Mississippi Mud Bars

I think I have about a dozen different Mississippi Mud Recipes saved to my computer. I don't think one of those recipes is similar to the next one, so I honestly don't know what the 'true' Mississippi Mud Bar recipe is. All I know is these are good. Quite good really and really worth making again.

When I made these, I didn't have pecans and as an afterthought I added chopped cashews to the top, but the frosting had kind of set and so I had to squish them down to keep them from rolling away, so it's best to put them between the marshmallow and frosting so they stay in place.

Recipe from Real Mom Kitchen.

Ingredients

1 C. Butter
1/2 C. Semisweet Chocolate Chips
2 C. Sugar
1 1/2 C. Flour
1/2 C. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
4 Eggs
1 Tsp. Vanilla
3/4 Tsp. Salt

1 Bag (10.5oz) Mini Marshmallows

1 C. chopped pecans (optional), or any other desired nuts

Frosting:
1/4 C. Butter
2 1/2 Tbsp. Unsweetened Cocoa
2 1/2 Tbsp. Milk
2 C. Icing Sugar
1/2 Tsp. Vanilla

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350 F

~Melt butter and chocolate chips in a large pot over low heat, stirring until smooth

~Remove from heat and add in sugar, flour, cocoa, eggs, vanilla and salt. Stir to combine

~Pour batter into a greased 9x13 pan

~Bake for 20 minutes

~Remove from oven and sprinkle marshmallows over and return to bake for 5 minutes until marshmallows have puffed

~Remove from oven and sprinkle with nuts if desired

~In a large saucepan, combine butter, cocoa and milk, and heat until combined

~Beat in icing sugar and vanilla until smooth

~Spoon into a piping bag or freezer bag (snipping the corner) and pipe over bars (while marshmallows are still warm (but not right out of the oven, wait approximately 10 minutes)

~Cut into squares

Enjoy!

The Brownie Recipe - Chewy, Ooey, Gooey

Sorry, no picture for this one (is one really needed for a brownie anyway? We all know exactly what they look like, or rather, what they are supposed to look like). By the time I realized that this was the exact recipe I was looking for to call my best brownie recipe, the brownie was no longer worthy of being photographed. I mean, I guess I could go and snap a picture right now of the one remaining corner piece, but I think that saying that there is only one piece remaining says a lot more than a picture ever would.

I just wanted a basic brownie recipe. Was that too much to ask for? One that was gooey and fudgey and had very little flour and cakeyness to it. I also didn't want to add anything to it to make it gooey, like marshmallows. I just wanted a brownie. Well I found it!

I looked through the dozens and dozens of brownie recipes I have saved, to come to two conclusions. 1) 99% of the brownie recipes I have saved, all have something special done to them. Oreos, s'mores, rocky road, nutella, etc., and 2) the two recipes that were just plain old brownies, happened to be the exact same recipe. So armed with the knowledge that at least two people found this recipe to be worthwhile and posted it, I set out to make them, and I'm glad I did. It was so good. Like make your teeth hurt sweet, which is absolutely perfect.

I did change up the sugars a bit, like a lot of the reviewers commented they did. Instead of using 3 C. of white sugar, I did half and half of brown and white. I'm sure it would be great any way, but I know this way was delicious.

Recipe from All Recipes

Ingredients

1 C. Butter, melted

1 1/2 C. Sugar

1 1/2 C. Brown Sugar

4 Tsp. Vanilla

4 Eggs

1 1/2 C. Flour

1 C. Cocoa

1 Tsp. Salt

1 C. Chocolate Chips

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a 9x13 pan

~Combine butter, sugars and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add in eggs and whisk until incorporated

~Stir together flour, cocoa and salt in a separate bowl.

~Add dry into wet and stir until mixed.

~Stir in chocolate chips

~Spread into pan

~Bake for 30 minutes

Enjoy

Gooey S'more Brownies-1st Blogiversary!

I'm back! It felt good to be back in the kitchen after 7 weeks away. Now I can say I was in Europe, and let me tell you, there is two very important things the Europeans don't do well, Brownies & Chocolate Chip Cookies. They have biscuits, and the one brownie I had (no it wasn't in Amsterdam) was supposed to be the 'to die for brownie' but it really wasn't. Kinda disappointing considering I thought I had hit the jackpot when I found it on my Birthday and opted for it over a slice of cake. I made it home and my first day I avoided the kitchen, not because I wanted to, but because I had a lot of stuff to do. Day two though and I was back. I was just going to make some Toll House Cookies, because they had really turned out well the last time I made them in the new oven. But then I started thinking about Brownies, and there really wasn't any further internal debating needed. So S'more Brownies it was because I miraculously had all the specialty ingredients needed and they weren't even old and stale.

But now I'm posting this to you on my one year Blogiversary. Which is pretty cool. If you want the whole sentimental spiel about me and blogging you should check out my 100th post. I really don't have anything else to say that I didn't say there. Especially because I've been out of the loop for awhile now.

They tasted amazing. I would not recommend removing them from the pan though until they are absolutely cooled. The bottom layer even slightly warm was just a mush of brownie pudding. But oh so tasty brownie pudding. I really liked my silicone baking dish for this one though. Because of the marshmallows in it and all the sugars, I figure it might be a bit tricky to get the edge pieces out of a glass dish.

The marshmallows did amazing things. Only in a few places are there still marshmallows left in marshmallow form as you know it. Everywhere else they simply melted into the brownie batter, making a chewy brownie with a really crisp top. One thing I may consider next time is to layer Brownie, Marshmallow, Graham Cracker, Brownie instead of doing Brownie, Graham Cracker, Marshmallow, Brownie. My original thought was that it'll be a lot easier to spread this thick brownie batter on the top layer over smooth graham crackers, than it would be to try and completely cover marshmallows that just want to jump around. I know it'll change the texture of the brownie layers though because the marshmallows would then melt over the bottom brownie layer, instead of under the top layer (the graham crackers softened up perfectly, but never dissolved. They created a border between the two brownie layers). I'm definitely going to have to try this other way and let you know what method I prefer. I have a feeling that it'll make for a completely different textured brownie.

Wow, that was easy. I've been blogging ever night about my trip on a different blog and I've been typing it up on my phone because I didn't take my laptop with me. This post came together so quickly being able to type with a full keyboard. Plus, I've been home for 3 days now and I still can't get over how big my laptop screen feels.

Recipe adapted from The Royal Cook & The Big Green Bowl.

Makes 10x10 pan

Ingredients

1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 C. All Purpose Flour

2/3 C. Cocoa 

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1 C. Butter, melted

2 C. Sugar

3 Eggs

1 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla

1 C. Chocolate Chips (I used mini ones)

2 C. Mini Marshmallows

14 Graham Crackers (14 Canadian ones, they are different than the American, but you can sub the American in just fine, except the number I'm calling for won't be the same)

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350 F.

~In a medium bowl combine flours, cocoa and salt.

~In a large microwave safe bowl melt butter. Stir in sugars.

~Add in Eggs and Vanilla. Stir.

~Pour dry ingredients into wet and stir by hand until just combined.

~Stir in chocolate chips.

~Spread half of the brownie batter into a greased pan (I used a 10x10 silicone dish).

~Top with a layer of (whole, not crushed) graham crackers, followed by the mini marshmallows.

~Spread the remaining brownie batter overtop the marshmallows and carefully try to spread it out and cover all the marshmallows.

~Bake for 26-28 minutes or until top is crispy and centre still feels soft.

~Cool completely (very important, trust me) before slicing and removing from pan.

Enjoy

Fudge Brownie Ripple Ice Cream - 100th Post!!

My 100th Post!!

I remember when I couldn't believe I had two pages of posts. With seven entries displaying per page, it was a big deal for me to have to click to see older posts. I didn't know how I was going to do it then, and I still really don't know how I'm doing it now. All I know is that my motives haven't really changed. 100 posts in and I'm not trying to get everyone and their dog reading my blog. A few people are great, but I really don't want to dedicate the time to having thousands of hits a week. I'm happy with the pictures I have, they show what the dish is. Sure they aren't the prettiest or have the best lighting or whatever but they do the job. At the end of the day I enjoy it. I have fun making new things and searching for new recipes, and I realize I have a lot to say about the adventures that go into making each dish. This blog has done it's job though as it is a place to store things I have made and my notes on what worked and what didn't and I can honestly say that I enjoy referencing back to a recipe that is written up by me. It follows a procedure for how my brain works and my kitchen and equipment operate. And really, that's enough for me.

Now I know it's kinda cold out for ice cream (but we are going through a pretty mild spell here), but one of the ladies I work with just got back from Hawaii and she kept raving about these milkshakes she had that she was sure were made with homemade ice cream, etc. So I left work and headed to the store to buy cream. I was making ice cream in February, even if I had to eat it wrapped in a blanket. The plan started out with making brownie batter ice cream, but as I was sitting in the grocery store parking lot on my phone trying to find a recipe I knew I had seen before, I decided to go in a different direction because I have to be honest, I'm not much of a chocolate ice cream fan. It's kinda like blueberries and strawberries. I love the real thing, but don't you dare put them as an ice cream base.

Ice cream is a fair bit of work and it takes a bit of time but it's fun to make. The only problem is that there is two smells guaranteed to turn my stomach and that is warm milk and eggs cooking. Unfortunately, those two smells combined don't make it smell any better and it took a long time for the custard to cook so I was all too familiar with the smells. It amazes me though that something that smells so bad (in my opinion) while it's cooking can taste so amazing after it cools. It's magic.

The fudge sauce is not as bitter as the chocolate sauce I made recently which is a good thing in my eyes.

Fudge Ripple recipe is displayed on epicurous.com, but is actually from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. 

Ingredients

Fudge Ripple
1/2 C. Sugar
6 Tbsp. Cocoa
1/3 C. Light Corn Syrup
1/2 C. Water
1/2 Tsp. Vanilla

1 Batch Vanilla Ice Cream
2 1/2 C. Brownies, cubed & frozen

Directions

Fudge Ripple

~In a small saucepan mix sugar and cocoa. Add in corn syrup and water and heat until it reaches a boil, stirring constantly.

~Allow it to bubble and thicken for about a minute then remove from heat and add vanilla. Stir.

~Place in fridge to cool completely before adding to ice cream.

Ice Cream
~Make ice cream custard, when cool freeze in ice cream maker

Ice Cream Assembly

~In container place a layer of vanilla ice cream. Top with a generous drizzle of fudge (don't mix it in).

~Place layer of ice cream on top. Topped with brownie cubes.

~Repeat layers until you run out of ingredients.

~Finish the top with a drizzle of fudge and gently swirl it in to the top layer of ice cream.

~Sprinkle the edges with some crumbled bits of brownie.

~Place ice cream in freezer to set.

Enjoy

Gift in a Jar - Fudgy Brownie

Here begins my slew of post-Christmas posts, for stuff that should have been posted pre-Christmas. But, pre-Christmas was really busy and I was sick for quite awhile, so you're getting them now...for next year.

This brownie tasted pretty good when I tried it out. The only complaint I had was that it made a very, very thin layer in the pan. So, I cut back the amount of chocolate pieces in it and double the mix amount so it will now fill up the 1 quart jar perfectly. The only thing is, because I actually only made a quarter of the amount listed below (I halved the original recipe and made it in a loaf pan to see what type of volume you would get), which means my baking time is going to be different from the listed baking time. So I've just copied over the original recipe's time and you'll have to just add a bit of time as you go if needed.

Recipe from Kicked-Up-Cookie-Recipes

Makes 24 Brownies

Ingredients

2 C. White Sugar

1 C. Cocoa Powder

1 1/3 C. Flour

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1 C. Chocolate Chips

Directions

~Layer all the ingredients in the order listed in a 1 quart jar.

~Attach tag with these instructions:

What You'll Need

1 Jar Fudgy Brownie Mix

1 C. Butter, melted

4 Eggs

2 Tsp. Vanilla

To Make

Preheat oven to 350 F

Mix contents of jar, butter, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and mix to combine.

Spread batter into a greased 8x8 baking dish.

Bake for 27-32 minutes or until edges begin to pull away from pan.

Cool before cutting into squares.

Enjoy

Orange & Almond Brownie Batter Truffles

Every Christmas it seems I crave good truffles. For a long time, I wanted to make a vanilla truffle, but a few attempts later, I think I've given up because I can't for the life of me find a decent recipe. The thing is, every year we make Buck Eyes, and they always look so amazing and professionally done sitting there on the platter. The only problem is I'm not a peanut butter fan, so even though they look amazing, they don't taste amazing to me. So that brings me to the non-peanut butter truffle hunt. Because I want something pretty and professional looking for myself too.

Now, I found this recipe over at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen and put my own little spin on it. It originally called for the truffles to be dipped in almond bark, but as I was not running to the store and only making these because I had a little bit of time to kill and all the other ingredients in my panty, I decided to forgo the almond bark. Instead I just used regular dipping chocolate and added a bit of almond extract into the truffle. Then, that got me thinking. I'd just reached past the orange extract, something I don't normally use often and I love orange truffles so it was an easy 2+2=yummy truffles. Anyway, I just had a dribble left in the bottle, so I used 1 tsp. of the orange extract. Next time if I had a bit more I might increase to 1 1/4 tsp just for good measures. I was going to try that this go, but replace the extra little bit with a bit of orange liqueur, but what do you know, we're all out of that too. Surprise, surprise. Maybe next time a hint of peppermint would bring on the holiday spirit also.

One important thing to remember if you decide to make multiple batches / flavours of these truffles is that once they are dipped you need to put some sort of marking on the outside of them so you know which flavour is which. Get creative, but try to keep things consistent from batch to batch, year to year ie. we always use a white chocolate drizzle on our Buck Eyes.

Some suggestions for the garnish:
~Orange zest (I used this for the orange flavour)
~Chocolate sprinkles
~White chocolate drizzle (I use this for buck eyes)
~A white chocolate dot
~A sprinkle of coconut
~A sprinkle of ground almond powder (I use this for the almond flavour)

One of the greatest things about this recipe is that they were so incredibly easy. No oven, no double-boiler, not stove-top cooking, and all the ingredients will be in your pantry if you ever do even the most basic of baking. Feel free to dabble around in the flavour combinations, or if you just like plain, just use 2 tsp of vanilla as the flavouring.

Makes 2 1/2 Dozen

Almond Truffles

Orange Truffles

Ingredients

Almond Truffles

1/2 C. Cocoa Powder

1 C. Sugar

1/2 C. Flour

2 Tsp. Vanilla

1/4 Tsp. Almond Extract

1/2 C. Butter, melted

Milk Chocolate Dipping Chocolate

Garnish

Orange Truffles

1/2 C. Cocoa Powder

1 C. Sugar

1/2 C. Flour

1 Tsp. Vanilla

1 1/4 Tsp. Orange Extract

1/2 C. Butter, melted

Milk Chocolate Dipping Chocolate

Garnish

Directions

~In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients.

~In a microwave safe dish, melt butter. Mix in extracts.

~Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix to combine.

~Roll batter into bite size balls and place on a wax paper lined tray.

~Melt chocolate and dip truffles into chocolate and garnish right away (unless garnishing with the melted white chocolate. You'll have to wait for the milk chocolate layer to set first.)

~Place back on the wax paper lined tray and refrigerate to set.

Enjoy

Brownie Batter Trifle (Dairy Free)

Now just a heads up, if you don't have a sweet tooth don't waste your time reading this post. Check back later for something less sickly sweet...last chance...that's what I thought. I'm glad you all are still here and really I would be ashamed if any food blogger bailed on this post. It is absolutely amazing (but not pretty once you dish it out unfortunately). My recommendation: make it the night before so it can sit in the fridge for at least 24 hours. The puddings will then absorb into the brownies and basically make a heavenly mush. Trust me, it's the best mush you'll ever eat.

For those of you that may be a bit skeptical about using the almond milk, feel free to substitute in regular dairy milk. But if you're up for an adventure, I'd recommend you try it. It makes the chocolate pudding seem that much richer because of the addition of the nutty and vanilla flavours.

I lucked in as far as my brownies went. I was going to make my own (and by my own, I really mean I was going to make a box mix of Ghirardelli Brownies), but I was running out of time and I was wandering through the bakery section at Costco (I know a dangerous place to wander) and I came across a carton of what is the Costco equivalent of the brand of Bite Size Brownies (you know the cute little round ones?) Anyway, these brownies were rather flavourless and dry when consumed by themselves but I was going for quantity over quality here people. There were 50 brownies in the carton. Yup, you read that right, five-zero, fifty. All for $5. Believe me, if I had the time (and an oven...still waiting on that one important aspect of baking) I would have made my own, but seriously after you add two packages of pudding it doesn't really matter what the texture of the brownie was like originally. Still, if you're a stickler for homemade, go ahead and make your own brownies with all natural and organic ingredients. If not, well do as I did and enjoy an end product that will taste identical.

Makes 1 heaping ginormous trifle bowl full (sorry I don't know how much it actually was. I think we got about 12 servings out of it).

Ingredients

1 (102g) Pkg. Chocolate Fudge Jello Instant Pudding

1 (170g) Pkg. Vanilla Instant Pudding

5 C. Vanilla Almond Milk, chilled and divided
25 Bites Size Brownies
1 C. Strawberry Slices
2 C. Fresh Raspberries

Directions

~In a large glass bowl, combine the chocolate pudding powder and 2 C. of the cold milk. Whisk for two minutes until pudding begins to thicken. Set aside.
~In another large glass bowl, combine the vanilla powder and 3 C. of the chilled milk. Whisk for two minutes until pudding thickens. Set aside.
~Slice Bite Size Brownies into quarters (or if using homemade, cut into bite sized chunks).
~Wash and de-stem the strawberries and cut into thin slices.
~In a large glass trifle bowl, put a layer of brownies (in my dish I could fit 3 layers, adjust the number of layers accordingly for the depth of your dish), followed by a layer of vanilla pudding.
~Top with fresh raspberries, followed by a chocolate pudding layer.
~Repeat: brownies, vanilla, strawberries, chocolate.
~Repeat: brownies, vanilla, raspberries, and then drizzle the remaining chocolate pudding overtop to finish off the final layer.
~Chill for 30 minutes, upward to 24 hours (the longer the chill time, the more brownie batter like this is going to become. The less time, the more intact each of the layers is going to be).

Enjoy (if not lactose intolerant, with a scoop of whipped cream to finish it off).

Lemon-Lime Brownie

I've done something bad. I mean really, really bad. I don't know if I should even admit this. Okay, I'll tell you...I...made...a brownie that had no chocolate in it. Gasp! I know, I feel so guilty. I guess I've always known that if there was one thing that could pull me away from chocolate, it would be lemon.

This recipe made its way around the food blog world a while ago and I am glad I finally got around to making it. I had high hopes at the beginning for this brownie (yellowie??) but when I pulled it out of the oven I was a little disappointed. It took forever for everything to cool and the glaze to set, and so finally I just gave up and dug in. I had to find out what it tasted like. Well, it has the taste of a typical lemon square (you guys all know the one I'm referring to right? With the shortbready crust and the lemon-eggy mixture on top), but without all the hassle. This really only did take mere minutes of active kitchen time, which disappointed me. I had just had two days that I had not made anything and I was going through withdrawal and then this only took ten minutes. There was no way that only 10 minutes of baking was going to cure my kitchen withdrawal symptoms. So my solution, make two things in one night. Anyway, when I say I was disappointed with this recipe, I in no way mean I was disappointed with the taste or look of this square. It even tasted better the following day right out of the fridge.

The original recipe that I used called for lemon juice and lemon zest. Well, we always have a bottle of lemon juice in the fridge so that was simple enough, but we don't buy lemons all that often. We do buy limes and so I usually use the zest from the limes and the juice from the bottle. It works, and I get pretty green flecks in stuff. Anyway, so I used 7 limes in this recipe because they were pretty tiny. You'd probably only need 3-4 lemons. But, I was left with 7 zested and unjuiced limes. What to do, what to do? Oh, I know, this weekend is the long weekend. I'll make margarita mix. So, stay tuned for this adventure.

Back to the brownies though. A couple things I would recommend is that you double this recipe (and still put it in an 8x8 pan), because the single batch of batter made the thinnest of layers and I was kinda hoping for something a bit more dense. The other thing was that the glaze recipe I used called for a lot of liquid and not as much icing sugar as I would typically use for a glaze. Because I felt like this glaze was not going to harden up like I wanted it to, I kept adding in extra icing sugar. So much so that I don't actually know how much extra I added in. The original called for 1 C. sugar, 4 tbsp. juice. This wasn't a good ratio for me, so I'm going to say I used 1 1/2 C. sugar, 4 tbsp. juice, but if you want a harder glaze, make sure the mixture isn't watery when you pour it on the brownie and adjust your sugar accordingly.

In other completely unrelated news, I just bought my first silicone muffin pan, and I must say it you don't have one of these, you need to march yourself down to the nearest department store and buy yourself one. Or two. They are amazing. I was sold after removing one muffin from the tin (or silicone). You don't require paper liners which means this is a more economical and environmental option. Plus, the ease alone is worth it. You don't have to try to pry the muffins out with a knife, they simply pop out. It's pure magic. When I say I was quickly sold, I mean I popped one muffin out of this new pan and then went to try (key word try) and remove a muffin from the old metal tins and I quickly realized how fast you can fall in love with a kitchen gadget. (You'd think I was getting paid to sing these praises, but I'm not.) So, back to the lemon brownies.

This recipe has made its way around the blog world extensively. The version I used was from Becky Charms, but the original recipe can be traced back I believe to Rita's Recipes.

On another side note, I may have gotten a little carried away with taking pictures for this post. But it was fun and everything was green so they were just begging for the shots.

Ingredients

Makes thin layer in an 8x8 pan (I'd recommend doubling both the batter and glaze)

Brownie:

3/4 C. All Purpose Flour (I used 1/2 C. Whole Wheat, 1/4 C. All Purpose)

3/4 C. White Sugar

1/4 Tsp. Salt

1/2 C. Butter, softened

2 Eggs

2 Tbsp. Lemon Zest (I used Limes)

2 Tbsp. Lemon Juice

Lemon Glaze:

1 1/2 Rounded C. Icing Sugar

4 Tbsp. Lemon Juice

2 Tbsp. Lemon Zest (or Lime)

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350 F.

~Grease an 8x8 baking dish.

~Zest & juice your lemons.

~In your mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and butter until crumbly.

~Add in zest, juice and eggs. Beat until smooth and creamy.

~Pour into baking dish and until it just begins to turn golden around the edges and a tooghpick comes out clean (23-25 minutes). If you're doubling the recipe (like you should be), adjust the bake time accordingly.

~Let brownies cool on a rack.

~While they are cooling, mix together icing sugar, juice and zest in small bowl. Whisk together and make sure there are no lumps of sugar remaining. (Because I don't have a fine grater for the zest, I had to push the mixture through a sieve to remove all the hard, long chunks of zest.)

~Spread half the glaze over the brownies. Let set.

~Spread the other half of the glaze on top of the first layer. Let set.

Enjoy