Creme Egg Style Brownies!
Easter eggs! I love coloring Easter eggs. It made me kinda sad yesterday to see pre-colored eggs in the grocery store.
I mean, I guess if you don't have kids but still want the colored-ness? But my parents colored eggs today! So that's not an excuse.
I decided to color my eggs naturally again, like last year. Except I gave up on lavender. The yucky brown just wasn't worth it. And two colors is plenty for 12 eggs anyway.
These were the first eggs I've ever hard boiled myself. Hopefully there are no surprises tomorrow morning at breakfast!
The natural dyes really are pretty easy. I mean, it's not dropping a tablet into water and vinegar, but it's pretty close!
I chopped a whole head of red cabbage, and added it to a quart of water and a tablespoon of vinegar to get the blue (even though it looks purple!) dye.
I added 2 tbsp of turmeric to a quart of water and a tablespoon of vinegar. And this time, I had it in a big enough pot. It didn't get everywhere! But it still dyed like everything it touched. Oops.
And then I brought the pots to a boil and let them boil, covered for 30 minutes. And then let them cool.
Once they were cool, I strained out the cabbage and transferred the dye into smaller containers. And added the eggs!
And then after I put them in the fridge to sit, well, I was working on a paper, but I kind of half forgot/half left them there for 2 1/2 hours. But, hey! The colors are very vibrant!
Hooray eggs!
And then come my other Easter baking! I actually made this part about a week and a half ago during the last snow day. I was in the mood to bake, and I went through my Pinterest looking for cookies to make. I ended up with brownies.
Not just any brownies, Creme Egg brownies! I love Cadbury creme eggs. Somehow it seems like most of my favorite candies come out around Easter. It's kind of dangerous.
It was an excellent plan. And I had everything in my pantry! That was the best part.
The brownies were good -- nice and dense, and well, chocolatey. Maybe a little too chocolatey.
How can that be, you ask?! Well, they started with butter and chocolate. So that's a good start, but they did call for milk chocolate and all I had was 60% dark. It might have overwhelmed the "creme egg" part. Oops. Tasty, but still not very creme eggy.
The fondant was very interesting . . . it was very, very thick. And sticky. I ended up swirling the white and yellow layers a little more than I meant to, but that's ok.
Final decision: they were really tasty, and fun, but maybe I'll really try with milk chocolate next time!
Creme Egg Brownies
from Love and Olive Oil
Brownies:
2/3 cup flour
2 tbsp. cocoa
1/2 tsp. salt
6 oz. chocolate chips (probably milk is best)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper (coming up the sides, and sticking out on two edges).
Combine cocoa, flour and salt.
Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler or the microwave, stirring until smooth. Add the sugars and stir till they are dissolved. Let the mixture cool some. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla until just combined.
Add the flour mixture and fold in until just combined again. Pour into pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
Filling:
1/4 cup corn syrup
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Beat the corn syrup, butter, vanilla and salt on medium-high until smooth. Add powdered sugar slowly, a little at a time.
Frost the brownies with 3/4 of the mixture. Add yellow food coloring until the yellow is the desired color. Drop on top of the while in dallops and spread as evenly as possible.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Glaze:
3 oz. milk chocolate (do use milk)
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed
Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler or the microwave, stirring until smooth.
Spread over the filling, spreading evenly and carefully.
Refrigerate at least half an hour, and Love and Olive Oil claims they are better after being chilled overnight.
Cut brownies with a very sharp knife. It may be easier to use the parchment to pull them out of the pan.
And after my day of baking and homework, NES and I made calzones for dinner! Mmmmm.
I mean, I guess if you don't have kids but still want the colored-ness? But my parents colored eggs today! So that's not an excuse.
The natural dyes really are pretty easy. I mean, it's not dropping a tablet into water and vinegar, but it's pretty close!
I chopped a whole head of red cabbage, and added it to a quart of water and a tablespoon of vinegar to get the blue (even though it looks purple!) dye.
I added 2 tbsp of turmeric to a quart of water and a tablespoon of vinegar. And this time, I had it in a big enough pot. It didn't get everywhere! But it still dyed like everything it touched. Oops.
And then I brought the pots to a boil and let them boil, covered for 30 minutes. And then let them cool.
Once they were cool, I strained out the cabbage and transferred the dye into smaller containers. And added the eggs!
And then after I put them in the fridge to sit, well, I was working on a paper, but I kind of half forgot/half left them there for 2 1/2 hours. But, hey! The colors are very vibrant!
Hooray eggs!
And then come my other Easter baking! I actually made this part about a week and a half ago during the last snow day. I was in the mood to bake, and I went through my Pinterest looking for cookies to make. I ended up with brownies.
Not just any brownies, Creme Egg brownies! I love Cadbury creme eggs. Somehow it seems like most of my favorite candies come out around Easter. It's kind of dangerous.
How can that be, you ask?! Well, they started with butter and chocolate. So that's a good start, but they did call for milk chocolate and all I had was 60% dark. It might have overwhelmed the "creme egg" part. Oops. Tasty, but still not very creme eggy.
I actually added a little powdered sugar to the glaze so that it would be a little sweeter, since the chocolate was so dark!
The fondant was very interesting . . . it was very, very thick. And sticky. I ended up swirling the white and yellow layers a little more than I meant to, but that's ok.
Final decision: they were really tasty, and fun, but maybe I'll really try with milk chocolate next time!
Creme Egg Brownies
from Love and Olive Oil
Brownies:
2/3 cup flour
2 tbsp. cocoa
1/2 tsp. salt
6 oz. chocolate chips (probably milk is best)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper (coming up the sides, and sticking out on two edges).
Combine cocoa, flour and salt.
Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler or the microwave, stirring until smooth. Add the sugars and stir till they are dissolved. Let the mixture cool some. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla until just combined.
Add the flour mixture and fold in until just combined again. Pour into pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
Filling:
1/4 cup corn syrup
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Beat the corn syrup, butter, vanilla and salt on medium-high until smooth. Add powdered sugar slowly, a little at a time.
Frost the brownies with 3/4 of the mixture. Add yellow food coloring until the yellow is the desired color. Drop on top of the while in dallops and spread as evenly as possible.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Glaze:
3 oz. milk chocolate (do use milk)
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed
Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler or the microwave, stirring until smooth.
Spread over the filling, spreading evenly and carefully.
Refrigerate at least half an hour, and Love and Olive Oil claims they are better after being chilled overnight.
Cut brownies with a very sharp knife. It may be easier to use the parchment to pull them out of the pan.
And after my day of baking and homework, NES and I made calzones for dinner! Mmmmm.
Oh, and happy Easter! He is risen! He is risen indeed!
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