Chewy Chocolate Cherry Pop Rock Sprinkled Brownies

Buzzfeed recently posted a video ranking different celebrity brownie recipes. This one by Gordon Ramsay is sprinkled in Pop Rocks (or as he calls them, “popping candy.” We tried this recipe out for a pre-Fourth of July BBQ over the weekend.

We love watching all of Gordon Ramsay's shows, but especially Masterchef Junior. I'm always so impressed by the talent of these 8-12 year olds! Plus, there's a lot less drama and Gordon is way nicer to the kids than the adults... 

I have to say, I followed the recipe and mine did NOT turn out as expected. The brownies were so thick that the inside wasn’t cooking so it was liquid inside at the end of the cooking time. Also, it recommended lining the pan with parchment paper, which ended up being more of a hassle than just spraying the pan like I normally do. I was ready to call it a Pinstrosity, but after cooking them for a bit longer and hiding all the crevices in sprinkles and Pop Rocks, they weren’t nearly as horrible looking.

In addition to Pop Rocks, the brownies have dried cherries inside giving them a Black-Forest Cake flavor. It was kind of a strange combination; I think I’d try the same base recipe but with toasted coconut or nuts on top next time.

If you do end up using Pop Rocks, make sure to wait for the brownies to cool and sprinkle them right before serving, otherwise they may end up melting and losing their pop. Also, I got red and blue Pop Rocks for Fourth of July, however, be warned that the color on the packages does not match the color inside. The green package is actually red watermelon inside and the blue package is green tropical punch (the strawberry was the only predictable color).

Hope you have better success than I do if you try these for Independence Day! At least they tasted better than they looked...

Chewy Chocolate Cherry Pop Rock Sprinkled Brownies (adapted from Gordon Ramsay)

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter
• 1-1/3 cups sugar
• 16 oz dark chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1 t vanilla
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 5 eggs
• 1 cup dried sour cherries
• 2 T milk
• ½ cup Pop Rocks
• Sprinkles

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan (I’d steer clear of using the parchment lining)

2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3. Melt 2/3 of the chocolate chips. I put mine in the microwave and heated on 30 second increments while stirring until liquid.

4. Pour the chocolate into the butter mixture and combine. Add the flour, salt, vanilla extract, and cocoa powder and mix together.

5. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and beat with a fork until well mixed. Stir the eggs into the chocolate mixture.  

6. Stir in the sour cherries and remaining chocolate chips. If the mixture feels stiff, loosen it with a few tablespoons of milk.  

7. Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the brownies are coming away from the side.

8. Take the brownies out of the oven and leave to cool.

*At this point, we were running late for the BBQ, so we cut the brownies much too early, then ended up making a mess. Make sure you allow time for the brownies to cool completely

9. When cooled and ready to serve, sprinkle with Pop Rocks and sprinkles.

*We tried to use more melted chocolate as a frosting, which tasted good but caused the Pop Rocks to melt. If you use them as a topping, they shouldn’t touch anything liquid to remain intact.

Want to try out other celebrity brownie recipes? Check out Buzzfeed's video here: 

Upside Down Banana Bread

Our friend, Claire, just joined the Peace Corps and is about to move to The Gambia for the next few years! Before her new adventure, Tony & Katie hosted a surprise going-away brunch.

I decided to try out a recipe I saw on BuzzFeed for upside down banana bread – which is more of a dessert really.  You make your standard banana bread mix, but before pouring it into the pan, you line it with a layer of bananas covered in caramel sauce.  When you flip it over at the end, it becomes a gooey treat. 

The bananas on mine slid around a bit when they were flipped and I had to clean up some of the excess caramel sauce that leaked off the plate, but overall I’d say it was a success.  Next time I’d dry adding walnuts or pecans to the recipe as well (maybe just toast some to sprinkle over the top). 

We didn’t serve ours with ice cream, but Buzzfeed suggested that you do and I’m sure it’d be amazing. 

I don’t think this will be my replacement banana bread recipe since it was a bit too sweet and dense for me, but it’s perfect for a potluck when others can help eat it!

Best of luck to Claire on her exciting journey to come!

Upside Down Banana Bread (adapted from BuzzFeed)

Ingredients:

• 4-5 ripe bananas (I had a few ripe ones in the freezer that I thawed out along with some fresher ones)
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup oil
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 T ground cinnamon
• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2-3 fresh bananas, sliced
• Vanilla ice cream (optional)
• Toasted walnuts/pecans (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl (or in a stand mixer), mash the ripe bananas.

3. Add the eggs, oil, sugar, and cinnamon, mixing until evenly incorporated.

4. Add the flour and mix until the batter has no large pockets of flour. Set aside.

5. In a pot over low heat, melt the butter, then mix in the brown sugar until dissolved.

6. Bring up the heat to medium, cooking until the mixture starts bubbling.

7. Remove the caramel from heat and pour into a greased 9x9 baking pan.

8. Lay the banana slices evenly on top of the caramel.

9. Spread the banana bread batter on top.

10. Bake 40-50 minutes.

11. Cool until the bottom is barely warm and use a knife to loosen the edges from the pan.

12. Place a plate upside-down on top of the pan, then invert the pan, flipping the banana bread onto the plate.

13. Slice, then top with toasted nuts and/or vanilla ice cream. 

Valentine's Day Garlic Shrimp Alfredo Dinner for Two

I love Buzzfeed Tasty’s video recipes.  They always make the meal look so simple. Luckily, this one was actually as easy as it looked.

When we were trying to decide what to cook for Valentine’s Day, I stumbled upon this menu for two with bruschetta, garlic shrimp alfredo pasta, and chocolate mousse for dessert. 

While it says “for two,” it really should have said “for two for a week” because we could have fed ten.  Which was fine because the meal was delicious and we wanted leftovers. 

We didn’t follow the mousse recipe from Buzzfeed.  I actually had found a recipe that used coconut cream instead of whipping cream, but it didn’t work at all. No matter how long I whipped the coconut cream, it just wouldn’t fluff up.  We ended up adding normal cream and saving the dessert (I would still include the coconut cream because I liked the slight coconut taste it added). 

We enjoyed the meal with wine from one of our new favorite restaurants, Cooper’s Hawk.  Their Barbera is an amazing deep red wine that we received with our Cooper’s Hawk “Wine of the Month” club. We aren’t connoisseurs of wine by any means (we are happy with our “Two Buck Chuck” Shiraz from Trader Joe’s), but this wine is really fantastic.  My friend James gave us a wine aerator that attaches to the bottle so there's no need for a separate decanter to enhance the wine's flavor.  

The wine of the month club costs $18.99 to sign up, and they give you and your significant other $15 gift cards the month of your birthday. Since Lance and I both have January birthdays, we received a bottle of wine plus a $30 Cooper’s Hawk gift card for only $18.99 (you can cancel the card anytime…)  

Below is the full dinner recipe if you’d like to recreate this dinner!

Tomato Basil Bruschetta  (adapted from Buzzfeed Tasty)

Ingredients:

·        1 6-inch baguette

·        ¼ cup olive oil

·        3 medium tomatoes, diced

·        1 clove garlic, minced

·        1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

·        1 tablespoon basil, chopped

·        ½ teaspoon salt

·        ½ teaspoon pepper

·        1 clove garlic, whole

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450°F
2. Slice the baguette into ½-inch rounds and place on a baking sheet.
3. Brush both sides of the baguette slices with olive oil.

4. Bake for 6 minutes until slightly crispy.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the tomatoes, minced garlic, balsamic vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper.

6. Rub the garlic into one side of the baguette slices, then spoon the tomato mixture evenly across the slices.

Garlic Bacon Shrimp Alfredo  (adapted from Buzzfeed Tasty)

Ingredients:

·        6 slices bacon, chopped

·        1 pound shrimp, deveined and peeled

·        1 teaspoon salt

·        ½ teaspoon black pepper

·        ½ onion, diced

·        1 medium tomato, diced

·        3 cloves garlic, minced

·        2 cups heavy cream

·        1 pound fettuccine, cooked

·        1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

·        ½ parsley, chopped

Directions:

1. Cook the bacon in a large pot until crispy.

2. Add the shrimp, salt, and pepper, cooking until the shrimp is pink throughout.

3. Remove the shrimp and bacon.
4. Add the onions, tomatoes, and garlic, cooking until the garlic is slightly starting to brown.

5. Add the cream and bring to a boil.

6. Toss in the fettuccine with the shrimp, bacon, parmesan cheese, and parsley, stirring until the cheese has completely melted and the sauce coats the shrimp and pasta nicely.

Chocolate Coconut Mousse  (adapted from Cafe Delites)

Ingredients:

·        1 can full fat coconut cream

·        1 cup heavy whipping cream (not shown below, but the coconut cream did not fluff as expected...) 

·        2 T confectioners’ sugar

·        3 T unsweetened cocoa powder

·        2 squares dark chocolate, shaved

·        Strawberries, raspberries and/or mint to garnish

Directions:

1. Place sealed can of coconut cream in the refrigerator overnight.  Without shaking the can, open and scoop out the thick cream sitting on top of the water.  Discard the liquid.

2. Add the heavy whipping cream and confectioners’ sugar, then beat on high with either a hand mixer or stand mixer (I used my KitchenAid).  When thick and creamy, reserve 4 T of the plain whipped cream to the side to use as a topping.

3. Fold in the cocoa powder and beat until smooth. 

4. Serve the chocolate mousse in a glass topped with the plain whipped cream.  Garnish with the fruit, mint, and shaved dark chocolate.  

One Pot Chicken & Sausage Cajun Pasta

I recently started following Buzzfeed’s Tasty page on Facebook.  They post tutorial videos every day of simple recipes summarized in about a minute or less.

I tried out my first one of their recipes and it was a huge success!  And it was incredibly simple – you just throw a bunch of ingredients in one big pot until it all cooks down into creamy delicious Cajun goodness.

This would be a great recipe when having guests over for dinner since it’s hassle free and makes enough to feed a crowd.  Next time I might do a bit less pasta & add more veggies, but we were very impressed with how this turned out.

One Pot Chicken & Sausage Cajun Pasta (adapted from Tasty)

Ingredients:

• 2 T olive oil
• 2 diced chicken breasts
• 8 oz. Andouille sausage, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ yellow onion, sliced
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 1 green pepper, sliced
• 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
• 16 oz pasta
• 5 cups chicken broth
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 1 cup shredded Parmesan
• 1 T Cajun seasoning (or equal parts cayenne pepper, onion powder, paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper)

Directions:

1. Pour olive oil into the pot. Add diced chicken breast to the pot, cover with Cajun seasoning, and stir until the chicken is evenly seasoned. Then, add sliced sausage and stir. Cook the meat on medium heat for 5-10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

2. Once the meat is cooked, add in the garlic, onion, peppers, and mushrooms, and stir. Continue stirring for 3-5 minutes as the veggies cook down.

3. Add the dry pasta to the pot (if using long, thin noodles, break in half), then pour in the chicken broth. Stir until everything is well-mixed. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, keep covered bring the heat down to a simmer for 10 minutes (stirring every two minutes). If there still extra chicken broth, you can discard it, cook longer until the liquid evaporates, or add a little cornstarch to thicken the liquid.

4. Lastly, add heavy cream and parmesan and stir until your pasta is well blended. Garnish with green onions, more parmesan, a sprinkle of Cajun seasoning (if you want some extra spice), and salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!