Brownies, Chocolate Marshmallows and a "Biguana"!

This past weekend saw the arrival of a petting zoo at my grandson's house to help him celebrate turning 4!  I did wonder how it would all work out with tarantulas, mice, rats, snakes, turtles, chickens, ducks and a special guest iguana (which my grandson called a Biguana) sharing a house with small children and their parents......turned out to be ok.  In fact better than ok, it was really fun.  And the girls left those little boys in the dust - they were braver and handled more animals than the boys.  Even my grandson, who loves all animals and couldn't wait for this party, was too frightened to even touch most of these creatures!  Little girls rule!!

My daughter wanted to host a fantastic event for the first birthday party held in her new home, so I was not permitted to help - very much!  But I was asked to make some wraps that I had discovered on the Pillsbury website years ago. These are always a hit and Whitney loves them.  However, they are time consuming and I quite often buy the ingredients and run out of time.  Here is the link though - well worth a go! 
Pillsbury Ranch Roll Ups  So, I didn't make these! 

At Christmas time, I discovered an easier wrap recipe, almost as delicious, with less than half the work and ingredients.  I thought this was on the Southern Living website, but I can't find it! However, I didn't use the recipe for Corbyn's party, but threw a bit of salad dressing into some cream cheese. Spread that over tortilla wraps and sprinkled dried cranberries and sliced green onions over the cheese then wrapped them as tight as possible.  Put them in clingfilm and in the fridge for 2 hours, sliced about an inch wide....and they were delicious! 

Then I made the simplest thing possible for a child's party - I have seen these at parties, but never had them at any of my children's parties - a marshmallow with melted chocolate and an M&M on top.  They were simple and a huge hit.  I used the leftover chocolate and some extra M&M's to make Whitney a treat!  (I was very tempted to keep it for myself though)

So then I decided this was still not enough, even though I was only requested to do wraps!  So I decided to make brownies from scratch.  I know ages ago I promised a Brownie recipe that a good friend of my stepmother gave me - this is not it!  I was in too much of a cooking frenzy to take the time to look for that, and I have a Brownies cookbook I bought one time in the States and had never tried.  So I found one that promised to be quick and doubled the recipe!  I will post it here not doubled though.  And the brownies were so good, I had to take the extras to work to get them out of my house!


My brownies came from the Good Housekeeping Farvorite Recipes  "Brownies!" cookbook and it states that these brownies can be whipped up "on the spur of the moment with pantry staples."

Recipe without photos at the end of this blog. 

I would also like to add that all my conversions to metric are approximate.  I try to convert the measurements, and hope they are correct!  If anyone has suggestions or discovers mistakes, please let me know. This is a learning curve for me too!

Prep:  10 minutes  Bake:  25 minutes   Makes:  16 Brownies  (I cut them in one inch sizes and got 30)

Cocoa Brownies

1/2 cup all purpose flour       (90g plain flour)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa  (70g)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter or margarine  (100g butter)  (I used butter flavored Crisco just because I had it)

1 cup sugar                           ( 250g granulated or caster sugar)

2 large eggs

1teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional) 

         (I didn't use these since I was baking for children and try to avoid nuts)

1. Preheat oven to 350F or 170C.  Grease 9 inch square baking pan.  In small bowl, with wire whisk, mix flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. 

2.  In 3-quart saucepan, melt butter over low heat.  Remove from heat and stir in sugar.  Stir in eggs, one at a time, until well blended; add vanilla.  Stir flour mixture into sugar mixture until blended. Stir in nuts, if using.  Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. 

3.  Bake until toothpick inserted 2 inches from center comes out almost clean, about 25 minutes.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack. 
(like that is really going to happen!)

4.  When cool, cut into 4 strips, then cut each strip crosswise into 4 pieces.  (I made this 5 strips and 5 pieces, they were big enough this way.)

According to the cookbook, each larger cut brownie contain:  About 132 calories, 2g protein, 17g carbohydrate, 7g total fat (4g saturated), 42mg cholesterol, 110mg sodium.

Weightwatcher propoints - 3

 Cocoa Brownies

1/2 cup all purpose flour (90g plain flour)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (70g)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter or margarine (100g butter) (I used butter flavored Crisco just because I had it)

1 cup sugar ( 250g granulated or caster sugar)

2 large eggs

1teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional)

(I didn't use these since I was baking for children and try to avoid nuts)

1. Preheat oven to 350F or 170C. Grease 9 inch square baking pan. In small bowl, with wire whisk, mix flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.

2. In 3-quart saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Stir in eggs, one at a time, until well blended; add vanilla. Stir flour mixture into sugar mixture until blended. Stir in nuts, if using. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.

3. Bake until toothpick inserted 2 inches from center comes out almost clean, about 25 minutes. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

4. When cool, cut into 4 strips, then cut each strip crosswise into 4 pieces. (I made this 5 strips and 5 pieces, they were big enough this way.)





According to the cookbook, the larger cut brownies contain: About 132 calories, 2g protein, 17g carbohydrate, 7g total fat (4g saturated), 42mg cholesterol, 110mg sodium.

Weightwatcher propoints - 3

      

"Childhood smells of perfume and brownies."

                                                           David Leavitt quotes