Rocky Road Brownies

I do not like baked goods, and I only like chocolate sometimes. However, I LOVE brownies. I always have, and I do not know what makes them different from everything else, but they are fantastic.

Rocky Road Brownies



These are so ooey gooey fantastic that I wanted to eat them all. Luckily for Walter's co-workers, my lactose intolerance and allergy to walnuts prevented me from doing so.

These are a messy, messy treat. But so good. I made the recipe six times. Each recipe yields about 16 brownies (but I admit that I cut some of them bigger than directed). I got the recipe from Christmas Cookies, a cookbook my mother gave me that is brought to us by Duncan Hines, Quaker, Borden, and Hershey's companies, among others.

You could also substitute graham cracker crumbs for the walnuts and make s'mores brownies.

Ingredients
-1/2 cup butter
-1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
-1 cup sugar
-1 egg
-1/2 cup flour
-1/4 cup buttermilk
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1 cup miniature marshmallows
-1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
-1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used chocolate chunks, and I added another 1/2 cup to the batter)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch square pan and set aside (I lined the pan with aluminum foil and greased the foil so it would be easier to remove the brownies).
2. Combine butter and cocoa powder in medium-sized saucepan over medium low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from heat.
3. Stir in sugar, egg, flour, buttermilk, and vanilla (And, if using, 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks). Mix until smooth.
4. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a pick inserted in the center of the brownies comes out mostly clean.
5. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle top of brownies with walnuts, chocolate chunks, and marshmallows. Return to oven for 3 to 5 minutes, just until marshmallows are puffed and topping has combined. Cool in pan. Cut into squares when cool.

Toffee-Topped Brownie Bites

One of these weeks, I am not going to have time to bake for Walter's office. What will they do then?

Toffee-Topped Brownie Bites



I was going to make traditional brownies this week, but I saw this recipe and thought they would be fun. I needed to use a muffin pan for Joelen's Tasty Tools blogging event, so here we are.

I found this recipe here at Annie's Eats. It was fantastic! I did do one thing different: In addition to icing the tops of the bites with the ganache, I filled each with a little of it. It made them even more moist and chocolatey:



I found that the recipe says it makes about 24 bites, but I could only get about 18 out of each batch. Maybe I made my spoonfuls of batter a bit too big.

Ingredients
-3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
-5 1/3 Tablespoons butter
-1 cup granulated sugar
-2 eggs, lightly beaten
-1 tsp. vanilla extract
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
-1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
-1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
-Toffee pieces (I found that one 8-ounce bag of Heath toffee bits covered all of my brownies--I made the recipe four times)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan and set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the unsweetened chocolate and butter. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, just until melted. Remove from the heat.
3. Add the sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt, and whisk until combined. Stir in the flour until combined. Using a small cookie scoop, spoon batter into muffin pan.
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until completely set. Cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes. Remove brownies from the pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. To make the ganache, bring whipping cream to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat; remove from the heat. Add the bittersweet chocolate to the heated cream, let stand for 30 seconds, then whisk until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is well blended.
6. Using a flavor injector, fill each brownie with a bit of chocolate ganache. Dip the top of each brownie in the ganache and then sprinkle with toffee bits. Allow the glaze to set completely before serving.