Easy Brownies

(Blogger is being difficult. Sorry if some of my formating looks weird.)

I like to think that it is the simple things in life that make me happy.

Like dancing in pretty green grass.

Big puffy clouds.

 Red nail polish.

Hearing my nephew laugh. It's oh so precious.

BevMo 5cent wine sales.  (I get to purchase my favorite champagne by the boat loads! What isn'tthere to like about that!?)

Planting a garden.

And last, but not least, having a delicious brownie for breakfast.

These brownies are the perfect balance between a cake brownie and a fudge brownie.  They are thick like a cake brownie, but when you bite into them the centers are gooey and fudge like.  And the batter!  Oh man, it's one of those batters that you find yourself licking the bowl clean because it's just so darn good!
Evidence:

These brownies are a chocolate lovers match made in heaven because they get topped with an equally delicious chocolate frosting.  So creamy, so silky, SO GOOD.  It might be chocolate overload, but it's okay, just make sure you have a giant glass of milk by your side to wash the brownies down with. This is the easiest brownie recipe EVER. So, no excuses people. Get your butts in the kitchen are start baking!        Easy Brownie Recipe:        (Adapted from Hershey's Best Brownies Recipe)        Ingredients:        1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted      2 cups sugar        2 teaspoons vanilla extract    4 eggs        1 tablespoon coffee       2/3 cup Cocoa Powder (I like to use Hershey's)        1 cup all-purpose flour      1/2 teaspoon baking powder   1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:    Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Then grease a 13x9x2 glass* baking pan. In a medium size bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder.    

In a large bowl, whisk together to sugar, vanilla, coffee, and melted butter. Add the eggs and beat until combined. Then slowly add the dry ingredients a little at a time; beating well until everything is incorporated.    

Bake for 25 minutes at 350F.  Then lower the oven to 325F and bake for another 10 minutes.**    

Creamy Chocolate Frosting:    (From Hershey's best Brownies Recipe)      Ingredients:    6 tablespoons butter, softened    6 tablespoons cocoa powder      2 tablespoons honey      1 teaspoon vanilla extract    2 cups powder sugar      4 tablespoons milk      Directions: Combine butter, cocoa powder, and honey.  Then beat in the two cups of powder sugar.  Lastly, add the milk and beat until incorporated.  Frost Brownies. EAT BROWNIES.  

* Every time I've ever made them in a metal baking pan they don't cook all the way through. The edges are burnt and crunchy and the middle is still batter like.   ** It makes them turn out pefect EVERY TIME.

Black and Tan Brownies

You all should be proud of me because:

A). I started strength training today…and it wasn’t pretty. I now remember why I’ve always avoided it in the past, because I HATE IT. Boo strength training.  But I know the only way I’m going to put on some lean muscle and help my endurance is by doing this. So I must. My poor little biceps hated me at the gym.  Heck I would hate me to if I had to go through what they did. 

B).  I hiked Camelback on Saturday with my boyfriend.  The best part about this hike: I DIDN’T GET STUCK!  There was a split second where I started to doubt myself, but my boyfriend (Alex) told me I could do it. So I did.  Now you see, the last time I hiked this horrible mountain was last year with a couple of work friends.  And I got stuck.  I had some 52 year old woman help push me up part of the mountain that was EXTREMELY STEEP. Laugh. It’s okay.  It happened.  I did the one thing you are never supposed to do…I looked down.   And then the panic attack hit me.  I was a mess.  I ended up hiking to the top, but it took forever because of my little incident.  However, this time there was no panic attack, and no help from some woman who’s thirty years older than me. (Thank god).

 AND…

C).  I finally got around to baking the Black and Tan Brownies from the Cooking Light Magazine! YAY!  I’m going to be honest.  Are these the best brownies I’ve ever had? No. But, they are pretty freaking good! They are made with Guinness – one of my favorite beers.  I think the real reason why I wanted to make these was that I’d have a reason to keep a six pack of Guinness in my fridge, which meant that I’d eventually have to drink one, or two (maybe even three).  I can’t let them go to waste ya know!? 

But back to the brownies.  I guess I was just expecting there to be more of a Guinness flavor to them.  I did notice the Guinness made the chocolate seem choclatier – kind of how coffee brings out the flavor of chocolate, Guinness did too.  I thought they would be fun and festive for St. Patrick’s day.  The bottom layer of the brownies is basically a blondie with pecans.  They are gooey and fudgy like a brownie should be.  The top layer, however, was more cakey than I would have liked.

I believe a brownie should be gooey, fudgy, and crumbly (I don’t know if that last adjective makes much sense. But it works in my head).  The cakey chocolate layer, might have been another reason why they aren’t my favorite brownie ever – but like I said they are still freaking delicious.  If anybody ends up making I would LOVE to know how yours turned out!

Black and Tan Brownies

(Recipe for Cooking Light Magazine March 2010)

Ingredients:

Tan Brownies:
6 tbs. butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4.5 ounces all purpose flour - about 1 cup*
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
cooking spray

Black Brownies:
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
4 tbs. butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup Guinness stout!!!!!
4.5 ounces all purpose flour - about 1 cup*
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:
 Preheat oven to 350F. Arrange the racks in the oven so that one is in the lower third of the oven, and the other is in the center of the oven.

 For the tan brownies: coat a 13x9 inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.  Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.  Beat the butter and the brown sugar at medium speed until fluffy.  Then beat in the eggs and vanilla until smooth. Slowly add the flour mixture and the pecans into the wet mixture, beating until well combined.  Spoon brownie batter into baking pan and spread evenly.  Baked at 350 for 15 minutes, in the lower part of the oven.

For the black brownies:  In a small bowl, combine flour and salt, set aside.  Melt chocolate and butter in a large microwave safe bowl on high for 1 minute, stirring after every 20 seconds, until smooth.  To this add the granulated sugar until smooth.  Then add the two eggs, vanilla, and Guinness with a whisk until everything is incorporated.  Add flour mixture to the wet mixture and combine.  Pour black brownie mixture over the tan brownies.

 Bake on the middle rack for 25 minutes at 350F.  Cool in pan on a wire wrack.  Then devour with an ice cold glass of milk. :)

*I did some research on how many ounces of flour one cup was.  I found the range to be anywhere from 4.25 ounces to 4.4.  So I measured a heaping cup of flour.