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

Christmas Cookie Collection 2019

Christmas Cookie Collection 2019

Polish Kolaczki

Polish Kolaczki, the last batch of Christmas cookies for 2019.

I seem to refine this recipe every year. This year I discovered the value of putting the discs of dough between layers of parchment paper. It made rolling out the dough much easier. I would take one disc out of the refrigerator at a time, dust it with the sugar mixture and roll out the dough between the paper. It worked great! 

Adam’s Polish Kolaczki

Ingredients

For the Pastry:

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

8 oz cream cheese

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar and 1/3 cup of confectioners' sugar for rolling

1 can Solo brand Apricot filling

Sift flour and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.

Beat the cream cheese and butter together with a stand mixer or a hand mixer until completely incorporated and creamy (3-5 minutes).

Reduce the speed of the mixer and slowly add in the flour. I used 5 additions and completely mixed in the flour each time. The dough will be soft but not sticky.

Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and flatten each to ¾” thick. Place discs between layers of parchment paper and refrigerate until hard, at least 2 hours.

Pre-heat the oven to 375°. Move the oven rack  in the center of the oven.

Sift together the granulated and confectioners' sugars.

Take one of the disks of dough from the refrigerator and lightly dust both sides with the sugar combination. Spread granulated sugar on your pastry board or work surface between layers of parchment paper. Roll out pastry to about 1/8” thick. 

With a pastry wheel or sharp knife, trim the dough into 2" squares.

Place a dollop of filling into the center of each square. I used ½ teaspoon to ¾ teaspoon for each.

Gently grab two opposite corners and fold one over the other, gently pressing down to try and seal them together. 

Gently move it to a parchment covered baking sheet. Repeat with all remaining squares, placing them about 1” apart.

Bake 12-14 minutes or until the bottom edges are golden. Do not overbake.

Let cool about 10 muntes on the pan on a wire rack and then move them gently to a wire rack to cool completely.

When cool, dust with confectioners' sugar. It was recommended to me to wait until I was ready to use the cookies before dusting them dusting them with the confectioners' sugar.

Walnut Filling

For the Walnut Filling:

2 cups freshly ground walnuts (finely)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup of boiled milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

Mix filling in a medium bowl. The mixture should be thick. If the filling is not spreadable, use the rest of the milk. I used all of it. It will thicken as it sits.

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

A yummy piece of Pumpkin Crunch Cake!

I didn't realize that I had never posted this recipe until it showed up as a memory in my Facebook page from 5 years ago. I ended up making it on Saturday and took it to church for our after service social. It disappeared in minutes.

It's a little bit messy--sort of like a pumpkin pie without a bottom crust, but everyone loves it. I think it would be even better with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream, but it was gone before I had a chance to do a taste test!

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Ingredients:

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 box yellow cake mix

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (the original recipe called for 1/2 cup, but I think it needed more)

1 cup butter, melted

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom of 9 x 13″ pan.

Mix pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Pour mixture into greased pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix over pumpkin mixture and top with pecans. 

Drizzle melted butter over pecans. 

Bake 50-55 minutes.

When cool cut into squares. Serve with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream.