Straight up Brownies

Another Brownie Recipe! Can you tell what we like? Mmmmmmmm!



Last night we had a weather advisory so we didn't plan a thing for the weekend. That lack of planning left me intensely stir crazy! So today was play, bake, shop, laundry, bake, eat, clean day. I made some pretty epic brownies today so I think I'll share those. What made them so cool was adding peanut butter cups right before baking but I'll share the Betty Crocker recipe as well. I wish I would have remembered Andrea's recipe on this site because I had all of the ingredients and would not have had to venture out to the store today. But I forgot and so I had to go out and get baking chocolate. I bought Ghirardelli 70% Cacao Extra Bittersweet Baking Chocolate instead of using Unsweetened and then added two tablespoons Ghirardelli cocoa powder to make it super chocolatey!

Here's the recipe: Betty Crocker Ultimate Brownie Recipe

Here's what else: I didn't put nuts in it - we don't eat them in anything at our house so I pretty much always omit them. Instead I chopped up a bunch of (6-7) mini peanut butter cups and sprinkled those on top before I baked. I think marshmallows, m&ms, chopped up caramels, chocolate chips, oreos, coconut or any mixture of them would be awesome too!

Word to the wise - don't count on your non-stick pans for these (I had to throw away a whole pan of mini brownies because of lazy greasing).

Facebake

There's a post going around Facebook along the lines of: The first five people who comment on this post will receive something handmade by me in 2011. In turn they must post this as their status.

At first I wasn't so keen on the idea...but then I saw the cutest little Sculpey pets made for this by my friend Jeanette. They're really super adorable and I wanted in on it! So I took the bait and within minutes had 5 people who wanted handmade stuff.

Since I just learned to knit and it would take me a century to make 5 of something (not to mention that I'm very selfishly knitting myself a blanket right now) I decided to do what I do best (no, not talk!) BAKE!

Parallel to this Facebook thing I am also in an unofficial and very one sided (mine) baking competition with the wife of a guy who works with my husband. My husband messaged me at work the other day that he had just tasted the best brownies. Seriously? The best? I doubt it but just in case I'd better make some and make them more awesome than anyone else can make them!

I decided to make Cranberry Cinnamon Chip bar cookies from

Our Best Bites and brownie covered Oreos from Picky Palate and they both turned out awesome!

I couldn't find cinnamon chips for the Cranberry Cinnamon Chip Bars so I used double the white chocolate chips suggested and then dusted the coconut layer with cinnamon. Also, I couldn't find cranberries quick enough in the grocery store (Dino was with me and fading fast!) so I bought dried mixed berries and last I substituted almonds for the nuts because that's what we like around here. With all of those changes they still turned out great!

The brownie covered Oreos were the greatest brownies ever that my husband told me about. They're really easy and fun to make. Since I'm shipping them I made them in cupcake wrappers and I used Double Stuff Oreos. I've gotten the thumbs up by both guys tonight so I do believe I win!