Snickers Brownie Trifle

I've never made a Trifle before.  I've had the serving bowl for almost 2 years now and I can't believe I've never used it.  (Have I mentioned that I have a little bit of a "kitchen paraphernalia" obsession?  Yep.  My name is Erin and I'm addicted to kitchen gadgets and goodies.)

When my Mom asked me to bring dessert to Easter lunch I wanted to try out my hand at Trifle making.   Head to the forehead moment.  Why haven't I made these before?!  So easy and amazingly delicious!  And pretty cool looking to boot.  Can't go wrong with that, right?

There are a ton of Trifle recipes out there.  I went with this one because one, I love NIkki's blog and two, it just sounded awesome.  The pudding layer had sweetened condensed milk whipped into it and that sounded mouth wateringly delicious!  I added a few things (like caramel and Snickers bars) and there you have it... Snickers Brownie Trifle.

Snickers Brownie Trifle

Slightly adapted from: Chef In Training

* brownie mix

* ingredients to make the brownies (eggs, oil and water)

* 1 (3.9 oz) box instant chocolate pudding mix

* 1/2 cup water

* 1 (14 oz) can Sweetened Condensed Milk

* 1 (8 oz.) container Cool whip

* 1 (12 oz.) container Cool Whip

* caramel sauce

* 6 Snickers candy bars

Make the brownies according to the package directions.  I made the family size (9x13) pan of chewy brownies.  Let cool completely.

Whip the chocolate pudding mix, water and sweetened condensed milk until fluffy.  Gently fold in 8 ounces of Cool Whip.

Cut brownies into squares.  I cut mine into 1 to 1 1/2 inch squares (not too big but not crumbled).

To assemble the Trifle:

Add a layer of brownies to the bottom of the Trifle bowl using 1/2 of the brownies.

Drizzle caramel sauce over the top of the brownies.

Sprinkle with a handful of the chopped Snickers.

Cover with half of the chocolate pudding mixture.

Cover that layer with Cool Whip.

Now repeat (brownies, caramel, Snickers, pudding and Cool Whip.)

Top with chopped Snickers bars and drizzle with more caramel sauce

Refrigerate 8 hours before serving.

I thought this dessert was awesome!  The pudding layer tasted like a chocolate mousse, the brownies soaked up a little bit of the caramel and the whipped cream and Snickers?  To die for!  Definitely something I will make again. 

What do you think?  Pure chocolate heaven?

 

I'm linking to the parties on my sidebar.

Buckeye Brownie Bars

I have another delicious peanut butter and chocolate recipe for you today.  How can you go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate???

I saw this idea over on Monster Mama.  Oh yum.  I wanted to make more of a ganache topping so I searched Pinterest (my favorite go to for everything) and found this recipe.  They have the same amazing peanut butter filling layer (which is to die for).  But the chocolate ganache layer is a little different.

Buckeye Brownie Bars 

Source: Key Ingredient

Brownie Layer

* 1 cup butter, softened

* 2 cups sugar

* 3 eggs

* 3 tsp. vanilla

* 2/3 cup cocoa powder

* 1 cup flour

* 1/2 tsp. salt

* 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Peanut Butter Filling Layer

* 1/2 cup butter, softened

* 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

* 2 cups powdered sugar

* 2 Tbsp. milk

Ganache Layer

* 2 cups chocolate chips

* 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

* 1/4 cup butter

* 1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper (with the ends hanging over the edges so you can lift the brownies out.)

For the brownies, melt the butter in a large saucepan. Remove from heat, add the sugar and stir to combine. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth. Add cocoa, baking powder and salt and combine. Add flour last and stir until combined. Spread into pan and bake 25-30 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

For peanut butter layer, combine the ingredients and beat until smooth. Add more or less milk to get it to the right consistency.  You want it spreadable.

For the ganache layer, combine the ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Melt together and whisk until smooth.

Once the brownies are cool, spread the peanut butter layer on top. Place them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes until the frosting sets up a bit. Pour the ganache over the top and spread gently. Return to the fridge until set. 

I have a confession to make.  I made one and a half recipes of the peanut butter layer and one and a half of the ganache layer because I wanted them thick and rich and amazing!  So if you follow the recipe as it is, these two layers won't be quite as thick as they are with ours.

Pure peanut butter and chocolate bliss!

 

I'm linking to the parties on my sidebar.

Brookies: A Marriage Made in Heaven

What's better than a brownie or a chocolate chip cookie?  How about a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie together?  Yep, a chocolate chip cookie stuffed brownie!  Genius!

A couple of weeks ago I posted our Wicked Good Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  My brother asked for homemade chocolate chip cookies for his birthday.  (He's so easy to please) =o)  So we made him some killer chocolate chip cookies.  But I also wanted to make him something more.  But what?  Then I remembered a friend posting a recipe for a Brookie on my Facebook page.  How could I go wrong with that?  Chocolate chip cookies plus a brownie?  Heaven!

Martha Stewart has a great recipe for her Brookies.  But you can use any brownie recipe and chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Our Killer Frosted Brownies were perfect (without the frosting, of course.)  And our Wicked Good Chocolate Chip Cookies were a huge hit.  Why mess with perfection?  =o)

I used two different pans to make these.  Mostly because I only have one muffin top pan which I will rectify soon.  How can a person only have one of these awesome pans?!  What was I thinking.  So I used my  Brownie Pan for some of them.  Both excellent pans to use.  I'm not sure which look I like best. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Make your brownie batter.  You can use a boxed brownie mix if that's what you prefer to do.  Make the recipe for the chewy brownies (2 eggs) rather than the cake like brownies.  Set aside.

Make your chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Again, you can use store bought cookie dough if you are short on time or if that's easier.  Who am I to judge?!

I sprayed my pans with non-stick cooking spray to make sure they wouldn't stick.

Put a scoop of brownie batter in the bottom of your muffin top pan (or brownie pan.)  Shake your pan around a little bit to make sure the batter covers the bottom of the pan (or nearly covers the bottom.) 

Put a scoop of the cookie dough in the center.  I flattened my scoop down just a bit to make more of a disk.  I didn't want the cookie center to be too doughy and too gooey.  (I say that like it's a bad thing.  It's usually not.  But I didn't want these cookies to fall apart too easily.)





Brownie Pan

Muffin Top Pan

You decide.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until the edges are browned and the cookie center looks just about done.  You don't want to over bake them but, again, you don't want them too doughy.

Let them cool in the pan for about 10 or 15 minutes.  This is why 2 pans are a good thing.  If you try to remove them from the pan too quickly, they will fall apart.

They were delicious!  The perfect combination!

What do you think?  Do you like the look of the muffin top pan or the brownie pan?

I can't decide.

Enjoy!

 

I'm linking to the parties on my sidebar.

German Chocolate Cheesecake

It was my brother's birthday a couple of weeks ago.  He was coming over for dinner and I wanted to make a fun (and delicious) dessert that I hadn't made before.  My brother is pretty easy to please when it comes to food.  Not saying that he isn't picky, he's just grateful and that makes me want to cook for him anytime.

He asked for chocolate chip cookies for his birthday present.  Easy enough.  So we made him some Wicked Chocolate Chip Cookies (which were wickedly good!)  So I wanted to make a "fancier" dessert for the occasion.  This is what we chose - German Chocolate Cheesecake. 

It was amazingly delicious!  The cheesecake and cake combination (along with the frosting) was pure heaven.

Make sure you read the directions through so you don't have any surprises.  There are a lot of steps but it is so worth it.  

German Chocolate Cheesecake

Source: Adapted from  Willow Bird Baking

Crust Ingredients:

• 1 package of Oreos, crushed
• 6 Tbsp. butter, melted

 Ganache Layer Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 6 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips

Cheesecake Ingredients

• 3 packages (8 ounces each) of cream cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 3 ounces (or about 6 Tbsp.) semi sweet chocolate chips

Cake Ingredients

• I used a chocolate cake mix
• ingredients on the box

Frosting Ingredients

•  1-2 tubs of Coconut Pecan frosting

Directions

Make the crust layer

Crush the Oreos in a food processor.  Add melted butter to Oreo crumbs and mix.  Press into the bottom and sides of a 9 inch springform pan.  (Cuisinart 9-Inch Nonstick Springform Pan)
Make sure you go up the sides of the pan to the top. 

Make the ganache

Heat the heavy cream in a microwave safe bowl for 30 seconds.  Stir.  Heat for another 30 seconds and stir.  You want the cream to be hot (but make sure you don't bring it to a full boil.)  Place the chocolate chips in a bowl.  Pour cream over chocolate chip and whisk until smooth and creamy.

Make the cake layer

Mix the cake according to the directions on the box.  Bake in two 9 inch round pans.  You will only use one of the cakes but freeze the other one for future use (or gobble it up warm.)  Cool on a wire rack.

Make the cheesecake layer

In a stand mixer, mix cream cheese until smooth.  Add sugar and mix until smooth.  Add vanilla and eggs.

In a small bowl, melt the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second bursts.  Stir after each one.  When completely melted and smooth, set aside to cool.  Add melted chocolate to cheesecake filling and stir until combined.

Assembly

Pour ganache over the crust layer.  Spread out and place in the freezer for 30 minutes until ganache is form.

Pour cheesecake filling over the ganache layer.  Spread out evenly.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 55 minutes or until almost firm.  The center might crack but that's okay.  You'll be covering it up with deliciousness =o)  Let cool.

Spread a thin layer of Coconut Pecan frosting over the top of the cheesecake.

Place cake on top of frosting layer.

Mine was super tall at this point.  I'm not sure if I did something wrong or not (because it was way taller than the recipe I was following.)

Spread frosting on top of cake layer.  I frosted the sides of the cake too since they were showing.

Chill for 3 hours or overnight.

When completely chilled, loosen the sides of the springform pan and remove the sides.

I have to say that this was one of the best desserts I have ever made.  It was amazing.  I think it was the combination of all of my favorite things.  Totally worth the effort!  I mean, look at that!

Enjoy!

 

I'm linking to the parties on my sidebar.

Killer Frosted Brownies {Secret Recipe Club}

Each month I look forward to receiving my Secret Recipe Club assignment.  I love looking through the blog that I am assigned and finding new recipes.  Of course, I usually gravitate towards the dessert recipes.  I kind of have a thing for desserts =o)  Plus they are so easy to take to work when we've had our fill.  Much easier than taking in a casserole.

My assignment this month was The Savvy Kitchen.  Amy has a wonderful blog with so many delicious looking recipes.  She tries to make mostly low-carb, low calorie or gluten free recipes to accommodate for her families dietary restrictions but adds in some "other" recipes as well for those of us who don't take care of ourselves =o)

The first recipe that caught my eye was her Arancini (Rice Balls.)  I'm totally making these the next time we have company.  I wanted to make them but I was afraid that I would eat the entire recipe all by myself.  And, even though I surely wouldn't say I try to eat healthy, I do know there are limits to delicious cheesy fried foods.  So, next time.

I was looking through her dessert posts (of man, yum!) and came across her Best Frosted Brownies Ever recipe and knew that was what we were going to make.  My son loves frosted brownies! 

Killer Frosted Brownies

Source: The Savvy Kitchen

* 1/2 cup butter, room temperature

* 1 cup sugar

* 1 tsp. vanilla

* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup flour

* 1/3 cup Hershey's Cocoa

* 1/4 tsp. baking powder

* 1/4 tsp. salt

* 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Creamy Frosting

* 3 Tbsp. butter, room temperature

* 3 Tbsp. Hershey's cocoa

* 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup or honey

* 1/2 tsp. vanilla

* 1 cup powdered sugar

* 1 Tbsp. milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare a 9x9 inch pan (line with parchment paper like this)

Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla.  (I used my stand mixer because it was easier, but you don't have to.)  Add eggs and combine.  In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.  Add dry ingredients to egg mixture and mix well.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.

I forgot to add the chocolate chips to the batter (I'm such a dork sometimes) so I sprinkled them on the top.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until brownies just start to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the frosting:

Beat butter, cocoa and corn syrup together in a mixing bowl.  Add powdered sugar and milk and mix until smooth.  If it appears too thin, add more powdered sugar; too thick, add more milk.  Makes about 1 cup of frosting.

Spread over cooled brownies.

They look pretty darn good!

I thought the brownies were wonderful!  They were chewy and delicious!  They were pretty darn chocolatey (I can't believe I'm saying that like it's a bad thing!)  My son absolutely loved them!  I thought they might be better with a cream cheese frosting.  Of course this doesn't mean I didn't eat 3 of them the first day =o)

 

 

I'm linking to the parties on my sidebar.

Chubby Hubby Truffles

I warned you that we did some baking over the holiday =o)  Here's another delicious treat we made for company.  Have you heard of them?  Chubby Hubby Bars are all over the web.  Why the heck are they called Chubby Hubby Bars?  Do I want to know this???  But bars seemed too simple.  We wanted to jazz them up a little bit.  So we found truffles.  Truffles!  YUM!

Chubby Hubby Truffles

Source: Brown Eyed Baker 

* 1 1/2 cups pretzel pieces

* 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

* 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

* 2 Tbsp. light brown sugar

* pinch salt

* 3 Tbsp. powdered sugar

* 3 Tbsp. malted milk powder

* Melting chocolate

The original recipe from Brown Eyed Baker didn't have malted milk powder in it but I noticed on all the Chubby Hubby Bar recipes, they had malted milk powder in them.  So I added this to mine.  You don't have to if you don't want to =o)

Mix together the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar, salt, powdered sugar and malted milk powder.  Stir in pretzel pieces.

Form into 1 inch balls or little oval shaped.  (What the heck do you call this shape???)

Place on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper and then freeze for about 15 minutes.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt your chocolate in 30 second bursts, stirring after each burst.  (That sounds totally kitchen savvy doesn't it?) =o)

Dip the peanut butter/pretzel logs (or balls) into the chocolate, tapping off the excess chocolate.  Place on a piece of waxed paper and let harden.

You can drizzle more melted chocolate on top to make them look fancier.  (They look fancy, right?)  Or sprinkle some of the crushed pretzels on top of the chocolate before it hardens.

They didn't have enough peanut butter taste for me.  Next time I'll add less pretzels and more peanut butter.  But I loved the malt in there.  It added a great, "different" flavor to the normal peanut butter and chocolate.

Enjoy!

 

I'm linking to the parties on my sidebar.