Buckeye turtle bars

made these for a party.  The topping part didnt stick very well to the brownie part.  Was vy tasty though.

Buckeye Turtle Brownies from mama gourmand
1 9X13 brownie mix

Peanut Butter Topping:
6 tbsp. butter, softened
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. milk

Turtle Topping:
11 oz. bag of caramels, unwrapped (I just used a bag of caramel bits for simplicity)
2 tbsp. milk
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Chocolate Topping:
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil
course sea salt or fleur de sel, optional

Bake 9X13 brownie mix per box directions. Cool brownies completely.

PB topping: beat all ingredients in a med bowl  (will be very thick). Scoop spoonfuls of peanut butter topping all over cooled brownies. Press topping gently on cooled brownies using fingers.

Turtle topping: In a micro safe bowl place caramels and milk and heat on high  1 1/2 - 2 min, stopping to stir intermittently. Remove immediately just after caramels are almost smooth. Pour in chopped pecans, mix, and scoop in spoonfuls over pb layer. Use an offset spatula or spatula to smooth over peanut butter.

Choc topping: In another micro safe bowl melt chips and oil about 1 min, stirring occasionally til chocolate is about melted and smooth. Pour over caramel layer and smooth with offset spatula. Sprinkle with course sea salt.

Vegan Beet Brownies with Frosting

When I made this Fauxberry Pie I was left with about 3/4 c of canned beets that I had no idea what to do with. It was harder than you'd think to find a recipe that I thought my family would actually eat. These Brownies from Eggless Cooking seemed like a good match.

The original recipe calls for 1 c of pureed beets and 1/4 c applesauce.  I just messed around the beet and applesauce ratios so I had a total of 1 1/4c pureed fruit and veggies.

These brownies are so sweet that there is no way you could even taste the slightest hint of beet.  I made sure of that by adding frosting to it.  I used the frosting recipe from Penzey's Vegan Cake recipe.  It's pretty much chocolate crack for vegans and the lactose intolerant.  Because that recipe is for frosting a 9x13 cake and this cake is only 8x8 you get loads of fudgy frosting goodness.

Beet and oat brownies with Fudgy Frosting adapted from Madhuram's Eggless Cooking

3 oz Semisweet Chocolate chips
3/4 c Beet Puree
1/2 c Dk Brown Sugar
1/4 c Cocoa
2 T Margarine
2 t Vanilla
1/2 c Cinnamon Applesauce
3/4 c Oat Flour (I took 3/4 instant oats and processed them to a fine powder)
3/4 t Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 c coarse chopped Walnuts
additional 1/2 c semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 8x8" pan w foil and spray w pam. Melt 3 oz chocolate in microwave at 30 sec intervals, stirring after each time.  This took about 1 min for me. Add beet, sugar, cocoa, margarine, vanilla and applesauce. Stir til creamy.Add oat flour, baking powder, chopped walnuts, salt and unmelted choc chips. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 35-40 min.  Brownies should spring back when touched.  Make frosting.

Frosting
4 T oil
4 T water
6 T sifted COCOA POWDER
2 C sifted powdered sugar

In a small pot, boil water and oil.  It may not come to a rolling boil, but bubbles will appear. Remove from heat. Add cocoa and sugar. Beat until smooth. Pour over cake, spreading icing to the edges, and let it cool. The frosting may stick to the knife when cutting the cake, so dip the knife in warm water and wipe clean after each cut. Store cake in fridge.

Zucchini Brownies

These zucchini brownies from Crazy for Crust were so rich and chocolaty.  A slice this small was almost too much!   

We had some of these brownies for dessert when Blockette had a friend over.  She was so amazed that they contained zucchini.  Cause zucchini is super gross and who would put a vegetable in a brownie. 

Me, of course!

I liked that these brownies were vegan.  I mean the frosting isn't, but the base is.  It would be very easy to swap out a different frosting, like this one, if needed.

Zucchini Brownies from Crazy for Crust
1/2 c oil
1 1/2 c sugar
2 t vanilla
2 c flour
1/2 c cocoa
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 c shredded zucchini (1 lg or 2 sm)
1 T water
1/2 c chopped walnuts

Frosting:
3 T cocoa powder
1/4 c butter, softened
2 c powdered sugar
1/4 c milk
1/2 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 9x13 pan w foil and spray with Pam. Set aside. In med bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Using electric mixer with paddle attachment, mix oil, sugar, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Fold in zucchini. If mixture very powdery, add up to 1/4 c hot water, adding 1 T at a time, stirring after each addition.  The batter will be crumbly, but NOT powdery.Fold in Walnuts. Bake 25-30 min til brownies spring back when gently touched.
For frosting: Mix soft butter, cocoa, and powdered sugar with hand mixer. Add milk and vanilla. Spread over cooled brownies. Cut into squares.

Praline Brownies

I made these praline brownies from My Homemade Life for a church gathering. 

They were a great way to jazz up a boxed brownie.

For some reason the praline topping was super thick.  And by thick I mean there was a thick layer of frosting, almost as thick as the brownies.  The consistency of the frosting was also very thick.  The frosting pictured at My Homemade Life looks more like the runny glaze that sets up with a nice crackly top.  This was like thick canned frosting!

My guess is that I just cooked the frosting mixture for too long on the stove.

It still tasted great.  The extra frosting made it very rich.  I "accidentally" ate two bars within a very short period of time and the sugar overloaded my system.  If you are sensitive to sugar, cut these brownies in small pieces.  You may even want to make the brownies in a 9x9 pan and half the frosting recipe.  This way the frosting to brownie ratio will be less, and therefore taste less sweet.

Praline Brownies from My Homemade Life
Brownies
1 box  brownie mix
Water, Eggs & Vegetable oil as called for on the brownie mix box
1/2 c. chopped pecans

Praline Frosting 1/2 c.whipping cream
6 T butter
1 1/2 c br sugar
3/4 c chopped pecans
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 t vanilla

In lg bowl, combine brownie mix, and ingredients for "cake like brownie" per brownie box. Add pecans.  Pour into 9x13 sprayed w pam.  Bake per box directions.  Cool for 1 hr.  Once cooled, prepare the frosting. In med pan, over med heat, add cream, butter and br sugar, stirring frequently, til mix comes to slight boil.  Continue cooking, and stir constantly for 1 min while boiling. Remove from heat, and stir in pecans, vanilla and powdered sugar. Mix until smooth.  Let sit off heat 6 min.  Stir once every min for 6 min.  Pour over brownies.  Chill in fridge so frosting sets up.

Merlot Brownies

I have this problem, I hate to throw away perfectly good food.  I'm always trying to find new ways to use up leftover ingredients. 

These Marinaded Mushrooms are a huge treat for us, but they only use up half a liter of wine.  Not wanting to throw the wine out, I went on a quest to find a way to use up the remainder of the wine.  I finally chose this recipe for Red Wine Chocolate Fudge Brownies from Butter Me Up, Brooklyn. 

First let me say that my camera did NOT like these brownies.  They were do dark that the camera would not focus properly unless I used the flash.  Then when I did use the flash, it made the top all glare-y and shiny.  The brownies look almost red in this photo.  They are in reality a very deep dark brown.

The camera wasn't the only one who didn't like these brownies. 

I thought they were horrible. 

Then again, I don't like red wine.

They have a very strong red wine taste.

So, if you like red wine, this is the recipe for you.  Then again, if you like red wine, you probably won't have any leftover wine sitting around in your fridge.  I'm sure that you could buy a bottle of wine just for baking purposes and then just drink the rest of the bottle. 

Obviously Mrblocko loved these brownies, cause he does like the taste of red wine.  Strangely, Blockette loved them as well. Go figure.

Red Wine Brownies from Butter Me Up Brooklyn
For the brownies:
4 ounces  semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup  red wine
2 eggs
1/2 cup  brown sugar
1/4 cup  sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup  flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon  salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips




For the glaze:
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon  butter
2 tablespoon red wine
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter an 8×8 pan and line with two sheets of parchment paper, then butter the parchment. Set aside. Melt chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted and smooth. (I just nuked them in the microwave.) In a large bowl whisk eggs, sugars and vanilla. Whisk in chocolate mixture and then  wine. Add flour, cocoa powder and salt and stir until batter is smooth and has thickened slightly. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 15-20 minutes (My oven took 30 min) or until a tester comes out mostly clean with just a few crumbs attached. While brownies are baking make glaze. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over simmering water until melted. Add the butter, wine and salt and whisk until smooth. (I let this cook up to a low simmer, stirring constantly, to cook off any alcohol.) Pour glaze over warm brownies and spread it to the corners so the top is evenly coated. Cool completely and cut into squares.

Pumpkin Mug Brownie

Have you been sensing a theme this week?  I've been obsessed with pumpkin lately.  Don't be surprised if you're seeing all kinds of pumpkin recipes well into December.

 Now that you've been warned, let's discuss today's featured recipe: Microwaveable Pumpkin Brownies for Two from Oh My Veggies.

This is an adaptation from what I consider to be the original mug cake.  This version uses milk instead of water, and pumpkin instead of oil.

This brownie is very rich. I strongly suggest that you find someone to share this bad boy with so you don't give yourself a tummy ache.

I think I will do some experimenting to see if I can cut down the amount of sugar in this recipe. Towards the end of the dessert, I began to feel overwhelmed by the sweetness of the dessert.  I'm sure Blockette will be my eager helper in test tasting my future experiments!

 Vegan Pumpkin Mug Brownie from Oh My Veggies
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. flour
2 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 T pumpkin puree
2 T. non-dairy milk (I used skim milk)
1 T. chocolate chips
1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
a pinch of salt

Stir together all ingredients in a latte mug or small bowl. (This mug cake does not rise much so a large mug is not necessary.) Microwave for 1 minute; continue to microwave at 15 second intervals until top of brownie is dry. 

Cookie Dough Brownies

I was originally going to make Pudge Cake from Cookies and Cups for my birthday.  The bottom layer is a boxed brownie mix, baked in a 8" cake pan.  Then, you have a nice thick layer of salmonella free chocolate chip cookie dough.  And if that isn't enough, you've got a top layer of Funfetti cake.  Finally there's the obvious frosting, and decorative cookies.

Doesn't that sound sinful amazing?

Yeah.

Then I remembered that the day after my birthday we were driving up to Minnesota.

There was no way we could eat that entire massive cake in one day.  Nor would it stay fresh in the fridge.  I'm sure I could have frozen it, but there was no room in the freezer.  (I had made huge batches of spaghetti, turkey stock, and chili recently.)

So it was back to the birthday cake drawing board.  I settled on cookie dough brownies from Buns in my Oven.

Although, it wasn't really settling.

These brownies were exactly what I was craving!   Chocolate Fudgy brownies and cookie dough.  Yeah!

I used a box mix for my brownies, but you could jazz this up and make it from scratch.  You could even make one of those fancy box mixes with chocolate chunks or caramel.  I wasn't feeling fancy so I went with the standard fudgy brownie.

As these brownies are super rich, we didn't finish them in time either.  There was much less to try to fit into the freezer, esp considering I left a few in the fridge for our cat sitter.


I can only think of two bad things about these brownies:
1.) The cookie dough has a tendency to fall away from the brownie.  Blockette actually preferred eating her dough separate from the brownie.  I just smooshed them down together and forced them to stick.  Not a big deal in my book.

2.) I ate the last one on Friday for at lunch. Wah!


Cookie Dough Brownies from Buns in My Oven
1 recipe or box of brownie mix, prepared and baked
3/4 cup salted butter, room temperature
3/4 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c sugar
3 T milk
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 c chocolate chips (I used semi sweet)

Bake brownies per package instructions, in a 8x8 or 9x9 pan lined with foil, and sprayed with cooking spray.  I like fudgy brownies, so I followed those directions.  Let the brownies cool completely.  Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in milk and vanilla until well combined. Slowly add flour and mix until combined.  Fold in chocolate chips. Top the baked and cooled brownies with the cookie dough.  Store leftovers in the fridge or freezer.

Snickerdoodle Brownies

I made these snickerdoodle brownies, from A Well Seasoned Life, to bring over to my mother-in-law's house over spring break.

Feel free to be amazed with my special food photography props.  I'm super classy, and should be a professional food photographer.

Now that you are done laughing, let's get on with discussing these Snickerdoodle Brownies.

First, they had a glaze on top, but they were not pretty with the glaze.  So that's why you get the crazy cat medicine picture.  Cause cat medicine and Kool-aid were prettier than the glazed bars.

The bars settled in the middle as they cooled, which acted as a basin for the glaze to settle in.  A smart thing would have been to let the glaze set up a bit before I drizzled it on.  Do that so you don't get a glaze swimming pool.  Glaze swimming pools taste divine, but are butt ugly. (Case in point, see this post.  When will I ever learn?!)  Or even better yet, cut your bars and then apply the glaze.  This wasn't really an option for me.  I wanted an easy way to transport these bars in the car, so I left them in the pan I baked them in.

Cinnamon is like crack to me.  And these bars are really cinnamon-y.  I could NOT stop eating them.  I may or may not have eaten so many bars in one sitting that I may have started buzzing around the room like a humming bird, and then just might have had to lie down and have a sugar crash nap.  But I'm not going to fully admit to that.

I'll definitely make these bars again.  Although, if I'm just making them for the three of us, I'll make a half batch so I don't pig out again and knock myself into a sugar coma. 

Snickerdoodle Brownies from A Well Seasoned Life
2 1/3 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cinnamon Mixer:
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray. In small bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a larger bowl mix together softened butter, brown sugar and sugar until blended. Add one egg at a time, then vanilla. Add flour mixture and blend well. Spoon half of the batter into the pan and spread evenly.

Make cinnamon mixture by combining: 1 T sugar and 1T cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly on top of the batter that is in the pan. Using the remaining batter, place teaspoon sized dollops on top of the cinnamon mixture…covering all the pan. You will be able to see some of the cinnamon mixture peeking through. Bake for 25 minutes.

Once baked, let it cool for one hour. Combine all ingredients for the icing and once cool drizzle it over the brownies.

Healthier microwave mug cake

I am such a lazy cheater pants. As a registered card caring lazy cheater pants, I really love the microwave. Yeah I know it robs all the nutrients from your food. Blah blah blah. I'm a horrible mom so I don't really care.  Besides, do nutrients really matter if you are making a microwave cake for one?

Answer: No. No they don't.

To date, I've made three different versions of the microwave mug cake for one. The first being the original eggless chocolate cake.  This one is by far my favorite.  Of course it is.  It has 4 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of oil....for one serving.  Yeah.  Why wouldn't it be delicious?

The second version of mug cake I made contained bananas and peanut butter. The fat from this recipe came from the peanut butter.  The sweetness came from half a banana and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. While this recipe had less and healthier sugars and fats, it didn't taste nearly as good as the first version. Mostly because it tasted like bananas. Not a bad thing, except I am not the biggest fan of bananas.

Then, I tried a non chocolate-y, coffee cake version.  It was also very yummy, but contained 3 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of butter.   Delicious, but not the lowest of calorie desserts when you consider this is a single serving!

I played around with the original recipe, using whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil and 2 tablespoons of sugar.  It was just ok, and a bit on the dry side.  Guess that oil and sugar were there for a reason.

Then I found another recipe for a chocolate mug cake at This Homemade Life.  It only contained 2 tablespoons of sugar and applesauce instead of oil.  Not too shabby!  Now I'm sure even though it is no sugar added, there is still sugar being added to the dessert from the applesauce.  But they are good fruity sugars!  As are the sugars from the milk.  Good milky sugars!  I'm sure that if you added up the sugars from 1/4 c apple sauce and 3 tablespoons of milk it wouldn't equal the 2 extra tablespoons of sugar from the "original" mug cake.

Now a bit about this particular mug cake.  Wow did it rise.  The original recipe barely rose at all, but this one came almost to the top of the mug. I only nuked it for 2 out of the suggested 3 minutes because the top started to look a bit rubbery.  I bet if I had kept it in for the whole 3 minutes, the cake would have rose above the mug.  Even though the top started to get on the rubbery-chewy side, the bottom 3/4 was nice and gooey.  Not so gooey that it could be confused with a lava cake, but pleasantly between regular cake and lava cake.

I doubt this recipe will completely replace my original recipe for mug cake.  Sometimes you just need that no good for you sugar-y goodness.  I do think I will make this slightly healthier version more frequently, provided no one eats up all the applesauce!

Chocolate Mug Cake from This Homemade Life (serves 1)
4 tbsp white whole wheat flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp baking powder
dash cinnamon
3 tbsp nondairy milk (I used non fat milk as it was what I had on hand)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
vanilla extract
2-3 tbsp vegan (or not) chocolate chips

In a small bowl mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix in applesauce, milk and a drop or two of vanilla. Mix in chips. Pour batter into a coffee cup, and microwave for three minutes. (I thought 3 minutes was too much. At 2 minutes the top started to look rubbery. Only the top part was like this. Underneath was a slightly lava cake-ish dessert. So know your microwave!)

Flourless Brownie Flop

So I made these flourless brownies on a whim. (Sorry, no photo this time.)   My mom was in town and she is on this low glycemic index diet. I thought these flourless brownies from The Hoot Eats would be fun to try out as they are low in sugar and carbs.

I followed the recipe, exactly save for using honey instead of brown rice syrup. The recipe says that you can use any sweetener of your liking so I still think this qualifies as following the recipe exactly.

The brownies tasted ok. Not overly sweet, but just sweet and chocolate-y enough to qualify as brownies. Nothing too special, but I wasn't expecting to be blown away. Blockette thought they were great because they were gluten free. Her teacher has celiac disease, so Blockette thought it was super cool she was eating a brownie that her teacher could eat too.

Apparently, these brownies were supposed to be very crumbly. Mine didn't turn out that way.  They held together quite well.  I can't figure out why as I followed the recipe to the letter.

I wasn't sure how to store them, so I figured the fridge would be a safe bet.  Do NOT do this.  These brownies turned to mush the next day.  Soggy soggy mush.  They were so wet I tossed them.  You know they had to be pretty nasty for me to toss out chocolate.

I'm not trashing this recipe at all.  They are great for what they are.  I'd make these again for someone who couldn't have gluten, I'd just store them on the counter as opposed to the fridge.

Gluten Free Brownies from The Hoot Eats
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoons brown rice syrup [or other sweetener]
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
Mix ins as you desire–chocolate chips, pretzels, nuts, candy

Preheat to 375 F.  Mix all ingred except last three.  Add cocoa and baking powders.  Pour batter into greased 8x8" dish.  Sprinkle mix ins on top.  Bake 15-20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

I did a bit more investigating, and it looks like you can swap out the applesauce for pumpkin, use any kind of nut butter, and add a few tablespoons of ground flax seed.  I'll bet the pumpkin version doesn't get nearly as moist as the applesauce one, which is probably a good thing.

The Turducken of Cookies

Oh no I just cannot leave well enough alone. A while ago I wrote about Brownie Covered Oreos, a recipe I saw on Picky Palate. Well, Jenny at Picky Palate also wrote about brownie stuffed cookies. I thought about that for 2 seconds and said, why not stuff a Brownie covered Oreo into a chocolate chip cookie. I give you the turducken of cookies!
These cookies were yummy, but the Brownie got sort of lost in the baking process. I didn't think they tasted too much different from the plain Oreo stuffed Chocolate chip cookies. I think next time I will just make the Ultimate chocolate chip cookie n' Oreo Fudge brownie Bar from Kevin and Amanda. The recipe seems easier with only one bake time. Also, the layers of cookie and brownie look pronounced, which I assume would result in more of an equal brownie and cookie flavor combination.

Lemon Frosted Brownies

I made these Lemon Frosted Rasberry Brownies from The cooking Photographer for a crafty day with some friends. It had never occurred to me to put lemon frosting on top of brownies. I thought the idea was intriguing, but was unsure if it would be a good flavor pairing. And if my friends didn't like the lemon frosting? Hey, they could just scrape it off.

Lucky me the lemon and chocolate went really well together. The frosting was from a can, but adding lemon zest masks any "canned" flavor. At least I thought it did.The brownies have a raspberry fruit spread mixed into the batter. This was a pretty big let down. The raspberry flavor was nearly undetectable. I had a few leftovers from the get together, and after the brownies were a day old, the raspberries were only slightly more pronounced. The preserves did make the brownies really moist though. That was a nice added benefit. I think if I make these again, I will prepare the brownies at least a day in advance so that raspberry flavor gets more of an opportunity to shine through.


Lemon Frosted Black Raspberry Brownies from the Cooking Photographer
3 tablespoons Smucker’s Simply Fruit Seedless Black Raspberry Spreadable Fruit
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 package Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix
1 tub lemon frosting
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
Dark colored berries for garnish, optional

Preheat the oven to 325F. Line an 8x8 inch baking pan with foil and grease the foil. In a large bowl, whisk together spreadable fruit, water, oil, and egg. Add the brownie mix and stir until just combined. Pour batter into the pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until done. Cool brownies completely in the pan on a wire rack. Mix lemon frosting and lemon zest together. Spread over cool brownies. Freeze brownies for 1 hour for easier cutting. Cut into strips and strips into rectangles. Garnish individual brownies with berries if desired.

Cran-Cherry Pretzel Brownies

I made these brownies for a potluck dinner at church a while ago. The theme was tacos and I couldn't figure out what sort of side dish went with tacos, so I made a dessert.

This recipe was chosen for a few reasons. One, chocolate and spicy foods always seem like a good pair to me. (Besides, only goofy guesses don't like chocolate. Yeah I have a friend who doesn't like chocolate. Don't worry. I revoked her "Girl Card." ) Second, I'd been eyeing the pretzel crust cherry brownies from Heather's Dish for months and hadn't found an excuse to make them yet. Third, I was short on time and it seemed like a quick and easy recipe to whip up.

I took the easy route and used a box brownie mix with chocolate chunks. It had been sitting in the pantry for a while and needed to get used up before mrblocko saw that it was about to expire. (He gets so picky about that stuff. Won't let me keep anything past it's expiration date. He is so unfun that way.) I also used cherry flavored cranberries instead of plain dried cherries.

EXCEPT...someone had been nibbling on the cranberries. I only had 1/2 cup instead of the 3/4 c called for in the recipe. I don't know who did that, but they are in BIG trouble. Excuse me, I'm going to go stand in the corner now.

OK, I'm back! While the brownies could have used more dried cranberries, they were still tasty nonetheless. If I do make these again I will be adding the full amount in. The bites that did contain a bit of tartness went really well with the chocolate and left me wanting more. I did have one problem though. The crust did not set up very well. I think I didn't crush them fine enough. Instead of smashing them with my trusty frying pan, I think I will give them a whirl in the food processor. I think that way they'll get a slightly finer and more even chop.

These brownies went really fast. Although, I'm not sure if that was because Mrblocko and I ate at least 3 each. I cut them on the small side for that reason. It's always so much more satisfying to eat three brownies than just one. I don't know about you, but I will always want at least three brownies at a time no matter what their dimensions are. At least I know that about myself and have the foresight to slice them on the small side.

Pretzel Crust Cherry brownies from Heather's Dish
PRETZEL CRUST
2 1/3 cups pretzels, crumbled
1 cup butter, melted
5 Tbsp granulated sugar

First, preheat the oven to 400. Smash pretzels and combine ingredients. Press into 9x13 pan , and bake at 400 for 6-7 min. Won’t be completely solid, so keep pan even.

BROWNIE
1 2/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) melted butter
1/4 cup water
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cups cocoa powder
3/4 c dried cherries

melt butter; add sugar, eggs, vanilla, and water. Then Cocoa powder and flour til just combined. Add cherries. Carefully pour over pretzel crust. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until brownies are set and a knife comes out clean. Let them cool completely before serving.

Eggless Mug-o-brownie

The other evening, after Blockette had gone to bed, I had a taste for something sweet. I didn't want a whole mess of dessert to tempt me throughout the rest of the week though. I went on the quest to find some small, quick tasty treat. The Microwave mug brownie from Tasty Kitchen fit the bill perfectly.

This recipe makes a small amount, uses pantry staple ingredients, and takes less than 5 minutes to put together. If you have a large enough mug, you can even mix your ingredients in the same container you'll bake it in.

"Who ate all my brownie?" or "I'd better take a picture quick before my brownie is all gone".

I used dutch process cocoa because it was the first thing I saw in the pantry. You can use regular cocoa if you aren't a fan of that deep dark chocolatey taste. Mrblocko and I thought this dessert was quite rich. That was most likely due to the dutch processed cocoa. Because of the richness, we thought this recipe made the perfect amount for two people.

Some people commented on the Tasty Kitchen website that they thought the brownie needed more sugar. If you're used to milk chocolate vs. dark chocolate, go ahead and add some more sugar. Or, you could just add a big old scoop of vanilla ice cream. That would be even better. Go ahead and add that scoop of ice cream anyhow. I would have, but we didn't have any in the freezer. Hey, if we had ice cream in the freezer I wouldn't have even gone looking for this recipe. I would have just had a bowl of ice cream, and gone about my life completely oblivious to this scrumptious, speedy dessert.

This recipe yields a very cakey type of brownie. I microwaved mine for 30 seconds and it still was not cooked. I tossed it in for another 30 seconds and I think that may have been for a tad too long. I think this dessert would be best if it was slightly undercooked.

I just had to test that theory out. I nuked the brownie batter for 45 seconds and it was even better. Nice and gooey on the bottom, like a lava cake. NUM!

Another great thing about this recipe is that it contains no eggs, milk or butter. There's nothing to worry about if you wanted to mix the ingredients up in a mug and take that mug with you to work. That concoction could sit on your desk until the chocolatey mood hit you. Plus, if you are wonky about eatting raw eggs (like me) you can lick the bowl all you like.

(To those of you who gotta hate on me with my salmonilla-laden egg fears, all I have to say is at least I don't have hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia. That would be horribly ironic.

Microwave Mug Brownie from Tasty Kitchen
4 Tablespoons Flour
4 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Tablespoons Cocoa
2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
3 Tablespoons Water

In a small bowl, whisk together dry ingredients until the cocoa clumps are gone; you can use your hands! Stir in the oil and water. Scrape into a mug with a spatula. Microwave for 1-2 minutes, but check on it once in a while. (Nuke mine for 45 sec.)