Tasty Tuesday - Chocolate Mint Brownies

Time for a Tasty Tuesday Edition 

Chocolate Mint Brownies 

 

Mmmmm ... chocolate mint brownies. Yummy! There are oodles of recipes floating around the web. After trying a few, I just reverted to an old family favorite for the brownie portion, and then played around with the mint and chocolate layers. I must admit ... I still struggle with the ganache.  Half the time, it doesn't turn out. Tips anyone? I still need to research, and practice I guess! I mean, if I HAVE to make more brownies to learn ... a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right? A couple of my older boys like these mint brownies, but Hubs and the littles don't care for them ... more for me! The do freeze great. In fact, they really need to be kept refrigerated at least, to keep the mint layer somewhat solid.

For the brownies ... this makes enough for one of those big jelly roll pans with sides. When I'm making these, I make the BIG batch, and then freeze big pieces. You can eat them straight from the freezer, or pull them out and let them soften slightly in the fridge.

3 1/4 cups butter

1 cup cocoa powder

8 eggs

4 cups sugar 

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

Melt the butter over low heat. Add cocoa and sugar. Allow to cool slightly and add beaten eggs and additional ingredients. Bake in 11x17x1 pan, 350° for 25 minutes. Cool.

For the mint layer ...

1 cup (2 sticks) butter (room temperature)

4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream (more if needed)

2 tsp mint extract

Green food coloring (a few drops)

Use a hand mixer to combine the butter and powdered sugar, adding the cream a little at a time until combined and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar/cream to desired consistency. Add mint/food coloring and mix. Spread over cooled brownies. Refrigerate or freeze the pan to set.

For the ganache ...

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cups heavy cream

Melt chocolate chips, add heated cream and stir until combined and creamy. Spread immediately over mint layer. This step ... ganache can get clumpy and hard. It's tricky! All about getting the perfect temp. Still practicing!

This recipe by Betty Crocker, uses cream cheese in the mint layer (cream cheese and mint? Does that go together?) and uses butter in addition to cream for the chocolate topping. Maybe I'll have to try that and see if I have more consistent success. This recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction only uses butter for the ganache (which can be handy, as I always have butter on hand, but don't always have cream).

Tasty Tuesday - Brazilian Cheese Rolls

I know many of the health/fitness blogs out there have a  food focus ... featuring recipes of good-for-you food. Me? I have not excelled at the eating side of this journey at all. But I figured I could still share a recipe or feature a food here and there. Don't expect anything too healthy though!

I made Brazilian Cheese Rolls this past Sunday. Also known as Pao de Queijo (my brother spent a couple years living in Brazil, so they call them by their real name). Bread of cheese ... yum! They have become a family favorite, and a go-to dinner bread, especially when we need something last minute. They are so quick and easy. They are also gluten-free, always requested at family parties (as my dad, brother and sister all suffer with Celiacs).

I first discovered them at one of the Brazilian restaurants. Then my son needed to make a South-American recipe for his Spanish class. I picked up (and pinned) the recipe from Our Best Bites. There are many others out there, but we LOVE this one, so I haven't gone on to try any of the others.

The Tapioca Flour is the only tricky ingredient to find. I've found it in the bulk section at Winco, but Hubs recently brought me home a 25 pound bag he found at a local kitchen supply store ... much easier than attempting the bulk buy in plastic bags, when I know I want a lot. 

You need a blender and a mini-muffin pan ... I once tried making them in a regular size muffin tin, and they were okay (a little more eggy in the middle).  I love the smaller bite-size. I only have one mini-muffin tin, but I've found I can empty it, and immediately refill the batter for a second batch. It doesn't even require a second coat of cooking spray, and often the second batch comes out better than the first, and people are happy to have an opportunity to have them hot out of the oven again.

I love how puffy they are ... often almost popping right out of the tin. Unfortunately, they do collapse quickly most of the time. They still taste good, but they don't look nearly as pretty. I've searched for solutions to this problem, but so far is seem to just be par for the coarse, similar to a souffle.

Unfortunately, with the oil, egg and cheese ... they aren't "healthy" or low calorie. I always top them with Parmesan cheese and some kosher salt too. At least I don't add butter as I do with traditional bread/rolls.

There were several entries already in the MFP food bank ... I don't know how accurate this is, but looking at it I'd assume it's fairly on target. I have a hard time limiting myself to three though. They are so easy to eat!

That's it for this first edition of Tasty Tuesday! 

Have you tried Brazilian Cheese Rolls?