Strawberry Extra-Chocolatey Brownies: California Strawberry Day

Today is California Strawberry Day. It's also the first day of Spring, so it's a great day to celebrate! California is the nation's leading producer of strawberries. The coast of California has a unique environment with its western ocean exposure with moderate temperatures year round -- warm sunny days and cool foggy nights - the perfect combination for growing delicious, beautiful strawberries!

Last year on California Strawberry Day, I posted a recipe for Strawberry Chocolate German Pancake. I've also posted recipes for Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake, Chocolate Covered Stuffed Strawberries, and 'regular' Chocolate Covered Strawberries. There have been others, too.

Visit California Strawberries for more facts, recipes, and apps.

I find that in the market, I can always depend on Driscoll's for fresh delicious California Strawberries, so it's no surprise I consult their website for special strawberry recipes (and other berries). In this recipe for Strawberry Extra-Chocolatey Brownies (recipe adapted from Driscoll's website), chopped strawberries add a fresh touch of fruity tartness to rich fudgy brownies. This is a quick and easy recipe. Use the finest ingredients-- California Strawberries, the best chocolate-- and you'll have a winner!

Strawberry Extra-Chocolatey Brownies

Ingredients
1 pkg. Driscoll’s Strawberries
4 oz. Unsweetened chocolate (I use Guittard)
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1- 1/4 cup Granulated sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Madagascar Vanilla
2/3 cups All-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dark Chocolate chips or chopped Dark chocolate

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 12 muffin cups, or coat with cooking spray.
2. Rinse and dry strawberries. Stem and chop 8 ounces berries (half the container, 1-1/2 cups chopped), reserving the smallest berries for garnishing.
3. Place chocolate and butter in a medium mixing bowl. Microwave on medium power 2-3 minutes until butter is melted; stir until chocolate is completely melted. (or melt in a double boiler)*
4. Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla.
5. Mix in flour, chopped strawberries, stirring just until combined.
6. Scoop batter into muffin cups, filling one half full.
7. Bake 15-17 minutes until brownies are just set on top and no longer shiny. Remove from oven and sprinkle about 1-1/2 teaspoons chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) on tops. Return to oven 1-2 minutes until chocolate softens. Spread chocolate with the back of a teaspoon or knife.
8. Cool completely in pan. Run a knife around edges and lift to remove from pan. Before serving, halve remaining strawberries and place one on top of each brownie.

Pan Brownies Variation
1. Use a 8-inch square pan instead of muffin pan. Bake 25-30 minutes as directed above. At end of bake time sprinkle chocolate chips on top; return to oven for 1-2 minutes. Evenly spread chocolate. Cool. Cut into squares and garnish with strawberries.

Photo: Driscoll's

Football and Foliage

Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems like there are a whole lot more football specific candy/baked goods than ever before.  Have you seen these babies?  Football Oreos:

Look at all the different designs!  Gotta love "lick the competition."  Do these do anything for me?  While I admire the different shapes and the many designs, I have to say - not really.  There seems to be more cookie and less cream and I am so NOT about that.  I was born for Double Stuff.

Little Debbie (LD) has some football shaped brownies (oddly these are the same shape as their Easter egg brownies, but the shape is better for footballs, so you go, LD!)  They taste pretty good - the same as all the other Little Debbie brownies I've reviewed.  A new shape is just a good excuse to buy more.  Cheap and pretty chocolately - while not a touch down, I'd say definitely a field goal.

Look pretty good, huh?  Always moist - Little Debbie has the cheap, mass produced brownie down cold.

And look at these!  Reese's Footballs!

These are totally the Reese's eggs repackaged as footballs.  But they are still that delicious Reese's peanut butter, so I'm not complainin'!  And the bag weighs like a ton!  (2 pounds!)

Since football is a fall sport, I'm going to include some other fall flavors.  (Yeah, yeah I know it's January - give a girl a break!  I've been busy!)  Harry and David has these Red Apple Caramel balls:

And while you guys know I love most of Harry and David's stuff, I did not love these.  They had some kind of funky aftertaste.  Boo!  If Hershey can get the exact taste of caramel apples in their Kisses (reviewed on September 5th), Harry and David can do better than this.  Flag on the play!

Godiva also has a caramel apple Gem:

Now it's just pathetic when Hershey does better than Godiva.  Once again I rant at how damn expensive Godiva is and how not so great.  (Just like some pro football players we could name.)

Not to be limited by football, LD also had these for the Fall and their usual brownie trees for Christmas:

A solid performer.

Marshmallow Treats again - this time for Fall.  Nothing wrong with them - they are basically second rate Rice Krispy treats in fall colors.  A little less crispy, a little less sweet, just not quite as good as the original. 

But you gotta give LD credit for those colors.  I like a little originality and flash.  (Just like some pro football players we could name.)

My favorite decorated sugar cookies from Harry and David:

Good tasting, not rock hard like some of these decorated cookies can be.  They are VERY hard to stop eating.  And they are in adorable little designs.  I'm glad to see they have remained politically correct and not included an Indian head dress.

These little marzipan works of art were in World Market:

You know they are from Europe when you see the toadstool.  We would have never included that in the good ol' US of A.  Leaves yes, fungi no.  They come from Germany.  Land of the fairy tale (and the fungi).

Really pretty, aren't they?

The taste isn't bad - they have a good, strong almond flavor.  I would like it if the chocolate coating was thicker.  Marzipan can be so sweet - I like it best with paired with heavy chocolate.  But I really like the artistry of these - very nice.

If you are intrigued by any of these - Harry and David stores are having a great sale right now.  I got the cookies for half price.  Little Debbie's never stay around for long - I have to grab them as soon as I see them.  The Reese's footballs I found in Wal-Mart.  But two pounds is a lot - be ready. 

Go Team Chocolate!!  Coming up next - my other beloved - pumpkin!!!!!

National Brownie Day: Brownies Recipe Round-Up

Today is National Brownie Day.  I went looking through the past few years of posts here on Dying for Chocolate, and I was surprised by how many recipes I found, so I decided to do a round-up of some of my favorites. Just links, but I know you'll enjoy all the recipes.  Feel free to add any of your own favorites!

Aunt Sylvia's Brownies

Chocolate Beer Brownies

Peppermint Bark Brownies

Killer Kahlua Brownies

Halloween Oreo Brownies

White Chocolate Brownies with Macadamia Nuts

Bonfire Brownies

Double Chocolate Fresh Cherry Brownies

Gravenstein Apple Chocolate Brownies

Bacon Brownies

Pumpkin Chocolate Brownies

Chocolate Brownies in a Jar


Enjoy your Brownies!!

Nick Malgieri Demo: Truffle Brownies

When I pored over the recipe packet at Nick Malgeri’s demonstration, I spotted one for truffle brownies, which looked awfully similar to the supernatural brownie recipe that I adore so much. Evidently, he has some business venture in the works that will prevent him from using that title anymore, so instead, we now have truffle brownies, which have more brown sugar in them.

The very simple recipe is available in Bake!, which I’ve been enjoying immensely. A few extra tips that Nick passed along while whipping these up:

-The light brown sugar is key for keeping the moisture level right. Don’t replace it with granulated or dark brown sugars.

-The brownies will turn out fudgy. Nick noted that this is how brownies should be, and that anybody who likes cakey brownies, “well, they have my condolences.”

- He now mixes the flour in with the sugar rather than at the end to avoid clumping of flour. As such, it is important to avoid overmixing after adding the eggs.

- An easy way to accurately line a pan with foil is to turn it over, fit the foil to the outside, and then use that as a rough mold for the inside. There will be very small crinkles in the corners because the inside is smaller, but buttering the foil will make that a non-issue.

- These brownies shouldn’t be frosted because “a brownie that needs frosting shouldn’t be eaten.”

- Don't cut these until they are cooled. To facilitate this during our demo, Nick put these in the freezer before cutting them up for us to enjoy.

Final product: The chocolate flavor isn’t that intense, and there is a strong caramel note from all that brown sugar. Texture-wise, it is dense and moist, just like the supernatural brownie. I’ll have to try it at home with my standby chocolate to see if I can coax more chocolate flavor out of this recipe.

Little Debbie Does Easter

God, I love holidays!! Easter is a big one at the Church of Chocolate (and not for the reasons it's big everywhere else). I mean we're down with the whole pagan celebration of spring thing and hey, the Son of God stuff is amazing, but for us - this is the last big candy holiday for a while. And it's a doozy!

According to the NCA (National Confectioners Association - hosts of Candy Expo) 88 percent of Americans create baskets for their kids (yeah, right - one for you Little Johnny, two for Mommy) - using 90 million chocolate bunnies! 90 million! And you guys thought I had a lot of chocolate bunnies!

Today, however, I say - let them eat cake!

My girl Little Debbie is back in the house!

This is a staple in both chocolate and white - change the sprinkles - change the cake. This shape with red, yellow and orange sprinkles was a Fall Party Cake. But there was yellow cake and chocolate icing, so I can't give Lil' D too hard a time.


Here's the main problem - they are kinds dry. I keep finding this with theses cakes and it's breaking my heart. Come on - my childhood memories of these being good are being replaced by my adult reality of them kind of sucking. Lil' D hook a girl up and fix these things!

Look at these festive things:

There is something about these. something that makes me want to eat them. I'm not even a big brownie lover. They are definitely moist and chocolately. They taste pretty damn good. They are a whopping 200 calories each so it must be all the fat and sugar. Lil' D maybe you don't need to hook me up anymore than you already have.

You gotta laugh at this shape for an egg:

But pretty damn creative and so good! And cheap. I warn you, if you get these, you will eat them. But the box and keep one, take the rest to the office. Play Easter bunny and leave them on people's desks. They are so random and funny!

Once again - the seasonal Marshmallow Treat:

This time I decided to do a taste test with the King of marshmallow treats - Rice Krispies treats.

The Little Debbie treat is about twice the size of the RK treats for the same number of calories - 100.

Now these all have chocolate, which puts them ahead right there.

This one is my favorite - with just the right ratio of chocolate to rice crispy:

This one has too much chocolate in my book. But sometimes that's what you want.

Bottom line - there is more of the Lil D treat, so if you want quantity - go with that one. Also it has the cool seasonal factor - a big hit with me. But for sheer taste - the Rice Krispies treats are better - more flavor. And my favorite is the second one - chocolately drizzle. YUM!

I decided to go ahead and review these while I was on a cereal bar roll:

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Marshmallow Golden Graham Treats. Not as light and airy as the Rice Krispies like things, these are heavier. I thought I would love the peanut butter one, but it was nothing to write home about. I took a couple of bites, then trashed it.

Chocolate marshmallow, however, was a different story. Now the picture looks bad because there's some bloom on the chips, but that's probably because it got hot at some point. It still tasted great and I ate the whole bar. These are giant and have 260 calories. I'd say this was better than the typical cereal bar and very filling. Try one next time you're grabbing something on the run and don't want to go completely insane with a Snickers.

I reviewed these last year and I love them just as much this year. I'm not even that crazy about marshmallow! But I love these! Only 100 calories each.

These I hate. They have orange filling - maybe supposed to look like an egg yolk?

See how big the Little Debbie is?

Boo! Orange! But egglike - points for creativity! The chocolate coating is great, but the orange was so overpowering to me - I just didn't like these at all. Bleech.

Yay - chocolate! The base is like the Little Debbie brownie - rich and moist. I don't know exactly why this crazy thing works, but it does, baby, it does!

For $1.79 you get 8 of these - now if that's not worth celebrating, I don't know what is! Cheap, festive, fun - and, well, depending on how you look at it, holy.

Thank you, Easter Bunny! More marshmallow to come! As well as Easter candy by See's, Bissinger, and L.A. Burdick.

I Love Little Debbie

Little Debbie is full of surprises. Besides being the cutest little kid EVAH, she is rocking the house at Valentine's Day. I like the fact that the boxes boldly ask you to be her Valentine. And since it looks like I won't have another Valentine, I am taking her up on the offer. Hey - at least she shows up with cake!!



First up are the iced brownies:

Love the heart shape and really love the heart shaped sprinkles! (Not be be confused with nonpareils). As you know I don't think LD's brownies are the best in the world, but these are so festive and at $1.79 for a box of five, you can't beat them. After being snowbound with them all weekend, I have come to love them.

Each of these boxes has cheesy Valentine's Day cards you can cut out and give to your beloved. My favorite has a pic of two heads of lettuce and says "Valentine, lettuce us be together."

Now these just look gorgeous. They come two hearts to a pack:

Can you see the beads of moisture? I like the chocolate drizzle - makes them look elegant. Seriously - elegant Little Debbies! Who needs a fancy chef when you can just just whip these babies out?

Now here's the surprising and heartbreaking thing - the chocolate hearts were kind of dry. I know - shocking! After all, you can see the moisture! I don't know what happened, I'm just telling you. They were dry enough that I actually preferred these:

I KNOW - I couldn't believe it myself. I adore chocolate. I consider the Swiss Cake Roll an act of genius. But the pink cakes had a lot more creme (see for yourself) and were much more moist. They were a lot better. Maybe I got a bad batch of the chocolate ones - at the end of the creme line - who knows. But if you have to choose, go with the pink ones.

I've saved the very, very best of all for last:

These are amazing. Two cookie-sized cakes, with a thick layer of cherry creme (not too strong) between them, and the whole thing dipped in chocolate. These are amazingly delicious. You want a Valentine's Day treat - look no further. My heart belongs to Little Debbie.

And if I don't get out and get some exercise, my waistline is going to belong to her too!