Secret Recipe Club: Mounds Brownies

                             

This month for the Secret Recipe Club, the recipe swap in which you receive a blog and can choose any recipe to make, I received the Cookaholic Wife.  I have been following Nichole's blog for about 2.5 years now.  When I received her blog, I already had several recipes pinned that I wanted to try and from going through it again I found several other ones to try.  I found a ton of recipes for muffins and a great looking taco calzone recipe. 

Since this month's Secret Recipe Club coincided with Memorial Day, I knew right away that I'd make a dessert from her blog.  I was torn between her cannoli cupcakes and these.  Since my abilities to frost cupcakes is very poor, I decided these brownies were the treat I'd make for our Memorial Day get together.

Mounds Brownies
from Cookaholic Wife
Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut 
pinch of salt
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

 Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 325 and line an 8x8 baking dish with enough foil that the edges hang over the sides of the pans a little. Spray with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

2) Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Slowly whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Remove from the heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

3) Then whisk in the eggs to the cocoa powder mixture until combined. Next, add the sugar, vanilla, flour and salt.

4) Spread half of the mixture evenly into the prepared baking dish.

5) In another bowl, combine the coconut, salt and condensed milk together. Drop spoonfuls on top of the brownie batter. Top with the remaining batter and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

7) Let cool completely on a wire rack before transferring to the refrigerate to chill for a few hours. 

 

 

I don't remember ever having mounds bars, but if they taste like these brownies, I might start eating them more often.  I loved the coconut in the brownies.  The brownie batter created this deep rich fudgey brownie that was great with the coconut.  These brownies in less time than it took to make them...very delicious.  I'll definitely be making these again.

 

Please check out the other SRC member posts below.

 

 



 



12 Weeks of Christmas Treats: Salted Caramel Brownies

One of my favorite things during the holiday season is a Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate.  When it is cold outside, it warms you up and provides the comfort of chocolate with the great taste of caramel and that hint of salt. 

I ran across a recipe for Salted Caramel Brownies and knew that I had to make these for the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats.  What is better in the cold than hot chocolate and a salted caramel brownie?  Not much. 


12 Weeks of Christmas Treats is being hosted by Brenda from Meal Planning Magic.  Head to her blog to check out the details and how to join. 

Salted Caramel Brownies
brownie recipe from Food Network
salted caramel recipe from Pip & Ebby
Ingredients
Brownies

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Salted Caramel
2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2) Stir together the sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs in a medium bowl. Add the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder all at once and stir until just combined.
3) Bake until the brownies begin to pull away from the edge of the pan and set in the center, 30 to 35 minutes.
4) For caramel, combine sugar, whipping cream, and corn syrup in a large sauce pan.  Set your heat to high and cook, stirring, until the mixture reaches 250 degrees. It took me about 20 minutes to reach this point.
5) When caramel reaches 250 degrees, stir in sea salt and sour cream.
6) Spread the caramel over the brownies and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt.
7) Chill until the caramel sets.

I loved these brownies.  I loved the crunch of the salt on top of the caramel.  Even after chilling mine, the caramel was still difficult (messy to get out of the pan, drooping down the brownie), but it was worth it because these are delicious.  They'd be a great accompaniment to the salted caramel hot chocolate. 

What's Baking?: S'mores Brownies

Growing up in the military means a lot of moving, a lot of new homes, and a lot of new friends.  Unfortunately, for me, it also meant that I don't have a lot of attachments to places.  People often ask me my favorite place, and I can't begin to wrap my mind about how to decide that.

The theme for this baking challenge was something that reminded us of a happy place.  The one place in my mind that I keep going back to in my head though is Oregon.  I've only been there a few times and it is always for vacation, but there is something that I love about it.  Every time I go there, we go to the beach and do s'mores while the sun is setting.  It is just such a perfect scene paired with something gooey and finger-licking good that I guess in my mind, it has become my happy place.

Nicole on Prevention, R.D. posted these brownies for a recipe swap that we had not too long ago, and I thought they were perfect for this occasion.  The amazing things about a s'more on a gooey brownie, yes please!

S'mores Brownies
from Prevention, R.D.
Ingredients
1 pack brownie mix (and ingredients called for on the back of the box)
2 cups miniature marshmallows
4 graham crackers, broken into chunks
2 Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bars, broken into the individual segments

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray 9×9-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2) Prepare the brownie mix according to the directions on the box.
3) After baking, remove the pan from the oven and set the oven to broil.
4) Cool brownies for about a minute then sprinkle the marshmallows over the warm brownies. Make sure to cover most of the area.
5) Sprinkle the graham crackers on top of the marshmallows. Broil about 4-5 inches from the heat for 30 seconds to a minute until the marshmallows are golden brown. Watch carefully so that they don’t burn.
6) Sprinkle with Hershey’s milk chocolate bars.

I had one of these and sent them directly up to work with my husband.  They were absolutely fantastic.  He came home with a completely empty tray and several requests for the recipe.  We had a couple over for dinner last night and the guy said that they were one of the best brownies he had ever had.  These definitely transported me back to the memories of Oregon even though I am nowhere remotely close to Oregon.  Someday I hope that my kids and I can watch a sunset while eating S'mores...or maybe I'll whip up a batch of these S'more brownies instead.