Best Brownies?

My mom tears recipes out of magazines for me constantly. I love recipes, I just never think of them when making stuff. But I sort of followed a recipe for "Best Brownies" that she tore out of Southern Living.
I changed some things, because it had an obscene amount of butter and sugar in the recipe.
The brownies are really good. Dense and chocolate-y, somewhere between fudgy and cakey. Not sure if I would call them the "best" brownies, as the magazine states, but they are pretty darn good.

Here's your ingredients:



Oh, and this (if you want):



I like to add espresso powder to my chocolate recipes to enhance the rich flavors.

Darn Good Brownies
4 oz unsweetened chocolate baking squares
1/2 cup butter (one stick--I used Smart Butter, because I like my butter smart)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup Eggbeaters (or 3 large eggs)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp espresso powder (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 8x8 pan with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Or use your "perfect brownie" pan like I did. I love it because I don't have to cut the brownies and I just mist it with a little cooking spray.



2. Microwave butter and chocolate on high power for 30 seconds, stir and repeat for two more 30 second intervals (or until it's all metled and smooth). The chocolate/butter mixture will look delicious, but do not--I repeat--do NOT lick the spoon. It's unsweetened chocolate and it will taste disgusting. Not that I did that or anything...

3. Measure and dump your sugars in a bowl and add the melted chocolate.

4. Whisk bowl contents together, add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

5. Add your flour, salt and espresso powder and stir until incorporated.

6. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes. You are now free to lick your spatula to your heart's content.



Here's some Caturday cuteness :)


Have a great weekend!

Caturday & Some Cookies

Meet Baby


And Boscoe


There is nothing my cats love more than a box. Seriously. We are going to be moving in the next few months so I started to bring boxes home to get packed and organized. Clearly, that is not going to happen, because the cats have totally commandeered all of our boxes. Oh, well. It's entertaining, plus I get to procrastinate on my packing a little :)
Ok, on to cookies.
I needed some cookies last night, so rather than just chocolate chip cookies I jazzed it up a little.


Chocolate Covered Pretzel Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips
Makes 2 Dozen

Ingredients
1 c All Purpose Flour
1/2 c Bread Flour*
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 stick Smart Butter
1/2 c Brown Sugar**
1/2 c Sugar
1 Egg White***
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 c Chocolate Chips
1/2 c Peanut Butter Chips
1 c Crushed/Chopped Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugars, add in egg and vanilla and combine. Mix dry ingredients in another bowl then mix everything together. Add in your chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and pretzels. Form golf ball sized balls of dough with your hands or use cookie scoop & put cookies on your parchment (or Silpat) lined cookie sheets. Bake in the oven for about 8-9 minutes. Let the cookies rest on the pan for about 2 minutes, then transfer to your cookie racks to cool.
Recipe adapted from: A Pinch of Yum


A few notes about this recipe:
*You can just use all purpose flour.
**Next time I will increase the brown sugar for a chewier cookie
***Also, next time I will use a whole egg, because the egg white made the cookies a little crumbly.