Deep, rich, moist, fudgy, ooey gooey brownies

Deep, rich, moist, fudgy, ooey gooey brownies

Admit it. You want one. With a tall glass of milk. 

And then, you want another. Just because one wasn't enough. 

Go ahead, indulge. You have my permission. I promise.

But you better schedule in that run because honey, as lovely and decadent as these are - you will need to burn them off. I cannot lie and say that they are calorie free :) They are delightful. 

ok - have another, but don't say I didn't warn you!

One of the ingredients listed is "Black Onyx Cocoa Powder". I totally stumbled on this beautiful item several months ago. It's sold in a specialty spice shop here in the Denver area and heavenly. Savory Spice Shop is locally owned, and now franchised. You can order the cocoa powder on line. It is {worth. every. penny.} 

Deep Dark Chocolate Fudgey brownies

1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted 

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 

3/4 cup All purpose Flour 

1/2 cup Dark cocoa powder 

1/4 cup Black Onyx Cocoa Powder*

3 eggs
1/2 cup Dark chocolate chips - I like Giardelli myself 

Now listen to me. I'm going to share a few good secrets with you here. Follow all of the instructions if you want these to come out of the pan the way mine did. This is the most important instruction you'll find on this page. FOLLOW the instructions!

Preheat your oven to 350. Especially at high altitude, you do not want your baked goods warming up with your oven. 

First, line a 9x9 pan with foil. Then liberally spray the foil with baking spray. I'm a huge fan of Prep. I could get it in my bakery supply store back home in Buffalo. Haven't found it here in Colorado yet. However, my very large can has lasted almost a year already so it goes a very long way.

Even though these brownies have a ton of butter, the pan still needs to be liberally sprayed. Maybe it's the Black Onyx cocoa powder, or the sugar, but it can be really sticky. 

You can also use pan grease which I have talked about on my blog in this Carrot Cake post from way back in November 2012.  It's a very easy recipe and lasts a long time. Refrigerate it though ok?

ok next, melt your butter. Personally, I'm a fan of using a pot on the stove, just because of the amount of butter. I don't like getting it all over the microwave when some of it is super melted, and some isn't. One step, into the pan, and viola you've got melted butter. Next, add the sugar to the melted butter. 

In your stand mixer, add the flour, and the cocoa powder, and the chocolate chips. Don't be a cheapskate and go with cheap chocolate chips. If you're going to indulge in these, make them right. That's how I feel about that!

Add the eggs one at a time, beating each into the flour cocoa mixture. Once all the eggs are incorporated, you can start to add the butter / sugar mixture. Do this in batches, giving it some time to incorporate. 

Now you are ready. Pour the very thick batter into the prepared, foil lined pan. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes. They might be a little soft in the center, and you can try baking an additional 2-5 minutes depending on how you like the consistency of your brownies. Personally, I like mine gooey and fudgey. 

Please let these cool completely. Like, go watch a movie or do laundry or something. Unless you want "dump cake" brownies, do not mess with them until they are cooled completely. I know there's nothing better than warm chocolate and milk, or vanilla icecream - but seriously this will frustrate you if you pull them out of the pan too early. 

Enjoy and let me know how they turn out for you! :) 

Just what have you been up to?!?!?

Me? Just about everything! We'll I guess moving to a new state will do that to you. Don't get me wrong, it's been great, but there is so much to see and do that it's hard to convince myself to stay inside and play on the computer. 

Below are a few of the grand adventures we've enjoyed! 

Here, my son and I are headed up to Boulder for the day. We visited the Celestial Seasonings Tea plant and then walked around the 6th st mall. Very cool! 

I bought a new car. My freestyle had 129k miles on it and was tired. Besides, after $1400 in repairs with no solution, and the dealer wanting another $3200 to 'possibly' fix the problem, it seemed time. So here she is, my midnight blue, 2014 Chevy cruze. May she run forever. Or at least till I'm done paying for her!

I made applesauce. 10 pints of it actually. Because we won't eat the store bought kind. EVER. 

I'll let you in on a little secret - the best applesauce has a bit of Vanilla and brown sugar tossed in for sweetness. Go ahead, try it - you'll love it! 

I found a NY style pizza joint I can sink my teeth into. Yum and thank you Lord for the greasy cheese?

{THIS} is pizza. That's all folks... That is all.

I've been baking my butt off. I've mastered the fine art of cupcake baking and am working on bread. It's getting there but these were the bomb. One step closer to opening my bakery some day!

It was blessedly cold here this particular morning - and yes, that says minus 9 degrees. I can hear what you're thinking, and I concur. My thoughts exactly! (Actually now, they just finished a blizzard back home with sustained winds of 45mph and freezing cold temps - like neg 20 or colder!) I'll take Colorado anyday now that I'm ed U macated! LOL

And, since I didn't really get to enjoy Christmas last year in light of the big cross country move, I've celebrated this year by putting up (2) Christmas trees. As of this post (Jan 8th) They are STILL up. I guess it's time to start taking them down now... the neighbors might start talking! LOL

I don't know if I'll get used to decorating my tree with the windows open though! It was warm that day for SURE!

This was cool actually, though kind of in a bummed out way. I was in Hobby Lobby recently, and bumped into this plate. Do you know the artist? Her name is Jill Ankrom. LOVE her folksy snowmen! I have a whole slew of her stuff from back in Buffalo that was carried only by one store there. I've been looking for complimentary pieces ever since. I found this one little lonely only at Hobby Lobby - they had no others! I was bummed that I could only get one, but THRILLED that it has cupcakes on it. Bittersweet I guess...lol



Well other than work, and church, baking and crocheting, not much else has been going on in our world. What's been up with you?

~ Kisha

Apple cinnamon loaf

Well tomorrow is September first, and I am so excited to see my first Colorado Fall. Now we are seriously delayed in Rain, so I know it won't be the lush, plush, Autumnal eye feasts I was used to back in NY, but on any given day, Colorado is breathtaking, so I expect Fall will be quite nice as well. 

It felt like a little preparation is due - maybe I am just a little too excited to be done with the 90+ degree days - or I just miss baking a little more than I thought? 

I've also spent more than my fair share on Pinterest between last night and today, organizing and sorting my more than 8,000 pins. 

{Silence} 

Why do I have 8,000 pins?

{more silence} 

Maybe because I have over 100 boards? 

{the silence around here is deafening}

My son, he teases me that I'm a hoarder. Um... not in most area's of my life.. but if Pinterest "Hoarding" were possible? Guilty as Charged 

Well, one of two recipes were going to happen today. 

This one here, from Half Baked was a serious contender. It actually was going to happen. And then I plopped on the couch to watch Ree Drummond on Food TV. And after Ree Drummond, Trisha Yearwood. And after Trisha? The Barefoot Contessa. And after the Barefoot Contessa? Giadda... with a guest appearance from Bobby Flay. {Insert "Sheepish Grin" here}

Hello people. Priorities. Yeast, which is called for in the above bread, was obviously not one of them today. However, it's on the list - and will be made sometime soon. In the very near future. So thank you Half Baked for your lovely bread recipe - I cannot wait to consume copious quantities of bread.. with apples. And maybe a Bobby Flay marathon for good measure. 

So, in 2nd place getting bumped up to first place was this LOVELY Apple Cinnamon Loaf Bread  presented by Just a Pinch. God Bless you Just a Pinch. Seriously. You saved me from myself, and my cable television today. I feel productive. 

 

Isn't it lovely? yeah. And a nice picture too! {Obviously I didn't take it} 

I took the pic at the top of the page. You know, the one you found here by coming from Pinterest. Or wherever you visited from.

Thank you for visiting... it means a lot to me! 

I made no changes to the original recipe, so for time sake I won't repeat them - but just click on the LINK HERE and be sure to go check it out yourself. Yummy, moist, delish, uber good bread. Even at High altitude it came out moist and crumbly. But not too crumbly.

Just right kind crumbly. You'll love it. Trust me :) 

Freeze my cookies? Yes I did!

Well. Well. Well.

Look who's back?

yup! It's me! I'm back from crazy move land.

You know, in blog world, it's almost a sin to admit you've been gone for any length of time, but seriously. 

{I know you are smarter than that} 

I know you know when someone's last post has been more than a month (Almost 2! *Gasp*) and they haven't been visible on their facebook page, their pinterest, or well.. anywhere else for that matter. 

Well, I'm back. At least slowly coming back. And it's not cause I haven't been busy. I surely have. 

This was taken March 3rd, 2013. This is just about every worldly possession my family owned. We packed it all up and headed west. Literally. We moved from Buffalo NY, to Castle Rock, Colorado. 

I am a Yankee among Cowboys. Cept there are a lot of Californians, New Mexicans, Texans, and even some Arizonans here.  

Castle Rock, Colorado. Someday I will blog about the very un-eventful, peaceful, God - Favored trip we experienced coming out here. But that's not for today. We are all settled in our apartment. Our house in NY is sold, and we are in a new season in life. It's very exciting, and somedays I feel like I'm on an extended vacation. Do I really live here? And truthfully, pictures do nothing to exhibit the astounding beauty that is everywhere. Sometimes I think "is that a post card backdrop"? Again, Do I really live here?

Kisha, you are not in New York anymore. 

Well that's ok. There's a lot of adjusting to do. Everything is different. Driving is different. Grocery Shopping is different. Cooking is DEFINITELY different. Baking is impossibly different. 

And speaking of baking. Look at what Genius idea I came up with a few days ago. Sure, it's not new, and I'm SURE that someone else has thought of this on a million other blogs. But the other day, it clicked.

Seriously and literally clicked. Woohoo Score one for the Yankee!

Frozen Cookie Dough. 

Yeap - I scooped up my cookie dough, piled it on cookie sheets and popped it in the freezer overnight. Once they were good and hard, I placed the all in a gallon size ziplock baggie, and now they are ready to bake, a few at a time, whenever we please, right from the freezer. 

Now, I've long known that the best way to bake cookies is from cold dough... but seriously? 

These were delicious! My go - to Chocolate Chip cookie dough is super easy and with a medium size cookie scoop makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies. Whip up your soft/wet ingredients first, stir in your chips, and then stir in the dry ingredients. It'll incorporate the chips better throughout the dough, without toughening up the dough and final cookie product.

Bake from Frozen at 350 for about 13-15 minutes. Chewy and good!

Enjoy! :) 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dry Ingredients:
2 3/4 c (14.5 oz) all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt 

Combine all in small bowl and set aside 

Wet Ingredients:

(2) sticks of Salted butter (whip in kitchen aid for about 8-10 minutes. Trust me) 

1 c (6.5 oz) light brown sugar
1 c minus 2 T (6.5 oz) white sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 1/2 c (10 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine all ingredients, one at a time into Mixer, beating until incorporated. Add chips at end.

Slowly add Flour mix into cookie dough by thirds. Incorporate. Scoop onto a cookie sheet and refridgerate for about 10 minutes. Scoop the rest of the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet. Freeze.

Bake thawed cookie dough 8-10 minutes. Bake Frozen cookie dough for 13-15 minutes.

ENJOY! :) 

Banana muffins mmmm yummy!

Are you following me on PINTEREST? 

you should, you know.

Follow me on Pinterest that is.

Why? Well, because I have an amazing, almost sinful addiction to pinning food recipes.
And then, If I pin them, I am probably going to make them.

And... If I make them, then I'm probably going to share with you here too!

So, go follow me on Pinterest, and then you can try the recipes yourself -
 instead of waiting for me to share with you.

Because you know, it's just not going to be as satisfying drooling over your keyboard

as it is for your family to be standing around your oven, drooling all over your floor, 

waiting for your newest delicacy to come forth from that hot cavern in the wall...  

{It just won't be. I promise.} 

So, we'll start with the recipe - which I originally pinned, and have now made twice. The first time, I followed the directions to the letter, and then baked them for 20 minutes in a mini loaf pan I have that makes 8 mini loafs. I got rave reviews from the guys at work, so I knew it was a keeper.

The recipe is courtesy of "Your Home Based Mom" - go check her out - she's pretty cool :) I don't mind!

"Best" Banana Bread Recipe 

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil (I substituted 1 stick butter and 1/2 cup oil) 
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (I used (3) banana's and just dumped them in my kitchen aid) 
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla 

1 1/2 cup flour 
1 tsp. baking soda
 1/2 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. 
Line muffin tin with paper muffin wrappers.
In large bowl, beat together sugar, oil & butter.
Add eggs, bananas, sour cream and vanilla; blend well.
                                  (I let the kitchen aid do its thing for about 5 minutes on (3) here. ) 
Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. 
Add flour, baking soda and salt; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.
Scoop into muffin tin, each cup should be about 2/3rs full. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes clean.  Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan. 
Or, do like I did and immediately dump (2) onto your plate and devour, HOT.
With  a cold glass of milk. Then grab a 3rd one while it's still hot. Because that's what piggies do when muffins come out of the oven :) 

Pictures! 

This is 2/3rds full. They rise to about the top of the cupcake paper soooo

 if you want yours bigger, fill them up more. 

Do you know this trick? The recipe made 21 muffins. That left (3) tins with no batter. My mom taught me to add a little water to the empty tins so that the pan doesn't scorch and burn. Works like a charm!

Ah, a home baked pile of LOVE right there :) mmm delish.

hehee - I told you -I ate (3) of them - sooo good! Picture doesn't do the muffin justice. It's so moist and happy! Feel free to pin ya'll!

Come Party with me!