Cake Batter Blondies

Easy but a little too sweet for me and more cakey and soft than brownie/blondie-ish, but I wanted to make them so I got an opportunity a little over half a month ago. I brought these with me to San Francisco when visiting my boyfriend, so hopefully he liked them but I'm not sure. They're a good quick thing to bake but I think I'd keep searching for a better recipe--or at least find a way to make it denser, maybe with less milk or something.

Cake Batter Blondies
Recipe by Girl Meets Life, found on Sally's Baking Addition

1 box yellow cake mix
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg
1/3 -1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sprinkles
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first four ingredients in a large bowl. Add the milk slowly. You want to cake batter to be as dense & thick as possible. Mix in the sprinkles and white chocolate chips.  Pour into 8 x 8 baking pan, sprinkle a few more sprinkles on top, and bake for 28-30 minutes until edges are just turning brown. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes so the center sets, before cutting into squares.

*The blondies will look like they are not fully done because the center will be quite gooey, but that’s what you want! After about 30 minutes of cooling, they will be easy to cut using a serrated knife.

Peanut Butter Nutella Brownies

I'm sorry for sharing this recipe with you.
I'm truly, truly sorry.
It's okay, you can just like...not make it or something...
No...you really need to make this...
Gah...
Don't...you'll regret it...

These things were seriously deadly to me. When I had them in front of me I was afraid for my health. They were so, so, so, so sososo good. I made them with my friends Ning and Marrisa while some friends were over and LUCKILY I had other people to dump them on, but they were so good. Wow. Just make them. Anything with peanut butter and nutella...wow.

Peanut Butter Nutella Brownies
Recipe from foodbuzz

1 cp. unsalted butter
2 cps. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 cp. flour
3/4 cp. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
dash of salt
1/2 cp. Nutella
1/2 cp. Smooth Peanut Butter

Melt the butter. Add the sugar and mix. Add the vanilla and one egg at a time.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a different bowl.

Slowly add to the wet mixture and combine. Do not over mix. Add the Nutella and Peanut butter. Once again, do not over mix.

Add to a 9x13 greased pan and cook on 350 for about 50 minutes. When a tooth pick is inserted into the brownies and comes out clean.

Chocolate-Pumpkin Layered Brownies

I've made these before. You can find the recipe here. I just want to emphasize HOW. AMAZING. THESE. ARE. You should make them, right now. You don't need an occasion. They are just too good. I made these to use up the rest of my pumpkin after making the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving...in order to not eat the whole batch, I quickly had people come over to eat some and then brought the rest to one of my friends.

The Baked Brownie

I made these at home--I think this is the last recipe I'm posting that I made at home, the rest will be from my new kitchen. They were definitely very good brownies, probably my favorites, though a kid tried them and didn't like them and that may be because of the coffee flavor (everyone else loved them).

Okay so funny story, I had the chocolate melting over the stove and got out the instant espresso powder to make this recipe, only to notice that it was a solid block dried to the bottom of the container. Wow. And I couldn't make these brownies without a coffee flavor for fear that they would not turn out as good, since these brownies were supposed to be some of the best...so I looked online for a substitute, only to find really, none. So I decided to take out some coffee from a bag (It was ground, though not as finely as the powder...okay so I have nooo clue about anything coffee except that I like my skinny flavored lattes from Starbucks) and ground it with my mom's mortar and pestle. And it seems to have worked, though I don't know how the flavor will change when I try this recipe with instant espresso powder. I think they taste great, and I ground the coffee fine enough so that there was no textural difference.

The Baked Brownie
Recipe from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
Recipe found on Cakespy

1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons dark cocoa powder
11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60-72%), chopped coarsely
8 ounces butter (2 sticks), cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light colored metal pan 9x13x2 pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, the salt, and cocoa powder.

Configure a large sized double boiler. Place the chocolate, the butter, and the instant espresso powder in the bowl of the double boiler and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler and add both sugars. Whisk the sugars until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. Mixture should be room temperature.

Add three eggs to the chocolate/butter mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not over beat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

Sprinkle the flour/cocoa/salt mix over the chocolate. Using a spatula (DO NOT USE A WHISK) fold the dry into the wet until there is just a trace amount of the flour/cocoa mix visible.

Pour the mixture into the pan and smooth the top with your spatula. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes (rotate the pan half-way through baking) and check to make sure the brownies are completely done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan. The brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving.

Kahlua Brownies

I really loved these brownies...one friend said that the Kahlua wasn't strong enough, but I could definitely tell it apart from other brownies. Another friend, who has never tried Kahlua so didn't know, thought these brownies were the best I've made (though I think he's only tried one other recipe...but oh well, compliment none the less!). Though I am still searching for my favorite plain brownie recipe, these Kahlua brownies are excellent!







Kahlua Brownies
Recipe by Mary Kennedy, found here

Ingredients:
3/4 cup cocoa, unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup melted butter, divided
1/4 cup boiling water, 1/4 cup Kahlua
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation:
Directions for chocolate brownies
In a large bowl, combine cocoa and baking soda; blend in 1/3 cup melted butter. Add boiling water and Kahlua; stir until well blended. Stir in sugar, beaten eggs and remaining 1/3 cup butter. Stir in flour and salt. Stir nuts and the chocolate chips into chocolate brownies batter. Pour chocolate brownie batter into a greased 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes or until chocolate brownies are firm and begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool before cutting into squares.

Chocolate-Pumpkin Layered Brownies

Last Saturday I made these to bring to my friend's Halloween party. I didn't have a square pan, so I stuck them in a 9-inch round pan and they worked fine. I also cut the brownies smaller and it made a lot more that 16--they were pretty tall brownies so it didn't matter that I cut them smaller. They were a big hit! I thought the pumpkin flavor was the perfect amount!

Chocolate-Pumpkin Layered Brownies
Recipe by Martha Stewart

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups solid-pack pumpkin
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts or other nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan or dish. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper; butter lining.

Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, cayenne, and salt in a large bowl; set aside. Put sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat until fluffy and well combined, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in flour mixture.

Divide batter between two medium bowls (about 2 cups per bowl). Stir chocolate mixture into one bowl. In other bowl, stir in pumpkin, oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Transfer half of chocolate batter to prepared pan smoothing top with a rubber spatula. Top with half of pumpkin batter. Repeat to make one more chocolate layer and one more pumpkin layer. Work quickly so batters don't set.

With a small spatula or a table knife, gently swirl the two batters to create a marbled effect. Sprinkle with nuts.

Bake until set, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack. Cut into 16 squares.

Hershey's Best Brownies

This is the first thing I tried to bake in my oven! For these brownies, I had to turn the oven to 400 degrees to get it to 350...but the next thing I baked got the oven to the right temperature. I wanted to double the original recipe and was afraid of getting poor results because there were SO many mixed reviews. Most people absolutely loved them and thought they were best, but there were a few who said they were terrible. I followed reviews and changed the recipe from doubling it exactly.

When I took these out of the oven, I thought they were burnt, but it turned out that they were fine. I don't really know how they turned out--I ate one fresh from the oven and it was a little hard to tell, because I just wanted to make sure it wasn't burnt--but out of all the people who ate them (there were a lot) there was one person who I could tell genuinely said they were really good. I don't think people thought they were the BEST brownies, but at least they weren't BAD.

Hershey's Best Brownies
Adapted by me from Hershey's

1 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup Unsweetened Cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Heat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

Stir together melted butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl. Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl, then mix with butter and sugar mixture. In another bowl mix flour, cocoa, baking pwder and salt. Gradually add to egg mixture, blending until just mixed. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan or until a toothpick comes out clean. Be careful not to overbake. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.