This recipe for chocolate driedel brownies comes from Hersheys.com and couldn’t be easier — the only special ingredient you’ll need is some blue icing or icing gel for the decorative details.

Chocolate Dreidel Brownies
from hersheys.com

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) white baking chips, divided
1 tablespoon shortening (do not use butter, margarine, spread or oil)
1 tube royal blue decorating icing

~ Heat oven to 350°F. Line 13×9x2-inch baking pan completely with foil, leaving extra on sides for handles.

~ Place butter in large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at HIGH (100%) 2 to 2-1/2 minutes or until melted. Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with spoon after each addition. Add cocoa; beat until well blended. Add flour, baking powder and salt; beat well. Pour batter into prepared pan.

~ Bake 30 to 35 minutes or just until brownies begins to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Invert brownie onto serving tray; peel off foil.

~ Shape into dreidel: About 3-inches from bottom of each long side, cut triangular pieces to bottom center, forming point of dreidel. Cut about 1-inch from top edge; cut in half and attach 1 piece as handle.

~ Place 1 cup white chips and shortening in small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at MEDIUM (50%) 1 minute; stir until mixture is melted and smooth when stirred. Spread on dreidel, about 1-inch from top and 2 sides, forming 7-inch square. Decorate with remaining white chips and decorating icing, if desired. Cut into bars. About 3 dozen brownies.

[image: hersheys.com]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

Mochachino Chocolate Brownies

Brownies:
1/2 cup butter
4 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Frosting:
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons coffee liqueur, or cold coffee
cinnamon

~ Melt butter and chocolate together. Add coffee powder. Stir in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and salt, mix well.

~ Add flour and stir to combine. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

~ Pour into a greased 9 inch square pan. Bake at 325 degrees F. for about 40 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

~ Frosting: In a small bowl beat the butter until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in icing sugar, and continue beating until smooth. Beat in liqueur to combine.

~ Spread frosting over the cooled brownies. Sprinkle cinnamon over top. Cut into squares. Store in the refrigerator.

[image: flickr]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

A “worm” cake would be a big hit at a Halloween party, or as a special treat for a kid’s classroom Halloween party. Using crushed Oreos, gummi worms, chocolate frosting and brownie mix.

Prepare and bake the brownies as directed on the box before letting them cool down a bit to frost. Add some gummi worms on top of the frosting, and crush up about half a pack of Oreo cookies and sprinkle over the top to look like dirt.

You can even add some gummi spiders to the top as well, along with a few worms that have already managed to escape. Do they still make those huge gummi rats? One of those might be a fun addition too! Make sure the brownies are completely cooled before adding the frosting and the gummis or you’ll have a sticky mess on your hands.

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

After a few exchanges back and forth about what she and her husband and their daughters would like for dinner and breakfast, she requested that I also make these brownie buttons, a picture of which I had posted in a private family blog several months back.

I got started on them this morning (they hold up well for a couple of days after baking!) and are one of the easiest things to make. Though it only makes 18 little “buttons,” they’re the perfect treat after dinner, and doesn’t fills you up or makes you feel guilty.

The recipe is from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours (here’s the recipe), and I made a few changes: I didn’t add the orange zest, but I did add about half a cup of finely chopped walnuts, and I decided to dress them up just a bit and dipped the tops in some melted white chocolate.

I store them in a sealed plastic container at room temperature, and though this batch is being saved for tomorrow, the last one wasn’t even last for 24 hours, thanks to an appreciative husband and kids!

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The increased demand for gluten free products has been on the rise for many years, and for those who suffer from celiac disease or just want to eat gluten free, these dessert mixes are a great addition to a growing market.

Celiac disease, an auto-immune disorder that causes digestive distress in individuals who eat any form of wheat flours, affects approximately 1 in every 133 people in the United States, including children and adults:

Celiac Disease (CD) is a lifelong, digestive disorder affecting children and adults. When people with CD eat foods that contain gluten, it creates an immune-mediated toxic reaction that causes damage to the small intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed. ~ celiac.org

The mixes are made with rice flour in place of traditional wheat flours, which is an acceptable grain for those who suffer from the disease. The products are also produced in a gluten free environment.

Have you tried the new dessert mixes?

[image: betty crocker]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

What are your favorite kind of brownies? Do you like them light and cakey, or dense and fudgy? Do you prefer the crispier edge pieces or the gooier middle pieces? Do you like anything added to them, like nuts or chocolate chips, or do you prefer them plain, just a big pan of chocolate yumminess?

Over the last two years I’ve done several posts about brownies, which include Decadent Coconut Swirl Brownies, Marbled Chocolate and Cream Cheese Brownies, Alton Brown’s Cocoa Brownies, Super Bowl Candy Bar Brownies, and Peanut Butter and Chocolate Marble Bars.

There is also more to brownies than just pouring batter into a pan! Martha Stewart’s got a recipe for brownie cookies, and Allrecipes has well-rated one for chewy brownie cookies too.

So tell me, are you going to have brownies at brunch sometime this month?

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Lots of yummy chocolate creations this week! Check out:

~ Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Cupcakes at Miss Cupcake Face

~ Mocha Chocolate Cookies at Baked Alaska

~ Bittersweet Chocolate and Cardamom Cupcakes at Tartlette

~ Chocolate Thumbprints at The Food Librarian

~ Double Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes with Spice Cream Cheese Frosting at Pinch My Salt

~ Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Blondies at Cinemon Girl

~ Fall Chocolate Cookies at Priscilla’s Baking Adventures

~ S’more-dillas at Chaos in the Kitchen

~ Mini Brioches Filled With Chocolate Truffle at Baking for the Cure

~ Quintuple Chocolate Brownies at Dreamy Desserts

~ M&M Studded Fudgy Oreo-Chunk Brownies at The Recipe Girl

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

Like I said, there was some chocolate action happening in my kitchen this weekend! Yesterday I made a batch of Coconut Swirl Brownies that I linked to on Saturday.

They turned out beautifully, but there are a few changes I’m going to make next time, because there will definitely be a next time!

The condensed milk and coconut were a little understated. To pick it up a bit I think I’d probably mix in an ounce or two of softened cream cheese with the milk and coconut mixture, and I’d add some chopped walnuts to the whole thing. I think I might also try a tablespoon or two sour cream with the milk mixture at some point, too!

Coconut Swirl Brownies
from Martha Stewart’s Cookies

Makes 9 large or 16 small

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 large egg white
2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a buttered 8-inch square baking pan with parchment, allowing a 2-inch overhang. Butter lining (not overhang).

Stir together 1 tablespoon of sugar, the condensed milk, coconut, egg white, and 1/4 teaspoon of the vanilla in a bowl.

Put butter and both chocolates in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; stir until melted. Let cool slightly.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Whisk remaining 3/4 cup sugar into chocolate mixture. Add eggs; whisk until mixture is smooth. Stir in remaining 2 teaspoons vanilla. Add flour mixture; stir until well combined.

Pour one-third of the chocolate batter into the prepared pan. Spread evenly with an offset spatula. Drop dollops of the coconut mixture (about 1 tablespoon each) on top of batter, spacing about 1 inch apart. Drizzle remaining batter on top, and gently spread to fill pan. Drop dollops of remaining coconut mixture on top.

Gently swirl coconut mixture into batter with a butter knife, running the knife lengthwise and crosswise through layers. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the brownies comes out with a few crumbs, but is not wet, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool slightly in pan, about 15 minutes. Lift out; let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares.

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

We felt like some brownies yesterday but I wanted to play with them a little bit first!

I just used a box mix (I like the Ghirardelli triple chocolate brownies) because I’m out of cocoa (the horror!), but before I put it into the oven I mixed one 8oz package of softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 egg together until smooth (if it’s too thick you can add a tablespoon or so of water or even coffee), then poured it over the top. Then I used a fork to pull the brownie batter up and around the cream cheese mixture to marble it.

I baked it using the package directions (40 minutes at 325 degrees) but next time I do it (and there’ll definitely be a next time!) I’m going to keep it in at least another 5-10 minutes since the inside was still a little too gooey. But they taste fantastic!

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

Brownies, like many other great inventions, are said to have been the mistake of a careless cook who forgot to put baking powder into a chocolate cake recipe. She ended up with what we now call brownies, and thank heavens she didn’t just toss the pan out without trying them first!

I was watching Food Network last night and caught Alton Brown doing an episode on cocoa, which included him to making the brownies below. I’ve made these before (but didn’t get pictures of them) and they’re delicious!

Cocoa Brownies

Soft butter, for greasing the pan
Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan.

In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it’s done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it’s mostly cool.

Post from: Chocolate Bytes