Crunchy Creamy Sweet

Sweet Valentine Brownies

February 6, 2012 by Anna

I promised to share tips and ideas for your Valentine’s Day desserts.

This is one of them.

This dessert is ahh-mazing! You get your favorite brownie, frosted and drizzled with caramel sauce. Read that again. 🙂

Talk about a perfect way to dress up a brownie for your Sweetheart!

January new+288a Sweet Valentine Brownies

Brownie kiss 🙂

Tip:
Start with your favorite brownie recipe. We all have one, right? You want to make this dessert perfect!
I used a heart shaped baking pan for whoopie pies. If you do so, adjust the baking time, to 10 – 13 minutes. You do not want to over bake your brownies.
After they cool, frost them and drizzle the caramel sauce over the top.

I used this frosting recipe.
I also have a caramel sauce recipe here, on the blog, but I may have just found my new favorite one! My Hubby had 3 teaspoons when taste-testing and declared it “sooooo good”. 🙂
Caramel sauce that is man-approved? Score!!

Caramel Sauce:

1 c granulated sugar
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 c heavy cream, room temperature

Place the sugar in a medium saucepan. Place on medium heat and whisk. Eventually, it will start to melt and clump up. Just keep whisking. It will melt and turn caramel color.
When all the sugar is melted, remove from heat and add all the butter. Keep whisking until smooth.
Add the cream, pouring slowly. Whisk until all combined and smooth. Pour into a jar and let sit for 10 – 15 minutes on a counter. Place in the refrigerator while you make the brownies and frosting. It should keep well for 2 weeks in the fridge, but I won’t swear by it because mine disappeared the next day. 😀
It will turn cloudy while it cools.

January new+303a Sweet Valentine Brownies

Enjoy!

xoxo,

Anna

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

February 1, 2012 by Anna

Hello 🙂

It’s February! Open the bags of chocolate! Pull out the cocoa! We are going to have some sweet time this month. 🙂

Yogurt Muffins with Lime Glaze

January 31, 2012 by Anna

It’s the last day of January! Tomorrow I get a free pass to indulge in chocolate! I already teased you with the Triple Chocolate Bread here, but I have some amazing recipes coming up for you! 🙂

My mission: to provide you with ideas, tips and recipes involving chocolate. Let’s make this coming month a sweet one! 🙂

See, that’s how excited I am about it. 😀

To say good-bye to January, I made yogurt muffins with glaze. Feel free to use any fruit yogurt you like, not necessarily key lime, and pair it with the same fruit glaze. I was so distracted while making those ( dreaming of chocolate and more chocolate… ) that I cut the limes to juice them and then realized I didn’t grate the zest. Bummer! It would give them a deeper flavor. Still, the muffins turned out great!

Yogurt Muffins with Lime Glaze

for the muffins:
5 oz. key lime yogurt ( or any other flavor yogurt )
1/2 c sugar
2 limes
5 Tbsp butter
2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 c milk

for the glaze:
1/2 c powdered sugar
2 Tbsp lime juice

Fill your muffin tins with liners or grease them. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Grate the zest of both limes and then juice one of them.
In a small saucepan, mix together 1/4 cup of sugar, lime zest and 2 Tbsp of lime juice. Heat to boil. Remove from heat and add butter. Stir until smooth. Set aside to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together dry ingredients ( flour, baking powder, soda and salt ).
In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, eggs with milk. Add to butter mixture. Mix well.
Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
Divide batter among the muffin tins, filling 3/4 full.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool in pans for 2 minutes, then place on a cooling rack to cool completely before glazing.
Prepare glaze by whisking together powdered sugar and lime juice. Glaze the muffins.

Enjoy!

What is your favorite kind of chocolate?
What do you like to pair it with?