Magnolia Brownies

I’ve been a fan of this video since it debuted in 2005.  I also decided in 2005 that the next time I went to NYC I would “hit up Magnolia and mack on some cupcakes!”  The next time I went to NYC was in July 2009 for my honeymoon.  Casey is a good husband and a good sport, and so we hoofed it to Greenwich Village and got some of the most expensive delicious cupcakes I’d ever had.  Fast forward a few months.  We were at Barnes and Noble one night and I spotted this book and that was what I got for Christmas that year.  I was so excited, but the recipe I’ve made most often out of the book is the Chocolate Brownies with Cream Cheese Icing.  I make them so much that Casey calls them “my brownies” (we also refer to them as “$20 brownies” because it’s a huge pan of brownies and they’re obviously a bit more pricey to make than say, a Betty Crocker boxed mix).  I’ve made these probably 20 different times and I have making them down to a science. It all starts with butter.  Lots of it.  And we all know butter is good.

I haven’t ever actually tried the cream cheese icing recipe that accompanies the brownie recipe because I have a recipe that is really good, and also because I like to switch up my frostings a bit (the last time I made them I made them with a chocolate mint butter cream – yum). 

Magnolia Brownies

Brownie Recipe from The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook; Frosting Recipe from myself

Brownie

3 cups cake flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp salt

1 ½ cups (3 sticks) butter, room temperature (one of the tricks I’ve learned from making these probably 20 times is using VERY soft butter – you don’t want it melted but you do want it soft to the touch.  Also the recipe calls for unsalted, I use regular old salted butter because that’s what I keep in my freezer)

3 cups sugar

6 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

9 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup cocoa powder

5 cups powdered sugar

2-4 tablespoons milk (preferably whole)

Garnish

2 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted.

To make the brownies:  Place chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water on low heat.  Stir occasionally until completely smooth and no pieces of chocolate remain.  Remove from heat and let cool 10 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 12x18 inch jelly roll pan with foil or parchment paper, then coat with nonstick spray.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In the large bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Lightly beat the eggs, then add to the creamed mixture and mix well, scraping down the sides of your bowl.  Add the vanilla.  Add the chocolate and mix until well incorporated.  Add the dry ingredients.  Pour the batter into prepared pan.  Bake 25-30 minutes (in my oven, it’s precisely 26) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs attached.

Let brownies cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, cream the butter and vanilla, then add the powdered sugar.  Add milk one tablespoon at a time until a spreadable (but not too loose) consistency is reached.  You want the frosting to go on smoothly but hold its shape at room temperature.  Once the brownies have cooled, frost liberally.  To garnish, drizzle horizontal stripes of melted chocolate approximately 1 ½ inches apart (this part isn’t an exact science…you just want it to look pretty.  You may not need the entire 2 ounces).  With the tip of a butter knife, drag your knife vertically through the frosting.

 

Other variations I’ve tried that have been completely awesome:

Pecan Brownies - Add chopped nuts to the brownie batter, then top the frosting with some additional nuts and mini chocolate chips. (On a personal note, I think adding nuts to brownies is a form of blasphemy, but I did this for Casey and my dad, both of whom love brownies with nuts...that's love!)

Mint Brownies – Add 1 tsp mint extract (I prefer to use regular mint as opposed to peppermint because I don’t like the taste) to your frosting and garnish with some smashed Andes mints.

Cream Cheese Frosted Brownies.  Substitute one brick of cream cheese for one of the sticks of butter in the butter cream.  If you want straight cream cheese frosting simply omit the cocoa powder.

Cinnamon Roll Casserole

I’m my father’s daughter.  My dad will buy anything if it’s on sale.  Although I’ve learned to curb my appetite for a good deal a little more than he has, there are some things I can’t help but buy.  For instance, donuts.  There’s a market by my house that makes the BEST donuts.  Seriously, they’re so good, and they’re remarkably reasonably priced.  Then after 7pm they go half price.  All of a sudden because they’re half price I have an insatiable need for donuts.  One night I went out specifically for donuts (usually I’ll go out for gas or something and if it’s after 7 I’ll automatically end up on a donut run) and they were out of all the good ones.  Did I turn and walk away?  Sadly, no.  (Dude…it’s donuts.)  I got 8 cinnamon/raspberry/apple/whatever-they-had-on-hand-rolls.  I wasn’t too shocked when nobody wanted to eat them.  After a couple of days I decided to make a quasi-bread pudding with them.  I’ll save the bread pudding-stravaganza of 2007 (where I literally turned any dough-based substance into a bread pudding) for another post, but it was awesome and this was a nod to those days.

Ingredients

5 cups cinnamon rolls, cut into 1-inch cubes

Raisins (if you like them)

Nuts (if you like them) - about 1/2 cup each of nuts and raisins

Custard -

5 eggs

2 cups milk (try to use whole)

½ cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

A dash of nutmeg

½ tsp vanilla extract

Cut the cinnamon rolls and place them in a 9X9 inch pan that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  Sprinkle with nuts and raisins, if you're into that kind of thing.  In a large bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients until very well combined.  Pour your custard mixture over the cinnamon rolls and press the cinnamon rolls to ensure they are covered by the custard mixture.  Allow to rest for 10 minutes while your oven preheats.  Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until your casserole has puffed up slightly and is set in the middle.  Spoon it onto plates or cereal bowls and cover with your choice of topping.  My kids like it with maple syrup, but I’ve also served it with leftover Butter Dream Sauce.

Ratatouille Movie Night

Every Wednesday at Chez Bowden it’s Pizza Movie Night.  Sometimes we have pizza, sometimes we have rotisserie chicken and potato salad, sometimes we have Subway, but it’s “Pizza Movie Night”.  Well, this week I asked my kids what they wanted to do on Wednesday and they requested…nay…demanded ratatouille movie night – to both watch and eat ratatouille.  I won’t even start on how awesome my kids are because they’ll eat ANYTHING, I’ll just finish my story.

When I met Casey, he would just throw stuff in a pot and call it dinner.  He was the master of doctoring up a boxed mix.  He used to make this version of ratatouille that was just a bunch of sliced up squash and tomatoes and stuff, sautéed in a little bit of salad dressing, then baked off in the oven with cheese.  The other day when the kids requested ratatouille I decided to do a little research because other than Casey’s ratatouille, I had never had it.  Turns out he wasn’t that far off.  According to Mark Bittman, you take a bunch of vegetables (usually involving some sort of squash and/or eggplant, sometimes with potatoes and mushrooms, usually including onions and tomatoes) and some herbs and seasonings, layer them in a dish, and bake them until they’re nice and soft.  I took that method and added a little sauce and voila!  Awesome.  The kids couldn’t get enough.

Ingredients

Various vegetables, sliced into similarly thick slices.

(I used:

2 smallish-medium summer squash

2 smallish-medium zucchini

1 small red onion

4 medium tomatoes)

Sauce:

¼ cup Balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp dried minced garlic

1 tsp dried basil

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried parsley

¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese

Wash and dry your vegetables.  Slice into approx ¼ inch slices (slice tomatoes a bit thicker because they don’t hold up to the roasting time otherwise).  Using a 9X9 inch baking dish that has been lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (or 4-6 individual sized baking dishes), layer the veggies, lightly seasoning every other layer with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. 

In a medium bowl, combine ingredients for your sauce and whisk until well mixed.  Spoon the sauce over the top of the veggies – don’t worry about it only being on the top layer because there is a pretty significant amount of sauce for the vegetables and it will run down to the lower layers.  Set your baking dish(es) on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for an hour to an hour and a half(closer to an hour if you’re doing individual sized dishes or if your vegetables are pretty soft – longer if you have more vegetables or if you are cooking potatoes). During the last 15 minutes of cooking, remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle with each of your cheeses.  Return pan to the oven and continue baking until the cheese is golden and bubbly.

Strawberry Layer Cake

A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law, Janette had a princess party at my house for her two girls.  She asked me if I’d help her make this cake.  This cake is so simple yet so decadent and oh so very tasty.   So simple, in fact, that she sent me the instructions in their entirety (ingredient list included) in a single text message. 

The cake was good – so good that my 5-year-old changed her mind from wanting a Tinkerbell cake to wanting this same cake, “only with chocolate for the cake part on it”. 

I think the most important element in making this cake spectacular is KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).  For my 5-year-old I decided I’d fancy it up by making homemade whipped cream, cake from scratch, etc.  BIG mistake.  The frosting was drippy and the cake didn’t hold up as well as the Betty Crocker variety.  I think the success of this cake lies in the pre-packaged ingredients.  I’m sure it has to do with the stabilization of pre-packaged ingredients.  Follow the instructions.  They’re idiot-proof and you will totally impress your friends.

Strawberry Layer Cake

(recipe from Janette Nussbaumer, who says this is a Louisiana staple)

1 cake mix – we used both yellow and devil’s food and both were very tasty (prepared according to the directions)

1 12-oz container Original Cool Whip

1 16-18-oz container buttercream or cream cheese frosting

2 pints strawberries, sliced

Prepare cake mix according to package directions and bake in 2 8- or 9-inch pans. Cool.  When cakes are cooled completely, slice each round horizontally into two pieces (thereby creating 4 even layers).  Place the first layer on a platter and slather a good amount of frosting, leaving a ½-1 inch border (the frosting squishes thinner with the weight of the additional layers).  Repeat with each layer, then frost the sides after all four layers are together.  Garnish with a couple of sliced strawberries (or with chopped/shaved chocolate if you choose devil’s food, which is also delicious).

(The cake was so awesome that we forgot to take a picture once we cut into it...so this picture was totally an afterthought.  The cake mix was dyed pink with a few drops of red food coloring.)

Lime Kisses

What is it with summer and citrus?  I know that citrus fruits aren’t typically in season in the summer, but summer seems to be when I want lemon, orange, and lime flavored things – from sorbet to beverages to bars, etc. 

I found this recipe on Our Best Bites for “Orange-Kissed Cookies”, and although I love a good orange flavored dessert, I’m cuckoo for lime.  I took everything orange-related in this recipe and made it limey (and doubled the recipe…with 5 kids you kind of have to double every recipe).  I will admit I haven’t actually tried the original recipe.  I’d like to, but I may never actually get around to it.

As an aside, my kids had their little friend from across the street over yesterday and since I had a bazillion of these I sent a plateful home with her.  Today her dad came by and told me something to the effect of she’s only allowed to play over here if I promise to send her home with more cookies (which he totally thought were too good to be homemade). 

Recipe adapted from Our Best Bites, who adapted it from AllRecipes.com

Cookie –  

2 cups white sugar

1 cup margarine
2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

6 oz (½ of a 12 oz can) limeade concentrate

1 tbsp lime zest (zest of 2 limes)

Frosting –

Zest of 1 lime

6 oz (½ of a 12 oz can) limeade concentrate

1 cup softened butter (I use salted.  If you don’t, add ½ - 1 tsp salt)

½ tsp vanilla extract

6 cups (maybe a cup shy of 2 lbs) powdered sugar

Green food coloring

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine.  Set aside.  In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the sugar and shortening until light and fluffy.  Add the sour cream and eggs and mix until everything is well incorporated.  Add the vanilla, limeade concentrate, and lime zest and mix again.  Add the flour mixture half at a time and mix until just combined.  Scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated and if needed, mix again until combined.

Your dough will be looser than a normal cookie dough.  Using a cookie scoop (or a tablespoon), drop rounded scoops onto a cookie sheet, spacing them appropriately (my cookie scoop fits about ¼ cup capacity, so I space them so I fit 12 to a sheet).  Bake 9-11 minutes or until the edges are beginning to turn golden and the cookies are set.  Allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 min then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

Sorry.  Just had to throw that in there because he's cute.

While your cookies are cooling, combine the wet ingredients for the frosting into your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Add 4 cups of powdered sugar and combine.  Keep adding flour ½ cup at a time until a desired consistency is reached.  Add green food coloring until you reach the color you want.  After cookies have cooled, pipe or frost your cookies.  My kids decorated the ones shown with green frosting and sprinkles.

This recipe yields 50-75 cookies, depending on the size.  If you give them away, people will like you.

Update:  my friend Roxanne is having a party for her baby girl, and we were talking about strawberry flavored desserts.  I was in Las Vegas last weekend and while there was helping my mom make 1200 cookies for this seminar thingy she's in charge of.  When I went to the store to get ingredients to make these cookies, I saw next to the frozen limeade concentrate STRAWBERRY DAQUIRI CONCENTRATE! I had a lightbulb moment and decided to transform these little lovelies into strawberry daquiri kisses and pina colada kisses.  So I did. 

What you do is sub the limeade concentrate for either pina colada or strawberry daquiri concentrate.  These concentrates come in 10 oz cans rather than 12 oz cans.  With the strawberry, add 6 oz to the cookie and only 4 oz to the frosting; otherwise you will have an overpowering strawberry frosting.  With the pina colada, split the concentrate equally (5 oz in the cookie and 5 oz in the frosting).  I also topped the pina colada with toasted coconut.  For the toasted coconut, put 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded or flaked coconut on a foil lined baking sheet into a 350 degree oven for about 5-7 minutes.  Cool the coconut completely before topping the cookies.  You'll want to top the cookies when the frosting is still fresh in order for the coconut to stick.

Strawberry Lemonade Pancakes with Lemon Butter Dream Sauce

I love this summer.  I love this summer, if for no other reason, I have more opportunities to cook breakfast.  I have never really liked pancakes (which is ironic, because my other blog is called Let’s Go Get Pancakes).  About a year ago I traded in my career to become a housewife, and I decided that much like every other job I have ever had, I was going to master housewifery.  As everyone knows, homemade food is key in any house of a domestic goddess. 

The inspiration for these pancakes came from here.  Have I said that I love Joy the Baker?  Because I do.  She made me a pancake lover.  The syrup is a story in and of itself.  A girl my sister grew up with (I grew up with her older sister) posted something on instagram (photo sharing app for iPhone) about “fat sauce”.  Intrigued by the name, I asked what fat sauce was.  It is so simple and so decadent…and I’m including the recipe below.  To make it sound more appealing (and so my kids wouldn’t tell their real mom I feed them fat sauce all the time), I changed the name to Butter Dream Sauce.

Strawberry Lemonade Pancakes with Lemon Butter Dream Sauce

Pancakes adapted from Joy the Baker  and the Joy of Baking, Sauce adapted from Brittany Benson Seager

Pancakes

4 tbsp butter – melted and slightly cooled

2 cups buttermilk

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 tbsp  lemon zest (zest of approx 2 lemons)

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

4 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Topping

1 pint strawberries

1 tbsp sugar

Sauce

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup sugar

8 tbsp (1 stick) butter

1 tbsp lemon juice (just juice one of the lemons you zested for the pancake)  (to make regular Butter Dream Sauce for non-citrus pancakes, simply omit the lemon juice)

Rinse and dry the berries.  Cut the end off and cut into pieces.  Place them in a medium sized bowl and sprinkle with sugar.  Lightly mash and stir the berries.  Set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the heavy cream, sugar and stick of butter.  Let this mixture sit over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.  (I like to do this step while the pancake batter is resting and the griddle is warming up.)  Turn off the heat and whisk in the lemon juice. 

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt.  In another bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in the center.  Stir until just combined.  Your batter will be lumpy and that’s okay.  Let the batter rest (about 10 min) while you heat your griddle to medium-high (about 350 degrees). 

Lightly spray the griddle with non-stick spray.  Using a ladle or scoop (I use my cookie baller), scoop about ¼ cup batter onto the hot pan, spacing your scoops of batter a few inches apart.  Let the batter cook 2-3 minutes until bubbles form on the top surface of the pancake.  Flip and continue cooking until the pancakes are golden brown on the other side (another 2 minutes or so).  Keep the pancakes that are done on a sheet pan in a 200 degree oven until all the pancakes are cooked.

This recipe makes enough pancakes to comfortably feed 6 people.  Serve the pancakes with 2 tbsp strawberries and a generous drizzle of the Butter Dream Sauce.  Enjoy!

Baked Mac and Cheese

I’ve made homemade macaroni and cheese a few times, and it was always good but I never followed a “recipe”.  My friend Amiee (from my college days) also has a blog and posted this.  This recipe has been slightly adapted to suit my family and the ingredients I usually have on hand. It is way tastier than any of the concoctions I’ve made in the past, and I get consistently awesome results. 

Baked Mac and Cheese
Adapted from Amiee @ rollmeouttahere.blogspot.com

Ingredients:

8 oz large elbow macaroni

2/3 lb Cheddar/Colby Jack/whatever your preference, shredded

4 oz cream cheese, cut into ½ inch cubes

2 cans evaporated milk

6-8 slices of American cheese, unwrapped

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/3 stick of butter, sliced

1 Tbsp butter, melted

1 ½ cup bread crumbs (I always make fresh – just put 2-3 slices of bread into the food processor and pulse into crumbs)

Tony Chachere’s seasoning

Boil pasta in a large pot, according to package directions. Drain. Pour noodles back into the same pot. Toss in butter slices. Mix until melted. Pour in all the evaporated milk. Then add the shredded cheese. Add seasoning and taste your mixture until it tastes salted enough. Once you think you've got that part right, add the beaten egg. Mix well. Pour half your mixture into a small casserole dish (8x8 or equivalent).  Randomly scatter half of your cream cheese cubes and press them down.  Then top with your American cheese slices – you may only need 4 of them. Add the rest of your pasta mixture and top with the rest of your cream cheese cubes.  Mix the melted tablespoon of butter and the bread crumbs.  Sprinkle over the top of your Mac and Cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until sides are nice and bubbly and the bread crumbs are golden brown. Let it sit for a few minutes before serving.

This is the perfect amount of food to use as a side dish for 6-8 people. I’ve heard it reheats well, but we’ve never had leftovers.  Since this is a very rich dish, I usually serve it with something light like grilled chicken and a salad.  I’m sure it could also be fancied up by using stronger regional cheeses, adding broccoli to your pot of boiling pasta (then making it the same way), or by adding cubed turkey, chicken or ham.  Enjoy!