Red Velvet Swirl Brownies

These are adapted from Sonny Anderson's recipe over at Food Network

Red Velvet Swirl Brownies

Red Velvet Brownie Layer:

1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 teaspoon vinegar
2 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts  (optional)

Cream Cheese Layer:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350

Grease an 8 by 8-inch baking pan

Brownie layer: In a saucepan on medium heat melt the butter. Remove the butter to a large bowl and add the sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder, salt, food coloring, and vinegar, in that order, mixing between additions. Whisk the eggs in a small bowl and stir it into the cocoa mix. Fold in the flour until lightly combined. Stir in the walnuts and pour the batter into the prepared baking pan, saving 1/4 cup of the batter for the top.


Cream cheese layer: Blend together the cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Gently spread the cream cheese layer on top of the brownie batter in the pan. Dollop the remaining brownie batter over the cream cheese layer. Using a skewer or the tip of a knife, drag the tip through the cream cheese mixture to create a swirl pattern.
Bake the brownies for 30 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely before cutting.



Moo's Raspberry Bars

  

These are easy and delicious, but I'm kind of sucker for things with cake mixes in them.

You can also change the type of berry preserve you want to use and my SIL, Chandra, suggested using a lemon cake mix with Raspberry preserves. Yum!

Moo's Raspberry Bars

1 (18.25 oz) package yellow cake mix

2 1/2 cups uncooked quick-cooking oats (I used regular oats)
3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 (12oz) jar raspberry preserves (or use your fav preserves, I used blueberry/ strawberry mix)

Combine cake mix and oats, stir in butter until mixture is crumbly.
Press about 3 cups mixture evenly into a greased 13x9 inch pan.
Spread preserves over crumb mixture and then sprinkle remaining crumb mixture, pat gently to level

Bake at 375 for 24 to 26 minutes or until lightly browned

Brownies (Alton Brown)

The other day Chandra (my SIL) and I were talking about finding the "right" brownie recipe and she was saying she was on the hunt and trying out different recipes. Well A. that got me thinking about needing to eat a brownie, and B. I realized I hadn't made brownies for some time so I started looking around for a recipe too.

I'm a big fan of Alton Brown, I used to love his cooking show on the Food Network and I'm sad to say that I haven't watched it for quite awhile (like atleast 1-2 years). Sometimes he likes to over complicate things for me, but whatever, so I checked to see if he had a brownie recipe and then made them. This is hands down my favorite brownie recipe and I love that it's simple and traditional.

Alton Brown's 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.

Mint Chocolate Cheesecake

This was my dessert in honor of St Patricks day, but I got REALLY lazy and I'm just barely getting around to posting it.

Mint Chocolate Cheesecake

Crust

30 fudge mint cookies, crushed (about 1 3/4 cups)

2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Filling


3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons mint extract

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

green food coloring

In a small bowl, combine cookie crumbs and butter. Press onto the bottom and 1 in. up the sides of a greased 9-in. springform pan.


In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Stir in the extract and food coloring if desired. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into crust. Place pan on a baking sheet

Bake at 325° for 50-60 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight. Refrigerate leftovers.

I had a feeling that this cheesecake was going to crack because I forgot about not beating the mixture a lot until I was done, AND, I had a pan of water underneath the cheesecake, but I had the temp too high still AND this was my first time cooking cheesecake in a conventional oven instead of a convection oven.

Excuses, excuses...as long as it tastes good, right?

Andes Mint Chocolate Cake

I have some family members that are crazy about mint chocolate stuff, so I made this for a family gathering.

Andes Mint Chocolate Cake

1 chocolate cake mix

1/2 cup sugar

1 (3.9-ounce) package chocolate instant pudding mix

1 cup oil

4 large eggs

1 (8-ounce) container sour cream

1 teaspoon peppermint extract
 
Andes Mint candies, chopped (how many is your preference)
 
Heavily grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. Set aside.




Combine first 7 (and about 1/2 - 1 cup of chopped Andes candies) ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Beat at low speed with an electric mixer just until combined. Beat at high speed 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared pan.



Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes; remove from pan, and cool on wire rack. Place on serving plate, frost and sprinkle on Andes candies.

For the frosting I just mixed in 1/4 teaspoon of peppermint extract into a can of frosting and added some green food coloring.

Rum Cake

I've been wanting to make a rum cake for some time now, so I finally got around to making one!

Rum Cake

2/3 c chopped pecans

1 pkg of yellow cake mix

1 pkg of vanilla pudding mix

4 eggs

1 c water

1/2 c butter, soft

2 T Rum extract (or 1/2 c rum)

Glaze

1/4 c butter

1/2 c brown sugar

3 T water

1/2 t rum extract (or 2 T rum)

Oven 325. Bake for 45-60 minutes

Grease and flour your pan, pour the chopped nuts in the bottom.

Mix cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water, butter and rum together and pour batter in pan over the nuts. Bake in the oven at 325 for 45-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

For the glaze, mix ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil and let boil for a minute

When cake is done cooking and has cooled for a few minutes, transfer out of pan. Prick with a fork and brush glaze over the cake.

Let it finish cooling and eat!

Peanut Butter Crunch Cheesecake Squares

This was in one of the latest Family Circle magazines. Cheesecake and Butterfingers! I had to give it a try.

Peanut Butter Crunch Cheesecake Squares

Crust:

1/2 c flour

1/4 c chopped Pecans

3 T brown sugar

3 T melted butter

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 c sugar

1 egg

1 T lemon juice

3/4 t vanilla extract

12 fun size Butterfingers, coursely chopped (or 5-6 smaller sized)*

5 fun size Butterfingers, finely chopped (or 2-3 smaller sized)

Heat oven to 350. Line a 8x8" pan with foil and hang over the sides. Mix the crust together and press into the bottom of pan. Bake for about 15 minutes and then turn the oven down to 325.

*I just bought the fun pack I think it's called, and it has 8 small sized bars and just used those. They are usually only about $1

crust

cream together cream cheese, egg, vanilla, and lemon juice

chop up the Butterfingers

add 3/4 c chopped Butterfinger to the filling

Pour filling over crust and bake at 325 for 25 minutes.

Sprinkle on the finely chopped Butterfingers after pulling it out of the oven

let cool and then cut into squares. Refrigerate until serving.

Lemon Pie

I love lemon stuff. (Have I mentioned that yet?)

This recipe is from Paula Deen and it was supposed to be lemon meringue pie and I can do without the meringue. The original recipe didn't quite make enough for one pie in my opinion when I made it before and I needed two pies this time, so this is what I did.

Lemon Pie
3 cans Sweetened Condensed Milk
9 Egg yolks
1-1/2 c Lemon Juice
Lemon Zest
Lemon extract (Optional, because I REALLY want to know that its a lemon pie)
2 Baked Pie Shells

Mix egg yolks, sweetnened condensed milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest together well. Pour in pie shells, bake for 15-20 minutes. So easy. Yum.