Outrageous Brownies (Modified)

Outrageous brownies!

I love Ina Garten's recipes! Most of them are easy to follow, but her recipe for Outrageous Brownies, which are out-of-this-world delicious just didn't work for me. The problem for me was the quantity of brownies that were made from her recipe--it calls for a pound of butter.

I've modified the recipe to fit a 9" x 13" baking pan. They are just as outrageously yummy, but in a much more manageable size.

Recipe note: I always toast my walnuts before adding them into a recipe. It improves the flavor and adds a bit of crunch!

Outrageous Brownies

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

8 ounces (1 1/3 cups) plus 6 ounces (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips, divided

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons instant coffee powder (I use Busteca Expresso powder)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/8 cups sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour plus 1/8 cup, divided

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups diced walnut pieces

Preparation

Preheat over 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” baking pan with parchment paper overlapping the long sides to form handles. Spray the parchment paper with baking spray.

Melt together the butter, 8 ounces chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler. Cool slightly.

Stir together the eggs, instant coffee, vanilla, and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.

Stir together 1/2 cup of the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture.

Toss the walnuts and 6 ounces of the chocolate chips with 1/8 cup flour to coat. Add to the chocolate batter, stirring gently. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for about 25- 30 minutes, or until tester just comes out clean. Cool thoroughly, refrigerate, remove brownies from pan and cut into 24 to 30 squares. Serve at room temperature (These are very rich!).

If you want to try Ina Garten's original recipe, you can find it here.

Spumoni Ice Cream Cake--A Christmas Tradition

A slice of Spumoni Ice Cream Cake that was served on Christmas Eve at the little house on Florida Street in Detroit, Michigan.

I searched all over southwest Florida looking for Spumoni Ice Cream to serve at Christmas Dinner but couldn't find it. For some reason my Polish Aunt Sophie used to serve Spumoni, an Italian ice cream creation, either at Christmas Dinner or in the holiday season surrounding Christmas. We children thought the combination of flavors was very exotic. My recipe may not be exactly the same, but it is pretty close!

After giving up finding commercial Spumoni, I found a recipe on the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream site for a Spumoni Ice Cream Cake. It was a good recipe, but I felt it need a little tweaking, one to add some orange flavoring to the chocolate layer, and two to figure out a way to make the cake easier to serve. I think I came up with good solutions for both. The ice cream cake was a big hit at Christmas dinner and the presentation at the table before serving was awesome!

Spumoni Ice Cream Cake

INGREDIENTS

1 pint Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream*

1 pint Ben & Jerry’s Pistachio Pistachio ice cream*

1 pint Dutch Chocolate ice cream

2 tablespoons candied orange peel

1/2 teaspoon orange flavoring

1 box Ghiradelli Brownie Mix, made as directed in a baking pan larger than a 9x5 loaf pan

Topping:

1/4 cup Smuckers Magic Shell Chocolate

DIRECTIONS

Mix orange flavoring with candied orange peel and set aside.

Bake brownie mix as directed in a baking pan larger than a 9’x5 loaf pan. Allow to cool, then trim off edges to create a 9x5 piece of brownie. Wrap with tin foil and set aside.

Line 9x5 loaf pan with tin foil, overlapping sides so that you can use the foil as handles to remove the ice cream layers out of the pan.

Soften 1 pint of Cherry Garcia ice cream so it is soft enough to spread. Spread over bottom of loaf pan  and place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, or until it's firm.

While that’s in the freezer, pull out another pint of ice cream to soften. Repeat step 2 for pistachio ice cream. Place in freezer.

Soften Dutch Chocolate ice cream and mix orange peel and orange flavoring in thoroughly. Freeze overnight.

To assemble, be sure that you can remove the ice cream layers out with the tin foil handles. You may have to run a knife around the edges to ensure removal. Remove from pan.

Put brownie layer on top of ice cream and then serving plate on top of brownie and very carefully flip it over. Remove tin foil.

Drizzle Magic Shell Chocolate over top. Put in freezer for about 5 minutes to allow shell to harden.

Cut into 1 inch slices to serve.

*Note: I got the idea for this dessert from the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream website and modified it. The result was delicious, but if you don’t have Ben and Jerry’s ice cream you could substitute a different brand of Cherry Almond and Pistachio ice creams.

Here is the link to the original recipe at Ben and Jerry’s.

Spumoni Ice Cream Cake