01st Aug2011

Mini Cheesecake Brownies

by cupcakedaydreams

I heard about cheesecake day and decided that my mom needed cheesecake brownies.  Luckily, I had a box of brownie mix and a couple of cream cheese bars (pretty much a staple in my house for frosting or cheesecake or bagels).

Cheesecake Brownie BatterI made the brownies according to the box and then mixed up the cheesecake batter.  I attempted to lightly marry the two batters. I didn’t want fully mixed up batter – just marbleized… It kind of worked.  I used a mini scooper to fill the mini cupcake pan.  Sadly, I sprayed the pan with pam thinking it would help keep the brownies from sticking, but instead it just burned the junk out of the first batch. Fail.

Second batch had liners, which I had to painstakingly peel off of each one before I packed them in the boxes.  It was extremely difficult to peel those suckers off and I didn’t want anyone else to have to work that hard for a mini brownie bite.

I think next time I would make a full pan of cheesecake brownies instead of the little minis.  It just didn’t work how I wanted expected.  However, my mom and the dudes building her new stone wall thought they were delicious.

 

Brownie Recipe:

Follow the box. :)

 

Cheesecake Recipe:

2 8oz packages of cream cheese

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

tsp vanilla

squeeze of lemon

Cut the cream cheese in cubes and toss in to food processor.  Add sugar, eggs, vanilla and lemon.  Pulse until combined then let it rip til all the bumps are gone.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Mix the two batters slightly.  Scoop out in to a mini cupcake pan and bake for 12 – 16 minutes. I baked my first batch for 20 minutes and that was way too long.  The cream cheese mix will make little caverns in the brownies – that’s ok. It’ll set and taste delish.  Make sure to fully cool these and even let them set in the fridge for a few hours before serving.

 

 

Category : Box
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23rd May2011

Hazelnut Nutella Brownies

by cupcakedaydreams

No pictures today — just dreamy delicious words…

It’s Tim’s Birthday!!! He thought no one would remember, but alas I baked up some special brownies (no, not that kind of special) last night.

First of all, I’ve never made brownies from scratch and honestly didn’t feel the need to start last night. Ha.  I took a regular brownie box and added a scoop of Nutella, about a cup of chopped hazelnuts and a scoop of homemade fudge.  I’m all about taking a starter recipe (like a box) and adding my own little personal touches to it like heath chips, chocolate chips, fudge, nuts, whatever — I’ve been looking for an excuse to bake with Nutella and thought this would be the perfect.

I don’t know if it’s my oven or me or what, but I always seem to undercook brownies no matter how I time them because I like gooey brownies, not cakey brownies.  I attempted to carefully time these suckers, but still ended up checking them on five minute increments towards the end just to be sure.   I’m extremely inpatient and usually attempt to take the brownies out of the pan way before they’re cooled, which results in losing half the bottom.  I patiently waited while the brownies stared me down from the cooling rack for at least an hour (probably longer than I needed, but I wanted to be sure) and then chopped them up! Yum!

 

Hazelnut Nutella Brownies:

Box of brownie mix (follow recipe – usually oil, water and eggs)

Cup of chopped hazelnuts

2-3 tablespoons Nutella (or one really huge scoop)

 

Mix the brownie mix according to instructions, once combined fold in Nutella and hazelnuts.  Bake and enjoy!

Category : Box, Everything Else
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14th Apr2011

Brownies 2 ways

by jessikamessika

Health chunk espresso fudge brownie cupcakes

I attempted to make Heath chunk espresso fudge brownies on Monday…but they failed miserably. I undercooked them and the middle was way to gooey to serve. Booo.

Why not just pop them back in the oven, you ask…well, by the time I discovered the above mentioned ooey gooeyness, I had let them cool, turned off the oven and was more than halfway done cutting them in to squares. Bummed. I know.

So these brownies have been taunting me all week (and yes, I ate one of the “undercooked” ones last night – it didn’t suck) and I need get rid of them asap! I have a baking date with Cathy tomorrow (for Lolo’s birthday cupcakes – sshhh) but needed to get rid of these brownies because I will eat them and well, I don’t want to eat them all.

Brownie 1:  Chopped up the goey brownies and popped them in some mini chocolate cupcakes.

I discovered these brownie bits were much less ooey when cut in half and then chopped even smaller. Score – we have a garnish!

Brownie 2: Chocolate brownie stuffed minis with cream cheese frosting, topped with a cute little brownie garnish and health bar bits.

I decided to make some cupcakes with brownies, some without, some with health and some without because my coworkers have come to expect a certain level of variety from my baked goods…

Category : Everything Else
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