I love the pitter patter of little feet. As my boys have gotten older (they are now nine and eight), the tiny pitter patter has become louder stomps, but I still love hearing it. We live in a neighborhood with lots of kids. There are times when I will have 6-10 little boys running around and I just love it. Given that there are so many of them, they are not always at my home, but it makes me appreciate them so much when they are here. They are sweet, endearing, thoughtful, smart and say the funniest things I have ever heard.
Sometimes I have nothing yummy to feed them and these brownies have become my fool-proof recipe for simple, delicious, decadent and fudgy brownies. My favorite thing about these brownies is that I don’t have to whip out my mixer and I always have all the ingredients on hand.
Easiest Brownies Ever
adapted from Ghiradelli
Ingredients
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 stick butter, cut into pieces
1 c. firmly packed lighted brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 large eggs
3/4 c. + 2 T all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square baking pan. In the top of a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over barely simmering water, melt the chocolate chips and butter, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Stir the brown sugar and vanilla into the chocolate mixture. Add the eggs and mix well. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly fold the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture, mixing well until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into 2-inch squares. Makes approximately 16 squares – depending on how much batter you eat. 🙂
Homemade Irish Cream
Ingredients
1 cup milk
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup Irish whiskey
1 teaspoon strong coffee
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
In a blender, combine milk, sweetened condensed milk, Irish whiskey, coffee, chocolate syrup, and vanilla extract. Blend on high for 20 to 30 seconds. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator. Shake well before serving.
I buy lots of bananas in my house. Many times we get through them before they get overly ripe, however when they get too many brown spots I am not particularly fond of the texture and neither is anyone else in my house. Years ago I began to put them in the freezer when they get to this overly “ripe” state. This works perfectly so when I do have the urge to make banana bread, a banana shake or in this case a banana cake I have the perfect, overly ripe banana.
In the case of this banana cake, I cheated by doctoring up a yellow cake mix. I know, I know it’s not hard to whip up a cake batter…but I was feeling lazy and trust me, this is delicious and super moist. I love the caramel frosting that tops the cake and inside the cake I made a chocolate caramel frosting to give the cake a nice flavor addition.
Banana Cake with Caramel Frosting
Ingredients
Butter, for greasing the pans
flour, for dusting the pans
1 package plain yellow cake mix, (18.25 ounces) (I like Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix)
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 medium-size ripe bananas, peeled & mashed (about one cup)
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
Caramel Frosting (directions below)
Chocolate Caramel Frosting (directions below)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two 9-inch round cake pans with butter then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set pans aside.
Place the cake mix, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Add the mashed bananas, water, oil, and eggs. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for one minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for two minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look well blended and the bananas should be well pureed. Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Place the pans in the oven side by side.
Bake the cakes until they are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of each layer comes out clean, 30 to 32 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for ten minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert each onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. Allow them to cool completely 30 minutes more.
Make the chocolate caramel frosting and spread it on top one of the cake layers. Top with the remaining cake layer and frost the top and sides of the cake with the Caramel Frosting. Garnish as desired. I used some fresh fruit and chocolate wafer crumbs.
Chocolate Caramel Frosting
Ingredients
1/4 lb. CC Confectionary Chocolate Truffle Caramel or other fine chocolate caramel
1 T. half & half
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar, sifted
2 T. butter (softened)
1 T. chocolate syrup
Directions
In a microwave safe bowl add chocolate caramel and half & half. Microwave in 30 minute increments until it is smooth. Like this:
In a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachemnt, combine the caramel mixture, powdered sugar, butter and chocolate syrup. Mix until fluffy. If you find the frosting to be to stiff, simply add half & half a tsp. at a time until desired consistency is reached.
Caramel Frosting
Ingredients
1/2 lb. CC Confectionary Madagascar Vanilla Caramel or other fine caramel
2 T. half & half
2 1/2 c. powdered sugar, sifted
4 T. butter (softened)
Directions
In a microwave safe bowl add caramel and half & half. Microwave in 30 minute increments until it is smooth.
In a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachemnt, combine the caramel mixture, powdered sugar, and butter. Mix until very light and fluffy – about 3 minutes. If you find the frosting to be to stiff, simply add half & half a tsp. at a time until desired consistency is reached.
I love Rice Krispy Treats. Ever since I was a little kid I remember begging my mom to make these confectionary gems. Little did I know just how simple and easy they were to make.
I decided to make some Rice Krispy Treats that were extra special by adding some caramel to the mix and topping them with some more caramel and chocolate. They are a decadent and delicious treat that I am sure you and your family will love.
Caramel Rice Krispy Treats
Ingredients
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 package (10 oz., about 40) regular marshmallows
– OR –
4 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 lb. CC Confectionary Madagascar Vanilla Caramel or other fine caramel, divided into 1/4 lb. pieces
6 cups Rice Krispies
3 oz. milk chocolate, chopped
1 tsp. half & half
Directions
1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Add half of the caramel and melt into the marshmallow mixture on low. (See the picture below for what your mixture will look like.) Remove from the heat.
Add Rice Krispies. Stir until well coated.
Using buttered spatula or wax paper evenly press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Cool.
In a microwave safe bowl combine caramel & half & half. Microwave in 30 second increments until melted. After each 30 seconds, remove caramel from microwave and stir. Drizzle over Rice Krispy Treats.
In another microwave safe bowl add chocolate. Microwave in 30 second increments until melted. After each 30 seconds, remove chocolate from microwave and stir. Drizzle over Rice Krispy Treats.
Cut into 2-inch squares. Best if served the same day.
So I think by now you have figured out that I have a slight infatuation with caramel. For me, it is one of those ingredients that adds a special something to the ordinary and I love to add it to desserts to give it that extra “oomph.”
So with that, I have to introduce my recipe for Salted Caramel Ice Cream. Imagine luscious vanilla ice cream and then flavor it with delicious, buttery, creamy, slightly salty caramel. This ice cream is divine. Generally I am not one to brag, but I have to toot my own horn on this one. It is really, really, REALLY good. Toot, toot!
Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Ingredients
1 pound CC Confectionary Madagascar Vanilla Bean Caramels with Fleur de Sel or other fine butter caramel with fleur de sel
2 1/4 cups half & half, divided
1 cup milk
1/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
Directions
In a microwave safe bowl add salted caramel and 1/4 cup of the half & half. Microwave in 30 second increments until it is smooth. Let cool.
Meanwhile, bring remaining half & half, milk, and 1/4 cup sugar to a slight simmer, stirring occasionally.
Lightly whisk eggs in a medium bowl, then add half of the hot mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Pour back into saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard coats back of spoon and registers 170°F on an instant-read thermometer (do not let boil). Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, then stir in cooled caramel.
Chill custard, stirring occasionally, until very cold, 3 to 6 hours. Freeze custard in ice cream maker (it will still be quite soft), then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to firm up.
