goddessofscrumptiousness:

The Makings of a Perfect Brownie:

1) A perfect brownie should be crunchy on top that the surface cracks the minute you sink your teeth into it.

2) The texture should be chewy and moist and fudge-like that the act of chewing every morsel of it is equally pleasurable as that of having a foodgasm.

3) A perfect brownie should never contain any leavening agents such as bicarbonate of soda or baking powder (unless you want a cake-like brownie, then I believe one should just eat cake instead). Any brownie recipe that includes these sacrilegious additions is well, a sacrilege!

4) The proper mixing of all the brownie ingredients is also a factor. If you just mix all the ingredients together and dump everything into a baking pan, the brownie top won’t be as crunchy, unlike when you separate the egg whites from the yolks, beating the whites with sugar just until thick and frothy, much like a runny meringue before mixing with the rest of the ingredients is the secret to a crunchy top… I promise!

5) And lastly, of course a perfect brownie should taste like it is blessed by a Mayan god cacao connoisseur. It should be ooh-ing and screaming chocolate. So use the best quality chocolate bar or cocoa powder.

Crunchy Top Fudge Brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup good quality cocoa powder (I use a German brand cocoa powder -Heintz, you can use a Dutch-processed cocoa powder… means it is alkalized)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs (medium), separated

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups dark chocolate chips

*2 cups whole walnuts (optional)

Procedure: 

Preheat oven to 350’F. Line a 9”x13” rectangle baking pan with baking parchment.

- Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over low heat. When melted, remove from heat and add cocoa powder, mix until smooth.

- Add brown sugar, salt, vanilla, egg yolks and flour. Set Aside.

- Using a hand mixer/wire whisk/stand mixer, beat egg whites until frothy. Then slowly add the granulated sugar until meringue gets into a soft peak stage.

- Fold the meringue mixture into the chocolate mixture. Then mix in the dark chocolate chips and walnuts (optional).

- Pour into prepared baking pan and bake for 50 minutes to an hour or until when toothpick inserted in the center of the brownie comes out with moist crumbs (not wet brownie batter).

- Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then lift from the baking pan and cut into 24 square pieces. Cool cut brownies on wire racks.

- Store in an air tight container. Laid flat and layers separated by parchment paper.

Makes 2 dozens

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nomnomism:

Chocolate Brownie Pudding

thewaytoaheart:

Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes

Ingredients

Betty Crocker® FUN da-Middles™ yellow cupcake mix with creamy vanilla filling
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 box (3.4-oz size) banana cream instant pudding and pie filling mix
12 vanilla wafer cookies
1 cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 box (3.4-oz size) banana cream instant pudding and pie filling mix
3 tablespoons whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons banana extract
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
12 vanilla wafer cookies

Directions

Make cupcake batter as directed on cupcake mix box, using water, oil, eggs and adding 1/2 box of pudding mix. (Other half of box will be used in frosting.)

Before filling paper baking cups as directed on box, place 1 vanilla wafer cookie in bottom of each paper cup. Fill cups as directed on box. Bake and cool cupcakes.

Meanwhile, in medium bowl, beat frosting ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Frost cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle tops with graham cracker crumbs; top each with 1 cookie.

truebluemeandyou:

Marbling with Shaving Cream. Tutorial at Ruffled. This is one of the strangest tutorials I have ever seen. If it works (and I haven’t tried it) it is genius even if the results aren’t spectacular. Why? Because I have done traditional marbling, thickening the “bath” with carageenan (so the paint has something to rest on), and then having to coat the cloth or paper with toxic alum. I mean I still have the rakes, huge box/bath, etc… that I should put on ebay! So when I see this tutorial that involves shaving cream and tempera paints or food coloring, I’m like sign me up! Would be great activity for kids too.