Nutella-Frosted, Caramel-Topped Brownies

Fudgy Brownies - made September 21, 2013 from One Bowl Baking by Yvonne Ruperti

This was the second brownie I took on my Florida trip to pass out to my coworkers.  I started with the standard fudgy brownie recipe from Yvonne Ruperti's book, One Bowl Baking, and dressed it up a trifle. I've made so many brownies over my baking lifetime that I'm not sure I'm capable of making a plain brownie and leaving it alone.

Once I took it out of the oven, I dropped small dollops of nutella over the top and spread it carefully.  The heat from the just-baked brownie will warm up your nutella so spreading is easy but if your nutella is too thick to spoon out properly, just warm it up briefly in the microwave. You don't want the frosting layer to be too thick though, even if you're a rabid Nutella fan, as it's easy to make these too rich.

Then, just because I can't leave well enough alone, I also chopped up Milky Way Caramels and sprinkled them over the nutella frosting.  Many people complain they can't buy Halloween candy too early or they'll eat them all before October.  I have a different problem.  All of the Milky Way Caramels and Midnight Milky Ways I've bought to pass out on Halloween are all going into what I've been baking lately.  I need to replenish my candy supply before the big night.  But, c'mon, look at that picture! If you want to lick your screen, go ahead.  I won't tell.  Since I was giving these away, I only had the barest sliver to make sure they tasted okay.  I passed them out to my Florida coworkers and got a few thank you emails, an "OMG, those brownies!"instant message and some in-person thank yous so I think they liked them.

7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate

12 tablespoons (6 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into cubes, plus more for greasing the pan

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups (10 ½ ounces) granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (5 2/3 ounces) all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 ½ cups (6 ounces) walnuts, chopped, divided, optional (I left them out)
Nutella, amount varies depending on how thick you want the frosting layer to be
1/2 to 3/4 cup Milky Way Caramels, cut into large dice

1. Place an oven rack in the middle position.  Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Butter a 9-inch square baking pan.
2. In a large heatproof bowl, heat the bittersweet chocolate, unsweetened chocolate, butter and salt until just melted, stirring occasionally.
3. Whisk in the sugar and vanilla.  Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until completely combined and the mixture is glossy.
4. Stir in the flour, cocoa and 1 cup of the walnuts until combined.
5. Pour the batter into the pan and sprinkle the remaining ½ cup of walnuts over the top.
6. Bake until just firm and a toothpick inserted into the center has moist, fudgy crumbs, about 25 minutes.
7. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool.  Cut into squares.

Restaurant Review: Bonefish Grill

Bonefish Grill, Ft Lauderdale, FL - dinner on September 25, 2013

My boss took his direct reports out for a team dinner during my first of two back to back trips to Florida a couple of weeks ago. It was the second time we'd gone to Bonefish Grill on one of my visits but prior to that, I had never heard of it before.  According to their website, they have locations across the United States so they're quite the chain but they're not in California, hence my unfamiliarity.

We went on a Wednesday night and that turned out to be a good night to go as the appetizers were all $5 each. Most appetizers at full price are almost $10 so it was like a 50% off deal.  Being finance people, we couldn't not take advantage of that, right?  We ended up getting a couple of the Bang Bang Shrimp appetizers to start off with.  I'm normally a little leery of appetizers in a creamy sauce because many of them have mayonnaise (which I hate) but the Bang Bang Shrimp was pretty good.  The breading was light and retained its crispiness even coated in the sauce.  If the sauce did have mayo in it, it wasn't enough for me to taste it and I'm happy to remain in blissful ignorance as to whether it did or not.

Corn Chowder with Lump Crab

This time, since I was in South Florida and again there was "fish" in the title of the restaurant, unlike the Blue Moon Fish burger, I did opt to go with seafood for dinner, starting with a corn chowder with lump crab.  It was good although the soup was, well, soupy.  I think of chowder as something with thicker, more creamy soup like you typically find in baked potato soup.  Still, it was tasty.

Jumbo Sea Scallops and Shrimp in lemon butter sauce with cheddar mashed potatoes

And it's hard to go wrong with scallops and shrimp which is what I ordered for an entree. At Bonefish Grill, you can choose from a variety of sauces and pick your own side.  I liked the combination I got.  Sometimes scallops can be hit or miss - if you undercook it, the texture is too mushy and it smells fishy.  If you overcook it (which is easy to do, ask me how I know), it's pretty rubbery.  Mine were perfectly done.  And I love shrimp so that's never a bad choice for me.  Unless you burn it to charcoal, I will like any and all shrimp dishes I'm served.

Flourless Macadamia Brownie

But really, again, it's all about dessert.  My team knows me well enough that no matter how full any of us are, I'm going to order dessert. We can all have a spoonful (or three) if that's all we have room for but dessert is a must.  The nice thing about going with a group is, if everyone is full, we can still get a dessert or two just for tasting and there's enough of us that it doesn't go to waste. The Flourless Macadamia Brownie was good although I'm never wild about raspberry sauce with my chocolate.  I know it's the common pairing but to me, chocolate should just be left alone.  Or paired with caramel.  But not any rendition of berries.  That's just my personal prejudice.

But the winning dessert of the evening was the Coconut Pie.  I forgot the official name and the website doesn't list its desserts (what?!?) but it's a wedge of coconut pie with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream (I can't remember anymore, I was too focused on the pie) in a caramel rum sauce.  Now you know I love all things coconut and despite not liking rum, I forgave the sauce to get to the pie.  Serious goodness.

Rocky Road Mud Bars

Rocky Road Mud Bars - made September 21, 2013, modified from Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson

I mentioned going on a business trip (or 2) earlier.  For my first trip, I flew to our company headquarters to meet with my counterparts at HQ and make the rounds of in-person meetings I needed to have.  Whenever I go to headquarters, I've now made it a practice to bring goodie bags with me to distribute to my coworkers there.  After all, I bake for my local office pretty much every week but only go out to headquarters once a quarter or so.  Fair's fair.  However, I didn't have a lot of time before I went so I only made a couple of different brownies and a sheet cake.  That may sound like a lot but I also have a lot of coworkers so I had to split the bounty across a broad base.

I hadn't made anything from Lisa Yockelson in awhile and, thanks to striking upon using Midnight Milky Ways for anything that calls for marshmallows, like a kid with a new toy, I went searching for something I previously had skipped because of the marshmallow factor.  Rocky Road Mud Bars was an obvious choice. The picture in the book itself is a little deceiving because it looks like she layered the marshmallows on top to feature prominently but the directions have you mixing it into the batter. I decided to do both and re-wrote the directions accordingly.

Anything that has an Oreo cookie crumb crust is a great way to use up Oreos from a package that's been opened for awhile.  You know, where the Oreos haven't gone stale yet and still have some crunch but not the snap they had when the package is first opened.  When you pulverize them into crumbs, add melted butter and spread them in an even layer in the pan, none of that matters.

The main thing you have to be careful about with the crust is not to dislodge it when you're spreading the brownie batter.  I recommend dropping the batter in even dollops all over the pan so you only have to do minimally spreading to cover the bottom layer completely. As usual with brownies, the key is not to overbake it.  Shortly before they're done (moist crumbs on the toothpick when inserted near the center) is when you want to sprinkle the chopped up Midnight Milky Ways on top so they'll partially melt on top of the hot brownie.  If you've inadvertently baked the brownies longer or to "doneness", just turn the oven off and sprinkle the candy on top to give it even a little melting time without baking the brownie for much longer. I thought these were decent but I could probably have used more Midnight Milky Ways on top and/or also added Milky Way Caramels to really push them into the decadent zone.

Chocolate Cookie Layer

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to tepid

1 ½ cups plus 3 tablespoons chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs (I used Oreos)

Mud Brownie Batter

1 ¼ cups bleached cake flour

¼ cup unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips

½ pound (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to tepid

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid

5 large eggs

2 cups superfine sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup chopped walnuts (I left out)

1/3 cup Midnight Milky Ways, cut into large dice plus another ½ cup for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 325⁰F. Line a 10-inch square baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Mix the cookie layer: Pour the melted butter into the prepared pan.  Sprinkle the chocolate cookie crumbs evenly over the melted butter.  Press down on the crumbs with the underside of an offset metal spatula so that the crumbs absorb the butter.  Bake the cookie layer in the preheated oven for 4 minutes.  Place the baking pan on a cooling rack and let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Mix the batter: Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper.  In a small bowl, toss the chocolate chips with ½ teaspoon of the sifted mixture.
4. Whisk the melted butter and melted chocolate in a medium-size mixing bowl until smooth.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs for 1 minute to blend, add the sugar and whisk for 45 seconds to 1 minute, or until just incorporated.  Blend in the melted butter-chocolate mixture, mixing thoroughly.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  Sift the flour mixture over and slowly stir it in, mixing until the particles of flour are absorbed, using a whisk, wooden spoon or flat wooden paddle.  Blend in the chocolate chips, walnuts (if using) and 1/3 cup Midnight Milky Ways.
5. Spoon the batter in large dollops on the cookie crumb layer.  Carefully spread the batter over the cookie layer, using a flexible palette knife or spatula.
6. Bake the brownies in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until set.  5 minutes before the brownies are done, sprinkle with the ½ cup of Midnight Milky Ways and return to oven to soften. Remove when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.  Cool the brownies completely in the pan on a rack. Cut when cool.

Knockoff Swig Sugar Cookies

Knockoff Swig Sugar Cookies - made September 15, 2013 from Vintage Revivals

Normally I would post the actual recipe on my blog, with any modifications I've made and link to the original blog the recipe is from in the recipe title and to the original blog it's from following the date above.  But on Vintage Revivals' site, there's a specific request not to repost her recipe and just to link back to her blog so I am honoring that request.  As with all my blog posts from another site, you can click to the original recipe by clicking on the recipe title above. I just won't be re-posting the recipe on my blog.  Which makes it a little tricky as I did modify her recipe a bit but you'll have to click back and forth between sites to get both the original recipe and my modifications (sorry).

My ingredient modifications

• I added an extra 1/4 cup flour because the dough was too soft, even with 5 1/2 cups flour
• I added 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste because I thought it was unusual for sugar cookies not to have vanilla flavoring (plus I just love vanilla).

My recipe direction modifications
The directions are pretty sparse on the original blog so I'm fleshing them out a little for any novice bakers:

• Cream the butter first until no lumps remain then add the sugars before adding the vegetable oil.  If you just add the first 5 ingredients all at once, I'm afraid of the butter clumping, especially if your butter is cool to start with and also when mixing with oil since it's hard to get those two ingredients to emulsify.  Best to have a butter-sugar mixture first then add in the oil, water and eggs.
• Add the dry ingredients 1 cup of flour at a time then the last half cup.  If your dough is too soft (as mine was), add up to 1/4 cup more flour.  You don't want the dough to be too soft.  It should hold its shape when you form it into golf-ball-sized balls.
• Once you have the dough rolled into balls and press them with the bottom of a glass, freeze the flattened cookies 2-3 hours or overnight before baking. 

I liked these cookies - they were soft and not too sweet.  Plus I like how thick they stayed.  Early in my baking days, I always got easily frustrated when sugar cookies would spread too thin.  Not a problem with these cookies.

Ironically, though, I didn't really care for the frosting.  The sour cream gives it a tang and if the cookies had been sweeter, it would've been great to offset the sweetness.  But because the cookies weren't that sweet, the frosting didn't provide much of a taste contrast.  I think I'd try frosting these with a more traditional vanilla frosting (butter, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla) without the sour cream to make them a little sweeter.

Restaurant Review: Blue Moon Fish, Ft Lauderdale, FL

Blue Moon Fish Co, Ft Lauderdale, FL - lunch on September 24, 2013

For the last two weeks, I've criss-crossed the country coast to coast twice on 2 separate business trips. It was exhausting but now I'm back home for awhile.  Fortunately, there's good food to be had in many parts of the country and even more fortunately, I have coworkers who know where to take me when I'm in town. I've been to this particular restaurant, Blue Moon Fish, several times on previous visits when my boss would take our team out for a team dinner when I was in town.  But this was the first time I'd gone there for lunch.

One of my favorite coworkers from our company HQ took me there, partly because they serve good food, partly because it was near the office, and partly because for lunch, everything's 2 for 1.  Yep, buy 1 entree, get a 2nd of equal or lesser value for free. Same with drinks, appetizers, and (of course) dessert.  Which makes it an excellent deal because Blue Moon Fish isn't cheap but the food is worth it.  We got there before it was too crowded and were able to get a table in the covered, air-conditioned patio.  Air conditioning is a must in humid, warm South Florida, especially to a spoiled weather princess like me.  Patio seating was terrific because we had a great view of the water from our table.

10-ounce Short Rib Burger with fries

When I'd eaten at Blue Moon Fish before, I'd always gotten a seafood entree, typically scallops and/or shrimp or some kind of fish.  I mean, it's a seafood restaurant, it's in South Florida, it's right by the water, there's "fish" in its name and past experience has proven they have very good seafood.  But this time around, I got a burger and fries :).  That's what my coworker ordered and it sounded good to me.  Plus, with the 2 for 1 thing, it was just easier to get the same thing. And I can pretend it was for reasons other than I just wanted French fries.  In any case, it turned out to be a good choice because the burger was delicious and the fries lived up to expectations: crisp on the outside, mealy on the inside. 

Icky Sticky Caramel Bread Pudding

But let's be honest, even more than the fries, I really cared about dessert.  And remember, 2 for 1 means we had to get 2 desserts.  Fortunately, it wasn't hard to choose which ones we wanted: the Icky Sticky Caramel Bread Pudding and the molten chocolate cake.  On Blue Moon Fish Co's website menu, it lists the first as Icky Sticky Caramel Tarte but I don't know if they changed it because I distinctly thought it was a bread pudding rather than a tarte.  Because all things delicious stick in my memory.

Liquid Center Double Chocolate Torte

I'm normally all about the chocolate desserts and the chocolate torte was good too but if I had to choose 1 (when there's no 2 for 1 deal, ha), I'd go with the Icky Sticky Caramel - it was that good. Still, you can't go wrong with either and I'm sure the rest of the dessert menu is also mouthwatering.  I've been to Blue Moon Fish at least 3-4 times and I haven't had anything that wasn't scrumptious and worth every calorie.

According to its website, the restaurant has been open for over 16 years and is owned/operated by 2 chefs, one a graduate of the California Culinary Academy and the other the Culinary Institute of America, my alma mater, except he graduated from the main campus in Hyde Park, NY while I only did the certification program in Baking & Pastry Arts in St Helena, CA.  These guys know how to make great food.  If you're ever in Ft Lauderdale, I highly recommend Blue Moon Fish Co.

Soft Pudding Monster Cookies

Soft Pudding Monster Cookies - made dough September 16, 2013 from For the Love of Dessert

I always love how great Monster Cookies look.  By their very nature and name, they need to be large, chubby cookies filled with various goodness like peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips, M&Ms, even nuts if you're so inclined (I'm not).  They're not quite everything-but-the-kitchen-sink type of cookies but they generally have the above combination in order to qualify them as monster cookies.

Although I love how they look, especially these (look at the chubby!), monster cookies are not my favorite cookie in general.  Many people like them but to me, they have commitment issues. There aren't enough oats in them to make them oatmeal cookies or enough peanut butter to make them peanut butter cookies.  The addition of those ingredients disqualifies them from being straight-up chocolate chip cookies or M&M cookies.  They're a little bit of everything. I like them well enough but I make them more as crowd pleasers, or, in this case, bake sale contenders, rather than because I want to eat one.  I made a mini version of these for my taste test cookie and it was good: the edges were crisp and the middle was chewy.  The crunch and chocolate from the M&Ms is probably my favorite part.  If you like monster cookies, this is a good version to make.  Don't forget to make them monster size!  I made the dough balls just a little bigger than the size of golf balls and baked from frozen dough so they didn't spread much and stayed satisfyingly chubby.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 box (3.4 oz) vanilla pudding 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 stick of butter, softened 

1/2 cup peanut butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1 cup mini M&Ms

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (if baking right away).
2. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, and vanilla pudding; set aside. 
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, on medium speed cream together butter, peanut butter, and sugars until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Then add egg and vanilla. Scrape down sides. 
4. Reduce to low speed and add flour mixture. Combine until just incorporated. 
5. Add oats, M&Ms, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips. The batter should be thick enough to work with and roll. 
6. Line cookie sheets with parchment or a baking mat and scoop golf-sized balls of dough. Roll into ball shape between palms and space cookies 2 inches apart. (You can freeze them at this point.) Bake for 10-12 minutes or longer depending on the size. Bake just until the middle no longer looks raw and the edges are golden. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Frosted Fudge Brownies

Frosted Fudge Brownies - made September 20, 2013 from Godiva.com

When a brownie turns out the way I want, I love taking pictures of it - can you tell? I have a slight obsession fixation with trying to get people to bake brownies properly so I want to show what I think a "properly baked" brownie looks like.  I don't know why but nothing makes me cringe more than a dry brownie.  Except maybe a dry brownie made from a box mix but don't even get me started on that or this post will never end.  My tendency to underbake things doesn't work with cakes or cupcakes but it serves me well when it comes to brownies and cookies.

The most common comment I get from people after they've tried one of my brownies is "how do you get it so moist???" like they've never had a moist brownie before.  I can usually gauge by the level of surprise in their voice how much of an overbaker they are. Overbakers think the toothpick test means the toothpick has to emerge "clean".  I always advocate to bake the brownie only until the toothpick poked in the middle comes out with moist crumbs, not raw batter, and in most cases, not clean.  Clean is okay if the corners are that way but the middle yields moist crumbs on the toothpick.  If you bake it until the toothpick comes out clean in the corner, edges and middle, chances are you've overbaked the brownie.

Why?  Because chocolate sets when it cools.  Those moist crumbs you see on the toothpick from the middle might look too raw to you while the brownie is hot in the oven and, if you take it out and try a piece then, it might be too mushy and gooey.  Actually, it probably will be more like thick hot fudge than a brownie.  But once that brownie cools, you get moist, fudgy brownie bliss. I've done this with every brownie recipe I've tried and the only ones that have failed are the ones I've inadvertently overbaked.  Okay, there might have been some I've underbaked too much but the great thing about underbaking is you can always pop it back into the oven and bake it a few minutes longer to rectify the mistake.  But you can't unbake an overbaked brownie.

This recipe is from Godiva so of course they list their brand of chocolate but this worked perfectly fine with Valrhona that I bought at Trader Joe's. I only had a sliver for the taste test because I was baking this for Zoe's bake sale but it seemed like a good standard fudgy brownie.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
5 bars (1.5 ounces each) GODIVA Dark Chocolate, chopped (I used Valrhona)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil so that foil extends 2 inches beyond two opposite sides of pan. Lightly butter bottom and sides of foil-lined pan.
2. In medium saucepan, combine butter pieces, brown sugar and chocolate. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until butter and chocolate melt and mixture is smooth. Transfer to medium bowl.
3. With wooden spoon, stir in granulated sugar. Stir in eggs, one at a time, until there is no trace of yolk. Mix in vanilla extract. Add flour and salt and mix vigorously until mixture is shiny and smooth. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top with rubber spatula
4. Bake brownies for 35-40 minutes or until cake tester inserted into center comes out slightly moist. Do not overbake. Place pan on wire rack and let cool for 45 minutes. Using two ends of foil as handles, lift brownies out of pan. Invert onto cooling rack and peel off foil. Let cool completely (brownies will be frosted on smooth side). 

Frosting
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
1.5 ounces dark chocolate
1.5 ounces milk chocolate
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
pinch of salt
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Place butter and chocolate in medium saucepan. Heat over very low heat, stirring constantly, until butter and chocolate melt and mixture is smooth. Transfer to bowl of electric mixer. On low speed, add half of confectioners' sugar, salt, then half of heavy cream. Blend in remaining confectioners' sugar and remaining heavy cream. Beat in vanilla extract. Beat frosting on medium speed for 30 seconds or until smooth and shiny. 
2. Spread frosting over uncut brownies, smoothing the top.  Garnish with nuts, toffee or M&Ms as desired.  Cut into 9 squares and serve at room temperature.