Ice cream and brownies

 I made this tiny ice cream dessert for family who came over for lunch this weekend.  Ganache, 3 tiny scoops of vanilla ice cream and a brownie in the shape of a star.  I  loved this dessert.  First of all I love tiny dishes!  I just bought these from Bed Bath and Beyond 12 for $20 and used the $5 off coupon.  And two of my favorite sweets are ice cream and brownies.  I prepared this ahead of time and kept them in my freezer on my tray.

I am a loyal fan of Ghiradelli brownies and have only made those. But I didn't have any brownie mix at home so I found this recipe that I really liked which I used this weekend. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease an 8x8 inch square pan.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter and water. Cook over medium heat until boiling. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the chocolate mixture. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies set up. Do not overbake! Cool in pan and cut into squares. 

Wilton silicone brownie pan

I bought this pan a couple weeks ago. It's a really good pan but it took me a while to get the brownies just right. I didn't mind though, because I would just eat the mistakes! :)

As I've mentioned in the past, Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate brownie mix is my favorite brownie mix (I refuse to use any other brand). So if you are going to use this pan, here are some tips for you that will probably work even if you don't use Ghirardelli:


oil each cavity generously


use a 2 teaspoon cookie scoop


350 degrees for 20 minutes


wait at least 30 minutes before removing brownies from pan

The brownies should pop right out with minimal effort.

I was able to make 43 brownies from one pouch of brownie mix (the pan makes 2 dozen.) I also recommend baking something else you need on the same day you bake brownies. What I did was bake the first batch and while it cooled (and while I washed, oiled and refilled the pan), I baked a few dozen cookies. This way I didn't have to turn off the oven when the first batch was done, then preheat again an hour or so later.

delicious 1.5 inch square bite sized brownies. i can eat 20...or more

Candy Barrel Cake

I've seen this type of cake on many websites and was happy to finally make one. It's supposed to look like a barrel of candy. I made it for my sister's birthday party yesterday. She's been craving brownies so I used brownies for this "cake."

I haven't been able to make brownies from scratch that taste as good as this one. It's my absolute favorite brownie. I always buy the box from Costco because it make SIX batches. oh, I love brownies!

I needed to use less batter in the 8 inch pans because I wanted my 2 layer brownie cake to be shorter than the Kit Kat bars. So I thought I would take out some batter and make a tiny candy barrel cake also. I used two bags of brownie mix and took out 1/3 cup of the batter for each of my 4 inch pans. Unfortunately I ran out of candy after making the big cake, so my husband gladly ate the brownies meant for the tiny cake.

I had M&M's left over from Easter. I thought I had enough to cover the top of the cake to give it the illusion of it being a barrel full of M&M's, but I did not. I did not feel like making a trip to the store just to buy more. I had to use some mini M&M's and some peanut M&M's, which I already had, to fill in the holes. But I wish i had another handful or so of M&M's because the top still wasn't completely covered.

I put a thin layer of icing in between the 2 layers and around the cake. I tried to make it as thin as possible because the brownies are really rich and sweet. But you can't skip the icing, it's needed to hold the candies in place.

here's a little animated gif I made of me putting the candies on. This was a fun cake to make. next time i think i'll make a few tiny ones with my 4 inch pans.

Brownies

I had some extra dark chocolate and decided to make brownies from it. i had lots, so i quadrupled this recipe. it was almost too big for the pan i baked it in. i have never made brownies from scratch so this was exciting.

p.s. since the recipe was quadrupled, i baked it for 40 minutes, which was just a bit too long. Next time i'll bake it for 36 min. and also i used whole wheat flour

MMMMM... Brownies

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup water
• 6 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 8 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease an 8x8 inch square pan.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter and water. Cook over medium heat until boiling. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the chocolate mixture. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies set up. Do not overbake! Cool in pan and cut into squares.