Awesome, Easy, Most Decadent Brownies You'll Ever Experience (Gluten-Free and from a Mix!)

It's a cause for celebration that Aldi has started carrying gluten-free products in their baking section. Especially nice: their brownie mix can easily pass for regular, fudgy, somewhat gooey, gluten-filled dark brownies.

And, they can be dressed up so very easily, to make the kind of brownies you spend lots of money for, at those chi-chi little bakeries.

Oh, trust me. You don't need to add anything to the new line of gluten free baking mixes from Aldi, but if you're of the school of "don't use paint straight from the tube," you can create something almost criminally yummy.  All you need is the mix (and the eggs, butter, and water it calls for), plus 1/2 cup each of coarsely chopped toasted pecans, coarsely chopped dried tart cherries, and semisweet chocolate mini chips.

Follow the instructions on the box, to make the brownie batter. Stir in the nuts, cherries, and chips, pour into brownie pan, and bake as directed on the box. 

It's that simple, and they're this sinful:

Ain't misbehaving. No, really. I ain't. Well, not much, anyway.

Giant Ice Cream Sandwich

I'm assembling a birthday cake, again, today.   Instead of the light and fluffy cake, though, I'm going for decadent chocolate upon chocolate with ice cream swirled with chocolate.... for the start of it all, I dug out the recipe again for the Brownies that Justify Government-Paid Prices, doubled it, and baked it all up in a greased, dusted-with-cocoa-powder large roasting pan (14x20x2").

Meanwhile, I pulled out a half-gallon of good vanilla ice cream, let it soften up a little, and scooped out balls of it to fill a 9x13x2" baking pan which I had lined with plastic wrap.  Over the balls of ice cream I drizzled slightly warmed fudge sauce and white chocolate sauce, put another sheet of plastic over the surface, and pressed it all down to compact it back into a large sheet of swirled, chilled dessert.  I popped it back into the deepfreeze to firm back up.  After the brownies cooled and the ice cream hardened up, the brownie came out of the pan in one big piece, to be cut in half and set upon a large board.  From there, you can, I hope, imagine the process of making an ice cream sandwich.  A layer of brownie, a layer of ice cream, and another layer of brownie, and the sandwich is assembled. Serve immediately.

Note: the ice cream should be quite firm, and the brownies MUST be completely cooled (refrigerate, if necessary, before assembly).  Otherwise, what you will get is two layers of soggy brownies in a pool of milkshake.


Serve with more fudge sauce, real whipped cream, plus your favorite fresh berries (we are offering up a variety: raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and also, for the heck of it, dried Montmorency cherries).

I'm not sure Chief Illiniwek would be able to refuse

I've seen variations on this recipe online a bit, recently, & had to ask the Bat for her copy, because, no matter how good the others look, Mom's brownies are always the best.  And, these are perfect for spoiling friends around the holidays.

(I will try to add pix later, after I've finished making a batch or two, but, for now, I'm just copying the Bat's recipe card into a format I can read without the smudges.)



Illini Bars


Ingredients:


(for the brownies)
2 heaping Tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup butter
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon NaCl (salt)
3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3-5 cups all-purpose flour


(for the gooey middle part)
1 full (1 lb.) bag of Kraft (or equal quality brand) caramels, unwrapped
1/3 cup evaporated milk
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º F.

Unwrap caramels from bag.  Melt with milk in microwave (it should take about 2 minutes maximum), or, in double-boiler on stovetop.   Set aside.

Melt butter, mix in cocoa powder.  Add sugar, eggs, salt, and vanilla, then add enough flour that the dough is very thick, yet not crumbly.  Spread half of dough into bottom of jelly roll pan, bake for 6 minutes.  Remove from oven, sprinkle chocolate chips over half-cooked dough, then spread caramel mixture over that.  Finally, crumble remaining dough over the caramel, return this to oven, bake another 20 minutes, until done.  For best results, serve warm.

Brownies that justify government-paid prices

This particular batch, I added chopped dried cherries to the recipe below.at the same time I added the chocolate chunks and the chopped pecans. I then served it with ice cream, whipped coconut milk, and the Bat's super-rich fudge sauce. 

It was somebody's birthday, but I really didn't need the excuse. 

Recently in the news there was an article showing that, at many government-agency brunches, luncheons and dinners, the taxpayer has forked over for some rather... ummm... not-cost-cutting delicacies, such as $5-apiece Swedish meatballs, $7.32 apiece Beef Wellington hors d'oeuvres, and $8 brownies.  Now, I wasn't at any of these events, so I can't say for certain that the treats cited were worth your having paid some strangers to enjoy them,  but I can be sure that, if the brownies were anything like the Bat's favorites, there would be people willing to swap eight buckeroos for one chocolate nummy, and they would not necessarily be seen as crazy.

She picked up this particular recipe from a regional magazine about six years ago, thinking it sounded pretty good, then received a gift package which included a couple of samples of the original company's treats.  They were awesome, but contained something for which I have allergies and she has intolerances (in that she can't stand the taste)...  she adapted, then aided and abetted one of my vices, and they're now beyond awesome, In My Humble Opinion.

They're almost enough to start a church around. Or, at the very least, have the Feds knocking at your door, bringing charges of producing addictive substances without a license.


Better-than-government Brownies


Ingredients: 
13 Tablespoons butter (no substitutions)
6 1/2 ounces fine unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped roasted pecans
6-7 ounces fine-quality, chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate bars, or semisweet chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º F.  Grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan, set aside.

In small pan on low heat, melt butter and chocolate, stirring constantly until completely melted and smooth.  Allow to cool a bit.

Into a small bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar with mixer on high speed, scraping sides of bowl occasionally,  until lemon-colored and fluffy (about 5 minutes).  Add in cooled chocolate mixture and vanilla.  Beat on low heat until combined.  Add flour mixture, beat on low speed until just combined, scraping sides of bowl - avoid overbeating, because it will prematurely activate the gluten and make the brownies tough.  Stir in pecans and bittersweet chocolate chunks/chips.

Spread batter in prepared baking pan.  Bake 30 minutes  or until brownies just begin to pull away from sides of pan and center appears set.  DO NOT OVER-BAKE.   Cool in pan on wire rack.  Cut into medium bars.*  Serve.

*The Bat says the original recipe suggests cutting them into 3x3-inch squares, but one that size would actually feed four people...  they're very rich.  Make 'em smaller and share the guilt around.

Chocolate Cheesecake Decadence

I like the occasional cheat.  I especially like a cheat with real flavor, and no funny aftertastes.  So, when I'm not up for digging out Mom's odd little scraps of paper for the Zingermann's (excessively, dangerously rich and tasty) brownie recipe, I'm inclined to reach for a box of Ghirardelli's brownie mix.  They use top-notch ingredients, and the flavor is good enough to pass off as homemade, in a pinch.  

But, in my world, we're not allowed to use paint straight from the tube, let alone use a mix straight from the box.  If the mix is good, we throw stuff into it, and if the mix is great, we pile stuff on top of it.  Ghirardelli's usually gets toppings, like this one, which, if you like snitching chocolate cookie dough, resembles a safe version of that...  it's gooey and fudgy and rich as the dickens.

Chocolate Cheesecake Decadence

Ingredients:

7 ounces good dark chocolate (at least 65% cocoa)

3 8-ounce blocks of cream cheese (not light or fat-free) warmed to room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs 

1 Ghirardelli's Chocolate Supreme Brownie mix, prepared according to box instructions.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300º.  

Prepare Ghirardelli's  brownie mix following instructions on box.  Pour into 12-inch spingform pan, pulling some batter up the sides of the pan. 

In a small bowl for microwave oven or in double-boiler, melt chocolate.  Beat in cream cheese until thoroughly mixed.  Mix in sugar until evenly distributed, then add eggs, whip until fluffy.  Pour onto the top of the brownie batter in the springform pan.

Place in middle of oven, bake for at least 90 minutes, until the cheesecake begins to firm up around the edges and is still slightly jiggly in the middle.     Turn off heat, allow cheesecake to cool inside the oven.

*This recipe leaves a slightly crispy, crackly crust on the top of the cheesecake, not unlike a standard brownie finish.  If you prefer a soft, traditional cheesecake finish, you will want to put a couple of pans of water in the oven, before you put the batter in to bake.