Tag Archives: chocolate

Feb 10

Double Layer Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

Warning: If you don’t enjoy crazy, indulgent treats, stay away from these brownies. They really are kind of insane. But in a very good way.

I was craving that chocolate-peanut butter combo but couldn’t decide whether to go for a brownie with peanut butter chips or a peanut butter blondie with chocolate chips. And then I thought, hey, why not combine the two? And that’s how these brownies were born. The bottom layer is a rich, dark chocolate brownie with peanut butter in the base and peanut butter chips generously intermingled, while the top layer is a moist peanut butter blondie studded with semisweet chocolate chips.

Although these brownies do essentially mean making two recipes in one, each batter is really quick and easy to throw together, and the end result is pretty impressive. So even if you’re short on time, if you’re craving chocolate and peanut butter and want something truly over-the-top, go ahead and make a batch of these.

crazybrownies

Double Layer Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

Ingredients:

For the brownie layer:

1 stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup AP flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup peanut butter chips

For the peanut butter blondie layer:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted and cooled to room temp
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup AP flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

For the brownie layer:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 baking pan and set aside. (You can also use a 9×9 pan – your brownies won’t be quite as tall, but that’s okay.)
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Stir in peanut butter and melted chocolate, then set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, and cocoa powder.
  4. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until well-combined.
  5. Stir in the peanut butter chips.
  6. Pour the batter into your prepared pan, using an offset spatula to smooth out the top.

For the peanut butter blondie layer:

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter, peanut butter, and sugars.
  2. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well-incorporated (you can do this with a whisk or even a fork).
  3. Stir in the flour and salt, mixing well.
  4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  5. Using a offset spatula, spread the peanut butter blondie layer over the brownie layer.
  6. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, or with only a few moist crumbs.
  7. Let the brownies cool in the pan before cutting and slicing. I recommend holding out two hours if you can, but make sure to leave these for at least a solid hour to set up.
Feb 3

Dark Chocolate Cookies With White Chocolate Chips

Is it ever going to stop snowing around here? Yesterday was so nice I decided to take my son out for a walk…and today it’s snowing again. It’s snowing a lot. And I’m tired of it. Thank goodness I have cookies. Cookies make everything better.

These cookies are really easy to make, and I like the contrast of the white chocolate chips with the dark chocolate base. I especially like dipping these babies in hot chocolate while watching the snow fall from the comfort of my living room.

darkchoccookies

Dark Chocolate Cookies With White Chocolate Chips

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened (but not melted)
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups AP flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Very lightly grease a few baking sheets and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.
  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until well-combined.
  5. Stir in the white chocolate chips.
  6. Drop the dough by rounded spoonfuls onto your cookie sheets.
  7. Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until the outsides of the cookies get crisp (the centers may still be somewhat soft but they will firm up during the cooling process).
  8. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let the cookies rest on the sheets for two minutes; then transfer the cookies to a rack to cool completely.
Jan 29

Pretzel-Crusted Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Caramel Blondies

Wow, that’s a mouthful. No pun intended. The great thing about blondies is that they can be pretty simple. Or not, like these bars. Want to know what inspired these? I was sort of looking for a way to emulate the taste of Chubby Hubby, one of my favorite Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavors, in blondie form, and this is what I came up with.

These bars are pretty outrageous. You’ve got a sweet and salty pretzel crust on the bottom, a rich caramel-peanut butter blondie center packed with chocolate chips in the middle, and a generous layer of chopped peanut butter cups to top it all off. In other words, these bars are really rich. But really, really good.

Chubhub

Pretzel-Crusted Chocolate-Peanut Butter Caramel Blondies

Ingredients:

For the crust:

2 cups crushed pretzels
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar

For the blondie layer:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temp
1 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup AP flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel sauce (store-bought is fine, or make your own by melting about 12 Kraft caramel candies with a tablespoo of heavy cream)
1 cup chopped peanut butter cups, for topping

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×9 baking pan and set aside.
  2. Make the crust by combining the pretzels, melted butter, and brown sugar in a small bowl and mixing well. Press the crust into the bottom of your prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, peanut butter, and egg. Stir in the vanilla.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and salt.
  5. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until well-combined. Then, stir in the caramel sauce and chocolate chips.
  6. Pour the batter on top of the crust. Sprinkle the chopped peanut butter cups on top of the blondie layer.
  7. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let the blondies cool in the pan (at least one hour) before slicing and serving.
Jan 14

Chocolate Chunky Peanut Butter Brownies

I just love me a good brownie. And I also happen to be a big fan of the whole chocolate-peanut butter combo. So basically, if you’re me, these brownies are a very good thing. They feature a rich, fudgy chocolate-peanut butter base with a chunky peanut butter filling. Talk about yum.

Incidentally, my work schedule recently changed (read: got more demanding) and so I haven’t been posting (or baking, for that matter) quite as regularly as I normally would. I wonder if this new schedule will have a positive effect on both my wallet and waistline…guess we’ll have to see what happens.

chunkypb

Chocolate Chunky Peanut Butter Brownies

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup AP flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup chunky peanut butter

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 baking pan and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, sugars, egg, smooth peanut butter, and vanilla. Set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, and cocoa powder.
  4. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until well-combined.
  5. Pour half of the batter into your prepared pan.
  6. Spread the chunky peanut butter on top of the base layer using either the greased back of a spoon or an offset spatula.
  7. Spread the remaining brownie batter on top.
  8. Bake for 30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let the brownies cool in the pan for at least an hour before slicing and serving.
Dec 25

Chocolate Nutella Sea Salt Bark

I’m not really a salty snack kind of person. Put a bag of chips in front of me, and I’ll most probably pass. But what I do love is that classic salty-sweet combination, and so I decided to create a candy bark that offered up the best of both worlds. Enjoy!

nutellabark

Chocolate Nutella Sea Salt Bark

Ingredients:

1 cup milk chocolate morsels or melting discs
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels or melting discs
2/3 cup Nutella
1/2 cup white chocolate morsels or melting discs
Pink Himalayan sea salt, for topping

Method:

  1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. Combine the milk chocolate, semisweet chocolate, and Nutella in a medium bowl and melt in the microwave at 50% power for 30-second increments. Pay attention to the mixture and remove it from the heat once it’s mostly melted.
  3. Pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, using the back of a spoon or a spatula to spread it evenly.
  4. Melt the white chocolate using the methods described above.
  5. Once melted, use the back of a spoon or a knife to swirl it around on top of the milk chocolate layer.
  6. Sprinkle sea salt generously on top.
  7. Place the baking sheet in the fridge and leave for at least one hour to set before breaking into pieces.
Dec 19

Chocolate Almond Cranberry Bark

Up until recently, I’d spend much of the holiday season racking my brain trying to come up with great presents for my family members, friends, co-workers, and so forth. But a couple of years ago, I had the idea to forego store-bought gifts in favor of homemade candy.

Now I will say that from a time-related perspective, this move didn’t do me many favors. Making batch after batch of candy and confections is a time-consuming process, and then once the stuff is made you still have to package it up all nice and pretty. But from a crowd-pleasing perspective, homemade candy for the holidays is one of the best ideas I’ve ever had. And although candy-making does take some time, most of the recipes I use are super easy. And as an added bonus, you get to keep some of the candy for yourself, or at least taste little bits and pieces along the way.

cranbark

Chocolate Almond Cranberry Bark

Ingredients:

2 cups dark chocolate morsels or melting discs
2/3 cup slivered almonds, plus another 1/4 cup for topping
2/3 cup dried cranberries, plus another 1/4 cup for topping

Method:

  1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. Melt the dark chocolate using either a double boiler or your microwave at 50% power for 30-second increments. Pay attention to your chocolate and remove it from the heat once it’s mostly melted. Leave it too long, and your chocolate will seize.
  3. Once melted, mix in 2/3 cup almonds and 2/3 cup dried cranberries.
  4. Pour the chocolate mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, using the back of a spoon or a spatula to spread it evenly.
  5. Quickly sprinkle the remaining almonds and dried cranberries on top.
  6. Place the baking sheet in the fridge and leave for at least one hour to set. Use your hands to break up the set mixture into fun, festive pieces of bark.
Sep 24

Cookie Dough Truffles

Yesterday was just one of those days. You know, those days.

I won’t bore you all with the details, but let’s just say that every minor thing that could’ve gone wrong went wrong. In other words, nothing particularly terrible—just enough tiny doses of annoyance whose sum total rendered me frustrated and aggravated by the time I was able to finally put the baby to bed and call it a day.

Okay, vent over. See, that wasn’t so bad. And now I can talk about the cookie dough truffles I made myself to compensate for the above-referenced aggravation.

These truffles are tasty and super easy to whip up. But, you need some time to allow them to set, so if you’re craving something sweet in an instant, you’ll probably want to opt for something that doesn’t require you to wait three hours (though you could, ahem, always eat some of the cookie dough along the way…as long as nobody’s watching, your secret is safe).

cdough

Cookie Dough Truffles
Recipe from Sweet Pea’s Kitchen

Ingredients:

For the cookie dough:
1 and 1/2 sticks of butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons milk (I used whole)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

For the dipping chocolate:
6 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 tablespoons shortening

Method:

1. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper and set aside.
2. Beat the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in milk and vanilla until combined, about 1 minute. Mix in flour just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Shape the cookie dough into balls, using about 2 teaspoons of dough for each ball. (I started out doing this with a spoon and after a couple of tries found that it was easier to just use my hands.)
4. Place the cookie dough balls on your lined baking sheet and refrigerate for at least an hour (I left mine in for about 90 minutes, and that did the trick).
5. Once the cookie dough balls have hardened up, melt the shortening and chocolate. I did this in the microwave on 50% power for 30-second intervals, stirring in between each.
6. Dip the cookie dough balls in the melted chocolate and return them to the baking sheet (or, do what I did and prepare a second waxed paper-lined baking sheet).
7. Let the coated cookie dough balls set in the fridge for 1-2 hours before serving.

Sep 11

Coconut Chocolate Chip Blondies

When it comes to fall (or early/pre-fall) baking, I’m usually all about the apples. But at the same time, I also like to mix it up a little. Since I hadn’t done anything with coconut for awhile, I decided to whip up a batch of coconut chocolate chip blondies.

This recipe is incredibly tasty and incredibly easy. You don’t need to bust out any fancy tools or spend more than 10-15 minutes putting these blondies together. Just have a couple of mixing bowls and spoons on hand, and you’ll be all set.

cocccblondies

Coconut Chocolate Chip Blondies
Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

1 cup AP flour
1/8 tsp salt
4 ounces unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease and flour an 8×8 baking pan.
2. Combine the flour and salt; set aside.
3. Stir together the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth; beat in the egg and vanilla extract until well-blended.
4. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until blended; then stir in the coconut and chocolate chips.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan; use a rubber spatula (or the back of a spoon you’re already using if you’re feeling lazy, which is perfectly okay) to smooth the top.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until set in the center but still soft. Cool completely (at least one hour, but two would be better) before cutting and serving.

Sep 8

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies

Wowsa. It’s been over a month since I’ve posted on here, so now that the weather is cooling down, I’ll have to get myself back into the swing of baking. I know I’ve mentioned before that I tend to bake less frequently during the summer, and I basically spent most of August avoiding the oven and indulging in frozen desserts instead. But just this past week, the weather suddenly turned cooler, and in a really nice way. And it was just enough motivation to get myself back into the kitchen and do a nice amount of baking.

While I tackled several different recipes over the past week, the first one I’d like to share is something simple yet tasty. These brownies are really a cinch to whip up. As is the case with most of the brownie recipes I like to make, this batch requires nothing more than a couple of mixing bowls and some basic ingredients. There’s no need to bust out the fancy tools or spend more than 15-20 minutes putting everything together. Plus, these brownies are really adaptable to a variety of mix-ins, so if peanuts and pretzels aren’t your thing, feel free to substitute something else.

Here’s to what will hopefully be a busy month of baking and a glorious start to fall.

pbpretzbrowniepic

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies

Ingredients:
1 cup AP flour
1 stick of butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 egg
¼ cup peanut butter, plus more for topping
½ cup crushed pretzels
½ cup chopped peanuts

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 baking pan and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the cooled melted butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in egg.
4. Mix in ¼ cup peanut butter, then slowly incorporate the flour and cocoa mixture, mixing well until fully blended into the wet ingredients.
5. Stir in the pretzels and peanuts.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan (it will be thick). Using the back of a spoon, swirl additional peanut butter on top of the brownie batter as desired.
7. Bake for 27-32 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let the brownies cool completely in their pan (at least 60 minutes but better to wait two hours to be safe) before cutting into them.

 

Jun 14

Chocolate Butterscotch Crumb Bars

I like my job. I really do. But what I don’t like about my job is the fact that people tend to wait till the very last possible minute to ask me for things.

Now normally I pride myself on having a pretty good work ethic and going out of my way to be helpful. And I’m definitely not the type of person to put things off till the following day if there’s any chance of getting the job done on the spot. But when you email me at the very last second asking for something that will take at least 30 minutes of my time, you’re putting me in a position where I might be late picking up my child from daycare. And being late to daycare is bad for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that you actually get charged by the minute for not showing up on time.

A few weeks ago, I almost didn’t make it to the center on time. In fact, the only reason I got there about a minute shy of closing is that I was more than a little bit liberal with some of our local traffic laws. And why was I rushing in the first place? Oh yeah, because someone needed something from me at the very last possible minute, kind of like what happened last night.

Okay, rant over. I’m sure I’m not the only working person who goes through this, right?

Anyway, moving on…let’s talk about these yummy chocolate crumb bars. I decided to bake something for my coworkers—not the ones who cause me stress and aggravation by demanding things at the last minute, but rather the ones I actually like. These bars are really tasty and relatively simple to whip up. The original recipe didn’t include butterscotch chips, but I’m a big fan of the chocolate-butterscotch flavor combo and decided to mix things up a bit. I like the fact that these bars get nice and gooey in the center. They’re a great snack to have on hand or share with people you like. You can also keep some in your car in case you get pulled over by a local police officer wanting to know why you were going 50 in a 30 mile per hour zone and you need some sort of impromptu bribe. (For the record, I didn’t actually get pulled over en route to daycare. But it could’ve happened. Multiple times over. Thank you, procrastinating coworkers. Okay, maybe my rant wasn’t quite over.)

crumbbars

Chocolate Butterscotch Crumb Bars
Original recipe can be found here

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened
1 and 3/4 cups AP flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 cup of butterscotch chips, divided
1 can (14 oz) of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
2. Beat the butter in a large mixing bowl or in a stand mixer until creamy. Mix in the flour, sugar, and salt until crumbly.
3. With or floured or greased fingers (I sometimes spray a bit of cooking spray onto my fingers), press 2 cups of the crumb mixture into the bottom of your prepared baking pan; reserve remaining mixture for topping.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.
5. While the mixture is baking, combine 1/2 cup semisweet chips, 1/2 cup butterscotch chips, and condensed milk in a small saucepan.
6. Warm over low heat, stirring until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. Spread over hot crust.
7. Stir remaining chips into reserved crumb mixture and use your hands to sprinkle over chocolate filling.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until center is set.
9. Cool in pan on wire rack before cutting into bars.