Incredible Two Bite Brownies

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These brownies are amazing! By far the best brownie recipe I have ever tried. The brownies were easy and so rich, dense and chocolaty! They are a chocolate lovers dream. I decided to decorate them with a little vanilla icing and some christmas-coloured M&Ms for my family’s Christmas dinner this year. The brownies are served best at room temperature. They’ll melt in your mouth! They also freeze extremely well. Although, it is highly doubtful that there will be any left to freeze. These little brownies are extremely addictive! 

I think these brownies could be decorated for various holidays (pink icing and candy hearts for Valentine’s Day maybe?) or for events like baby showers. They are the perfect bite-sized treat! 


Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup of salted butter
  • 2 ounces (60 g) of unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup of granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
  • 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Method


1. In a heatproof bowl over a sauce pan of simmering water, melt the butter with the chocolate until smooth. Be careful that the water does not start to boil, as the chocolate will burn. Remove the mixture from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

2. In a large bowl, whisk eggs with sugar. Then slowly whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture. Add the vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and salt. Whisk the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until just blended.

4. Spoon by 1 tablespoon into foil OR paper-lined mini muffin cups.

5. Bake at 350’F for approximately 12 minutes (or until a cake tester inserted in the centres come out with moist crumbs). Let cool in pan on a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Remove brownies and let them cool completely on a second wire rack.

6. Decorate brownies if desired.


Makes: approximately 40 brownies


Source: Canadian Living Magazine (Fall 2010)

Apple Cranberry Crisp with Whipped Cream

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For Christmas, I bought myself a new cookbook called Fresh with Anna Olson. The book has a ton of fantastic recipes categorized by season. Today, I was looking through my new book and noticed that I had all the ingredients for the Apple Cranberry Crisp. And since at Christmas there is a lack of sugar (yeah, right!)…I decided to make the recipe. And it turned out great! The combination of apple, cranberry, cinnamon and sugar was perfect. And the kitchen smelled amazing while it was baking.

Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup of rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup of packed dark brown sugar
  • 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter, at room tempertaure
  • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 cup of chopped pecans
  • 4 apples, peeled & cored & sliced into 1/2 inch dice
  • 1 cup of fresh or frozen cranberries
  • 1/3 cup of sugar
  • zest and juice of one orange

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 325’F.

2. Grease an 8-inch square baking dish.

3. For the topping, combine flour, oats, sugar, butter, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Work together with your fingertips until the mixture is crumbly. Stir in the pecans and set aside.

4. For the fruit, toss the apples and cranberries with the sugar, orange zest and juice. (note: I added cinnamon to the apple mixture as well as the topping.)

5. Spoon the fruit mixture into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the topping evenly.

6. Bake the crisp until bubbly and the apples are tender (about 30 minutes).

7. Let crisp cool slightly. Serve warm with some vanilla ice cream or whipping cream.

Eggnog Shortbread

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I’ve never been a huge fan of eggnog, but I am a huge fan of these eggnog flavoured shortbread! I think they may have become one of my favourite Christmas cookies. It’s a toss up between these darlings and walnut shortbread thumbprints with raspberry jam (recipe to come!) They have just the right amount of spice. And a hint of eggnog in both the cookie dough and the icing/drizzle. 

Ingredients
  • 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
  • 1 and 1/4 cup of unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup of white sugar
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon of eggnog
  • 3 and 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 3 cups of icing sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons of eggnog (enough to make a spreading consistency)

Method
  1. In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer on high for about 30 seconds. Add the sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Beat until combined.
  2. Beat in vanilla, egg and eggnog into the dough.
  3. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. If it becomes too tough, mix in the remaining dough by hand.
  4. Divide dough in half, cover and chill for 1 hour.
  5. Pre-heat oven to 375’F.
  6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the dough portions to 1/4 inch thick. Using a fluted 3 inch round cookie cutter, cut out the dough. Place dough rounds 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet (I used parchment paper). 
  7. Bake cookies for about 8 to 10 minutes (or until the edges look lightly golden).
  8. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool. Repeat with second portion of dough.
  9. Once cooled, drizzle or ice the cookies with the eggnog drizzle/icing.

Cookies freeze extremely well. Once the cookies are drizzled with the icing, freeze cookies separately in the freezer, so they don’t stick together. Cookies last about 3 months in the freezer. This recipe made about 40 cookies. 

Eggnog Drizzle/Icing

Stir 3 cups of icing sugar with 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Slowly add in 3-4 tablespoons of eggnog or until you get the right consistency to either drizzle the icing or spread it. (note: I found 3 cups of icing sugar to be too much. I used 1.5 cups and it made plenty icing to ice all the cookies)

Source: BHG Christmas Cookies (Special Edition) 2009