SINFUL BROWNIES

 This is a ‘sure to impress’ and ‘easy to make’ version of baking brownies. Try it out this Valentine’s Day and enjoy!

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 pound (1 1/3 cups) plus 6 ounces (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips, divided
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar, divided
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour, divided
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups diced nuts ( I use walnuts or pecans, but you can even almonds, hazelnuts or you can omit the nuts from this recipe if you’re allergic)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grease a 9×13 baking pan.

Melt together the butter, chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler or in a in a glass dish in the microwave at 20 second intervals. Make sure to give the intervals every 20 seconds stir and repeat. Cool slightly.

In another bowl, stir together the eggs, instant coffee, vanilla and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.

Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this slowly to cooled chocolate mixture. Mix thoroughly to avoid any lumps. Toss the nuts and reserved 6 ounces of chocolate chips around in the reserved 2tbsp all purpose flour. Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for about 30 minutes. Do not over bake! It even helps to check after 20-25 minutes to see it’s done. Easy way to check doneness is insert a toothpick or a knife into the center of the pan and when you remove it, there should hardly be any wet batter stuck to it. A little bit is okay.

Cool it down and chop into pieces. Serve it with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.Or its perfect just as it is!

BLUEBERRY PECAN CRUMBLE

 Continuing with our Valentine’s Day special, here is another wonderful dessert idea to keep the day extra sweet and extra special!

For the topping:

4 ounces pecan pieces (about 1 cup)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups rolled oats (old-fashioned - non flavored)
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar ( substitute option : regular brown sugar)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
A couple pinches salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter cut into small pieces ( at room temperature)

For the berries:

2 pints fresh blueberries
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Put all topping ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your hands until mixture sticks together in small clumps and forms a mixture with a bread crumb like texture.

In a mixing bowl add the blueberries and squeeze the lemon juice over the berries. Sprinkle the sugar and flour over them and mix them gently until the berries are coated with sugar. Make sure you don’t bruise the berries by over mixing or putting too much pressure while mixing. Distribute this mixture evenly into 8 individual oven safe cups (I use Crème Brule cups)

Scatter the topping over the berries in an even layer over each cup. Bake until the topping is golden brown and the berry juice is bubbling up through the topping. Usually takes about 45 to 50 minutes.

Serve with vanilla ice cream to get the full crumble experience!!

And yes, you can follow this recipe for strawberry, raspberry, apple, or any combination you feel like! Apple-cinnamon crumble is a great combo, so is a crumble made of all three berries mixed together. You could use the same topping for all the versions.

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