11 Oct
Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake
Posted by Chelle as Brownies & Bars, Cheesecake, Chocolate | 30 Comments
Behold, a gorgeous four-part cheesecake in all of its glory:
Oreo crumb crust.
Creamy cheesecake.
Fudgy brownies.
Chocolate ganache glaze.
WOW. Now, many of you know I am a self-professed Queen of Cheesecake. No, I’m not tooting my own horn about how fabulous my own cheesecakes always turn out, but cheesecake is by far my very favorite dessert. I’ll eat it before anything else laid in front of me. And so when I saw this cheesecake featured on Smitten Kitchen, there was no turning back. I had to make it. Immediately. And with no good reason whatsoever other than I wanted it. No company, no dinner party, no celebration. Just because it looked THAT good.
27 Aug
Strawberry Pretzel Squares
Posted by Chelle as Brownies & Bars | 28 Comments
Let me start off by saying that I rarely use recipes that come from Kraft Foods, mostly because it seems that almost all of them use the same bottled or prepackaged ingredients, and I really have come to respect and enjoy things that are truly homemade and from scratch. That being said, I LOVE THIS DESSERT. I started eating this sometime in high school when my aunt would bring it to any family gathering that occurred in the summer. I immediately fell in the love with the combination of salty and sweet and would have to restrain myself from eating the whole pan. In all the time that has passed, this is the first time that I have ever made this myself and having leftovers in the house = pure heaven!
03 Jun
TWD: French Chocolate Brownies
Posted by Chelle as Brownies & Bars, Chocolate, Tuesdays with Dorie | 0 Comments
*Note to self: Let brownies cool before taking pictures, they would look less messy!
Wow. Just wow. With all due respect to Ina’s Outrageous Brownies, these French Chocolate Brownies have trumped and become my all-time favorite brownie recipe. Many thanks to Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook for choosing this week’s recipe - what a fantastic job you did!!
These brownies were created in a pretty non-traditional way in terms of brownies. The eggs and sugar were whisked together in the stand mixture, and then the dry ingredients were added, followed by the melted chocolate/butter combination. In truth, Dorie states that when she created these she was aiming for a chocolate cake, not brownies. But wow, did she nail the brownies! These are dense, moist, insanely chocolatey, and just about everything you could want from a brownie. I couldn’t stop eating pieces off of them each time I walked into the kitchen!
This recipe says it yields 16 brownies, and after cutting these into 16 pieces I’m convinced that Laurie was right - these are French-size brownies, not America’s super-sized variety that we’re used to 
Oh, you will note there are raisins in the recipe, pretty a-typical for a brownie. I skipped these as I only had a handful of raisins left and wanted to hoard them for my oatmeal
Recipe and some process photos after the break…
08 Jan
TWD: Quintuple Chocolate Brownies
Posted by Chelle as Brownies & Bars, Chocolate, Tuesdays with Dorie | 24 Comments
For our second week of Tuesdays With Dorie, it was my turn to choose the recipe that we would tackle. After poring over endless possibilities, my eyes kept going back to the Quintuple Chocolate Brownies. I was pretty sure, upon reading the recipe, that I might go into sugar shock when I took my first bite. Sugar headaches be damned, my mind was made up - these would be our next Dorie adventure!
The 5 types of chocolate found in these brownies: unsweetened cocoa powder, bittersweet chocolate, unsweetened chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate.
Wow, when mixing together this batter I think I got a hand cramp. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but this was by far the thickest batter I have ever made for brownies. Any wavering I may have had on the notion that they might not be as rich as their name indicates went right out the window! Once in the oven, these gave off the most decadent, rich, chocolate aroma. I felt like I was in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory! These brownies were easy to throw together (no KA needed!), and taste absolutely fabulous. Bonus - they look gorgeous as well! Small is good with these babies - just a nibble will satisfy even the most needy sweet tooth!
The only thing that I think I would do differently here is instead of a white chocolate glaze I would make more of a solid layer of white chocolate on top, such that you would find on peppermint bark. To do this I would simply remove the heavy cream from the recipe and spread just melted white chocolate on top of the brownie. There is nothing wrong with the glaze as is - it’s very good! - just a personal preference for a thicker layer 
We have now formed a trio of Dorie experimenters, with April from Abby Sweets joining us as well! Head on over to her blog to see her take on Tuesdays with Dorie each week.
Stay tuned next week for… Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte
Last week: Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread Cookies
Keep reading »
09 Oct
Outrageous? Indeed!
Posted by Chelle as Brownies & Bars, Chocolate | 9 Comments
There has been much ado surrounding Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies recipe on a number of cooking and baking forums that I frequent. Given my quest to master many different homemade brownie recipes I thought that this one warranted my undertaking. I should have known what I was getting myself into when I was mixing the batter and thought, “Wow, that looks REALLY rich!” Indeed, these brownies are definitely the richest I have ever tasted. Which is not a bad thing This recipe was super easy to put together and didn’t take much time at all. I must forewarn you - listen to the directions when they say to cool the brownies completely before cutting!
