Chocolate Dipped Brownie Cookies with Sprinkles

 

These taste just like they sound! Chocolate brownies in a cookie form, dipped in even more chocolate. They're rich. They're decadent. They're delicious. I can't wait to make more of these at Christmas time with red and green sprinkles.

I found the recipe on LoveandOliveOil.com (thanks Pinterest :))

 

You will need:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons dark or dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces dark or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
For Dipping:
6 ounces dark or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening, as needed
Rainbow sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350.
Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl. Set aside.
Combine chocolate and butter in a double boiler or a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water. Stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together eggs, sugar, and vanilla.
Mix in melted chocolate mixture. Add dry ingredients and stir until just incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips.
Drop batter using a small cookie scoop by the tablespoonful onto cookie sheet, leaving two inches of space between cookies. The batter will be somewhat loose at this point, but shouldn't be runny. It will thicken the longer it sits.
Bake for 7 to 8 minutes or until tops are shiny and cracked. Like a brownie, you don't want to over bake these cookies. Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
To dip, gently melt chocolate together with 1 tablespoon of shortening. You can use a microwave, heating on low power in short, 15 to 20 second bursts, or in a double boiler, setting the bowl over the simmering water and then removing it from the heat.
Add more shortening as needed to thin out the chocolate to a dipping consistency, then dip half of each cookie into the melted chocolate. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and top with sprinkles.
Enjoy!

Chocolate Covered Brownie Bars

So these were supposed to be "chocolate dipped brownies", but I guess I cut them too big because I couldn't dip them into the chocolate and keep them in one piece. SO, I poured the chocolate over them instead. Same great taste, and easier to pick up and eat I think too.

You can use a box brownie mix, or use my "better-than-any-box" brownie recipe.

For the sauce:

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

2 tsp. shortening

Prepare your brownies. Cool completely, then put them into the freezer for 45 min. Don't forget about them! You don't want them to totally freeze.

After removing them from the freezer, cut them into bars. I made like 3 inch bars, but if you want to 'dip' them, stick with 2x1 inch size bars.

In a double boiler, or in a rigged up double broiler like mine, melt your choco chips and shortening

Now, if you've cut your bars small enough to handle well, you can dip them into the chocolate sauce, and then set them on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. If you decided to have bigger bars, you want to take a small ladle and pour sauce over each bar (bars should be on wax paper)

Let the bars sit for a while before moving them from the paper.  Enjoy!

Better-than-any-Box Brownies

Soooo since I was walking down memory lane last night, looking at pics of Toots making brownies with me, I found it only appropriate to make brownies today! And I have to be honest, this was the first time I have made brownies from scratch. It's no secret that I'm not great with flour, I've always called myself a chef, not a baker. But I'm getting better.
My friend's Kara & Ken are having a house-warming party tonight, and I picked up this awesome "Giada" casserole dish for them as a gift. Of course I can't take an empty dish to a party, so I baked the brownies in it :)

First I combined 4 tbsp. of butter, 4 tbsp. of water, and 1 cup of white sugar in a saucepan over med heat.

Once it started to boil, I removed it from the heat and threw in 3 cups of Hershey's milk chocolate chips, 4 eggs, and 2 tbsp. of vanilla extract, and stirred til silky smooth.

In a bowl I combined 1 and 1/3 cups flour, 1 tsp. of baking soda, and 1/2 tsp. of salt.

I added the flour mix to the choco mix, and just stirred for about a min. Stirring too long will allow too much air into your mix and cause your brownies to be dry and cakey. Yuck.

Then I poured my mix into the greased 13x9 casserole dish and baked at 325 for 30-35 min. You can only imagine how good my house smells today :)

These brownies looked amazing, but since I am taking it to my friends as a gift, I knew it needed something else, frosting!

So I whipped up this delicious frosting real quick. In a sauce pan I melted 6 tbsp. of butter, added 1 cup of chocolate chips and 2 tbsp. of honey. Turned the heat down to low. I added 1 tbsp. of cocoa powder,  2 cups of powdered sugar, and 2 tsp. of vanilla extract. Stirred it all together and while it was still warm, poured it over the top of my brownies, Vooulah! (or however you spell that)