Saturday, September 28, 2013

Mississippi Mud Brownies with Midnight Milky Ways

Mississippi Mud Brownies - made September 17, 2013, recipe adapted from Cooking Classy
Almost without exception, I always love pics of various recipes for Mississippi mud brownies or cake.  The frosting is always flowing and gooey atop decadent baked chocolate deliciousness.  But I never make it.  Why?  Because I don't like marshmallows. I don't like their taste (too sweet) or texture (too rubbery) and can only stand them melted down with butter and holding rice krispies together. But I feel like I'm missing out on a whole repertoire of caloric, chocolate heaven. When I came across this recipe on pinterest from Cooking Classy, it was so tempting to try and get over my dislike of marshmallows and make these as is. But I just couldn't do it.  I have a hard time trying to eat rubbery sugar.
Fortunately it's Halloween candy-buying season and I remembered Midnight Milky Ways.  They're like regular Milky Ways except with marshmallows to go with the caramel and covered in dark chocolate.  I wouldn't eat them "straight" (I rarely eat Halloween candy anyway) but baked in something? I'm okay with that. More to the point, I could chop them up and substitute them in for the marshmallow layer in the original recipe (skipping the torching them part), melt them down slightly in the last few minutes of baking, and cover them with the flowing, gooey chocolate frosting.  That's about as close to the real Mississippi Mud anything I'm going to get.
Okay, this is the part where I shed any semblance of modesty and declare myself a brownie genius. Substituting the Midnight Milky Ways worked in spades.  There was some marshmallow substance that provided some gooeyness and the glimpse of white marshmallow blanketed in chocolate but not enough to be rubbery. The Midnight Milky Ways melted slightly as you blanket the hot brownie with them in the last few minutes of baking then you cover them with freshly made, hot/warm chocolate frosting which melts them into further gooey deliciousness.  I didn't finish making these until late at night and it was too late to try them then (even *I* have a chocolate curfew) so I didn't try the taste test piece until the next day.  Even then, it was gooey chocolate perfection.  Granted, they're very rich so you may want to cut into small pieces.  And I'll add my usual caveat of "go workout first".  But it's worth it.
I included some of this in goodie bags when I met friends for dinner and counseled them, "if you eat nothing else from this bag, eat the brownie."
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package Midnight Milky Way minis, each mini cut into fourths (they're easier to cut cleanly if you chill them first)

Frosting
1/4 cup salted butter
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8x8-inch baking dish with aluminum foil; spray with cooking spray.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, granulated sugar, brown sugar and salt until well blended. Using a wooden spoon stir in melted butter and mix until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and stir until blended. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish and bake in preheated oven 35 - 37 minutes (underbake slightly as you'll be returning them to oven to melt the Midnight Milky Ways).
  3. Remove from oven and sprinkle top evenly with the chopped Midnight Milky Ways. Return to oven for another 2-4 minutes before removing.While brownies are still hot, cover evenly with the warm chocolate frosting. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.
For the chocolate frosting:
  1. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Add milk and cocoa powder and cook whisking constantly until mixture has thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and using an electric hand mixer, stir in vanilla and powdered sugar. Use frosting immediately.

10 comments:

  1. Looks fantastic! Just FYI though, Milky Way midnights don't have any marshmallow in them. The white layer is vanilla nougat.

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    1. Interesting, never knew that - thanks for letting me know!

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    2. Don't you just LOVE smartasses! :-) way to go Leah!

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    3. Don't think she's IMITATING milky way! That's the purpose OF the milky ways in the ingredients! The marshmallows are for flavor!

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    4. Clap clap clap, haha, yep I'm being a big smart ass too, see......lol

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    5. FYI Leah, read the name of the recipe!!! Mississippi Mud Brownies WITH milky way! Do you know what mud pies/cakes consist of.......ding ding ding, INCLUDES MARSHMALLOWS, YAY!

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    6. Actually, if I'm wrong about something, like thinking Midnight Milky Ways had marshmallow instead of vanilla nougat in them, I appreciate being politely corrected like Leah did so that I don't go spreading wrong info.

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  2. Hi there,
    any smartass ;-) that can inform me about the Midnight Milky Way, is it different then normal Milky Way because it looks very white?
    Thank you,
    Gr. Tine

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    Replies
    1. I don't eat enough Milky Ways or Midnight Milky Ways to be that discerning about it but they're both sweet to me. And gooey. Midnight Milky Ways might just be a little sweeter but it's covered in dark chocolate so that might offset some of the sweetness.

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  3. Ah, thank you for your reply, I think we don't have the Midnight Milky Way here in The Netherlands, never seen it, but dark chocolate sounds good :-)

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