Birthday Heath Bar Brownie Bites

Basket of Brownie Bites

For Jeff's birthday I made him Heath Bar Brownie Bites. It was pretty much a basic brownie recipe with the addition of Heath bars (although I would have preferred Skor bars, but my store didn't have them!) and baked in mini muffin tins. I chopped the Heath bars up but some of the pieces were too small which resulted in not so pretty brownie tops. The brownies with some bigger pieces sticking out looked better and probably tasted better, too.

The recipe can be found here.

More Brownies!

Brownies (on my CMM plate!)

I made brownies for a couple of friends because it was their birthdays! I used the King Arthur Flour recipe to start with but I reduced the amount of chocolate (the original recipe has A LOT) and I tried using a half sheet pan to bake them. Next time I will use 1.5x the recipe because the brownies came out a little thin because of the size of the pan.

These brownies are pretty chocolate-y even with the reduced amount of chocolate. The recipe has both cocoa powder and chocolate chips. I used Hershey's cocoa and semi-sweet chocolate chips. The recipe here is the one with the alterations I made. You can find the original King Arthur Flour recipe here.

Fudge Brownies

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a half sheet pan (18x13x1).
2. In a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter. Add the sugar and heat the mixture until it is hot, but not bubbling and stir until the some of the sugar as dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
3. Crack the 4 eggs into a bowl and beat with your stand or hand mixer with the cocoa, salt, baking powder and vanilla until smooth.
4. Put your mixture on low and gradually add the butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth.
5. Add the flour gradually and mix until just combined.
6. Let the mixture cool for a few minutes, then using a spatula, stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Transfer the batter into the pan and smooth out the top with a spatula.
8. Bake the brownies for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Let the brownies cool before cutting them into pieces.

Enjoy!

Mmm Brownies!

Brownies with Cinnamon

I haven't made anything in a couple weeks. There wasn't anything I wanted to make and I've been busy on the weekends. This week I decided that I needed to bake something and decided that brownies would be perfect. I found a recipe, but I didn't have all the right ingredients so I improvised and this is what I came up with. They have cinnamon in them, which is a little different than the usual brownie.

I've been reading about how to freeze brownies since I don't want to eat a whole pan of brownies by myself. It kind of scares me to freeze them because I don't want them to get really dry after they thaw. Supposedly, if you wrap them in saran wrap, then aluminum foil and put them in a plastic zip bag they will be fine. Then just thaw them before eating. I will try this and see if it works.

Ingredients:

3 oz unsweetened chocolate

8 tbs (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tbs cocoa powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a small saucepan, combine unsweetened chocolate and butter. Mix over low heat until everything is evenly melted together, stirring frequently. Take off the heat and let cool slightly.
3. While butter and chocolate are melting, whisk eggs and sugar in a medium bowl. After they are combined add cocoa powder, cinnamon, vanilla extract and salt.
   
4. Slowly mix in butter and chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Then mix in flour until just combined.
5. Fill baking pan with the batter.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let brownies cool in the pan for at least half an hour before cutting.