Baking Brookies With Bakerella

I found this amazing blog called Bakerella on blogger. It's a woman who lives in Georgia and she loves to bake, hince the name of the blog. I wouldn't say she's a "professional", as she does not have her own bakery shop or anything; however, her work is incredible! My favorite idea of hers are the cake pops and cupcake bites. I'm going to make them both sometime and plan on making the Hello Kitty cake pops to take to Abby at Hot Topic (she looooves Hello Kitty) when we visit in August. Bakerella's blog has inspired me to attempt to bake and decorate a "professional" looking 2 or 3 tier cake as well. Really, you should visit her blog sometime: www.bakerella.blogspot.com I found the following recipe on her website, and they looked so scrumptious I had to make them. She found the recipe on Betty Crocker's website. It was simple to make, and such a genius idea. I will warn you though, that they are very rich-make sure you have a tall glass of milk nearby!



First, you will need to make a trip to the grocery store and pick up a few things. Betty Crocker has made it oh so easy on us. You will need one brownie mix and one chocolate chip cookie mix. (Don't forget to check the packages to see what other ingredients you'll need-eggs & oil.) Here's what the packages look like:



Next, make the brownie mix as directed and pour into a greased 13x9 pan. Make the cookie mix as directed on the pouch and drop by rounded tablespoons into the brownie batter. You'll want to press the dough down lightly.



Bake for 35-40 minutes in a 350 degree preheated oven. When they're done, take them out and let them cool completely. For about an hour.






After they've completely cooled, you can then frost them with either store bought chocolate frosting, or do what Bakerella and I did....use ganache (it's much tastier, trust me!).


To make the ganache you will need a 12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chip morsels. Set them aside in a medium sized bowl. (I added a few butterscoth morsels in my mixture only because I didn't have enough chocolate.)



You will also need 6 tbsp butter and 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream (which you can usually find next to the regular whipped cream at your grocery store-heavy whipping cream normally comes in "milk carton" and is liquid form-not to be confused with thick white whipped cream used for topping pies.) In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter over medium heat, stirring continuously, until it just starts to boil, then remove from heat.



Pour over the chocolate morsels. Let stand about 20 seconds, then stir until smooth, using a wire whisk. It will take quite a while to mix together....keep stirring. Do not use a mixer!



Pour over brownies and spread out mixture....you can just jiggle the pan back and forth to help spread it.



Now, here's the hard part. You have to wait for the ganache to set. This can take a VERY long time. This was the first time that I had ever made ganache. I had no idea how long it would take, so I let it sit for an hour and it still wasn't set. So, I ran to Google to find out what to do. If you want to speed up the process, you can put the pan, uncovered, in your refrigerator for 30 min. Then check and see if it's set. Keep in mind that your brownies are now going to be cold. Jason was in SUCH a hurry to try these and it was very late at night-I told him to wait until the morning, but he couldn't. So we dug into them after removing them from the fridge. They were very yummy, but if you let the pan sit on your counter for a while for everything to reach room temperature, then it tastes better.

After the ganache is finally set, cut your brookies (brownie/cookies) into small squares and enjoy! Don't you just want to pluck one right off the screen and devour it?!?