With most cookbooks — even the ones you're excited about — do you end up tagging only a handful of recipes that you really want to try out? That's what I typically do, except with Jill O'Connor's cookbook, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Desserts from Chronicle Books. With this cookbook geared for the serious sweet tooth, I want to make every dessert — they all sound so amazing.
On Saturday, I made Dan a sweet homemade surprise for Valentine's Day. I went against my natural impulse to choose a recipe from the book which has a photo, because this brownie recipe sounded just too good. So here are my Heart of Darkness Brownies (topped with marshmallows, per recipe, and without which we actually preferred.) You'll see in the recipe below the fold that these brownies have every bit of goodness in them — from melted chocolate to Snickers bars. But my favorite revelation from making these brownies is that author Jill O'Connor is a genius for making her brownies in a cupcake tin. Baking these gooey brownies in individual tins saves you from messy cut squares — and they're just the perfect serving portion. These brownie cups score high marks for looks.
We've been indulging in the dark side of brownies all weekend. And from now on, I'm making brownie cups no matter which brownie recipe I follow. See below the fold for the recipe with my notes.
Heart of Darkness Brownies by Jill O'Connor
makes 24 brownie cups
what you'll need
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup very coarsely chopped raw almonds or pecans, toasted
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
5 full-size (2.07 ounces each) Snickers candy bars, cut into small chunks
3 cups of mini marshmallows
For the caramel drizzle:
6 ounces (about 25) unwrapped caramel candies
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Spray two standard 12-cup muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray.
Melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate together in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and stir until smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture into a bowl and stir in sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Sift flour and salt into the chocolate mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in the cooled chopped nuts, chocolate chips, and chunks of candy bar.
Fill each cupcake cup halfway with batter. Bake until the surface of the brownies has a glossy, cracked surface, about 20 minutes. Remove the brownies from the oven and top each one with 1/4 cup of the mini marshmallows. Return the brownies to the oven and cook just until the marshmallows start to melt and puff up a bit, but not browned too much, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool just enough to handle, then remove from the cupcake cups, running a knife around the edge of each brownie to loosen it from the cup. Let cool completely on the wire rack.
While the brownies are cooling, make the caramel drizzle: Combine the caramels, cream, vanilla, and salt in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on high for 1 minute. Remove from the microwave and stir until smooth. If the caramels are not completely melted, continue heating in 30-second increments, stirring until smooth.
Drizzle the brownies with melted caramel and let cool completely for the caramel to harden. Do not chill. Serve immediately or store for up to 3 days in a covered container.
Jen's Notes: I was too lazy to toast my almonds so I skipped that and just put them in the food processor and chopped them fine. I also put the Snickers bars in my Cuisinart for a spin so they were pretty broken up and mixed in well to the brownie batter. I tried out the brownies with and without the marshmallow topping. While the marshmallow caps look super cool, they were a smidge too sweet for Dan and me. We preferred the Heart of Darkness brownies solo (with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an extraordinary brownie sundae.) And my local market did not have caramel candies, so I didn't get to make the caramel drizzle. To substitute, I made a raspberry coulis, heating fresh raspberries with a little heavy cream. And I thought the raspberry sauce screamed Valentine's Day more in the iconic red color. Jill's Heart of Darkness brownies are truly the best brownie recipe ever, in my opinion— I felt like they were one of my best baking jobs. I'm excited to try out more recipes from this sweet book.
