Chipster Topped Brownies

A couple months ago I purchased by very first Dorie Greenspan cookbook. "Baking: From My Home to Yours" is an enormous tome, too heavy to cart around but too exciting to leave behind. Since I received it I've been busy trying out several things, but I haven't shared any with you yet. Allow these Chipster Topped Brownies to be the first of many.

I've actually made a similar recipe to these, but they were judged on the dry side, and never repeated. But these? Nobody could ever call these dry. These and rich, decadent, soft and chewy. One bite is enough for a chocolate coma, but still, you persist.

The amount of chocolate in both of the batters is truly incredible. Never again do you have to choose between brownie and blondie.

Tip of the Day: You can play around with the chocolate you use in this recipe - I stuck to semisweet, but you can use unsweetened, bittersweet, even milk chocolate chips in the top layer if you desire.

Recipe: (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: from My Home to Yours)

For the brownie layer:
9 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 sticks (8 ounces) butter or margarine
1 2/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
½ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla
1 cup flour

For the cookie layer:
1 ¼ cups flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 ½ sticks (12 tablespoons) butter or magarine, softened
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks

Brownie layer: Melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring until melted and combined.

Beat the sugar and eggs together until pale and creamy. Add in the salt and vanilla.

On low speed, pour in the chocolate mixture, mixing until combined.

Add the flour, mix until no white streaks remain. Pour batter in to a greased and lined 9x13" pan and set aside.

Cookie dough: Beat the butter and sugars together until smooth and creamy.

Add in the egg, and then the egg yolk, beating between additions. Beat in the vanilla.

Pour in the flour, baking soda and salt and mix until just combined.

Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop the dough by spoonfuls over the brownie batter, and gently spread evenly.

Bake on 350 F for 50 to 55 minutes. Cool in the pan.

Snickerdoodle Blondies

I love blondies, and I love snickerdoodles, so Snickerdoodle Blondies definitely caught my eye!
The great thing about these blondies was how easy they were to mix up: just a quick batter of the basics - all ingredients I, and most people, keep around in their pantries.

Press the mixture down into a 9x13" pan, as you can see, I used my fingers.
Then the dough gets sprinkled liberally with a cinnamon-sugar mixture, meant to imitate the coating found on traditional snickerdoodles.
As it bakes up, the cinnamon and sugar browns and creates a delicious, sweet topping for the blondies.
I really liked these - they were so easy to make, and really delicious, plus an interesting variation on traditional blondies. They had almost a raw cookie dough texture - really rich and chewy, while still being fully cooked. I recommend these for anyone!
Tip of the Day: Keep your brown sugar tightly sealed so that it doesn't turn hard. If it does, you can try and revive it by microwaving it next to a cup of water for two to three minutes.

Recipe: (from My Baking Addiction)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
2 2/3 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt

Topping:
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsps cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg

Beat the butter and brown sugar together. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix well.
Mix in vanilla.
Gradually stir in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
Press into a greased, 9x13" pan.
Combine the cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg for the topping and sprinkle on top, using all of the mixture.
Bake at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes.
Let cool in pan before cutting.

Double Decker Brownies

One of my co-workers keeps asking me to bring brownies in to work, but I've resisted thus far. Because...brownies? Not much of a challenge there - you can get some pretty good ones with 30 minutes and a box mix. So when I stumbled across these double decker brownies, I knew I had to make them for the office.
The recipe starts out with two pretty simple batters: one brownie-like and one blondie-like. Lucky for me, the recipe called for three egg whites - the exact amount I had left from making the lemon drop cookies before! Things are just working out this week.
The top, blondie layer, calls for M&Ms to be mixed in, but I went with chocolate chips instead. This is another one of those recipes where a multitude of mix-ins could be used.

First I spread the brownies bottom in the greased pan, and then the blondie on top. I suppose you could switch them around if you wanted as well. The top layer was a little harder to spread without disturbing the brownie underneath, but it was doable.
See? I managed.
If you didn't know better, you'd never even know about that secret layer of brownies underneath.
Until you cut into them of course. On of my coworkers renamed these interracial brownies. I'm all for diversity, so make these now!
Truth is, while these were good, they were not great. And it's all my fault. See I left these in the oven a wee bit too long, and they ended up more like cake than brownie. But cake is good too. I didn't take them for about 34 minutes, but I would recommend not going over 30.

Tip of the Day: While you can buy many different tools to separate eggs, I still think the best one out there is the shell itself. Just crack it open, and catch the yolk in one half, and pour it back and forth until fully separated. You might not get it the first time, but practice makes perfect!

Recipe: (via the M&Ms website)

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3 egg whites and 1 whole egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour, divided
2 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp melted butter
3/4 cup M&M'S or chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars together. Beat in vanilla, egg whites and whole egg.

Gradually add 2 1/4 cups flour, baking powder and salt.

Divide batter in half. To half of dough add mixed melted butter and cocoa, spread evenly into a 9x13" baking pan.

To the other half, stir in 1/4 cup flour and 3/4 cup M&M’S or chocolate chips. Spread over chocolate mixture.

Bake on 375F for 25 to 30 minutes or until edges start to pull away from sides of pan.