Tag Archives: peanut butter

Sweet Things on Challah

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I can’t stop thinking back over this weekend and trying to relive it in slow motion. We wrote on our website that we wanted the weekend of March 16 to be “a celebratory dance party slash weekend-long feast slash opportunity to bring together in one place all the people we love.” Well, good job us, because our wedding weekend absolutely accomplished that.

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I could gush ad naseum about how I teared up when I first saw the perfect chuppah Daniel’s brother Jacob made, decorated with colorful spring flowers and draped with family tablecloths. I could talk about how we went from hora to Rueda to Natalie Merchant to 500 Miles and every single person danced to each one. I could gush about our perfectly “us” cake lovingly created by my bestie Leah and topped with narwhals, or about how friends flew in from literally all over the country for the weekend, or how I watched my dad salsa dance with my coworker, or how I felt as Daniel and I exchanged our vows and then got pelted by pompoms.

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But I won’t. Instead I’ll gush about my sister and cousin and their awesome co-maids of honor speech. These two lovely humans shared such silly and heartwarming stories. I am so lucky to have them in my network and supportive of my journey. In their speech (which of course they killed), they mentioned finding evidence of “my first recipe” — surely a bi-product of a neighborhood round of iron chef with the secret ingredient of apples, or something of the like.

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Of course I had to remake it. I don’t think cinnamon chips still exist, so regular old cinnamon had to suffice. I did have two kinds of sprinkles hiding in the pantry (one bought for making Heddy’s baby shower cake, one bought for making Lauren’s bachelorette party … cake). I had challah lying around (Thanks grandma! Sorry everyone at the wedding who we didn’t get around to delivering challah to! It was well-intentioned but poorly executed!). And so here we are. Recreate if you dare — Daniel and I each managed a bite and gave up.

#swankyoriginal

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one year ago: tonight for dinner I made the salad of my dreams with roasted squash, barley, feta, sugar snap peas, mizuna, and mint #norecipe #firstmealwemadeasmarriedpeople
two years ago: eh, two outta four isn’t so bad…
three years ago: kungpao Brussel sprouts and tofu 
four years ago: spicy lemon fregola with artichokes and caramelized onions 

 

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Ooey Gooey Brownies – 4/67

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For some reason, these brownies are part of my family’s Thanksgiving tradition. There is nothing remotely Thanksgiving-y about them. They have chocolate, fluff, and peanut butter — nary a mention of pumpkin, a sprinkle of spice, or a slice of apple to be found. The other incongruous thing about these “ooey gooey brownies” is that they’re from Cooking Light, circa 2000. So that means a) my Mom’s been making them for 18 years and I’ve never helped make them (oops) and b) they are trying to be healthy? The recipe calls for skim milk, fat free sweetened condensed milk, and an egg white. Brownies just don’t seem to be the place to cut down on calories. So I used full fat milk, a whole egg (#yolklove), and I could only find regular sweetened condensed milk, so that’s what I used.

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These brownies definitely don’t suck. The ooey gooey ness gives them that home baked allure, all oozing chocolate, creamy goodness, just on the right side of “do you eat this with your hands or a fork” that makes people want to go in for a second. They were certainly a hit at the holiday party we brought them to.

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But! I kinda want to play with this recipe when I have a moment. It leaves an awkward amount of leftover sweetened condensed milk, which I think could be easily incorporated into the brownie batter. I’m not sure we need to cook the brownie base twice. My marbling sucked. And I definitely should remake it in the right sized pan, oops. When I have another chance to give desserts to a crowd, and am not ashamed to use so many store bought products, I’ll play around. Will keep you posted on #projectblasphemy. 

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(Also I’m not reaching for the scraps as much as I normally would because we have two things of candy cane ice cream and two things of hot fudge from Ample Hills that Daniel and I made together(!) at a recent workshop in the freezer/fridge (respectively). This shit is gooooood. I wish I could live on ice cream.)

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one year ago: not much in these categories today, since I managed to update my blog a mere 6(!) days ago…
two years ago: …but I did return to this zoodle recipe recently and still love it
three years ago: anyone have a good hot sauce recipe? asking for a friend/wedding party favor
four years ago: mushroom and farro stuffed acorn squash 

Ooey Gooey Brownies

From my mom, originally from Cooking Light in September 2000

¾ cup sweetened condensed milk, divided
¼ cup butter, melted
¼ cup milk
1 box devil’s food cake mix (I think it was 15.25 oz)
1 egg
Fluff – didn’t measure, but I used half a 16-oz container (originally recipe calls for 1 ¾ cups or 1 7-ounce jar, but that seemed fussy to measure and Target only had giant containers)
About ½ a package peanut butter chips, divided
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside. (My pan was 14 x 10-inch, which led to a slightly too shallow brownie.)

In a big bowl mix together ¼ cup sweetened condensed milk, butter, milk, cake mix, and egg. Press ⅔ of the batter into your prepared baking pan. I found that pressing the batter with wax paper coated with cooking spray made this simple. Bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine ½ cup sweetened condensed milk, fluff, and about ½ – ¾ cup peanut butter chips in another bowl. Stir together until smooth.

Take brownie pan out of oven, and spread fluff mixture evenly on top. Dollop spoonfuls of remaining brownie batter over the fluff layer. Use a knife to swirl the layers together. (I failed at this, as I may have used too much brownie in bottom layer, and remaining batter was too tough to swirl. Alas.) Sprinkle top with another ¼ cup or so of peanut butter chips. Return pan to oven and cook for another half an hour, or until fluff layer starts to brown. Cool completely in pan before cutting with a sharp knife.

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