Onion Herb Bread

This is a recipe my mom used to make quite a bit when I was growing up. Because I’m lazy I tweaked the recipe a bit so I could make the dough in my bread machine, then I took it out and baked it as a free form loaf in the oven.

Recipe

1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons butter
1 package yeast (about 2.5 tsp of loose yeast)
1/2 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
1/2 teaspoon dill, rosemary or other herb (I ALWAYS use dill and usually more than it calls for)
melted butter and salt

1.    Preheat oven to350F.

2.    Scald milk, remove from heat, stir in sugar, salt and butter until dissolved. Cool to lukewarm.

3.    In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add cooled milk mixture. Stir in flour, onion and herbs. Mix until well blended.

4.    Cover and let rise until tripled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

5.    Stir down and beat vigorously, about 30 seconds.

6.    Turn into greased pan. Bake at 350F for about 1 hour. (Can be made as a free form loaf)

7.    Brush crust with melted butter and sprinkle lightly with salt.

So that’s the original make it by hand recipe.

I doubled the recipe so I’d have two loaves of bread when I made it in the bread machine.

First, I got out my bread machine. Always an important step if using one. 😉

So then… what I did different.

I skipped skalding the milk. This recipe actually is old enough that it was previously made without pasteurized milk.

I added all the liquid ingredients to the bread machine pan. I added the butter which I diced into small cubes and the salt.

Then I added the dry ingredients, adding the yeast at the very last.

Because I had doubled the recipe, I did a couple of adjustments.

1. I used slightly less yeast than the 5 tsp it would have called for to replace two packets. I used 4 tsp and it came out just perfect.

2. I didn’t bother sifting the flour. I just loosened it up in the container with a fork to fluff it a bit.

3. I used the dough cycle only. With 5 cups of flour, it’s a little bit more than I think would fit well to bake. After the dough cycle was done, I took the bread out, divided it in half and shaped it into free form rounds. I let it rise one more time then baked it on a parchment paper lined baking sheet for about an hour.

If I were going to make a single recipe in the bread machine, including baking, I’d probably set the machine for a 1.5 lb loaf, maybe even a 1lb loaf. I haven’t played with it that far yet.

I don’t have a picture because the bread got eaten too fast lol. It not only tastes awesome with just some butter on it but it makes good sandwich bread too.

Apple Spice Dump Cake Crumble: Perfected!

I’ve posted about dump cakes before. It’s certainly not a new idea. However, I think that dump cake is “make your teeth hurt” sweet. So I’ve been working on making a dump cake that is a little less sweet and a little more sophisticated. I’ve finally perfected it 🙂

The occasion for making this was a party to meet a dear friend of mine face to face for the first time. Doug and I have been friends for something like ten years but (like my husband and I) we met online playing a video game. Since Doug lives in Japan, there hasn’t been a chance for us to meet in person before. In celebration of seeing him, I cooked. Anyone who knows me at all, knows that means I cooked a LOT lol. I smoked four tri-tips, made my Greek style quinoa salad, a pan of my brownies and two pans of this dump cake. We managed to eat three of the tri-tips, about two thirds of the brownies, most of the salad and one of the dump cakes. This means that I currently have an entire dump cake in my kitchen. No one else wanted to take something quite that calorie and carb laden lol. Imagine that! 😉  However, it received rave reviews so I’ve posted the recipe for everyone to enjoy.

Recipe

1 box Spice Cake Mix

3 cans More Fruit Apple Pie Filling

1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 1/2 sticks cold butter

1/2-1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9×13 baking dish.

Open the cans of pie filling and dump them into the baking dish, spreading them out evenly. Sprinkle the cinnamon and cloves over the apples. This gives a nice little bit of extra spice to the apples.

Pour the cake mix into a gallon ziplock bag, add the rolled oats. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the bag. Press most of the air out of the bag and shake it several times to mix the oats, cake mix and butter. Now comes the fun part! Squeeze the bag between your fingers to break the butter into smaller pieces. You could use a pastry cutter to do this (like making biscuits or pie crust) but I found that this is easier and less messy. You can just throw the bag away when you’re done.

Once you have the butter broken up into the cake mix/oats, pour it over the top of the apples and spread it evenly.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until the pie filling is bubbly and the top of the cake is golden brown.

When the cake is done, you’ve got something that sort of resembles an apple cobbler or an apple crisp. It’s not quite as cakey as cobbler or as crumbly as crisp. The rolled oats help to cut the sweetness of the cake mix down to something that I find much tastier.

A more traditional dump cake would only use one stick of butter but I’ve added another half stick to help account for the rolled oats. Plus, I love butter lol.

Please let me know if you try this and what you think. 😀

Raisin Buttermilk Drop Scones

I made Turkey Pot Pie for dinner tonight. I used the recipe for Chicken Pot Pie that I’ve posted previously. It was really good and very satisfying BUT I wanted something sweet afterwards. Since we ate at 8pm (I was stuck working until almost 63o) it was a bit late to make bread. Since I already had a copy of The Joy of Cooking out I decided to see what they had listed for muffins. Don’t ask why I thought of muffins, I usually hate making them lol. So (no surprise) there weren’t any muffin recipes that grabbed my attention. Upon further browsing I saw scones. Now that’s a dessert I love. Not only are scones good for dessert, they make awesome breakfast nibbles. I started with the Dried Fruit and Buttermilk Drop Scones (Reduced Fat/Low Cholesterol) and tweaked it a bit.

Recipe

2 cups all purpose flor

1/4 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp ground allspice

1 large egg

1 cup buttermilk

3 1/2 TB warm, melted unsalted butter or 3 TB vegetable oil (I used butter)

1/2 cup raisins or other dried fruit (I used golden raisins)

Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly grease a baking pan or line it with parchment paper.

Whisk together all the dry ingredients. Here’s where I added my own spin. The original recipe did not call for the cinnamon, cloves and allspice. I’m guessing how much I put in the batter but it wasn’t much. Just enough to go well with the golden raisins I used.

Whisk the liquid ingredients and the dried fruit together. (If your melted butter doesn’t have time to cool, whisk together the egg and buttermilk then add the butter in a slow stream while whisking.) I used nice plump golden raisins. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients. The batter is really sticky (I mean REALLY sticky). Use a soup spoon or ice cream scoop to drop the batter into mounds 2.5 inches in diameter and at least 1 inch apart on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon and sugar. Bake until the tops are golden brown, about 12-15 minutes.

Makes 12 scones.

When I first picked this recipe, I was thinking of making it with dried apricots. But once I was actually in the kitchen I realized that apricots just didn’t have the flavor I wanted tonight. I didn’t want tart, I wanted sweet and spicy. So by using the raisins I got the sweet and then added the extra spices. And this recipe is super easy to make too. Upon tasting, they’re pretty good. Next time I’ll add more cinnamon 🙂

Squash Pie

This recipe has been in my family for I don’t know how long. I know my grandmother made it, my mom makes it, and I make it. (Plus my sister and at least one of my brothers lol) The title is squash pie but today I used pumpkin. Any hard winter squash will work, pumpkin, butternut, kershaw, banana, etc. Squash has a milder flavor but pumpkin was on sale and I had a budget. Being the cook I am, I cooked my pumpkin from scratch as opposed to opening a can. It is perfectly ok to open a can of pumpkin and use that. Canned pumpkin is probably smoother and moister than freshly cooked pumpkin unless you puree it in a food processor or blender. All that said, here’s the recipe.

Recipe

1 10″ unbaked pie crust

2 cups mashed cooked squash (or pumpkin) cooled

1 can evaporated milk (12 oz)

2 eggs (3 eggs if the squash is really thick)

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar (in place of the white and brown sugar, you can use 3/4 cup honey)

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 425F.

Use one egg white to coat the inside of the pie crust and dump the rest into the mixing bowl. The egg white helps keep the crust from getting soggy.

Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl until smooth. Pour into pie pan. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F and bake for another 50-55 minutes.

I doubled the recipe and used a total of six eggs because my pumpkin was really thick. I’m not sure if it was the pie crusts or the batter but I managed to get three pies out of a doubled recipe. Normally it only makes two pies plus a bit to cook in a dish as a custard.

I’ve agreed that the boys can have a slice of pie tonight because they were nice enough to bring me pizza for dinner and Jene has been keeping the kitchen clean while I cook.

Oatmeal Blondies

It’s really hard to lose weight and be fit when you have a sweet tooth… sigh. For example, I was happily snuggled up in bed this evening when I had a sudden craving for baked goods. I wanted something that was easy to make and had some texture to it. I’d been thinking about blondies for awhile. They’re similar to brownies but don’t have the cocoa. So I did what I always do when I’m looking for inspiration, I surfed the internet! I found the recipe for Milly’s Oatmeal Brownies on allrecipes.com. It fit the bill perfectly for my current craving. I adore oatmeal so this was just what I was looking for.

Recipe

1 cup butter at room temperature

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar (I was out so I subbed in 1 cup of turbinado sugar)

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups rolled oats

chocolate chips (optional)

raisins (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 9×18 baking dish.

In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until thoroughly mixed and creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract until well mixed, and mix in salt, baking soda, baking powder, flour, rolled oats, plus chocolate chips, raisins, and chopped nuts if desired. Mix well to moisten all ingredients, and spread into the prepared baking pan. I used white chocolate chips and toffee bits. The batter was VERY thick and I had to smoosh it into the pan with my hands. However, it baked up beautifully.

Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before cutting into bars.

Now… using the turbinado sugar made a bit of a change in the texture and flavor profile. Instead of a cakey sort of brownie it came out almost caramely if that makes any sense. Turbinado sugar is made from sugar cane but minimally processed. It’s a golden brown color and comes in large crystals. It’s got a slightly richer flavor (I think) than brown sugar. It has more moisture in it than traditional brown sugar so that contributes to the ooey gooey factor in the blondies. The toffee chips don’t hurt than any either lol. The oatmeal adds just that perfect, chewy texture. Basically, I loved this recipe. I will admit it’s just a trifle bit too sweet but then again, it’s only too sweet if I’m eating a quarter of a pan at a time… Obviously,  I would never do something like that (pay no attention to the empty pan).

 

 

Puto (Filipino Steamed Cake)

This is one of my all time favorite Filipino desserts. It’s made with rice flour and coconut milk then steamed instead of baked. LOVE this dessert! I got this recipe from cooks.com. It’s a super easy recipe. I’ve made this one about three times now and need to experiment with some other variations. If you click on the “Recipe” it’ll take you to the original website.

Recipe

1 c. rice flour
1 stick butter
3 eggs
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 c. Bisquick
1 (19 oz.) can coconut milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. milk
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix all the ingredients to form a batter and pour in a deep baking pan (round) 2/3 full and cook in a steamer for 45 minutes.

So I did a few things differently. 1. I used 2-13.5 ounce cans of coconut milk and left out the cows milk. 2. I used small tart pans to steam individual sized portions. I then put the tart pans, six at a time into a steam pot and cooked them for about 20 minutes a batch. Tonight, I’m experimenting by putting 24 tart pans in a roasting pan with a bit of water and baking/steaming them. If it’s faster then I’ll do them all that way in the future. 🙂

Triple-Cherry Cheesecake

Our friends Monica and Jolly are having their engagement party today. I told them I would bring something special to help celebrate. This cheesecake definitely falls into the “special” category. It is rich, luscious, fruity and well, pretty much perfect. The recipe comes from The Bon Appetit Cookbook (2006) pg 533. I did not actually use the cheesecake part of the recipe, just the cherry sauce recipe. The cheesecake is from Philadelphia cream cheese and the crust is my own.

Cheesecake

1 cup Nilla wafer crumbs

3 TB sugar

3 TB melted butter

5 8-oz packages of cream cheese , softened

1 cup sugar

3 TB flour

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 TB vanilla (I used 1 tsp of almond extract this time to accent the cherries. Always use less almond extract than vanilla because it’s a much stronger flavor.)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Mix together cookie crumbs, 3 TB of sugar and melted butter. Press into the bottom of a 9″ spring form pan. Bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and flour at medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in sour cream and vanilla. Pour over crust.

Carefully fold a large single piece of aluminum foil around the pan. Heavy duty foil works best for this. When you fold it up around the sides of the pan, make sure there are no folds or creases that can allow water into the foil. Then place the baking pan in a larger pan with hot water coming about 1″ up the sides of the pan. This water bath technique helps prevent the top of the cheesecake from cracking.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Loosen cake from rim and let cool to room temperature then refrigerate overnight. Do NOT cover with plastic wrap. The residual heat of the cake will cause condensation on top of the cake and make it soggy. So make sure you don’t have anything garlic/onion flavored in the fridge lol.

Cherry Sauce

3/4 cup dried tart cherries

1 1-lb bag of frozen, pitted Bing cherries, thawed, drained and juice reserved

1/2 cup cherry jam/preserves

2 TB brandy

1 TB cornstarch

Combine dried cherries and reserved juice in a heavy, medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 20 minutes.

Mix cherry jam, brandy and cornstarch in a bowl. Stir into dried cherry mixture. Add thawed cherries. Stir over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens, about 1 minute. Cool slightly then refrigerate until cold. (Can be made two days ahead, keep refrigerated.)

 

It is really important to make the cake a day before you’re serving it. It needs the time to chill in the fridge. When you’re ready to remove it from the pan, remove the outer ring, place a smooth piece of plastic wrap over the top of the cake. Place a large cutting board on top of the cheesecake and carefully flip it upside down. The bottom of the pan is most likely going to be stuck to the crust. The best way to do this is to take a dish towel, wet it down, warm it in the microwave for a bit and then put the hot towel on the bottom of the pan. This melts the butter in the crust allowing the pan to be lifted away. Once you have the bottom of the pan off you can place a decorative plate on the bottom of the cheesecake and gently flip it right side up. Remove the plastic wrap and top with the cherry mixture, leaving a 1/2 border along the edge of the cake.

This picture shows the cheesecake upside down on a cutting board after removing the bottom of the pan. As you can see the cutting board is bigger than the cake which is important. If your cutting board isn’t big enough, the edges of the cake can break off.

The picture on the right shows the cake right side up and placed on a pretty plate. I get these plates at Bed Bath and Beyond for about $1.50 each. They are the perfect size for a 9″ cake and cheap enough that I don’t mind leaving them behind.

 

 

And here’s the finished product. 🙂

Honeycomb buns

So I mentioned that I wanted to make a recipe I got from King Arthur Flour. It’s called Honeycomb Buns and makes these cute little mini buns sweetened with honey and topped with a glaze of honey and melted butter. It finally cooled down enough this evening to fire up the oven. The buns are currently in the oven and are smelling wonderful. They’ll be done at almost 10pm on the dot. I can barely wait.

Now, I am usually the queen of shortcuts but this time I actually followed the directions and mixed up the dough by hand. Yup, not doing that again! I usually use my bread machine for making bread, even bread dough to be baked in the oven. For some reason I was feeling nostalgic (masochistic) and decided to mix the dough in my KitchenAid and knead it by hand. I’m a dork. I’ll just use the bread machine next time.

In the kitchen prn that supplied the recipe, they have a really cool picture of a baking pan I really want.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simply press the little balls of dough down into the wells and you get cool looking bread. However, before shelling out money for a cool looking pan, I wanted to try the recipe.  Now that I’ve shoved at least half a dozen of these buns in my mouth I can say that I really like them! Will definitely be making this recipe again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A plate full of yumminess!

I hate hot weather

First off, this post will probably not talk about food. It’s freakin hot outside and even with the AC unit running I feel like my brain is melting out of my ears. I usually do not cook when it’s this hot. For that matter, I really don’t eat lol.

So what am I going to talk (babble) about? Oh, this and that. Random stuff from my life for the last few days.

First, is that the MS is kicking my butt. It’s been hot for the last two days and I feel pretty wretched. Heat makes MS symptoms much worse. So right now I’m having pins and needles in my left leg and food and very severe muscle spasms in the left side of my torso and up into my shoulder. Not being able to use both arms makes cooking a challenge so I’m going to take the day off. Besides, there’s leftovers 😉

The cats however seem to be enjoying the AC. They’re sleeping in front of the unit with the cold air blowing on them. Cats are funny critters. Our cats have a rule. We call it the “One Cat Rule.” Only one cat may be petted or snuggled at a time. So last night Sasha was snuggled up next to me and Hugh came wandering over. He looked at Sasha and left. Mew stopped in, looked at Sasha and left. Whatever works for them I guess but I really can pet more than one cat at a time.

I would really like to be doing some baking right now but it’s too bloody hot to run the oven. I was going to do laundry and don’t even want to run the dryer. I got my new King Arthur Flour catalog in the mail yesterday and it has this recipe:

Honeycomb Buns

These brioche-style buns, with their drizzle of honey glaze, are over-the-top decadent. Serve them warm at breakfast, or with afternoon tea.

Buns

• 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup honey

Directions

1) To make the buns: Combine the flour, salt, honey, and yeast.

2) Mix in the milk, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla. Knead to make a smooth, elastic dough.

3) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let rest for 60 minutes.

4) Grease a honeycomb cake pan or mini-muffin pan.

5) Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into 19 equal pieces (20 pieces if you’re using a mini muffin pan).

6) Pat each piece of dough into the separate cups of the pan. Allow the buns to rest, covered, until just about doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

7) Towards the end of the resting time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

8) Bake the buns for 20 to 22 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown. Remove them from the oven. After 5 minutes, turn them out onto a plate.

9) To make the glaze: Combine the butter and honey, and microwave for 45 seconds to melt the butter.

10) Brush the glaze over the hot buns, and let them rest for 5 minutes to allow them to absorb the glaze.

Yield: 19 or 20 buns.

I adore baking with honey. It gives things a much mellower sweetness. I try to get my honey from local bee keepers if at all possible. There is nothing as pretty as seeing a jar of honey that still has the sparkle of pollen in it. So I really, really want to make these buns. Sadly, it is too hot and I’m not turning on the stupid oven. Well, not unless I’m still awake at midnight when it’s cooler!

I guess I lied about this post not discussing food  lol. At least you know what I’ll be doing in the middle of the night if I can’t sleep.

 

Chocolate-Cherry Brownies

I’m going to brag… my brownies are AWESOME! It is the number one thing I am requested to make. So I’m going to share my recipe and maybe OTHER people can start making them lol.

The recipe I started with is from King Arthur Flour. They have amazing baking recipes and I own several of their cookbooks. This recipe grabbed my eye because it makes THICK fudgey brownies instead of the insipid thin little brownies other recipes make. This recipe is NOT low fat or low calorie but omg it’s good. The recipe can be found at http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/fudge-brownies-recipe

Fudge Brownies

Fudgy, cakey, fudgy, cakey… can’t make up your mind? If you’re looking for a brownie that’s right in between those two styles, you’ve found it. These brownies combine a fudge brownie’s ultra-moist texture with a subtle cake-like rise, for the best of both worlds. Our guarantee: These brownies, deep chocolate brown inside with a lighter-colored top crust, will be about 3/4″ to 1″ tall when cut. They’ll be ultra-moist without crossing the line into gooey/underbaked. Read our blog about these brownies, with additional photos, at Bakers’ Banter. Volume Ounces Grams 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter 2 1/4 cups sugar 4 large eggs 1 1/4 cups Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon espresso powder 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 2 cups chocolate chips Directions 1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ pan 2) In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Or simply combine the butter and sugar, and heat, stirring, until the butter is melted. Continue to heat (or microwave) briefly, just until the mixture is hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating the mixture to this point will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies. 3) While the sugar heats a second time, crack the 4 eggs into a bowl, and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla till smooth. 4) Add the hot butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth. 5) Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Note: If you want the chips to remain intact in the baked brownies, rather than melting in, let the batter cool in the bowl for about 20 minutes before stirring in the chips. 6) Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9″ x 13″ pan. 7) Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

Recipe summary Hands-on time: 12 mins. to 15 mins. Baking time: 28 mins. to 30 mins. Total time: 40 mins. to 45 mins. Yield: Two dozen 2″ brownies. Tips from our bakers When testing to see if brownies are done, take a cake tester or the tip of a sharp knife and carefully poke it into the center of the pan, digging around just enough to see the interior. You should see moist crumbs, but no uncooked batter. Yes, you’ll be left with a small divot in the center of your brownies; just cut around it when you’re cutting the brownies into squares. Want to make whole-grain brownies? Check out our recipe: Tasting is Believing Whole-Grain Brownies. This recipe is written using Dutch-process cocoa. If you use natural cocoa, your results may be different; the brownies may taste slightly acidic, and might be denser.

I’ve been playing with this recipe for years and there are lots of variations that can be made. I follow the basic recipe (I do NOT use the espresso powder) but I use a saucepan on the stove instead of the microwave. I prefer the control it gives me over cooking the sugar. I also don’t use another bowl for mixing the eggs and cocoa together. I remove the sugar/butter mixture from the stove and mix the cocoa/salt/baking powder/vanilla into the sugar right in the saucepan. I then add in the eggs one at a time. You have to mix the eggs in quickly because the cocoa/sugar mixture is going to be warm and you don’t want to curdle the eggs. Then you mix in the flour and chips. This helps cut down on the number of dishes I get dirty 🙂

So, you’re probably wondering when I’m going to explain what I do to make my brownies so awesome… the answer is NOTHING! This recipe is that amazing! Well.. ok, I do start making some changes with what I put in for the “chips” part. A favorite is 1 cup of butterscotch chips and 1 cup of white chocolate chips. Another is Heath toffee bits or peanut butter chips. The kitchen sink version has walnuts, pecans, chocolate chips (milk and dark) white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and butterscotch chips. The idea is that the additions should equal about 2 cups worth of additions. I “might” have occasionally gone beyond that amount lol.

Today’s pan of brownies is my Chocolate-Cherry version is takes a bit of extra work. Start by taking 8oz of dried bing cherries and soaking them in 1/4 cup of Amaretto liqueur. Let them soak for at least 20 minutes, overnight if possible. What this does is release some of the cherry flavor into the liquid which will then be added to the brownies and infuse the batter with cherry flavor. It also adds a nice almond flavor to the cherries. Cherries and almond go together SO well. It’s one of my favorite combinations.

The next step is going to be adding 3/4 teaspoon of almond extract to the batter with the vanilla.

Add the cherries after the eggs are mixed in but before you add the flour and chocolate chips.

Mix in the flour and chocolate chips. I use milk chocolate but if you like your brownies really dark you can use semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips. I prefer to use Ghirardelli or Guittard chocolate chips. Both are much better quality than Hershey’s. I am a chocolate snob but that’s for another post… Let’s just say that better chocolate makes better brownies.

From this point it’s just following the instructions and baking the brownies.

If you’re going to take these to a party, make two pans people will be going back for seconds and thirds!