Award Winning Salted Caramel Mocha Brownies

Guest Post...Thanks Ashley!

First Place Brownies at the 2014 Chocolate Festival Fundraiser for Planned Parenthood!!!

Salted Caramel Mocha Brownies

These brownies are a really rich, dark brownie with a hint of coffee and a dribble of caramel sauce.

The base brownie recipe is a modification of one of the easiest and most delicious brownie recipes I have ever found. It is my “go-to” brownie recipe and you can find the original recipe here at Smitten Kitchen: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2012/08/my-favorite-brownies/

My modified recipe and caramel topping:

Brownies:

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
1 stick unsalted butter
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 heaping teaspoon flaky sea salt
2/3 cup all-purpose flour

Heat oven to 350F and grease an 8x8 baking pan (or line with foil for extra easy clean-up).  Melt the chocolate and butter together in a large sauce pot over a double boiler, add espresso power to chocolate mixture and stir until well-combined.  Let the chocolate mixture cool just slightly and then mix in sugar. Mix in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and sea salt; mix well.  Finally, stir in the flour.  Bake for 20-30 minutes (or until toothpick inserted in center comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs).

Cut brownies into squares or hearts like I did for The Chocolate Festival. Bonus: You can eat the scraps if you cut them into hearts. J

Caramel Topping:

Note: If you have a caramel sauce recipe you already use and like, go ahead and use that one. I like this version because there is no gelatin involved, there is just a little bit of corn syrup, and the light brown sugar gives the caramel a really lovely flavor.  Also, I do not add any more salt to the caramel sauce because the brownies are very salty already and sea salt will be used to garnish the brownies at the end.

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Heat heavy cream, brown sugar, and corn syrup in a medium sized pot until boil.  Be sure to stir the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved and then you will want to stop stirring and just let the caramel do its thing.  Once the mixture is brought to a boil and the sugar is all dissolved, insert a candy thermometer.  Continue to boil the caramel sauce until the candy thermometer reaches 215F. Heating to 215 will make the caramel sauce soft enough to chew but hard enough to allow you to drizzle it over the brownies. If you want a softer caramel “glaze” remove the caramel mixture from heat closer to 210F or 212F.

Once the caramel mixture reaches 215F (or whatever temperature you decide based on the desired consistency of the caramel sauce), remove from heat and quickly stir in vanilla.  I let the caramel sauce cool just slightly until it began to thicken and then with kitchen mitts (the sauce will still be hot!) and a heavy duty pastry bag, I piped caramel sauce on my heart-shaped brownies in a crisscross pattern.  Any leftover caramel sauce can be stored in the fridge and used to top ice cream! Once decorated with caramel sauce, sprinkle sea salt on top of the brownies and enjoy!

Guest Post: White Bean Soup with Cheddar & Chive Biscuits!

It was cold when I got back to Logan after spending the holidays in the Northeast. Like, negative double digits cold. When it’s that cold out, there’s only one thing to do: make soup. Still reeling a bit from all the holiday eating – particularly lots of regional microbrews and an epic five course dinner on New Years Eve – I was in the mood for a soup that was on the lighter side but wouldn’t leave me hungry a couple hours after eating. I found some inspiration in my 500 Soups cookbook, and headed out to the grocery store. While at the store I saw that cast iron Dutch ovens were on sale for almost 40% off. I’d wanted one for a while, so I quickly grabbed a box and put it in the cart. It was a sign: I was meant to make soup tonight.

Now, I’m not going to lie: even though it was cold, my real motivation for making soup traveled over 2,000 miles to get here. Tucked in my suitcase were some very special souvenirs from a quick visit to Burlington, Vermont: two 2-pound blocks of Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar cheese. Best. Cheese. Ever. It even wears Lumberjack plaid!

This really is, in my humble opinion, the best cheddar cheese out there. I miss having it in my life since moving away from the Northeast. So before heading out of town, I stopped at the City Market Co-op in Burlington (another thing I miss from VT). The cheese was all I bought. The cashier made a comment about it being a lot of cheese, but understood after I explained that I now live in Utah and can’t get this variety out there. So now, at least until this 4 pounds runs out, this wonderful, crumbly, sharp cheddar is back in my life.

All the way back to Logan all I could think of was incorporating this cheese into a batch of hot, flaky biscuits. So really, I didn’t make the biscuits to go with the soup: I made the soup to go with the biscuits. It was fun playing in the kitchen after a couple weeks away, and the soup and biscuits made the perfect dinner for this cold, snowy evening. The soup is simple but flavorful, and filling without being heavy. And the biscuits? Tender, flaky,  cheesy, and just the right bit of salty. I may never make a plain biscuit again.

White Bean Soup

2 14-oz cans Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed

4 cups chicken stock (substitute vegetable stock for vegetarian/vegan version)

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes

1 large onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

4 carrots, chopped

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, separated

2 tsp dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

3 Tbsp fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

8 oz smoked turkey sausage, sliced (can substitute kielbasa, salami, or other smoked sausage, or omit for vegetarian version)

In 6-quart Dutch oven or large pot, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil on medium heat. Add onion and stir. Cook until onions begin to turn translucent, about 2 minutes. 

Add beans, chicken stock, tomatoes (with liquid), celery, carrots, tomato paste, 1/3 cup olive oil, oregano, and sausage to pot. Add ground pepper and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer about 45 minutes. Garnish with chopped parsley. Serves 6-8.

Biscuit Recipe HERE!

Guest Post: Cheddar and Chive Biscuits!

Cheddar and Chive Biscuits (adapted from Joy the Baker Cookbook)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp granulated sugar

3 ½ tsp baking powder (4 ½ if at lower altitude)

¾ tsp cream of tartar

¾ tsp salt

¾ cup cold buttermilk, plus more for topping

1 egg

¾ cups cheddar cheese, crumbled or cut into small cubes*

4 Tbsp fresh chives, finely chopped

¾ cups (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes

Coarse sea salt for topping

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt.

In small bowl, whisk together buttermilk and egg.

Add butter to flour mixture. With pastry blender or your fingers, work the butter into the flour, breaking up the small cubes into smaller bits. Once the butter is well incorporated into the flour mixture, the flour will resemble coarse meal. Some chunks will be the size of small pebbles, other will be the size of oat flakes.

Add chives and cheese to flour mixture and toss with a fork. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the buttermilk-egg mixture. Toss together with a fork, making sure all the flour bits are moistened by the buttermilk. Mixture will be shaggy.

Dump the biscuit dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead for about 3 to 5 minutes, bringing it together into a 1 ½ inch thick circle. Cut biscuits into squares or use a 2 ½ inch circle biscuit cutter to cut rounds. If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, a glass also works – just don’t get your dough stuck!

Gather dough scraps, knead lightly, and cut out more biscuits until dough is gone. Place biscuits on prepared baking sheet, brush with buttermilk, and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake 15 to 20 minutes. Biscuits are best the day they are made (especially hot out of the oven!), but can be wrapped, stored at room temperature, and served the next day as well.

*(Best cheese ever...try to find this one, if unavailable, substitute an extra sharp white cheddar)

This soup goes very well with White Bean Soup

No Bake S'mores Tartlets

Guest Post! Thanks to Ashley D'Antonio for this awesome recipe.

Summer is ending but before it fully turns to Fall in Utah I wanted to sneak in one last “summer-y”, no-bake dessert.  I recently bought a few small tartlet pans and have been thinking about making Smore’s tartlets for a few weeks now.  I wanted to combine some of my other favorite recipe components to make what hopefully results in an amazing Smore’s tartlet.

I created my recipe using a combination of these recipes (makes two tartlets):

For the graham cracker crust: http://thebeeroness.com/2012/04/10/chocolate-beer-cheesecake-with-a-pretzel-crust/

For the chocolate ganache (halved this recipe): http://www.loveandoliveoil.com/2012/08/no-bake-blueberry-truffle-tartlets.html

For the marshmallow cream (halved this recipe): http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/now-baking-first-prize-piess-smores-pie/

Basically, I followed the recipe for the graham cracker/pretzel crust and refrigerated the crust for an hour.  I filled the refrigerated crusts with chocolate ganache and let the ganache solidify in the fridge for about 30 minutes. While the ganache was in the refrigerator, I made the marshmallow cream. Then I topped the ganache with a bit of the marshmallow cream and refrigerated the almost finished tartlet for another hour.  As an optional finishing touch, you can follow the directions for the Smore’s Pie and use a torch or broiler to brown the top of the marshmallows.  I did not do any toasting this time as I do not own a kitchen torch and have not quite mastered the broiler in the house that I just moved into. So, I just took the safe route and ate the tartlets as is.

A note on the homemade marshmallow cream – it does contain gelatin but there are some gelatin alternatives that you could use if you wanted to make this recipe vegetation.  I have used agar-agar as a gelatin replacement with success.  The crust could also be made gluten-free using almond flour, honey, and cinnamon instead of graham crackers and leaving out the pretzels completely.