Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Super Easy Nutella Brownies And My Baking Disaster

Hope you all have had a good Wednesday.  It's been raining off and on all day, but it has been fairly warm which makes the rain more bearable.  Wednesday is our day to volunteer, so we enjoyed a very productive day.  After work, we had to buzz by our daughter's house to discuss the birthday cake for her son who will be two tomorrow.  For Gus it's all about trucks - trucks of every size and description.  Bet you can't guess what kind of birthday cake he is going to have.  Now all I have to do is figure out how to make it.  

Yesterday, I had a total "Lucy" moment in the kitchen while baking.  All of these years and I have never had anything happen like this.  I should have taken a picture to show you, but I was so distraught over the whole mess that I forgot.  Also, the oven was on and I had to clean things up in a hurry before the oven caught on fire.  Melted caramel in a hot oven is NOT fun to deal with.  

I was baking a pan of these lovely Nutella brownies with a caramel in the center (yum) and when they were done, I was removing the pan from the oven and hit it against the top of the oven. They went flying everywhere!!  I mean everywhere.   They were all over the oven, between the crack in the oven door, on the floor.  Oh my what a mess.  I almost cried because I really, really wanted those brownies for dessert last night.  I hurried and turned the oven off and Dan and I started cleaning.  It took both of us.  Melted caramel is not fun to clean up from a hot oven let me tell you.  Ugh.

As soon as the mess was cleaned up, I quickly mixed up another batch.  This is the easiest recipe ever! I got the recipe from a blog called Butter and he filled his with malted milk balls.  I didn't have any, but I did have Kraft caramels, so I cut them in half and put those in the brownies.  It totally works!!

Here is what you need:

1 cup Nutella
2 eggs
10 TBSP (1/2 cup) all purpose flour

preheat oven to 350 and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake papers

Mix the ingredients thoroughly, making sure the eggs are well incorporated.  Fill each paper with about 1 TBSP batter, dividing batter equally.  If using malted milk balls, place 4 mini milk balls in each brownie.  I cut 6 caramels in half and placed one in the center of each brownie.  Bake for approximately 15 minutes.  Watch closely and do not over bake.  Remove when a toothpick comes out clean.
You can see that lovely melted caramel in the center of the brownie.  So, so good!

This makes the perfect brownie - great texture, fabulous taste and so cute.  I placed a brownie on a plate, added some vanilla ice cream and drizzled it with chocolate sauce.  Heaven!  So glad I baked another batch.  Dan was REALLY happy.   Doesn't that dessert look fabulous in the picture?  It is!

If you want to make your own chocolate sauce, here is a good recipe:

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 2/3 cup white sugar
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Heat all ingredients except vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Store in refrigerator for up to a week.

Eating that delicious Nutella brownie with ice cream and chocolate sauce made up for the baking disaster from earlier.  Talk about a stress reliever!  If you look at the picture, you can see how the chocolate sauce pooled in the indention made by the caramel.  Oh my goodness good.  I really hope you never experience a baking disaster, but having something chocolate and decadent to eat afterwards sort of made up for the whole mess.  I just hope it never happens again.

Everyday Donna

Things to remember:

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem.
Everything else is inconvenience.   ~Robert Fulghum