February 10, 2012

Chocolate Brownies


Craving a warm chocolate brownie? Just bake a batch of these chocolate goodness and your cravings will disappear.  Recently a friend presented me with a book, Blissful Brownies, and I thought how appropriate, brownies are pure bliss! The fabulous book has all kinds of brownie recipes, plain old brownies, brownies for special occasions, etc., etc.  This recipe was titled Sticky Chocolate Brownies.


I baked these brownies on a recent weekend, when nothing seemed inspiring, except sticky chocolate brownies.....and, were they inspiring? You bet!  If you are a chocoholic, you'll love these chewy treats. They are comforting - as in comfort food. 

To make these sticky brownies, I used:
3 oz. unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
4 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp corn syrup
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Directions:

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter an 8 x 8 inch pan and line the pan with parchment paper.

2.Place the butter, sugars, chocolate and corn syrup in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring until well blended. Remove from heat and let cool.

3.Beat together eggs and vanilla, and whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture.

4.Stir together the flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking powder and fold gently into the egg and chocolate mixture.

5.Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely, dust with confectioner’s sugar, and cut into squares (makes large 9 squares).

February 4, 2012

Chocolate-dipped Strawberries


Strawberries and chocolate - a perfect combo for a quick and easy sweet treat.  We had some unexpected friends over the other day who ended up spending all day with us and we talked and laughed and of course, the most important highlight of the day, we cooked a whole meal, complete with chocolate-dipped strawberries.  I'll talk about the main course some other time, but these little morsels of chocolate and fruit were the best part of the meal.

I am sure no one needs a recipe for this - simply melting chocolate and dipping the strawberries in it. After it has set, melt some white chocolate and drizzle on top.  Set aside again to firm up, and enjoy!