Bready or Not Original: S’Mores Brownies
Create luscious S’Mores in brownie-bar form with my original recipe for S’Mores Brownies!
I had a jar of marshmallow fluff I wanted to use. I deliberated what to use it for and hit upon S’Mores Brownies, but to my surprise, I didn’t find an existing recipe that used jarred fluff. Time to make my own recipe!
Using regular marshmallows to bake is delicious and all, but you also end up with caramelized, hollow sections. I wanted marshmallows to stay soft and gooey alongside the chocolate crumb. By golly, my idea worked!
This is definitely a brownie for people who love chocolate. I loaded it with chocolate chips, inside and out. The graham cracker crumb and marshmallow complement it in a beautiful way.
This will look messy as a batter. Marshmallow fluff is not the easiest stuff to work with. It’s lumpy and sticky. The good news is, as the pan bakes, the contents will even out. The resulting marble effect make it look as delicious as it tastes.
Store these brownies in a sealed container for days–and they can be frozen for longer, too.
Bready or Not Original: S'Mores Brownies
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter half cube
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips divided
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 7 ounces marshmallow fluff one jar
- 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line an 8x8 or 9x9 pan with heavy foil and apply butter or nonstick spray.
- In a microwave safe bowl, heat the butter and 1 cup of chocolate chips in brief bursts until fully melted and smooth; watch it carefully and stir well between each burst. Stir in the white sugar, followed by eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Pour half the chocolate batter into the ready pan and spread into an even layer. Add small dollops of the marshmallow fluff across the top; it will be gloppy and sticky, so don't worry about getting it even.
- Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over the fluff and batter. Drop dollops of the rest of the chocolate batter on top along with the remaining 1 cup chocolate chips. Even out a bit, then use a butter knife or narrow spatula to swirl the layers together for a marbled effect. It may be mountainous in some areas but it will even out as it bakes.
- Bake until the top is crinkled and edges are pulling away from the sides of the pan, about 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool at room temperature for an hour, then stash in the fridge for another few hours to completely cool.
- Use the foil to lift the contents onto a cutting board to slice into bars. Store in a sealed container in fridge, waxed paper between stacked layers to prevent sticking. Keeps for up to three days, or freeze for later enjoyment.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Original: Chocolate Chip Espresso Shortbread
Basic Scottish shortbread is one of the awesomest things in the world. It’s also a blank canvas for variations beyond count. Chocolate chips and a jolt of espresso add extra oomph to this new spin!
Pride O’ Scotland Shortbread was one of the first recipes I considered ‘mine’ as a teenager. It became the one thing I made each year for our family’s Thanksgiving potluck.
Appropriately, it’s also something I made for my husband the very first day I met him when I was 18. (Yes, he was an almost total stranger. Yes, I welcomed him with shortbread. Because that’s what I do.)
I considered the recipe sacrosanct the past two decades… and then I got an idea. Chocolate. Espresso powder. It had to be good, right? Or would it be a crumbly mess?
Yes indeed, it turned out to be delicious. No, it remained as cohesive as ever. Yay!
Espresso powder is fantastic along with chocolate; I include it in most every brownie recipe. The coffee flavor doesn’t come in strong (I actually hate coffee), but it make the chocolate taste bolder and more nuanced.
Bready or Not Original: Chocolate Chip Espresso Shortbread
Equipment
- two basic 9-inch pie plates
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cups white sugar
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened, 2 sticks
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Place flour, sugar, espresso powder, and salt in mixing bowl; add butter, egg yolk, and vanilla. Mix with fingers until dough holds together, then fold in the mini chocolate chips. Once chips are distributed, divide dough into two balls and press each ball into a pan. Flatten evenly with palms and prick surface all over with floured fork. Slash into wedges.
- Bake for 17 to 22 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Remove from oven. Immediately cut again following slash marks and carefully run the blade around the edge of the crust to loosen the shortbread.
- Let shortbread cool. Cut again along slash marks and the crust, then remove wedges to eat. Shortbread keeps in sealed container for several days.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Original: Hazelnut Praline Bars
These delicious Hazelnut Praline Bars are a lot like praline candy, but it fantastic bar form.
The top of these bars caramelizes. These things are very sweet, with the nuts rendered softly crunchy. The combination of textures is just divine.
The slight drizzle of chocolate on top is the perfect accent, too. Funny how the tiniest bit of chocolate adds so much in terms of flavor.
A 6 ounce bag of hazelnuts will be the perfect amount for both the crust and nut layer, too.
Can you use other nuts? I haven’t tried it in this recipe, but why not? Praline candy traditionally uses pecans, after all. I bet using other nuts–or a combo–would be fine.
Hazelnuts are sure delicious and fun, though!
Bready or Not Original: Hazelnut Praline Bars
Equipment
- 13x9 pan
- food processor
- small saucepan
Ingredients
Crust
- 1/2 cup hazelnuts
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened, 1 1/2 sticks
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
Nut Layer
- 1 cup hazelnuts
- 13 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
Topping
- 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a 13x9-inch pan with foil and apply nonstick spray or butter.
- Place the 1/2 cup hazelnuts in a food processor. Process until finely ground.
- In a medium bowl, beat together the next two crust ingredients, the brown sugar and butter. Add the flour and ground hazelnuts. Press crust into pan; a piece of wax paper and a heavy glass makes it easy to form an evenly compressed layer. Bake for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, put the remaining hazelnuts in the food processor and give them a quick pulse, just to coarsely chop them.
- As soon as the crust comes out, sprinkle the hazelnuts over the top. In a small saucepan, warm the butter and brown sugar to boiling at medium heat. Boil for a minute. Pour over hazelnuts.
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until edges are bubbling and center is set. Cool completely.
- In a small microwave-safe bowl, zap the chocolate in 25 second bursts, stirring well between each pass, until it can be stirred smooth. Use a fork to drizzle the chocolate over the bars.
- Chill in fridge for 30 minutes, or until chocolate is set. Use the foil to lift contents onto a cutting board and slice into bars.
- Store in a sealed container at room temperature or in the fridge with waxed paper or parchment between the layers.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Chocolate Cherry Bundt Cake
Chocolate and cherries team up to delicious results in this delicious Chocolate Cherry Bundt Cake!
I first encountered this lovely combo in the Queen Anne Cordial Cherries my parents would buy around Christmas. The combo is pretty amazing in cake form, too.
You use both cherries and cherry juice in this recipe. That infuses the crumb with cherry flavor, even if your bite lacks cherry chunks.
Chocolate is swirled throughout. Make sure you don’t swirl it too much–you want distinct layers of chocolate, not only for the flavor, but the lovely appearance.
This is a special kind of bundt cake, perfect for a birthday, brunch, special dessert, breakfast, and–of course–Valentine’s Day.
Bake up this beautiful thing and indulge. Plus, it can always be sliced up and frozen for later!
Bready or Not: Chocolate Cherry Bundt Cake
Equipment
- large bundt pan
Ingredients
- 13 1/2 ounces maraschino cherries with juice
- 3 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
- 2 cups white sugar
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- 1 1/2 cups sour cream or plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Drain juice from cherries into another bowl; reserve 1/2 cup of juice. Remove stems from cherries and roughly chop up the fruit. Set aside.
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Grease and flour a large bundt pan.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time. Pour in the cherry juice, water, and almond extract. Start adding the flour mix and the sour cream in small amounts, going back and forth until everything is just incorporated. Fold the cherries into the batter.
- In a microwave safe dish, heat the chocolate chips in short bursts until they can be stirred smooth.
- Spoon some cherry batter into the base of the bundt pan. Add dollops of chocolate, then more batter. Keep going back and forth until all of the batter and chocolate is in the pan. Drag a butter knife through--without touching the metal--to swirl everything together a bit more, then smooth the top.
- Bake for about 1 hour, until an inserted knife comes out clean. Set on a rack to cool for 20 minutes, then invert the cake and remove the pan so it can completely cool.
- Store covered at room temperature. Slices can also be frozen for later enjoyment.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Ultimate Chocolate Cookies
Ultimate Chocolate Cookies! Say that in a gravelly announcer-guy voice. ULTIMATE CHOCOLATE COOKIES!
These are loaded with chocolate–melted into the dough and with bonus chocolate chips, too! Oh yeah, and cocoa!
The addition of espresso powder (or instant coffee) amps up that chocolate flavor, too. If you don’t keep that around for your cookies and brownies, it’s a good habit to start.
I mean, amping up chocolate flavor is DEFINITELY a good thing.
You might even say it makes things… ultimate.
Modified from AllRecipes Magazine February/March 2015.
Bready or Not: Ultimate Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
- 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips 1 bag, divided
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder Dutch process or regular unsweetened, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder or instant-coffee granules
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- On the stove top or in a microwave, melt 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, warming until smooth. Set aside to cool.
- In another bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
- In a big bowl, beat together the butter and two sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, scraping bowl to make sure everything is combined. Follow up with espresso powder and vanilla, then the melted chocolate. Stir in flour mixture. Fold in the remaining chocolate chips.
- Cover mixing bowl and let dough stand for about 30 minutes so that the chocolate can set.
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Use a teaspoon scoop to place dough spaced out on parchment-covered cookie sheet or seasoned stoneware.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let set on stove about 10 minutes before moving cookies to a rack to completely cool.
- Store in sealed containers at room temperature. Cookies may crisp up more after 1 day, but keep quite well.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: British Flapjacks
Time for flapjacks–British-style flapjacks, which are like American granola bars! This recipe, modified from British baking goddess Mary Berry, is super-easy and delicious.
In advance of my big trip to the UK last June, I wanted to make numerous British, Scottish, and French goodies so I could then find the legit thing over there to see if I did it right.
I ended up eating a lot of different flapjacks. Not only are they common to find at bakery counters everywhere, but in grocery stores I found a lot of what Americans call energy bars are labeled as flapjacks instead.
This particular flapjack is more like a bakery-style flapjack: like a toffee-rich granola bar. A drizzle of chocolate, I found, added some necessary contrast and balance.
My husband took these to work. A Scottish-born co-worker gave one a try and actually asked, “Is this a flapjack?” I cheered and danced when I heard that. I did it! I made a recognizable flapjack!
I found the original version of this recipe in Mary Berry’s cookbook Baking with Mary Berry. Unlike most (or maybe all) of her other cookbooks, this one is in American measurements, though it still features loads of British goods. Click on the picture below to find it on Amazon.
I modified another recipe from this book, too. Find my take on British-style Gingerbread here!
Bready or Not: British Flapjacks
Equipment
- 8x12x1-inch pan (small jelly roll pan)
Ingredients
Flapjacks
- 9 Tablespoons unsalted butter 1 stick plus 1 Tablespoon
- 1/4 cup corn syrup
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 1/2 cups rolled old-fashioned oats
Chocolate Drizzle
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon shortening
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line pan with aluminum foil and apply grease or nonstick spray. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan, gently heat the butter, corn syrup, and sugar until everything is melted together with the sugar dissolved. Stir in oats to completely coat.
- Scoop everything into the prepared pan. Use an uneven spatula to spread out evenly.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Let cool for about 5 minutes. Leaving contents in pan, slice into thin rectangular bars. Let completely cool.
- Use foil to lift contents onto cutting board. Slice again to separate.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, heat up chocolate chips with shortening, cooking in 20 second bursts and stirring well between each time, until chocolate smoothly stirs together. Use a fork to drizzle over flapjacks.
- Store in sealed container at room temperature.
