Recipe #9: Mocha Brownies

Recipe: Mocha Brownies
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 1 hr plus time for brownies to cool and icing to set
Ease: 2
Taste: 5
Leftover Value: 6
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain.

These brownies are obnoxious.  I'm just going to call them like they are.  They are monsters.

I knew these brownies were over the top.  I made them several years ago and heeded PW's warning that the icing was a lot---so I halved it.  The brownies were good, the icing was good, but together it seemed like overkill.  Also, the brownies were extremely crumbly--perhaps this is why the last step is to refrigerate them.

Since this time I couldn't make any changes, I decided I needed to make the icing as directed.

Only, as you can probably tell from the picture, I forgot the last part about refrigerating them.

Either way, with icing that has hardened or icing that is still creamy smooth, this will be the last time I make these brownies.  At least in this way.

There are far too many brownie recipes out there that I love for me to make brownies that I'm just okay with.

IF you are into icing, and IF you like a thick brownie, then this is for you.

Should I choose to make these again, I would change two things.

1. Instead of baking them in an 8-inch square baking dish, I would use a 9 x 13 dish.

Aside from the brownies themselves being ridiculously thick, one of the major issues I had with their size was not being sure that they were done.  I know brownies are the sort of thing that can be a little underdone, but because of their thickness, I didn't want to be serving chocolate mush as dessert.

2. I would alternate between halving the icing and simply making the brownies without it at all.

The icing was delicious (and if you have any family members who wrinkle their nose to coffee flavoring, milk could be substituted for the coffee), but because of the richness of the brownies, I feel like the icing was out of place.

A Day of Frosting

Recipe: The Best Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
(Spell check insists that buttercream is not one word, however, my cookbook opposes.  Sorry spell check, the cookbook wins).
http://joythebaker.com/2008/06/the-best-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
*Recipe in the book is cut in half.  It makes PLENTY.
Source: Joy the Baker Cookbook
Time: 15 minutes
Ease: 2
Taste: 10
Leftover Value: 10
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

I made my two desserts for today's birthday party yesterday.  Somehow, and I have no idea why, I ran out of time yesterday. (I can't imagine how that's possible when there are 24 whole hours in one day).  That left the hour before the party, the hour that I had only about a dozen other things to do as well, to make two kinds of frosting and frost two different desserts.

I'm going to work backwards and tell you about the frosting I made second.  That would be the peanut butter cream cheese frosting that I made for the peanut butter birthday cake.  (Both are recipes from Joy the Baker Cookbook).  I'm not sure why I have never eaten peanut butter in this form before, but I think I am now committed to this relationship.  I can see it now, peanut butter cream cheese frosting on apples, bagels, bananas, oatmeal.  That's right, oatmeal, why not?

This frosting's presence is so very deceiving.  It looks like any typical, ordinary frosting.  But dip your finger in here and sparks will fly.

You've been warned.

I'm not responsible for what happens.

This being my second time making this frosting, I decided to actually follow the end direction of the recipe and mix in two tablespoons of peanut butter before frosting my cake.  It gave the frosting an extra punch of the beautiful salty flavor that is peanut butter.  (Reminder: salty-peanut butter plus sweet-cream cheese always breeds success).

I made the peanut butter frosting second because the chocolate frosting was new to me, so I wanted to do make it first.

And I was worried about my dish washing skills and didn't want to leave any peanut butter flavor in my mixer bowl to confuse the chocolate flavor I planned to create.

I know, I'm weird.

From the start of making this frosting I wanted so badly to dip my finger in and test taste.  You might be thinking, why not?  Go for it.  Every cook needs to test the flavor as they go along.

The problem is, this picture is not of the first step.  See on the paddle how there is a darker chocolate color? That was what the first step of this frosting process looked like.  And that is what I so badly wanted to dip my finger into, then fill a bowl with and declare it to be my lunch.

The problem is, that when the frosting was at that dark chocolate stage it consisted of three things: salt, cocoa powder, and butter.

And I bet I would have loved it tremendously.

So would my thighs.

The secret ingredient to this icing is a mixture of Ovaltine powder and heavy cream.  I know, I had my doubts too.  Especially when I walked through about five different aisles of Acme searching for the Ovaltine.  I wanted to ask an employee for help, but all I could think to say was, "More Ovaltine please!".

Sorry, that radio commerical is embedded in my mind probably forever.

I was a little rebellious with this recipe though.  It called for two and a half to three cups of powdered sugar, sifted.  

I didn't sift the powdered sugar, and I only used two cups.

Whew!  Glad I got that off my chest.

Not to worry, the frosting still came out incredible as is seen here by my lovely brownies from the previous night which have been crowned in globs of frosting.

Now I have a serious question for you.  Is it frosting or icing?  I've always called it icing until every single recipe I've used called it frosting.  So I felt a little silly typing icing for a recipe called frosting.

I'm pretty sure they are the same thing.  Maybe it's a regional difference.  Like pop and soda?

We call it soda here.

I call this picture, "An Army of Brownies Iced, no wait, Frosted"