The Best Brownies Ever

So, things have been moving along smoothly. The kids rooms, bathrooms, hallways have all been cleaned for Pesach. Still have to do my room and the rest of the house but still, there IS progress.

I made 20 little chocolate cakes (from scratch) for Mishloach Manos. Only because I didn't have any cake mixes in the house-I had to more than quadruple the recipe! But I do like the way they came out. Done and in the freezer. I still have to frost them and make a batch of cupcakes for those surprise visitor shaloch manos. You know, just in case someone comes you didn't remember. That makes me crazy to not be prepared.


Anyway, there's still a ton of things on my list for both work and home for this week and next (what is with no school on shushan purim?!) but I thought I would share this great recipe I got from my SIL for chocolate chip cookie brownies. Regular brownies are not my favorite dessert-as much as I like chocolate I really prefer cake. But these brownies are fabulous, not a ton of work, and everyone who eats them loooooooves them. It is from a website called gourmetkoshercooking.com.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies

For brownies:
1 Chewy Fudge brownie mix
For cookie:
½ cup shortening
¼ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 (12 ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips
For glaze:
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons margarine
1 (8 ounce) container pareve whip

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare brownies according to package directions for chewy brownies, not cake-like ones. Pour into greased 9 x 13-inch pan. Next prepare cookie topping. Cream together shortening and sugars until fluffy. Beat in other ingredients and drop by spoonfuls on top of the brownie. Bake for about 1 hour or until browned. Cool.
When completely cooled, prepare glaze. Melt together chocolate chips and margarine. Whisk in whip and stir until smooth. Cool slight and pour over brownies. Store in refrigerator.

The only things I did differently were to substitute margarine for shortening (it worked fine) and I cooked it for only 45 minutes so they wouldn't be too well done. I would definitely suggest lowering the amount of time. I also think I used a little less chocolate chips in the cookie part-it just seemed like too much chips for the dough.

If you make them I hope you love them as much as we do! Enjoy!

Oven pancake, apple style

I don't think I have ever posted a recipe before but this is just so good, so homemade and so easy that I can't resist. Those who don't like cooking I give you permission to skip this post-go read something else.

As for everybody else, if you are looking for something new to make, I hope this helps.

This recipe is actually from Betty Crocker and she calls it Puffy Oven Pancake.

2 Tbsp. stick marg or butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk (I used soy and kept the whole recipe pareve).
1/4 tsp salt

1. Heat oven to 400. Melt marg in a pie plate (I used an 8" round disposable pan) in oven.

2. Beat eggs in bowl. Beat in remaining ingredients and pour into pie plate.

3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until puffy and deep golden brown.

To make the pancake with apples:

Prepare the pancake following the above directions-except sprinkle 2 Tbsps. packed brown sugar and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon evenly over melted marg in pan. Arrange 1 cup thinly sliced peeled apple over sugar. Pour batter over apple. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Immediately loosen edge of pancake and turn upside down onto plate.

I actually doubled the recipe and it worked great. It fed 4 kids and 2 adults with nothing left over. I think it would go great with whipped cream but I didn't have any so we ate it plain and it was still fabulous.

I hope you enjoy the oven pancake as much as we did!