Brownie Pillow Cookies

Kelsey, my little “sister” (as in the younger friend, mentee sense)  and fellow baker, showed me a Pillow Cookie on Pinterest and I fell in love with not only the idea but the challenge of the recipe. It’s a pretty impressive idea, a baked good within a baked good, but it’s one of the few things that I literally could not stop eating. The cookies are massive, simply massive, so only one cookie per serving should do you right. Make sure you leave plenty of time for this project, though – start to finish, it took me about 90 minutes. And I take no credit for this recipe – it’s all Bakerella. Bless you, dear. Thank you for this gem of an idea.

Brownie Pillow Cookies

1 package brownie mix

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 oz. bag miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Make brownies according to the package’s directions. Cool completely, and cut into one inch squares. You’ll only use about a quarter of the brownies, so find something else to do with them (I suggest your neighbors). For the chocolate chip cookie dough, beat butter until creamy. Add brown sugar, and beat until smooth. Add eggs, yolk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Combine flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a medium bowl with a fork. Add flour to butter mixture and beat until combined. Stir in mini chips. Let dough chill for at least an hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

It’s easiest to do this part with parchment paper. Scoop about 1/2 cup of cookie dough out onto the paper. Push down with your thumb an indentation, place a brownie in the indentation  and surrounding it with cookie dough. You can do this by shaping the dough around it with your hands. Place six cookies onto a large cookie sheet, baking for 18 minutes. While they bake, place the dough back in the refrigerator. Cool for four minutes on the sheet, then about 5 minutes on the wire rack until they set completely. Yield about 10.

Brad’s S’mores Brownies

One of my classmates, Alecia, made a request a couple of weeks ago for a s’mores brownie after seeing a photo of it on Pinterest. Always up for a challenge, I fell in love with the idea of it and sort-of experimented in the kitchen to create the following s’mores brownie recipe. It was an accident, really, but I think the double-layer brownie (one fudge, one cocoa based) takes this recipe to an entire different level.  It was a huge hit at the Brownie Party I went to, but this recipe comes with a couple of warnings: it’s messing, and it’s a process. Start to finish, this recipe takes about 2 hours to complete. But it’s worth it. I mean, it really is. Named after my favorite child-at-heart friend, I give you Brad’s S’mores Brownies.

Brad’s S’mores Brownies

Graham Cracker Crust

• 7 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (10 or 11 whole graham crackers)
• 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
• pinch of salt

Fudge Brownie Layer 

• Your favorite dark chocolate or fudge brownie box mix

Cocoa Brownie Layer

• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 6 tablespoons of cocoa
• 2 tablespoons of vanilla
• two melted sticks of butter/margarine
• 4 eggs

Marshmallow Topping

• One bag of mini marshmallows
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 1/2 cups of semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips/chunks

In a medium bowl, mix butter with crumbs, sugar and salt. Press crumb mixture into the bottom of an aluminum foil-lined pan. Bake until golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Prepare your fudge/dark chocolate brownie layer as dictated on the box, pour onto warm graham cracker crust. For the cocoa brownie layer, sift dry ingredients in the bowl by stirring thoroughly with a fork. Add two melted sticks of butter/margarine, 2 tablespoons of vanilla and 4 eggs, mix well and pour on top of fudge brownie layer. Bake for 45-50 minutes; you want the center to be a bit gooey, so don’t over bake. Right out of the oven, sprinkle chocolate chips/chunks on top of warm brownie, drizzle about mini marshmallows over the entire brownie and then sprinkle graham cracker crumbs on the very top. Set your oven to broil, let it warm up for a couple of minutes and then place your brownie in the oven. Keep an eye on it – it may take only a minute to brown the marshmallows! Take it out of the pan when cool (after about 15 minutes) with both hands (up and over) onto a cutting board. Cut with a sharp, wet knife and clean after every cut for cleaner slices. Enjoy!

PS It’s going to be messy. Keep paper towels handy.

Cinnamon Blondies

I sometime experiment with recipes and turn them into other things, it seems. One primary example is my blondie recipe, which is just the Tollhouse famous chocolate chip cookie recipe with no chocolate chips and flattening the batter out into a pan. I decided I would try to make my own cinnamon blondie recipe out of this concoction, and so I took that basic recipe and added a tablespoon of cinnamon to the dry ingredients. I like my recipe because it’s cinnamon-y without being overwhelming, and is a snap to whip up (because it’s so heavily lending itself from a famously easy recipe). Oh, and I sprinkle cinnamon on top sometimes in a decorative fashion because baked cinnamon on top of batter looks really, really…well, fancier than it actually is. If you don’t want to be fancy, just follow the recipe step by step and you can’t go wrong.

Cinnamon Blondies

• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter (softened)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In large bowl, combine butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Beat in eggs. Gradually add flour mixture, mix well. Sprinkle cinnamon over batter in a small pan for decorative effect. Bake for 20 minutes.

 

Cinnamon Blondies

I have been so busy that I haven’t been blogging my baking adventures, but I promise, I have been baking. This is a recipe that I’ve been working on for a minute – as you might know, I am the two-time baking champion at Mizzou and am hoping to win again next semester with a blondie recipe. This is by no means the finished product of my attempts so far, but, it’s my favorite variation so far.

Onward to the recipe.

Cinnamon Blondies

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 stick unsalted better
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
• 1 large egg plus one egg yolk, room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8×8 pan.

Sift the flour, salt and cinnamon together and set aside. Melt butter and brown sugar in saucepan until the sugar has dissolved. Cook one more minute until the mixture bubbles, but doesn’t boil. Set aside to cool – approximately 10 minutes. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla to the brown sugar mixture and blend. Pour sugar and egg mixture over flour and stir until just blended.

Pour batter into the pan.  Bake for 25 – 35 minutes until the center is springy; do not over bake.  When it has cooled slightly, run a knife around the edges to loosen and invert onto a cooling rack. Cut into one inch squares.

Optional: the last time I made this recipe (which I did not take a photo of) I melted 1/4 cup of butterscotch chips and drizzled the butterscotch over the blondies – it was delicious. If you’re feeling adventurous, I would definitely suggest it.

Stevey Bites

Steven, one of my best girlfriends’ boyfriend, picked up my MU/KU tickets very, very early in the morning so that I didn’t have to go myself. As a repayment, I baked him the following recipe that I kind of made from a combination of different things, and thus, Stevey Bites.

My basic brownie recipe is as follows:

• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsps of vanilla
• 6 tbsps of cocoa
• 2 sticks of butter

Melt two sticks of butter in preheating oven at 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients by stirring with a fork to make the mixture nice and smooth. Add eggs, vanilla, and the melted butter. Mix well.

Fill brownie batter in twelve cupcake liners. In another bowl, prepare the basic cheesecake mixture.

My basic cheesecake mixture recipe:

• 4 oz of cream cheese
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 egg

Put one generous dollop (around two tablespoons) of cream cheesecake mixture in the center of the brownie batter. Sprinkle with peanut butter chips and mini chocolate chips ontop.

Bake for 26 minutes at 350 degrees. Place on cupcake stand and serve to Steve.