Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Spicy Bridezilla Brownies

Bethany, this one is for you!

Since starting the blog I have found new common interests and discovered a plethora of support/love from family and friends. Among those I know personally from lifetime experiences, there are many new folks that have entered my blog life as fellow bloggers and/or blog readers. One of the first is Bethany...aka my Windy City blog friend Bridezilla Bakes!

While baking for me is still in the category of an impossible to conquer task, Bridezilla Bakes has motivated me through her lovely decadent posts to keep at it. As one of the several blogs I routinely follow, this is one of those where as I read, I think to myself and often comment on how delicious the creations are and how I must try to make them...

Well that day has come! This is my first attempt to follow a recipe from a fellow blogger and it was the perfect recipe.

As you will read later this week, I had a Mexican Fiesta to attend on Saturday. Last year I did fresh fried tortilla chips, which were a huge hit...but this year I went out of my comfort zone and decided to bake. What did I bake? MEXICAN HOT CHOCOLATE BROWNIES W/CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING from Bridzilla herself!!

To be honest, I have never made brownies from scratch before. That is not to say I have never baked brownies, it's just that until now, mine have always come from a box.
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This recipe is truly one that makes the taster wonder what else is going on in every bite. The dry ingredients pictured here are flour, cinnamon, chili powder and cayenne.

Many of Bridezilla's recipes (well at least those with chocolate) call for the use of a double boiler. Being a non-baker by nature, this is pretty intimidating. In her recipe she combines the butter, sugar and cocoa powder employing this intimidating technique. I am not sure if I combined this correctly, or just over stirred in the beginning, but I do not think my chocolate mixture ever came together correctly.

Rather than get a smoothed liquid type of consistency, I maintained a solid coarse mass of buttery chocolate sugar. Finally giving up on achieving what I thought it should look like, I moved onto the next step and added the eggs, etc. Above is the glossy, now smooth combination...which fits the bill what I envisioned the mixture would look like.

Into the oven they went and in the meantime I whipped up her prescribed cinnamon cream cheese frosting. This was another first for me, but a huge success. Who would have ever thought cream cheese frosting was so easy and achievable!!!

Once the brownies were cooled, I frosted, cut and arranged them.
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Yes, they are as rich, dense and delicious as they look!
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Off to the Mexican Fiesta we went...me and my Bridezilla Bake's Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies!!
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A big, no a HUGE hit!! These chocolaty squares of pure heaven were devoured by party goers. In addition to the various compliments, one guest liked them so much she asked if I could go home to make some more haha!
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Since the platter for the party did not fit all of the brownies on it, I brought a small plate into work yesterday...and they went FAST there as well :o)
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Thank you Bethany for your delicious brownie recipe!!
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If you are interested in reading her fantastic blog, visit: http://bridezillabakes.com/

3 comments:

  1. Wow - the brownies look moist, rich, and delicious. The frosting has me drooling.

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  2. Hey Pam...they really are fabulous!! Your drooling is right on for the frosting too...people were wild about it. Who would have ever thought cream cheese frosting could be so easy :o)

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  3. Girl, I cannot BELIEVE I didn't see this until RIGHT NOW!!! I have been SO behind on posting, reading, etc. (I'm taking my GREs in a week and they're killing me)..... you are so kind in your post!! You know I follow your blog in exactly the same way... at least, I do when I'm on top of things.

    I'll try not to disappear for this long again!

    For the double boiler thing, I probably should have been more clear in my directions... it does stay kind of solid until you add the eggs. Looks like you figured that out since they turned out so well!!!

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