Baked Sunday Mornings: Grasshopper Bars

This week's Baked Sunday Mornings selection is a blast from my past. I actually made these Grasshopper Bars all the way back in December, and have resisted blogging about them until now. That's why, in the above picture, you can just sorta kinda make out Rudolph's little hooves in the background. He was presiding over the kitchen that day!



I love all things minty, so I was absolutely sure I would go crazy for these. The bars are basically the Baked brownie, with a cool mint layer of frosting on them, covered with a dark chocolate layer on top. I mean, yum, right? So why didn't I totally adore these?

Maybe it's me. Other people tried them, and enjoyed them very much. This was probably the first Baked recipe I've made that didn't totally blow me away. Maybe I expected the mint layer to be more minty than it was, or perhaps it was the creme de menthe in particular that I didn't really dig. I couldn't put my finger on it. It's still a good brownie, just not one I would make again.

So, Merry Christmas in August, and head on over to the Baked Sunday Mornings blogroll for a second (and third, and fourth, and....) opinion! I hope everybody else liked them a whole lot more than I did!

Sweet and Salty Brownies: Baked Sunday Mornings First Post!

I am so excited right now! I'm about to present you with my very first post as....(drumroll, please!): an official member of the new blogging group, Baked Sunday Mornings!

Yep. If you happen to read my blog sorta often, chances are you've noticed a recipe (or six!) that I have baked from those wonderful Baked cookbooks. They're the ones written by the co-owners of the Brooklyn bakery of the same name, and they're always wonderful. The Baked guys love to think outside the box, and I'm always inspired by their ideas.



So imagine my utter delight when I happened to stumble across this new group of bloggers dedicated to baking from the newest Baked book, Baked Explorations. Their mission: to bake every recipe from this cookbook and post about them on Sunday mornings. The rules are not strict; we can participate when we want to. Plus, we only blog every other Sunday. It works out great; we don't have to worry about having a Baked treat lying around our house basically at all times, which is a relief to me and my waistline!

I was able to jump in and start baking along with the group just in time for these Sweet and Salty Brownies, which I had already made before joining. Fortunately, I had photographed them but never blogged about them. I was going to get around to it eventually, but now here was my chance! Anyway, on to the brownies!

These are some of the yummiest brownies I've ever eaten, hands down. They're a riff on the classic Baked brownie, with a surprising twist. You make a salted caramel, and spread some of it across the batter (you put down half the batter, then the caramel, then the remaining brownie batter). When you bake it, the caramel seamlessly melts into the brownie, so you don't end up with a discernible caramel layer. What you do end up with is a deeper flavor that winds its way through the whole thing and just elevates it. Once the brownies come out of the oven, you sprinkle them with some coarse sugar, and some fleur de sel (or in my case, coarse sea salt). Mmm. A wonderful first recipe with the new group!



We don't post the full recipes on our blogs in this group, but they will always be posted over at the main site for Baked Sunday Mornings. The Sweet and Salty Brownie is here. If you're looking for one wonderful brownie recipe that will wow everybody this holiday season, look no further. And do check out the blogroll for the group, here! I can't wait to bake more goodies with them!

Boozy Brownies

When trying to decide what kind of special treat to make for St. Patrick's Day, I turned to the March issue of Cooking Light Magazine for inspiration. They had a full menu for St. Patty's, from starters to after-dinner coffee, and I thought much of it sounded great and worth trying. However, these brownies really caught my eye. They're called Black and Tan Brownies, and they are basically two-layer bars with beer as one of the ingredients. Initially I was surprised to see a recipe like this in Cooking Light. Beer? Real butter? Pure unsweetened chocolate? All baked into a brownie? How could that be healthy? But hey, I figured if Cooking Light was telling me I could eat this, guilt-free, who was I to argue?

I really wasn't sure how this was going to go. I mean, it could either have been an ambitious kitchen experiment gone terribly wrong, or it could be my next great discovery. Only time (and my trusty taste-testing husband) would tell. So I dove in. The first step was very simple and came together quickly. I whipped together a blondie layer (the "Tan" part of the brownie) and baked it in the oven for 15 minutes.


When that part came out of the oven, I was instructed to assemble the brownie layer, or the "Black" half of the brownie. This is the part that contained beer. A whole cup of it. The recipe recommended I use Guinness Stout, but we had purchased a double chocolate stout just for this occasion.

When the finished product came out of the oven, I discovered that the blondie layer had risen too much on the sides and not as much in the center. As a result, the whole entire pan of brownies had a funny-looking border of blondie around its edges, making it look kind of like a brownie picture in a yummy frame.


This was simple enough to fix. Once it was entirely cool, I carefully sawed off the edges of the brownie and cut about 24 squares. I now had 2 dozen cute little black and tan brownies, and four long, skinny borders to taste test! And taste test I did. These are really good brownies. The beer does pair well with the chocolate, and it's not overwhelming or overpowering. I am not a fan of the taste of beer, so I didn't know whether I'd like these. But the flavors are complementary and make for an intriguing, delicious adult treat. It's a good thing my children are not brownie fans, or else this probably wouldn't be the best brownie to make and keep around the house. They were great for Andy to take to work, though! He loved them, and they were devoured quickly at his office.

Black and Tan Brownies

adapted from Cooking Light, March 2010

makes 24-36 bars, depending how big you cut them

Ingredients
Tan Layer
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I omitted)
Cooking spray

Black Layer
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup Guinness Stout (I used different beer; it was fine)
4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
1. Place one rack in lower third of oven; place another rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. To prepare Tan Brownies, place 6 Tbsp. butter and brown sugar in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in 2 eggs and 1 tsp. vanilla. Weigh or lightly spoon 4.5 oz. flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine this flour, baking powder, and salt, and stir well. Add flour mixture and pecans, if using, to sugar mixture, beating just until combined. Spoon into a 13x9-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray, spreading evenly with a knife or rubber spatula. Bake at 350 in lower third of oven for 15 minutes.
3. To prepare Black Brownies, melt chocolate and 4 Tbsp. butter in a large microwave-safe bowl on HIGH for 1 minute or until melted, stirring after every 20 seconds until smooth. Add granulated sugar, stirring until well combined. Add 2 eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla, and beer, stirring with a whisk until well combined. Weigh or lightly spoon 4.5 oz. flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine this flour with the salt, stirring well. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture, stirring to combine. Pour mixture evenly over Tan Brownie layer.
4. Bake on the center rack at 350 for 25 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted into center comes out almost clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack; cut into squares.
*Note: I lined my pan with aluminum foil, then sprayed foil with cooking spray. This worked well; the foil peeled off easily when brownies were inverted onto a flat surface.

Double-Chocolate Brownies

I got one of those brownie pans that I am constantly seeing the commercials for on TV. Have you seen it? You pour the brownie batter into the pan, then you place a grid-like metal insert into the pan, which separates the batter into individual brownie rectangles. Once the brownies are done baking, you simply remove the grid, and the sides of the pan (by lifting out the brownies, which are on a little metal platform, and you have perfectly cut, perfectly portioned brownies!

Anyway, my mom had gotten this for me for Christmas, but I hadn't had an opportunity yet to try it. We've just eaten up all our Christmas goodies! So I found this recipe for reduced-fat brownies that I wanted to try, written by my favorite healthy-cooking chef, Ellie Krieger.

I really should be posting more recipes on here that we've tried by Ellie, because there are a lot of them and they pretty much always turn out fabulous. I'll have to make a point of it in the future. In the meantime, the link for Ellie's brownies is here.

Although Ellie's recipes always taste good, I will say this about these brownies: you can tell they're reduced-fat. Now, they aren't low fat; they come in at about 7 or 8 grams of fat per brownie, depending on whether or not you use the optional walnuts. But they are definitely lower in fat than your everyday, ooey gooey brownie. And if you're looking for ooey gooey, you won't find that here. The taste is great: rich, chocolatey, dense. They're perfectly moist. But the texture just screams "diet food." What can you expect, really, when you cut out most of the butter? Anyway, they are great for satisfying those chocolate cravings, but you won't be fooled into thinking these are true-blue brownies. I'd give them 4 out of 5 stars!