Peanut Butter Brownies

Friends, I have lost my camera. Therefore, I only have finished brownies for you, taken with a camera I now share:
Other things lost are a few batches of bread and a lovely layer cake with homemade lemon curd and meringue buttercream.

Brownies: A New Recipe to Try

How bad can a recipe be if it includes three sticks of butter?

And mixes up nicely in one bowl?

The New York Times has never let me down with new and delicious brownie recipes before, and didn't with this rich treat.

New Classic Brownies - Recipe included!

This recipe is worth reposting - if I need a quick chocolate dessert, it's a go-to:
I recently made both the above brownies, with pecans, and a recipe of plain brownies. I wouldn't be opposed to white or regular chocolate chips, or maybe some shredded coconut...next time!

Cheesecake Brownies

I needed something a little fancier than brownies:

Step one: melted chocolate and butter mixed with sugar and eggs:

Once flour and vanilla was added to the chocolate mixture, I whipped up some cream cheese, sour cream, eggs and vanilla:

And a quick swirl later, they became an elegant dessert:

Mint Brownies (or Brrrrrrrrrownies, if you prefer)

These may look like regular brownies...

But inside they are filled with chopped bits of minty dark chocolates:
See, I still bake when it's pretty hot out, and sometimes you want to bring something to friends that will be refreshing and chocolate-y, instead of heavy and overly rich. These are made from a recipe in Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home To Yours," a favorite among my baking volumes.

Your first step, as always, is to melt chocolate and butter. I like this recipe a lot because once that is done, you mix in sugar:
and then eggs, salt and flour, and your candy bits (the recipe actually calls for york peppermint patties, but I found the trader joe's chocolates above quite delicious and refreshing).

Less than half an hour later in a foil lined pan (easy cleaning!)...you're done!

Brownies

When I'm making brownies I sometimes find it hard to pour the batter into the pan and bake it, rather than spooning the entire bowl straight into my mouth:
I use several brownie recipes, but this is the oldest of the bunch. I came across it in high school, and have committed it to memory so I can make a quick sweet treat whenever the need arises.

It starts with eggs - you beat them and beat them, and then add sugar. You transform them from this (appropriate to throw in a pan and scramble):

To this - a thick, foamy brownie base:

Then you just add in a mixture of melted chocolate and butter, and a touch of vanilla:

And a bit of flour:

Once these brownies bake and cool, the top cracks and collapses down to a layer of dense, fudgy brownies:

Cookies for a Crowd

If it seems like I've been making a lot of cookies lately...well, I have:

I had to apply some strategy to make three batches of cookies in one go. First, I lined up bowls for wet and dry ingredients and measured out the common items, like flour, butter and leavening:
I labeled the above bowls and set the ones I wasn't using to the side as I put together the doughs one by one.

When the doughs were finished I wrapped them in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge while I cleaned the kitchen a bit so I would have room to scoop out dough and wash the cookie sheets as they came out of the oven:

I also made a batch of brownies to go with the cookies. While the brownies were in the oven, I started measuring out cookie dough:

My reward at the end of the day was a taste of each cookie and a delicious smell in my apartment!

Brownies

I like to be able to bake something up quickly that everyone will like. Brownies are one of my best bets:

This recipe appeared in The New York Times in April of 2007. It uses just one bowl (more if you pre-measure your ingredients, of course) and less than an hour of your time. Here are the assembled ingredients - sugar and a bit of salt, flour, eggs, and a bowl of melted chocolate and butter- and the prepared pan:


You add the salt and sugar, then the eggs, vanilla and flour to your chocolate. Then pour it in the pan and bake...and prepare to be asked to make them again for the next occaision.