Brownie Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies

As I mentioned in my last post with the orange cookies I did not like chocolate during my pregnancy, so it's a good thing I just found this recipe recently. I probably wouldn't have given it a second look a few months ago. These were delicious. How could you mix brownies and chocolate chip cookies and not turn out awesome? I'm going to print the recipe as I found it, but I added a little more brownie batter than the recipe called for cause I thought I would want them a little more chocolatey. Then the dough seemed a little too wet so I added some flour. Just play with it so the cookies turn out how you like them. I thought mine turned out pretty darn good.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup prepared brownie mix, chilled
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with a silpat liner or parchment paper. (I used my stoneware cookie sheets without a liner or paper, so I'm not sure if they're really necessary with metal pans...)
2. Beat the butter and sugars until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla until well combined. Add brownie batter, mixing until well combined.
3. Place flour, salt and soda into a large bowl, mixing to combine. Add to wet ingredients, mixing to combine and then add chocolate chips to combine. With a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until cookies are cooked through. Let cookies cool slightly before transferring to a cooling rack. Enjoy with a large glass of milk.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies!

I'm warning you right now if you love PB and choc, you will NOT be able to stop eating these!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies! 1½ cups all-purpose flour ½ cup unsweetened cocoa ½ teaspoon baking soda ¼ teaspoon salt ½ cup granulated sugar (plus more for rolling) ½ cup packed brown sugar ½ cup unsalted butter, softened 1 cup creamy peanut butter, divided 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 egg ¾ cup powdered sugar Preheat oven to 375º F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Make the peanut butter inside FIRST. In a medium bowl, mix together powdered sugar and ¾ cup of peanut butter until smooth. Shape little balls and place them on a wax or parchment paper lined sheet, and freeze. While they’re freezing, make the cookie dough. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together sugars, butter and ¼ cup of peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg, beating to combine. Stir in the flour mixture and stir to combine, blending well. Set aside. Pull off a heaping tablespoon of cookie dough and flatten with your hands. Remove the frozen insides (just a few at a time, They thaw quickly for shaping, rolling and squishing) and wrap the soft cookie dough around the hard middles, pressing to seal. Roll the cookie into a ball and roll the cookie in the sugar. Place cookies on the prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart. Using the bottom of a glass, flatten each cookie to about a ½ inch thickness. Bake in preheated oven for 7 to 9 minutes. Let stand on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then remove to a wire rack.

Smores Cookie Bars

Hello! That's what I said when I ate one of these little goodies. If you like smores then you are in for a treat!..and you better like smores or I don't know if we can be friends :)

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 king-sized Hershey chocolate bars

1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8x8 square baking pan.

In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. In small bowl whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.

Divided dough in half and press half of the dough into an even layer on the bottom or the pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme. Place remaining dough on top of the marshmallow (most easily acheived my flattening dough into small shingles and layering them together with hands)

Bake for 30 minutes, cool before cutting.

Chocolate Mousse Trifle

Ok, so I really can't take any credit for how delicious this dessert turned out. Once you see what it consists of you'll see it just had to be pretty amazing. I wanted to make a trifle for home evening treat last night; a good amount of the fam involved doesn't love fruit so I knew I needed a non-fruity trifle. I LOVE chocolate mousse so I decided to kind of combine a few recipes to come up with this chocolate mousse brownie concoction. This simple mousse recipe could be eaten plain or with anything else that mousse generally goes with. Also I made the whole thing and let it chill for about two hours before serving, but it was even better today because the mousse had really set up, so if at all possible I would recommend preparing it the day before serving. I'm sure this trifle would also be good if you substituted chocolate pudding for the mousse (but not as good). Also I'm sure you could use chocolate pound cake (or yellow pound cake for that matter) instead of brownies.



Chocolate mousse (8 servings)
1 C semisweet chocolate
4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla
2 C heavy whipping cream
2 Tbs sugar

Melt chocolate (I prefer double boiler method for melting chocolate, but how ever you do it just make sure not to scorch chocolate); stir until smooth. Stir a couple large spoonfuls of melted chocolate into beaten egg yolk - mix well (this is to ensure that the yolk doesn't turn into scrambled eggs when you add it to the hot melted chocolate); add chocolatey yolk to melted chocolate. Cook on low-medium heat (again, double boiler method) and stir for 2-3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Cool, stirring several times.
In a mixing bowl, beat whipping cream until it begins to thicken. Add sugar; beat until soft peaks form. Fold cooled chocolate mixture into the whipped cream. Cover and refrigerate. The longer the mousse is refrigerated the better it sets up.

Trifle:
Bake a 9x13 pan of brownies. Let brownies cool. Cut into 1 inch squares.
Place half of the brownie squares in trifle dish (or other tall bowl if you don't have a trifle bowl).
Spread half of the mousse mixture over the brownies.
Chop up some chocolate (I used Symphony chocolate, but anything would work...even chocolate chips) and sprinkle over mousse mixture.
Spread whipped cream over mousse. I had some Cool Whip left over from something I made a while back so I used that, but I think it would be OH SO GOOD with fresh whipped cream. I don't know exact measurements on the cream and the chocolate chunks because I just winged it, but just use how ever much you want and it will turn out just fine.
Repeat the layers with the other half of the ingredients...brownies - mousse - chocolate chunks - whipped cream; and then top off with some shaved chocolate to make it look pretty. Cover and refrigerate. (You want the mousse to set up for 2-24 hours; it doesn't matter if it sets up before putting the whole thing together or after, but just make sure you give it some time in the fridge one way or the other).

I'm telling you, this is rich and it is good. It sounds like a lot of work, but the most time-consuming part was letting the chocolate and the brownies cool. The actual hands-on work wasn't bad at all. Prepare for some clogged arteries and enjoy :)