Best Brownies EVER

Remember those brownies from way back when?

Well, these are those.  But way better.

The only difference?

Frosting, baby.

The previous frosting was okay, but nothing more than that.  The new frosting that I used on these brownies was from none other than the amazing Joanne Fluke - her Fudge Cupcake frosting recipe.  And best of all, it only uses two ingredients: chocolate chips, which are awesome by anyone's standard, and food of the gods: sweetened condensed milk.

Try mixing amazing with heaven and putting it on a brownie.

Heck yeah.

Fudge Frosting
12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1. Melt chocolate chips in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula.
2. Once melted, stir in sweetened condensed milk and stir constantly for two minutes, or until the frosting is shiny and of spreading consistency.
3. Remove from heat and spread on cooled brownies.

Breaking it down...
Chocolate chips.  YUM.

Melt them.  Try not to eat it now.

Stir in that ambrosia.  Great, now I'm hungry.

Cook 2 minutes and spread.

Once you try these brownies, your life will never be the same.  I suggest cutting them into small bars.  Very small bars.  They are incredibly rich and amazingly awesome.

Lovely Lemon Bar Cookies

Something you should know about me: I'm a chocoholic.

From the huge CHOCOLATE in the category cloud over to the right, it's kind of obvious.

But there is one thing that I love even more than all the chocolate in the world - which is really hard for me to say, I took like 20 minutes prepping for this post - and that's lemon bars.

These lemon bars, specifically.

Best.  Ever.  Period.

The crust is buttery and thick, and the lemon filling isn't too tart or too sweet or too crusty or too dry - it's moist and delicious and although it could be a little thicker to balance out the awesome crust, I think it's just fine.

I swear, if I hadn't been giving these away, I would have eaten the whole pan by myself.

This is a Joanne Fluke recipe, from her very first book, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, like those Black and Whites and the Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies.

And it's soooo awesome.

Lovely Lemon Bar Cookies

2 cups flour

2 sticks cold butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons flour

additional powdered sugar to sprinkle

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease 9x13 pan.
2. Combine flour and powdered sugar in large bowl.
3. Cut sticks of butter into small pieces and cut into the flour-sugar mixture with a pastry blender/in a food processor until it looks like coarse meal.
4. Spread in prepared pan and press in with hands.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden around edges.  Remove from oven, but don't turn oven off.
6. Whisk eggs with fork, and then combine with sugar.  Add lemon juice and zest and mix.  Mix in baking powder and salt.  Add flour and mix thoroughly.
7. Pour lemon mixture over crust.  Return to oven and bake additional 30-35 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and sprinkle additional powdered sugar.  Let cool and cut into bars.  Makes anywhere from 12-36 bars, depending on desired bar size.

Let's break it down now:

Combine flour and powdered sugar...

Add butter, which you want as cold as possible...

Cut it in...

Spread it out and press it down...

And bake for 15 minutes.

Beat eggs...

Add sugar...

Mix, then combine with lemon juice and zest.  Add baking powder and salt...

...and combine.

Add flour...

...and mix thoroughly.

Pour over baked crust...

...and bake for 30 minutes.  Then sprinkle on that powdered sugar, let it cool, slice it up, and EAT.

Yeah, I cut mine into 12 bars.  No, I don't want to know what the calorie count was.  No, I didn't want to share.  But I did.  Which makes me a good person.  Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed these.

Hope you enjoy them too!
-JJ

Roasted Banana Cinnamon Rolls

There's a really good word to describe these cinnamon rolls: yum.

They may not be as soft as those Pillsbury ones or those really big, fat juicy rolls from professional bakeries, but their taste totally makes up for it.

Them's got bananas.

Roasted bananas.  Which make the entire house smell ah-mazing when you make them.

It's the same smell - but better and sweeter - when you wrap bananas in foil and stick them in the campfire.  If you've never done that, do - make slits in your banana and fill it with chocolate chips.  When it's done, each bite = heaven.

But enough of that.  Back to yummy cinnamon rolls, which are perfect for breakfast, second breakfast, etc.

Mention of these I found at Love From The Oven, and the actual recipe is from Picky Palate.

Roasted Banana Cinnamon Rolls

REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER

2 ripe bananas

2 tablespoons UNSOFTENED butter plus 4 tablespoons SOFTENED butter, divided

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar, divided

1 roll Pillsbury French Bread Loaf

1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 cup powdered sugar

3-4 tablespoons heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Cut bananas into (approximately) 1/4-inch slices.  Cut unsoftened butter into small pieces.  Place bananas and butter into a small baking dish.  Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons brown sugar.
3. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden and bubbly.  Remove and let cool 10 minutes.  Mash roasted bananas with fork until well combined.
4. Unroll French Bread Loaf.  Spread with softened butter.  Sprinkle with 1/2 cup brown sugar and cinnamon.
5. Place dollops of banana mixture evenly on the sprinkled loaf.  Roll it up long ways and cut into approximately 12 slices with a sharp knife.  Place slices on parchment-paper-lined baking sheet.
6. Bake 25-30 minutes or until just turning golden brown.  Remove and let cool 10 minutes.
7. Whisk powdered sugar and heavy cream until combined; drizzle/spoon over top of rolls.  Makes 12 rolls.

Breaking it down:

Cut up ripe bananas...

...and unsoftened butter.

Place in a baking dish (I didn't have anything good to use so I just stuck it in a glass pie plate - worked just fine!) and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons brown sugar.

Bake 25 minutes.  The bananas will start to look sort of golden and bubbly before, but you really want them looking exactly like this:

And mash 'em up with a fork!

Unroll your French Bread Loaf...

Butter it...

Sprinkle with brown sugar (I spread it with a knife)...

...and cinnamon (again, spreading with a knife works well to get even distribution).

Glop (totally technical term) banana mash on there...

And roll it up "hot-dog-style" - basically so that it's as long as possible - and cut into 12 pieces.  I got 14, including the dinky end pieces without any banana in them.  Place on a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet...

...and bake 25-30 minutes.  If you don't like your cinnamon rolls hard/crunchy, I'd bake them a bit less.  Watch those puppies like a hawk.

Now appreciate the yum.

Whisk powdered sugar and heavy cream...

...and if you're sophisticate, you'll drizzle it over your rolls.  If you're like me, you'll glop it on with a spoon and then eat the rest of it with that spoon.

Serve warm, cold, whatever - they're awesome any way.

Good morning to ya!
-JJ

Casino Party!

So.  I had a casino-themed party, complete with dance floor and card games, and oh, did I mention the cake pops?

Yep, dice cake pops.  I made over 150 for this party.  It's sort of sad.  Almost.

Needless to say, they were a hit.  I served them in styrofoam boxes decorated to look like really huge dice.

I also served Shrimp Louie Spread, which has quickly become a favorite amongst my family members, if not my friends.

I like it bests on water crackers, but Ritz and other buttery crackers work, too.  The worst part about the spread is that after chopping all that salad shrimp, you can't seem to get the smell off you.  Even after taking a ridiculously long shower.  (Personal experience :D)  So I recommend making the spread the day before.  And then airing out your kitchen.

But what's a party without decorations?

I made my own homemade dice decorations, and so can you with this simple how-to:

You will need: A pencil, a dry-erase marker/really dark, big Sharpie, white boxes, and something to trace around.  Shot glasses and quarters work well.

Trace circles around your glass/coin on the sides of the box.

Use a pencil first!

The circles don't have to be absolutely beautiful, don't worry.

Trace a fairly-smooth circle with your Expo marker or Sharpie...

And then fill it in.  And after a few of these circles, you'll have your very own dice boxes.

As for the rest of the house, I draped green cloths over the tables to make them look more Vegas-like...

Hung red lights adorned with old playing cards (from a not-as-full-as-I'd-like-it deck and hole-punched with a small amount of care)...

...and decorated the rooms with these awesome things.  I don't even know what to call them, but they're really cool.  And I have no idea where I got them.

It was a blast.  And so worth the hours of dipping cake pops.
-JJ

Dice Cake Pops

Woot!  An original recipe!  Sorry, I just have to celebrate my little victories. :) It makes me a happier person.

There's a party behind these cake pops.  Casino-themed, naturally.  So dice make perfect sense!  Cake-dice on sticks make just as much sense, practically, so there ya have it, my inspiration.

Btdubbs, I am extremely proud of these pops.  As of today, I have made about 150 of these babies.  Yeah, that's right.  I am a dice-cake-pop-making machine.

I used Bakerella's yellow cake and vanilla frosting recipes, both of which can be found in my recent post about cupcakes.

Dice Cake Pops

REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER, ROOM TEMP MILK, ROOM TEMP EGGS

REQUIRES CHILLING TIME

REQUIRES HARDENING TIME

1 cake

1 Bakerella-sized batch of frosting OR 3/4 can frosting

1-2 bags Target white chips (you can use Nestle if you want, but Target's chips work better for coating)

1 bag mini chocolate chips

50 lollipop sticks

Oil

Styrofoam block

1. Bake your cake.  (And make your frosting, if you're doing it totally home-made - WHICH I REALLY RECOMMEND!!!)
2. Crumble your cake into a large bowl.  Add frosting and combine with a wooden spoon.
3. Form cake and frosting mixture into cubes.  Place cubes on wax paper and store in an airtight container in a refrigerator overnight.
4. Melt white chocolate chips and oil in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water - don't let the surface of the water touch the bottom of the bowl.
5. Get out about 4 cake cubes at a time.  Dip lollipop sticks into chocolate, then stick into cake cubes.  Coat/dip each cake cube separately.
6. Immediately after dipping, decorate with mini chocolate chips in a dice pattern.  Then dip and decorate the rest of the cake cubes you took out of the fridge.
7. Stick pops into styrofoam block and let them harden completely before storing.
8. Repeat with remaining cake cubes.
9. Store pops in an airtight container at room temperature, in the refrigerator, or in the freezer.  Makes anywhere from 48-64 pops, depending on cube size.

Without further ado, I'll break it down for ya(with details to spare):

The ingredients for the yellow cake... 

Much thanks to Bakerella for her awesome book!  There are so many great tips in there that really helped with the dipping/cooling/storing processes.

So.  Bake your yellow cake.

See the brown edges?  The first time I made these pops (which goes undocumented for a reason), I crumbled that in with the rest of the cake.  Big mistake.  It turns the inside of the pops a suspicious brown-yellow color, that - while it screams "Homemade!" really loudly, in your face - isn't the most appetizing.  So this time, I cut off the brown, sticky edges with a plastic knife and the crumbled cake turned out beautifully:

Whip up that vanilla frosting...

And mix it into the crumbled cake with a wooden spoon.

But... what's this?

Crumbled chocolate cake?  And chocolate frosting?

Yes, I made chocolate cake pops as well!  I used Bakerella's basic recipes for chocolate cake and chocolate frosting:

Chocolate Cake

REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER, ROOM TEMP EGGS, ROOM TEMP MILK

2 1/2 cups flour (spooned and leveled)

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups milk, room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 9x13-inch cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.
3. In another large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing until just combined and scraping down the sights of the bowl after each addition.  Add vanilla and mix well.
4. Add flour mixture a third at a time, alternating with milk in two additions: flour, milk, flour, milk, flour.
5. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.  Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Let cake cool completely (overnight works best) before crumbling.

Chocolate Frosting

REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1-2 teaspoons milk, if needed (probably will be)

1. Cream butter and vanilla until combined.
2. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.
3. Add cocoa and mix until just combined.
4. Add milk if needed to make the frosting creamier.

Now, where were we?

Form your cake-and-frosting mush into cubes...

Here's how you do that in a neat, quick manner: Form the mush into balls...

Then squish on three sides with the bottom of a plate...

...and there you have it!  A perfect-ish cake cube!

Let them chill in the fridge, on wax paper and stored in an airtight container, overnight.  In the meantime, you can begin on the decorations.  They won't last you all night, but they take a good amount of time.  Unfortunately, you can't just stick mini chocolate chips in your coated pops and call it a day.  But what you can do is this...

I'm talking about flicking the tip off the top of each mini chip.  And, of course, eating the leftovers.  Once you get the hang of it, neither task takes too much time.

Nom.  So once your chips are de-tipped and your cubes are hard enough, melt some oil in a metal bowl above a saucepan of water...

NOT that much oil.  That's enough for more than one bag of white chips.  Add a little oil, and a few chips...

...and then add more chips.

You want a consistency like this:

Then TURN THAT BURNER OFF!  The white chocolate doesn't cool for a while, so you'll have plenty of working time.  Actually, I didn't have to remelt the chips at all - I only turned on the burner to add in more chips and oil!
Again, use Target's chips.  They work the best.  I don't know what it is about them, or how fake they are compared to Nestle (whoops, did I say that?), but they are amazing.
Anyways, dip a lollipop stick in the chocolate and stick it into one of your cake cubes.  Then coat the cake cube with chocolate.  I do this by glopping a bunch of white chocolate onto the cube with that mini spatula you've been seeing...

...and smoothing off the sides with a toothpick.

As soon as you finish coating a pop, stick your prepared chocolate chips into the sides - otherwise the chocolate will harden and you won't be able to decorate the pop.  Be sure to alternate how many chips are on the top of the pop.  And, if you don't have a die handy to help you, each set of opposite sides adds up to 7.
A quick tip: if your chocolate does start to harden too quickly, you probably have too much oil.  Add more white chips and, if necessary, turn on the burner again until the new chips are melted.  Your chocolate may continue to harden too quickly for another pop, but then it'll slow down and you'll be able to decorate again.
It also helps to stick a pop in a styrofoam block when decorating so that you don't have to hold it.  Just turn the pop when you need to reach the other sides.  Then, leave the pop in the styrofoam to harden.

Once completely hard, the pops can be stored at room temperature a few days, refrigerated for a few more days, or frozen for at least a week.  Just pop them (get it?) into an airtight container and choose your temperature.  They take about two hours to thaw when stored in the freezer, and the cake inside is still slightly cold - although if you ask me, the pops are better when sort of chilly!

Of course, they're delicious at any temperature.  Or with any flavor.

And they will soon disappear.

Like all your money at a casino.

-JJ