Desserts for Dudes: Dark Chocolate Espresso Trail Mix Brownies

Don't *EVEN* get me started on these brownies.  OK.  Not really.  Get me started.  

I came up with these brownies for my big dude (the one I'm married to) because he's a huge fan of Target's trail mixes.  His favorites are the Black and White and the Dark Chocolate Espresso.


For this recipe, I used Dark Chocolate Espresso Trail Mix.  What's inside?  Chocolate-covered almonds, praline almonds, mocha pecans, chocolate chips, hazelnuts, and chocolate-covered coffee beans.  What I love about adding it to brownies is that you get a lot of different "crunches," not just your typical pecans or walnuts.


My advice to you is this: make these brownies when you have people to share them with.  I'm sitting here, totally full from lunch, one huge brownie down.  I start editing the pictures and ohmygosh....how could I resist going back for another?!?  I mean, look at them...

{Of course, I cut one in half, went back to editing pictures, then promptly got up and ate the other half.  Who are these people who can eat 1/2 of a brownie?}

Side note:  I was telling one the sweet (super fit) instructors at Pure Barre that I struggle with seeing big results from working out.  You see, I explained, blogging and recipe development involve lots of taste testing, and her advice was to test "just one bite."  And that, my friends, is why she looks the way she does, and I look the way I do. ;) 

Alright, back to the brownies.  Here's what you can expect: deep, dark chocolate...a hint of espresso...fudgey texture...melty chocolate...and assorted crunchiness throughout.



To get that deep, dark color and rich chocolate flavor, I swear by Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa...

 

Dark Chocolate Espresso Trail Mix Brownies

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter
2 & 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 & 1/2 cups Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 & 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 cup Target Archer Farms Dark Chocolate Espresso Trail Mix

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9x13" pan.


Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat.  Once melted, stir in the sugar.  Stir the sugar and butter while gently heating until the mixture is warm to the touch (but not boiling).  Remove the pan from the heat.

Stir in the cocoa, espresso powder, salt, baking powder and vanilla.  Whisk in the eggs until incorporated.


Stir in the flour...


...then fold in the trail mix.

Pour into the prepared pan, and smooth.  Bake for 28 minutes, or until done.  Cool in the pan on a wire cooling rack.


*adapted from King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion*

Y'all...forget the dudes.  I think I'm going back for another. 

Desserts for Dudes: Yes, I'd like some fries with that.

So, dudes.  Over the years, we've made: fried chicken cookies (no, really), beer and hot dog cookies, french fry cookies.  It was time for the CHEESEBURGER COOKIE!!!

These cheeseburger cookies are made from not one, not two, but three cookies...all stacked together with a little icing and some fondant cheese.  

(Mmmm, fondant cheese. < please say that in a Homer Simpson voice.)

Angie, the cute dessert mastermind otherwise known as Bakerella, made some sweet cheeseburgers waaaaaay back in 2009 from cupcakes and brownies.  (I know.)  She also has cute little printable boxes to put them in.  That Angie...where would we be without her?

The cheeseburger cookies are really simple to make, especially if you bake the cookies the day before assembling.  If you have some frozen cookie dough stashed away in your freezer, all the better. 


Make them in any size you'd like.  These cookies are 2" across.  Technically sliders, right? ;)


To make cheeseburger cookies, you'll need:

• circle cut-out cookies, vanilla and chocolate
• royal icing (quarter this recipe), divided and tinted with AmeriColor Super Red, Egg Yellow, Leaf Green and Ivory
• fondant (Satin Ice Brand or make your own), tinted with AmeriColor Electric Orange
• disposable icing bags (4)
• couplers and tips: #2, #3, #1, and leaf
• cornstarch
• small square cookie cutter (I looooove this set from Sur la Table)

You'll want twice as many vanilla cookies as chocolate.  I rolled mine out to 1/4" thickness.


Roll the fondant on a cornstarch-dusted surface to about 1/8" inch, or thinner.  (Be sure to coat the rolling pin and cookie cutters, too.)


Cut squares out of the fondant to make cheese slices for the burgers.


Place one vanilla cookie with the bottom facing up.  Squeeze on some royal icing in the center.  It doesn't matter what color, it's just to hold the "meat" in place. ;)

Place a chocolate cookie on top.  Add a bit of royal icing, then place on the cheese slice.

Pipe red and yellow icing around the edges of the cookies on top of the cheese.  I used a #2 tip for the ketchup and #3 for mustard.  More mustard, more better.

Lightly place another vanilla cookie on top.  Add lettuce around the edge of the cookie in green icing using a leaf tip.


Use a #1 tip to add sesame seeds with the ivory icing.  (Alternatively, add real sesame seeds to half of the vanilla cookies before baking.)

Let the icing set for at least 30 minutes before handling the cookies.


The only thing missing is the pickle. 

Desserts for Dudes: Cookies and Cream Cookies

I was in Target this week looking for desserts for dudes dessert inspiration.  Actually, I was hoping to find the new Peanut Butter Cup Oreos (no luck), but then I came across these Hershey's Cookies and Creme Drops and thought "a-HA!"

My boys are kind of crazy about cookies and cream flavored anything: candy bars, ice cream, milk shakes.  So, I was pretty certain that cookies and cream COOKIES would be a hit.

After a quick internet search while standing in the Target aisle to see if the drops would hold up to baking, I saw that Shelly of Cookies and Cups had made cookies and cream cookies a couple of years ago.  If Shelly had used them, I knew I was onto something good.  Her recipe is here.

You know, I remember when "cookies and cream" was a real novelty.   
"There are COOKIES in my ICE CREAM!"
This was back in the day before ice cream was loaded with everything but the kitchen sink.  (Not that I'm complaining #moremixinsplease.)


The cookies are big, thick, substantial, chocolatey cookies.  As I'm typing this post, Mr. E pipes up..."you could top those with cookies and cream ice cream and sell them in a restaurant."  Now, why didn't I think of topping them with ice cream?!?  See...this is why I keep him around. ;) 


You'll need 3 mix-ins for these cookies: the cookies and creme drops I mentioned earlier (I bought these at Target, but have also seen them at my grocery store), Oreos, and white chocolate chips.


You'll also need at muffin top or whoopie pie pan. (You know you want one.)  Mine is from Sur la Table, but I found a similar one on Amazon, too.


Cookies and Cream Cookies
{makes 18 large cookies}

1 & 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks
2 cups packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 TBSP vanilla extract
1 cup Hershey's Cookies and Creme Drops
1 cup white chocolate chips, reserving a few for the tops
1 cup coarsely chopped Oreos

Grease a muffin top/whoopie pie pan with shortening.


Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add in the eggs one at a time, beating until well combined.  Beat in the vanilla.


Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, beating on low.  Stir in the drops, chips, and Oreos.

The dough will be very sticky.  Refrigerate 1 hour to make it easier to work with.

Preheat oven to 350.

Scoop 1/4 cup dough into each pan cavity.  Wet fingers and lightly press the dough down.  It may not over the entire cavity of the pan; that's ok.  Press a few of the reserved white chocolate chips onto the top of the dough.

Bake for 15-18 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 3-5 minutes.  Run a small spatula along the edge of the pan and lift onto a cooling rack.  Rinse the pan with cool water and re-grease the pan.



Cookies and Cream Cookies.  Your dudes will love them. 

Dessert for Dudes: Love Me Tender(loin)

If you're asking yourself, Where's the Beef...don't worry.  It's not in these cookies. 


These chocolate cut-out cookies are just decorated to look like a side of beef.  They'd make a sweet gift for your dude, the perfect ending to a steak dinner, or a festive dessert for a BBQ.  (In Texas, we have BEEF BBQ...you North Carolinians, check here.)

I bought the cookie cutter on etsy, but you could always use any cow-shaped cookie cutter and just freehand the lines.  Call it "abstract beef."


As for the cookie recipe, I wish I could give you the exact one I used for these today, but I'll have to wait until October 7th (eep!). 
In the meantime, use any chocolate cut-out cookie recipe, like this one.

 

To make Love Me Tenderloin Cookies, you'll need:

• chocolate cut-out cookies
• royal icing, tinted with AmeriColor Bright White
• disposable icing bag
• coupler and #2 tip
• large heart sprinkles

Cut out and bake the cookies, taking care not to press the sectioned cutter so forcefully into the dough that it cuts it into separate pieces.


Use a #2 tip to outline the cookie and sections with white icing.


Place a dot of icing approximately where a tenderloin would be. (I studied more illustrations of cuts of beef that I ever thought I would and this is the best place I could come up with.)


Place a heart sprinkle onto the dot of icing.

Let set about 1 hour before packaging.

Mmm....beefy. 

Desserts for Dudes: Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies with Candied Bacon and Pecans

Welcome to Desserts for Dudes month!!! 
Every June, I like to feature desserts that are especially created for the dudes.  Don't worry...gals can eat them, too.

 

We're kicking off this year with Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pig Candy.  That's candied bacon to you and me. 

These cookies have a double shot of bacon.  Yeah, baby.  It's pretty much a universal truth that dudes dig bacon.



Crispy edges, chewy bacon, crunchy pecans, sweet chocolate chips...

You'll want to start by reserving some bacon drippings/grease/fat.  My mom kept a coffee can of bacon grease under the sink.  For years, I (don't report me) poured my grease down the sink.  I know, I know!!!  I'm sorry!  Wrong on so many levels.

Now, I save my bacon grease and keep it in a jar in my fridge.  After I cook up some bacon and remove it from the pan, I let the fat cool a bit.  Then, you can pour it directly into the jar, or pour it through a coffee filter to strain out the bits.


Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies with Candied Bacon and Pecans

for the candied bacon and pecans:
bacon, about 6-8 slices
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup demerara or light brown sugar
pinch sea salt

for the cookies:
2 & 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt 
1/4 cup bacon grease (cooled and solidified)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 package milk chocolate chips
candied bacon & pecans

prepare the pig candy:

Cook the bacon in a skillet until cooked through, but still soft.  Drain on paper towels.  Reserve bacon drippings.  Wipe out the skillet.


Chop the bacon to make 1/2 cup. (Refrigerate any extras for another use.)  Add the chopped bacon, pecans, and 1/4 cup demerara or light brown sugar to the skillet.  Heat on medium-low, stirring often, until the sugar melts and coats the bacon and pecans, about 15 minutes.

Remove the bacon and nuts to drain on paper bags (I use lunch bags...they will stick to paper towels).  Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt.  Set aside.

make the cookies:
Preheat oven to 350.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the bacon grease, butter, and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding the vanilla with the second egg.  Beat until combined.  Add the flour mixture in three additions, mixing on low.



Stir in the milk chocolate chips and reserved candied bacon and pecans.

Use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop to portion the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets.  Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until done.  The cookies can still be a little soft in the centers; they will firm up while cooling.  Cool on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

Alright, dudes. Here ya go.  Any recipe requests for this month? 

Desserts for Dudes: That's Some Pig!

Cuts of meat: the only way to make a pink, decorated cookie look manly.

When I saw this cookie cutter on etsy, I knew I must have it.  (I bought the cow, too.)


I toyed with the idea of baking up a chocolate-bacon cut-out cookie, but I really wanted these to be pink.  For the pink, you can either tint your cookie dough pink with food coloring, or use a pink dough.  I used some leftover watermelon cookie dough, but I will say, it's a little disconcerting eating a watermelon-flavored pig.

The cookie cutter really does all of the decorating work for you.  The imprints are nice and deep and remain throughout baking.

When cutting, though, some of the smaller sections wanted to stick in the cookie cutter.  I nudged them out with a chopstick.  You can see a little of it here...

...I think it's ok, though.

To decorate, I used a #3 tip and white royal icing.

Bada-bing. Bada-boom. Done.

Sooie!  Here piggy, piggy!!!