to Ben's I Love to Bake Event.



**********************************************
Since we're on the topic of brownies...I figured I would share an older post that never made it to publication. These brownies were "guilt brownies" that I made a while back for my supervisor. I was very stressed at the time and probably a bit high maintenance. So, I decided to give him a reason to not hate me by bringing him some brownies (I think my plan worked).

This recipe comes from the same cookbook as the Double Chocolate Cake I made a while back.


Such an innocent-looking book, eh? You'd never know the sheer number of calories you may be tempted to eat by this book alone.

Hershey's White Chip Brownies

4 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup Hershey's cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 cups white chips

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Grease 13X9X2 - inch baking pan.

2. Beat eggs in large bowl until foamy gradually beat in sugar. Add butter and vanilla; beat until blended. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; add to egg mixture, beating until blended. Stir in white chips. Spread batter into prepared pan.

3. Bake 25-30 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares.

Ok - not the most beautiful presentation for the blog.



But I did wrap some up nicely for my supervisor.

********************************************************
I also wanted to share with you some picture of a knitting project I started. I figure if I post a picture of the project, I'll be less likely to not finish it. You'll hold me accountable, right?



This gives you an idea of the parts that I've completed.


**********************************************************
We also wanted to acknowledge and pass on some awards that we've recent received

Thank you to Val from More Than Burnt Toast for awarding us with "A Perfect Blend of Friendship" Award.


We'd like to pass this award on...

1. Ann and Jack from Redacted Recipes. They're on a (hopefully) temporary hiatus from blogging at the moment. But we're definitely still thinking about them and hope they're doing well. Not to worry, though, their archives will keep you busy.

2. Adam at Baking with Dynamite, who seems like an all around great guy. Adam posts some delicious recipes (thanks Adam, now I'm craving oatmeal cookies) and great advice. As a former bodybuilder and almost newly minted chiropractor, he's a great resource on healthy living.

3. Nikki at Canary Girl, who may be losing her mind, but had a great Thanksgiving dinner in the process.

4. Bunny from Bunny's Warm Oven. Bunny (and sometimes Carol) make delicious-looking homestyle food that have me wishing I could stop working and cook/bake all day.

Also, thank you to our adopted blogger, Hopie from Hopie's Kitchen for awarding us with an E for Excellent.


Turns out we're bad adoptive bloggers that totally dropped the ball on Hopie's event. The roundup for her Energy Food Challenge is posted today.


Hopie's mom (along with 10,000 other people) is biking 109 miles to raise money for blood cancers. Hopie's mom raised almost $10,000! Go Hopie's mom!!! Hopie posted a roundup of high-energy recipes for her mom's biking journey.

We'd like to pass the award on to...

1. Katie at Good Things Catered. Katie is one of the first food blogger I started reading almost a year ago and is still going strong today.

2. My French Kitchen, who has a beautiful blog. Her plating and the artistic flare on her blog are really inspiring.

3. Jonny and Amy at We Are Never Full who seem like a really fun couple. Their version of an average meal would be the equivalent of a full out event at my place. But, a person can always dream.

4. Kristen at Dine and Dish, a fun blog with really practical dishes. So practical, in fact, I'm making her tilapia for dinner tomorrow.

****************************************************

Last but not least, we wanted to mention that things are progressing with BloggerAid.

We're still working on PayPal. We're having a problem setting up the account properly as a result of glitches on the Canadian version of the system. The goal is to get it resolved tomorrow.

Also, check out Val's blog for more details on our plans. StumbleUpon

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving:)

kat said...

All that chocolate yum! Things look awful good on that knitting project, I really love the colorwork. I'm going nuts making little 3 inch sweaters to go on everyones gifts with their initial embroidered on them....

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

You are evil...pure evil:D It is only breakfast time and already I am craving something sinful, chocolate and of course calorie free!!

Hopie said...

I love the Hershey's Classic cookbook! So many calories, so yummy :-) Good luck with your knitting project. I'm in the middle of one too and I try to tell people about it so that I'm forced to finish it, but I'm at the sewing it together stage and I'm procrastinating...

Thanks for posting about the roundup anyway. I guess you'll just have to participate next time I do an event ;-)

The Peanut Butter Boy said...

Hmm, were you at that potluck last night? Those brownies look identical to the ones I had there last night... Lotta stuff going on at Equal Opportunity Kitchen, congrats on the awards and keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for the award, I feel honoured and privileged that you thought of me...and passing it along with a such a decadent brownie recipe...well, it can't be more inspiring! And thanks for all those new links to explore..
Ronell

OhioMom said...

Now that Hershey's cookbook is definitely one I would love, whats not to love about chocolate ?

I sense some brownies in my future.

So what are you knitting ?

Anonymous said...

Now these would be inhaled at my house. It's because we're brownie deprived. I suck at making brownies.

Lori Lynn said...

Can't decide if I like peanut butter chips or white chips better...

Nice tributes to fellow bloggers, enjoyed that.

PG said...

kat - woah - that's devotion! Such attention to detail.

Peanut Butter Boy - actually, I was at a potluck last night. But I didn't bring these. Plus, I didn't see you there.

Ohio Mom - it's about half of a mitten.

glamah16 said...

Now Im in the mood for brownies. Your post is addictive.

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

Congrats on all the awards! Great brownies.

Pam said...

The brownies look great - they are rich aren't they. Thank you for all of your kind words about my blog - I really appreciate it.

I love the yarn you are using for your knitting project.

That Girl said...

What are you making? It's the time of year where I usually start picking up my needles - I have more scarves than anyone I know, but they're just so easy!

Anonymous said...

Whoa, so much going on here...love, love,love the brownies with the chips...delightful looking.

grace said...

frankly, i don't think white chips and peanut butter chips and butterscotch chips and CINNAMON chips get used often enough. too many times they're overlooked for boring ol' chocolate chips. :)

Adam said...

Whoa sweet! Thanks for the awesome award. I'm racking them up like crazy now. Couple this with graduation, and a awesome Jets win, and I'm having a fantastic day.

Beautiful brownies by the way. I'm surprised you got pictures, actually :) PB and chocolate makes people turn into animals :)

Núria said...

I also made my own first batch of brownies a while ago!!!! Am I loving baking? Yeah, I think so ;D

I also wanted to thank you for all your comments on my blog lately. I'm finally back home and trying to catch up with all of you. Budapest was a fantastic experience, come see tomorrow the central market :D. Or you already visited it?
This time it was so cold it even snowed :D

RecipeGirl said...

Congrats on your awards and your neat knitting project (wish I could do that), and who doesn't love a good brownie recipe, right?

Lucy..♥ said...

Boy those brownies look so good!!

Sure wish I could knit w/o all the erros ;(

Ruth Strong said...

Great brownies! Don't blame you for not getting round to taking pics yet.... I'd want to inhale them asap too!

Ivy said...

There's an Award for you to ladies on my blog.

Darius T. Williams said...

These certainly are brownies galore - looks great!

-DTW
www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com

Lori said...

Wow. You have been busy!

I have that same Hersheys book! Lots of great recipes in there!

Bunny said...

Thank you for the award!! i've given you one as well! Come see!!

Cakelaw said...

LOL - with brownies as good as that, I am not surprised that thye disappeared. Good luck with the knitting project - I always find it helps to tell others what I am doing as it then makes me feel I am committed. Congratulations on the awards - well done!!

Deborah said...

Is it bad that I haven't even had breakfast yet, but I want some brownies??

jesse said...

Oh I love this! I don't know why I've never thought of using peanut butter chips in my brownies before. Thank you for such a great idea!

Rosie said...

Congrats on all the awards! Those brownies look to die for!!

Rosie x

Anonymous said...

I have that Hersheys cookbook but have yet to crack it open. I think I need to do that tonight!

Anonymous said...

ooh cute gloves. happy knitting!

Vera said...

You are right, Giz, brownies have a very short life span :)

test it comm said...

Brownies always seem to disappear way too quickly!

LinkWithin Related Stories Widget for Blogs
Share/Bookmark