The Baked Brookster Review

Since joining the Baked Sunday Mornings group, I've been keeping up with the Baked boys and all their new adventures.  When I saw they were coming out with baking mixes, I obviously had to try them out.  Such a hard job.  I picked up the Brookster mix at Williams-Sonoma.  Its half brownie/half chocolate chip cookie and a whole lotta yumm.

This mix was slightly more involved then the normal mix you would pick up in the grocery store aisle.  But its nothing you can't handle.  These were suuuper delicious.  One mix will make 9 hearty Brooksters, and the best part, there are TWO mixes in the box.  So don't worry when all the Brooksters are gone, you can make more later!

{T}

Baked Sunday Mornings: Sweet & Salty Brownies

If you like cakey brownies, now might be the time to leave the room. You won't find anything like that here. At least not today. Today is brought to you by the boys over at Baked. They are the masterminds behind this recipe, the Sweet & Salty Brownie. This was the pick for this week's Baked Sunday Mornings, and to make the story short, a MUST try.


This is the epitome of a fudgy brownie. Heaven.


See those white specs on the top? That's fleur de sel. And if you haven't experienced it yet, I say add it to your list. This subtle salt sprinkled on the top was just enough to cut the incredible sweetness that the 11 ounces (yes, 11) of chocolate that goes into this recipe. Oh, and did I mention there's a layer of caramel baked into the middle of everything? It's kind of the secret ingredient here. You can't see it after it seeps into the brownies as they bake, but it sure makes a difference. You better get a glass of milk, you're going to need it.

Chocolate "Cookies"

I swear I didn't just fall asleep on the keyboard and accidentally put the "" around the word cookies. This recipe is for cookie shaped brownies...if that makes any sense. They have that soft moist center when you pull them out of the oven like a brownie (the part that makes you drool onto your plate and wish you weren't dieting for the eightieth time this year) but are baked and shaped just like a cookie.

I made these cookies as part of the Valentine's Day meal posted earlier, and I had all the greatest intentions of cutting them into hearts, using royal icing to decorate the edges, and write cute things in the middle of them like the conversation hearts (my faaaaaaaavorite Valentine's Day candy!). However it just was NOT happening for me. I ran out of time and energy (mostly the latter) while trying to bake up a double batch of the recipe, but I'm still really happy with the way they turned out.

Let's get started!

I'd like to start by introducing you to a very important and not very secret ingredient, vanilla. Recently I found that lots of blogs recommended trying vanilla beans instead of the vanilla extract and that even more talked about the wonders that come from vanilla bean paste. It's all the taste and flavor of the vanilla bean without having to worry about keeping them fresh. I really think it gives an extra little kick to desserts and more importantly makes anything instantly sound gourmet.

For the chocolate in the recipe I used Guitard's semi-sweet chocolate for the batter and then their milk chocolate maxi chips for the little extra oomph at the end. Their milk chocolate chips are gigantic and melty and sooooo delicious. I think I might have eaten three or four handfuls...maybe five... okay! FINE! SIX!

I used a cookie scoop to make all of the cookies relatively the same size. Best. Invention. Ever. It's so easy to use and really takes a lot of the hassle of out of it. I'm sure you're thinking it's one of those useless kitchen gadgets, but since I got it a couple of months ago I've used it multiple times.

All in all these cookies came out really well, especially fresh out of the oven. After a few days they seem to lose some of the texture they have the first day, but we just popped them in the microwave for about half a minute and ladled some ice cream on top (vanilla bean ice cream!), yeah, you know you want some........

-D