Fudgy Double Chocolate Brownies

I use a boxed mix sometimes when I'm lazy, but making brownies from scratch really isn't that much more work and they are 100 times better! This is my sister Leann's recipe, and these brownies are fudgy and delicious. Don't substitute the butter for margarine because they will not be the same! Check out Leann's comparison on her blog here. To make them extra chocolaty you add chocolate chips to the batter. I dusted mine with powdered sugar, but Leann likes to top them with mint frosting.

Fudgy Double Chocolate Brownies
Leann Crook
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup plus 3 TBSPs baking cocoa (or 1/2 cup minus 1 TBSP)
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips (or 1/2 cup regular semi sweet chips)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8x8 pan.
2. Combine melted butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl and mix well.
3. Add flour, cocoa, and salt. Mix until combined. Add chocolate chips and stir.
4. Spread batter into prepared pan and bake 20-25 minutes. Check at 20 minutes. If the middle jiggles too much and you don't like your brownies a little gooey, then bake 5 more minutes.
5. Let cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

Mini Reese's Cup Cookies

I tried something a little different with my cookies last week. I made one of my regular dough recipes, and baked it in mini muffin tins with mini Reese's cups. These Reese's cups are the unwrapped kind (see pic at the bottom) and are a little smaller than the regular mini Reese's cups. They also have mini Rolos, Snickers bites, and a few others that would be yummy too.

Mini Reese's Cup Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 8oz bag Reese's minis

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray. Cream butter and sugars until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until light and creamy.
2. In medium bowl whisk together flours, soda, and salt. Stir flour mixture into creamed mixture until combined. Dough will be stiff.
3. Using a cookie scoop (1 TBSP), place balls of dough into mini muffin tin. Press a mini Reese's cup into the center of each ball of dough.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until edges are slightly golden. Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes in pan. Remove from pan and continue cooling on wire rack. If any of them stick to the pan, run a knife around the edge. Makes about 60 cookies.

Honey Wheat Rolls

After trying the Hawaiian Sweet Rolls recipe and feeling like it changed my life, I thought why not try another roll recipe. This did not disappoint. I found a recipe with honey and changed it up a little adding wheat flour. I made 15 of them in a 9X13, but you could also do 16 in 2 round pans. The honey butter mixture that you brush on the top will drip down and make a lovely sticky roll bottom. For even more honey flavor, these are great spread with honey butter. If you want to make these and don't have a bread machine, you can follow the link below to the original post.

Honey Wheat Rolls

adapted from averiecooks.com
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsps instant dry yeast
1 large egg
1/4 cup honey
3 TBSPs canola oil
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 TBSPs butter, melted
2 TBSPs honey

1. Place first 8 ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Set on dough cycle; press start.
2. When cycle has finished, remove dough from bread machine. Punch the dough down and divide into 15 equal balls. Place rolls in a foil lined, greased, 9X13 inch pan. Cover with plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray or a damp towel. Let rise again, in a warm place, until doubled, about 30-45 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 400ºF. In a small bowl, mix together the melted butter and 2 TBSPs of honey; brush lightly onto the rolls. Use all of it! Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the tops are nicely browned. Remove from oven and serve warm.

 Ready to rise.

 All finished rising.

Perfect!