Bread, Biscuits, and Brownies

Sept. 30th Kinship Meeting

I baked a couple of things for our potluck soup dinner with friends. Julie loves my tomato bread, so I'm glad that I had picked that out of all of the bread recipes I have enjoyed making. (See also: Tomato-Cheddar Bread; Tomato Dinner Rolls.)

The next item was my take on the "7-Up Dinner Rolls" recipe, which has been going around Pinterest lately. Instead of 7-Up (I don't normally have any pop in the house), I just used buttermilk. (See also: Rye Biscuits)

Quick & Easy Biscuits

2 c. Bisquick
1 t. sugar (helps the tops brown in the oven)
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. half & half, mixed with 1 T. dry buttermilk powder (or add 1/2 c. buttermilk if you have it handy)
melted butter for the pan

Preheat oven to 450˚. Mix all ingredients together; turn dough out into buttered 8" square metal pan. Dust with some additional flour, and pat the dough flat; use a buttered bench knife or spatula to score into squares. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until top is lightly browned.

And, finally, I found this recipe in a Hershey's cookbook...of course, I had to tinker with it a little...there are 4 sections (l to r): plain, almonds, chocolate chip, dried cherries. [the chips and cherries kinda sank into the batter during baking]

Hershey's Best Brownies

2 sticks unsalted butter, melted 
2 c. sugar 
2 t. vanilla 
4 eggs 
3/4 c. Hershey's Cocoa 
1 c. flour 
1/2 t. baking powder 
1/2 t. salt 
toppings/additions (optional)

Heat oven to 350˚. Grease 9x13 pan.

Mix sugar, baking powder, salt, and vanilla into melted butter. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring with wooden spoon between additions. Add cocoa; mix well. Stir in flour and mix well. Pour into prepared pan. 

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until brownies are set in the center. Cool on wire rack, if you can wait that long...I usually can't! 

These turned out absolutely fantastic. Very fudgey consistency, and lots of flavor. 

Coconut Bars for Emma

I made this up, using 3 different recipes: Christmas Bars base, Coconut Brownie Pie filling (in part), and Baklava Bars topping.

Coconut Bars

Base:
1 c. butter (2 sticks)
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg
2 t. vanilla
2 c. flour

Filling:
2 c. flaked coconut
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated)
2 eggs

Topping:
1 pkg. mini phyllo shells, crushed up

Beat butter and brown sugar together until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat well. With mixer, beat in 1 cup of flour; then stir in a cup of flour by hand.
Spread evenly into UNGREASED 9x13 baking pan. Pre-bake plain crust only 5-10 minutes to set it.


In separate bowl, mix filling ingredients; stir together very well.

Pour over crust—avoiding the very edges...

...and sprinkle with crushed phyllo shells...


Bake 30 minutes at 350˚, until center is set.

Cool or refrigerate before cutting and serving.



The 3 recipes I used to make this...

Pseudo Twix Bars

Okay, these didn't turn out as well as I had anticipated. My first mistake was that I made them in an 8x8 pan, and I should have used a 9x13. Don't get me wrong, we did eat them, but I think they could have been better.

I didn't have a recipe to work from, I just used the base from my "Christmas Bars" and piled caramel and chocolate on top. But, the cookie base sunk in the middle, presumably under the weight of the caramel; or, because I didn't allow it to cool long enough. Or maybe the edges climbed up the sides too much because the dough was too deep in the smaller pan? I'm not sure...

Pseudo Twix Bars

1 c. butter (2 sticks)
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg
2 t. vanilla
2 c. flour

Beat butter and brown sugar together until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat well.
With mixer, beat in 1 cup of flour; then stir in a cup of flour by hand.

Spread evenly into UNGREASED 9x13 baking pan. Bake 15 minutes at 350˚.


Melt 24 caramels with 1/3 c. heavy whipping cream.


Pour over cooled crust. (I then put it in the fridge to help set the caramel layer.)

Melt some chocolate...can't recall how much this was...just guess!


Spread melted chocolate evenly over caramel layer.


Caramel layer was too thick, and kinda oozey...
(maybe cut back the cream to 1/4 c. or even less.)


See how the center sunk down and the caramel pooled there? :(

Cherry Fudge Bars

This was created from two different recipes, and then I added cherry pastry filling. It worked out very well. Kinda like shortbread crust with a chocolate-covered cherry on top.

Cherry Fudge Bars

2 sticks butter, softened
1 c. powdered sugar
—mix/beat together—



add: 1 3/4 c. flour & 1 t. vanilla


Press into 9x13 pan and bake 15 minutes.


Spread crust with Solo brand cherry cake/pastry filling. Set aside.


In medium saucepan, melt 1/2 stick butter with 1/2 c. cocoa:


Remove from heat and mix in:
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. hot water
2 eggs
1/2 t. salt


Pour over crust, very slowly:


Bake 25-30 minutes.

random amusements

Bad news / Good news

The bad news is: we're almost out of MultiGrain Cheerios...
The good news is: we now have a whole bunch of Marshmallow-Cheerios Treats!



Marshmallow-Cheerios Treats

In *large* saucepan, melt:
1 bag mini marshmallows
1/2 stick butter (HAS to be butter)
1 t. vanilla
pinch of salt

After it turns into a gooey mess, remove from heat and fold in:
about 5 cups MultiGrain Cheerios

Stir carefully, with a folding-in motion, to lift the marshmallow goo from the bottom of the pan, and turn it over to the top. Repeat until it looks well-mixed, or your arm gets tired.

Press flat into a greased 9x13 pan with a rubber spatula. At least try to let them cool a little while before digging in. NOTE: you'll need a steak knife to cut through these, because the Cheerios are more substantial than Rice Krispies.


Yah, I wonder how many calories they have after being doused in melted butter and marshmallows?! LOL...ah, who cares...?

Gooey Marshmallow-topped Brownies

Goldie's Brownies

1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
1/2 c. cocoa
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. flour
1/4 c. half-and-half (or milk, if that's what you have in the fridge)
1 t. vanilla extract
1 c. mini marshmallows
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350˚.
2. In medium sauce pan, melt butter; stir in cocoa powder. Stir over low heat until smooth.
3. Remove from heat, and stir in half-and-half. Then, blend in sugar, flour, egg, and vanilla.
4. Pour into greased 11 x 7" baking pan. (or you can use an 8" square pan.)
   
5. Bake 25 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and add chips and marshmallows.
7. Bake for another 5 minutes until marshmallows melt. DO NOT OVERBAKE!

NOTE: I used both semi-sweet chocolate chunks and milk chocolate chips in the photos above. You can basically do no wrong with these additions! :)

Espresso Brownie Pie

This was beyond "rich" and extremely delicious!

Espresso Brownie Pie

1 prepared graham cracker crust (or you can use a regular prepared pie crust, if you prefer)
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 stick of butter
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. biscuit baking mix (Bisquick)
1 T. espresso powder
2 large eggs
1 t. vanilla extract

1. Heat oven to 325°.
2. Melt chocolate and butter in small saucepan over low heat; stir in sweetened condensed milk.
3. Remove from heat and add espresso powder, biscuit mix, eggs and vanilla.
4. Whisk until smooth (it will be thick!); pour into pie crust.
   
5. Bake at 325° for 40 to 45 minutes or until center is set. Cool at least 1 hour before you try to cut and serve it.
   

Option: top with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. (I recommend this!)

Toasted Marshmallow Brownies

One night, recently, while sitting on the couch watching the Hawks play some awful hockey, I suddenly got a craving for toasted marshmallows. And brownies. As I said this aloud to my husband, the concept came together in my mind: I can have BOTH!

Toasted Marshmallow Brownies

2 sticks butter (no substitutes)
1 c. cocoa
2 c. sugar
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 c. milk/cream
1 1/4 c. flour
1 t. salt
8 or 9 large marshmallows
1 c. chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350˚. Grease an 8x8 baking pan. (you can also use a 7x11 pan, for thinner brownies)

Melt butter in a medium saucepan...

...add cocoa and stir to combine.


Make sure the butter is completely melted and the mixture looks like chocolate sauce, and your house smells wonderful....
Remove pan from heat!

Stir in sugar and vanilla; blend well.
Mix in eggs...

...mix in milk, salt and flour.
Pour into prepared pan.
Toast marshmallows over open flame of gas range one at a time, and stir into pan of brownie batter as you see fit.


I added what was left of a package of both milk chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chunks; it was approximately one cup when combined. And I admit that if I'd had a package of mini marshmallows handy, I would have sprinkled some on top, too. Yes, the hockey was THAT BAD!

Set the spoon aside and save it for Casey. He will be available to come to your house and clean it thoroughly. :-)

Bake for 30-40 minutes until edges of brownies begin to pull away from the pan.

NOTE: during baking, the marshmallows will puff up considerably, so be sure your oven rack is in the center of the oven with no rack above the pan. Allow to cool and cut into squares.


Ooey-gooey chocolatey deliciousness!!!!


Yes, they are as good as they look. The final result is very fudgey and still somewhat gooey in the center. But I don't see anything wrong with that at all. In fact, I'd be willing to fight with anyone who disagrees with me on that particular point.


NOTE:
Amy, I'm sorry!!! I know this does NOT fall into the "low carb" category. We will start the Strength in Numbers features on Monday.