Outrageous Oreo Crunch Brownies

I came across these brownies when I was looking through other blogs and I knew instantly that I had to make these! I love Oreos. They are one cookie that you can’t really replicate at home, and why would you want to? (There are quite a few bloggers who are making homemade Oreos, but I don’t think I’m going to try that recipe.) Oreos are one of the few store bought cookies that I really like.

I was pretty shocked that the recipe here was only half of the original recipe. It still had a lot of butter and chocolate! I had my husband help me chop the Oreos. He wanted the smash them rather than chop them, but I’m not sure that work have worked as well. I wanted nice big chunks for the brownies.

These brownies had a lot of similarities to the spiced chocolate cake that I made earlier this week. You melt the chocolate and the butter together rather than creaming the butter with sugar. This makes for a couple more pans to wash, but that’s ok. The brownie batter was nice and thick and had lots of Oreo chunks. They baked up perfectly and have a nice little flaky crust on the top, which is common when you have a bar cookie with a lot of chocolate!

Since I make these in the evening after work, it is always a battle to get them baked and completely cooled in one evening. It seems like I never leave work on time these days, so that makes it a big challenge to get things done. I cooled them as much as I could before cutting, but I think that I could have cut the bars more cleanly if they were completely chilled. C’est la vie!

These are some dense brownies! Maybe they could have been baked a touch longer, but they are very fudgy and gooey. I don’t think that you can taste the Oreo all that much. Maybe it’s because they are still a little warm and really soft. I thought the Oreo flavor would be more distinct, but they are still a very wonderful decadent brownie.

2 sticks butter
8 ounces chocolate chips
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee granules
1 tablespoons vanilla
1 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped Oreo cookies (25 cookies)

Preheat to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9"x13" baking pan.

In a heatproof medium bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, heat butter, chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate until melted and smooth. Allow to cool slightly.

In a large mixer bowl, combine eggs, coffee, vanilla and sugar and mix until combined. Mix in the melted chocolate/butter mixture; cool to room temperature.

In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup flour, baking powder and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the batter. In a small bowl, stir Oreos and remaining 2 tablespoons flour. Stir the Oreos into the batter by hand. Spread the batter into baking pan and smooth top with a rubber spatula.

Bake 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 3 inches from center comes out clean; do not overbake. Allow to cool. Refrigerate, tightly wrapped, until cold; cut into squares.

Recipe from eat me, delicious. Original recipe from Ina Garten

Spiced Chocolate Cake

I made this cake to celebrate another birthday at work. It seems like I make a lot of things for birthdays, but honestly I don’t work that that many people! The birthday girl is quite a foodie, so I wanted to make something a little unusual. I also had very little time to make this cake, only an hour or so, so I needed to find something that was quick and also something that I had all of the ingredients. I came across this cake and thought I would give it a try.

I have baked other items that contained pepper, so I wasn’t too afraid of that. I was a little afraid of cayenne, so I went a little shy of the measure called for in the recipe. I also substituted a mix of unsweetened and semi-sweet chocolate since I was out of bittersweet chocolate. The cake came together with no problem at all, very straight-forward.

The cake baked nicely, but the cake seemed really dense! I was hoping that it wouldn’t be too dry. It did contain a lot of chocolate, so I figured that was why it was so dense. The original recipe called for a simple topping of melted chocolate, but I wanted to add something that would add a little moisture, so I found this ganache glaze that would stay soft even after it cooled. I’m glad I went that route. I added some chocolate sprinkles to fancy it up a bit.

The cake was dense but it wasn’t really dry. I may have over mixed the batter a touch, as it had a couple of air bubbles that were larger than I would have liked. You could taste the spice, but it was very subtle. I think that some people who had the cake wouldn’t have liked it to be any spicier, but others would have been ok with more heat. I liked the subtleness of the spice; it was kind of like a slow burn in the back of your throat. I really liked the flavors all together. I may try to find more recipes with this type of flavor mix!

1/4 cup cocoa

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

6 ounce bittersweet chocolate

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan and line with parchment paper. Butter the parchment paper and dust the pan with cocoa. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and cayenne. In a double boiler over simmering water, melt 6 ounces chocolate and butter. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and brown sugar until mixture thickens and increases in volume, about 5 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low, add the melted chocolate and the vanilla, and stir until combined. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven until cake springs back when lightly touched in the center, about 30 minutes. When cool, top with the chocolate ganache glaze.

Chocolate Ganache Glaze

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

½ cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons water

Place chopped chocolate in a heat-proof bowl, set aside. In a small saucepan, combine the heavy cream, sugar and water. Bring the mixture to a full boil and then pour the liquid over the chocolate. Allow to stand for 30 seconds. Carefully stir the mixture, starting with small circles and generally increasing the circumference of the stir. Allow the glaze to set slightly before pouring over the cooled cake. Smooth the glaze with a small metal spatula.

Cake recipe from Country Living. Glaze recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Tuesdays with Dorie: Caramel Crunch Bars

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection was chosen by Whitney of What’s left on the table? Check out Whitney’s blog for the complete recipe. I love making cookies, so I was happy to try this recipe. I’ve made things similar to this cookie, but I liked that this one was topped with toffee chips. I’m a big fan of toffee chips!

This is a fairly simple recipe, with a cookie base that includes some chopped chocolate, which is then topped with melted chocolate and the toffee chips. I didn’t have any problems with this recipe at all. I was a little worried that I would have problems spreading the dough in the pan evenly, but that wasn’t too bad. I just know that when the dough has to cover a large area, I’d just better use my hands to spread the dough rather than a spatula. My hands are much better tools.

I used dark chocolate for the chocolate topping. I think that I should have used regular dark chocolate because the chips weren’t that willing to melt completely. I had to stick it in the oven for an extra minute or so to make sure that it completely melted. It was a little hard to spread the chocolate all the way to the edges since the edges were a little higher than the middle.

The cookies are pretty good, but they taste different that I expect. My husband said that he expects the crust to be like a chocolate chip cookie, but it isn’t that soft. It’s a lot thinner and a bit crunchy. The flavors are good. The toffee is a nice flavor that balances well with the dark chocolate. I think you can really taste the espresso powder that is in the dough too. These were really good with my morning coffee.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 112

Gingerbread White Chocolate Blondies

I was looking through one of the cookbooks that I got for Christmas to look for this week’s cookie recipe. I marked a couple of different cookies and then had one of my colleagues choose which ones to bake. She picked these gingerbread white chocolate blondies. I guess gingerbread is a little Christmas-y, but I love ginger and I was happy to give these a try.

Unlike most bar cookies that are made in a 9 x 13 inch pan or even a 9 inch square pan, these are made in a half sheet pan, 12 x 17 inches. Luckily, I had gotten a half sheet pan for Christmas. My regular cookies sheets were just a tad short of the half sheet size, and I’m sure that they would have worked had I not had this new pan. The dough came together with no problem, although there was a lot of it! Instead of trying to spread the batter, I moistened my hands a bit and pressed the dough into pan. It’s a big pan so I had to make sure that I got the batter spread all the way to the edges.

I baked them for 25 minutes, and I probably should have taken them out of the oven a minute or two sooner as they were quite browned on the edges. I let them cool for about 45 minutes and they were cool enough to remove from the pan. Since the pan was lined with parchment, I was able to completely remove them from the pan completely and cut them on a cutting board. They were still a touch warm but they cut so easily! I tasted the over-browned edges and they were really fabulous. But then again, I love anything with ginger!

2-3/4 cups plus one tablespoon flour

1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1-1/4 teaspoons salt

1-1/4 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon cloves

1-1/4 cups butter, softened

1-1/4 cups packed brown sugar

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs plus one egg yolk

1-1/4 teaspoons vanilla

1/3 cup molasses

10 ounces white chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12 x 17 inch rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment and spray the parchment with nonstick spray.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and spices in a bowl and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes, until creamy and pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Scrape down the side of the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and the molasses and stir until combined. Add the flour mixture and stir on low speed until combined. Stir in the white chocolate.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan and bake until golden on edges, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely until cutting into squares.

Recipe from Martha Stewart’s Cookies

Tuesdays with Dorie: Devils Food White Out Cake

This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe was selected by Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater . She chose the Devils Food White Out Cake, which is the cover recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours. I think a lot of people were waiting for this recipe to be picked and I was very excited to try the recipe. One of my colleagues is about to have a baby, so this was the perfect cake to take for the celebration of her last day at work before the baby comes.

I actually had to buy new pans to make this cake, since in calls for 8 inch round pans and my pans are 9 inch. I luckily had a gift card to the kitchen store so I was able to add some nice new pans to my collection. This recipe is a fudge chocolate cake. You cake it and then split the layers. One of the layers you crumble up and use it as a topping. My cakes baked up nicely (I’m sure because of my nice new pans) and I cooled them overnight. I hadn’t split cake layers in quite a few years and I was happy that it worked so well. My cakes looked really nice.

I typically use a simple buttercream when I frost cakes, but this recipe called for a marshmallow-y frosting make of whipped egg whites and a sugar syrup. The recipe cautioned you about making sure that the sugar mixture gets to the right temperature to add to the egg whites when they are whipped. The recipe said to start mixing the egg whites when the syrup was just a few degrees from being done. This seemed off to me and I started whipping the egg whites when I started heating the sugar syrup. I’m glad I did, since my syrup got to temperature before the whites were stiff. In the end my sugar syrup got a bit hotter than it should have, but it turned out ok.

Assembling the cake was unexpectedly easy! The frosting was nice and light so it spread easily. I usually make extra frosting when icing cakes because I need the extra frosting to successfully cover the cake. I had plenty of icing and I was able to fill the cake and frost it using a generous amount of frosting. It looked great! I put the crumbs over the entire cake, not just the sides.

I haven’t cut the cake yet, so I can’t comment on the final assembled cake. The frosting was tasty and the cake crumbs taste good, so I think this will be a big success. I had a hard time photographing this cake, so I’m sorry that my photos aren’t very good. Hopefully I will be able to take some more photos once the cake has been cut.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 247