baking adventures in June(ish)

It's been brownie-central here! :)

Black and White Brownie Bars
originally from Baking Bites

1 1/2 cups milk and/or dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp Kahlua
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 180C, Grease and line a baking pan with aluminium foil.

Cream together butter and brown sugar. Beat in the egs one at a time, then add Kahlua (or vanilla essence), salt and flour, mixing until there are no streaks of flour, and it is just combined. Take 2 cups of this batter and put it in a separate bowl.

Melt 1 cup of white chocolate in the microwave (in 30s intervals) and stir until all chocolate is melted and smooth. Pour into one of the batter bowls and mix in well. Do this quickly since the chocolate will set again quite quickly and then it's really hard to mix it into the batter!! (says she who FAILED at this step)
Pour this white choc batter into the pan. Scatter the remaining 1/2 cup of both milk/dark and white chocolate evenly over the surface.

Now melt 1 cup of dark or milk chocolate and add that to the other batter bowl, mixing well. Drop small dollops of this chocolate batter on top of the chocolate chip layer, then use a spatula to gently spread the chocolate batter into an even layer.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached. Cool in pan, then lift the brownies out with the foil and slice into long, thin slices.

I deviated from the original recipe only because I discovered too late that I didn't have any semi-sweet chocolate, only blocks of milk chocolate; nor did I have any vanilla extract. So I made do. I still got told they were delicious. :)

Turtle brownies
originally from Technicolor Kitchen

Brownies:
55g unsalted butter
90g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup (70g) plain flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup (60ml) whole milk
1 tbsp Kahlua

Topping:
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
1/3 cup (80ml) heavy cream
1 teaspoon Kahlua
¼ teaspoon of salt

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and line a buttered 20cm baking pan with foil.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter and chocolate together and mix until smooth. Let cool slightly. Whisk together sugar and eggs until pale and fluffy. Add the chocolate mixture, milk and vanilla to the egg mix, and combine. Add flour mixture and mix until well combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a skewer/toothpick inserted into the centre of brownies comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet (~30 minutes). Let cool on a wire rack.

While brownies are baking, boil 1/3 cup (80ml) water and the sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir until sugar has dissolved. When mixture comes to a boil, stop stirring, and brush the sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystals from forming. Continue to cook, swirling pan occasionally, until medium amber, 5 to 7 minutes.

Remove from heat, and immediately add cream in a slow pour (if you're too quick it clumps up!). Add vanilla (or Kahlua) and salt. Gently stir with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula until caramel begins to cool and thickens slightly, about 1 minute.
Pour caramel over cool brownies. Refrigerate until cold, 30 minutes to 1 hour.

The caramel will still be quite runny. I had a hell of a time trying to cut these up. But they were so delicious; soft, almost fudgy batter plus sticky salted caramel - om nom nom!