I love chocolate chip cookies. They are like syrup to my soul. A warm blanket out of the dryer, a hug from your mama.
But brownies... they are my kryptonite. My personal downfall and totally my achilles heel. We have a true love/hate relationship because I can never EVER get the recipe just right. I love to bake them because even when they don't come out right, the crumbles are still delicious. But I get incredibly frustrated as I try to cut into the pan and realize the top is crackly, but the bottom is runny. It is seriously my constant battle.
This recipe from Bakerella uses a boxed brownie mix (gasp, I know, I know) but I figure for a first run recipe, I'm OK w/ using the mix to see how it all goes down. And I figure the brownies will set up properly because it's a box dangit and they just better!
I'm not putting pictures up of me mixing a BOX MIX of brownies. You know what it looks like. So, lets fast forward to where I got creative.
I made a chocolate ganache! yuuu-uum
whipping cream and almost a full stick of butter... melt....
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a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips waiting to be smothered
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douse the chips w/ the creamy butter mixture and let it sit for about 20 seconds
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then stir until it is all combined
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take the pan of brownies and chocolate chip cookies out of the oven (after about 40 minutes of baking in a 9x13 pan)
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and while it is still hot, dump the ganache over the brownies and evenly spread it around
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and then, let it sit. and sit... and sit until the ganache sets up. You have to wait AT LEAST an hour. If you can manage let it sit for a couple of hours because the ganache will still be runny. THEN you can cut into it. and the ganache will still run down the sides a little but, but it just adds to the perfect bite.
so... there was some craziness that went down in my house today and I got too.... distracted shall we say, to take a picture of the brownies cut up. But, they looked WONDERFUL and tasted even better.
Do yourself a favor and whip these up. If you use ALL boxed ingredients, this will get done in no time and you can just use frosting out of a can to put on top and everyone will love you just the same. Do it now I say and you will not regret it.