A Little Sprinkle Of Snow

Since we don't have any snow,

I played with some powdered sugar and made

the brownies look delightfully wintry.

These are Ghirardelli Brownie Mix brownies.

They're my favorite and that's saying a lot from a girl

who only bakes from scratch.  Better than scratch!

I do the directions that make thicker, cake-like brownies.

Snow is optional, but I highly recommend it!

♥

Glorified Boxed Brownies

I don't normally buy box anything, and prefer to bake from scratch.

But there were 3 brownie mixes in the scratch-n-dent cart at Kroger,

and after using my coupons, I was actually paid a few cents to

take them home! So....I doctored them up a little and....they were great!

This mix called for adding oil, egg and 3 T of water.

I changed one of the Tablespoons of water to pure vanilla extract.

Then I added a handful of 60% cacao chips and 1 cup of

whole, raw, unsalted mixed nuts.

The Mister (the true chocolate connoisseur) couldn't tell they were

from a box!....mission accomplished! :)

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

I adapted this recipe using recipes fromMartha Stewart

and Ina Garten. If you like the chocolate and peanut butter

combination, these are the perfect brownie!

6 T butter

6 oz chocolate chips

1/4 c cocoa

3/4 c flour

1/4 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 c sugar

2 eggs

2 t vanilla

1/3 c creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350

Grease and line with parchment an 8x8 pan

Melt butter, chips and cocoa in double boiler.

Set aside. In separate bowl, whisk together the flour,

baking powder and salt. In electric mixer, on medium

speed, blend together the sugar, eggs and vanilla.

Blend in the chocolate mixture. On low speed,

add the flour mixture just until combined.

Smooth batter into prepared pan. Drop teaspoonfuls

of peanut butter over batter and twirl knife through

to get a marbled look.

Bake 35 minutes until toothpick has crumbs but is

not wet. Remove from pan after cooling 15 minutes.

Finish cooling on rack before cutting.