52 weeks of baking: 43 - pumpkin swirl brownies

 

Pumpkin month continues with pumpkin brownies! My mom sent me a pumpkin brownie recipe not to long ago, and I totally was planning on making it, but I couldn't find it for the life of me! So Martha it was. This was one of those recipes that was meant to be. I had everything already, and that's rare. I had exactly enough pumpkin, and exactly enough baking chocolate. It was a great recipe to use up some of my baking stash!

My swirling technique clearly needs a little work. These are good. A little more cakey than I like my brownies, but yummy. I would definitely lower the pumpkin to chocolate ratio next time. For me, brownies are about fudgey chocolate, and with half pumpkin it just isn't enough chocolate action for me. I'd do about one third pumpkin, two thirds chocolate. And for some reason pumpkin bakes very cakey, which is totally cool if you're making a cake. I think because it acts similarly to eggs, and this batter already had quite a few well beaten eggs in it. Brownies should be dense and chewy, these are a little on the fluffy side. Definitely yummy, just not my ideal brownie consistency. Next time, as well as changing the ratio, I'd make the pumpkin and chocolate batters separately instead of splitting the same batter and adding chocolate and pumpkin, that way eggs could be left out of the pumpkin batter. But don't get me wrong! These are very good! Great for breakfast actually. And they're pretty!

52 weeks of baking: 35 - salted caramel brownies

Baking was shoved to Sunday this week. As previously mentioned, this week has been a tad rough for various reasons. Busy busy busy, so Sunday baking it was. And because rough weeks need chocolate, brownies were needed. And not just plain brownies, but salted caramel brownies. Thank you Deb.

This was my first time making caramels from scratch, and it turns out it's very easy, as long as you don't do it immediately after rolling out of bed. Let's chat about how it took me three batches of caramels to get it straight. The first batch I melted my spatula into, the second I forgot to salt, and the third was successful. So I'm down a spatula and I've got a plate full of unsalted caramels in my fridge. But I've also got delicious salted caramel brownies.

These are dangerously dark and gooey. These will probably fall apart as you eat them, but it's worth it. The caramel is perfectly salted and it's melty and chewy in the right proportions. Caramel and chocolate... enough said. I've eaten... a few. Needless to say, they're very good. Wonderful way to wrap up your week. Every week should end in brownies. We'll see if they make it until tomorrow.

52 weeks of baking: 26 - chocolate caramel brownies

HOLY HORCRUXES HARRY, WE'VE MADE IT HALFWAY. Half way through the year, that's a little scary isn't it? Wasn't it just New Years? Wasn't I just starting this whole baking my life away thing? Well, halfway through and proud of it. I've been a procrastinator lately and baking and blogging on the weekends, which is all fine and good if I have the weekend off, but I don't usually. 

My momma suggested this recipe a couple weeks ago, and of course I was on board. Chocolate and caramel? I mean, hello, yes please. I had to wing it a bit since that recipe calls for "chocolate cake mix" and I don't have any of that around and prefer to make things from scratch. So I made up my own brownie/cake mix and hoped for the best. And by some culinary miracle, it was super successful. Here's my "mix":

2 cups of sugar
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup dutch process cocoa powder

I originally was planning on just rolling with regular cocoa powder, but I ran out (of course) so I subbed in the rest with dutch process, making it a bit darker. I'm down with that though. It made for some deliciously dark brownies.

I mean, look at that. You cannot go wrong with those ingredients.

Drooling yet? These are rich rich rich and yummy and everything you'd think they'd be. The caramel and chocolate layer inside is gooey and delicious and the brownie is so chocolatey and chewy and pretty dang good for making it up on the fly. Mucho success. Thanks for the suggestion Mom, these are winners. For real. Dangerously good.

Hey, here's the first half of the year.

Tuesday with the Hogans

Yesterday I had the day off and luckily Mr. H got off relatively early from school so it was like having the whole day together! Bonus! So of course I documented our lovely day via instagram. It's just so damn handy.

We had a late lunch/early dinner (linner!) at Home Slice, which has quickly become my absolutely favorite place to eat in Austin. Okay it might be a tie between there and our sushi place. But seriously, this pizza is good and I don't even like pizza normally. I had been craving it ALL week, and we finally got some and it was aaaamazing as usual. If you are in Austin, GO THERE. The margherita is divine and the plain cheese is always a good choice. Yesterday Brendon got the meatball pizza and I was seriously impressed. New favorite?

The cheese and the marg. So good.

After pizza came snow cones. Because duh snow cones are amazing. Brendon got the Bevo (which I thought was disgusting but he liked, I think it was orange cream something?) and I got blue raspberry and strawberry. Yummy and it's pretty!

After stuffing our faces we made a grocery run and then came home and chilled on the patio. Well, I chilled and Brendon studied. The weather has been so great lately, a little warm in the sun (my run this morning was sweaty) but it's perfect in the shade.

Mr. H hard at work!

Mrs. H straight chillin' like a bum!

Little Greg wondering why he can't be outside too.

 Pretty trees that keep our patio and apartment nice and cool!

We have been roaming around Austin lately checking out apartments (and one really awesome duplex), deciding our whether or not we should move when our lease is up. We found some great places, but they all mean paying a heck of a lot more, plus the cost of moving and paying deposits again. And the more I think about it, the less I want to move. We have a nice place here. Sure it's old (and sometimes falling apart) and our neighbors aren't so nice, but it's convenient, cheap, and it feels like home. We would have to relearn a whole side of town. I like South Austin. So I think we'll probably stay at this little funky place for at least another year. Our bank account will thank us and so will our stress levels. We have enough going on already, I can't imagine throwing moving into the mix!

Oh and completely unrelated, but I have to share this greatness of this recipe with you all:

The Best Brownies Recipe. The name doesn't lie, these brownies are the best. It's super duper easy and they are super duper yummy. Seriously though, when it says don't over cook them, DON'T OVER COOK THEM. I accidentally cooked mine for an extra minute or two this time (I dropped my timer and it reset itself, because that's how I roll) and they came out way dryer than the first time I made them. Still good, just a little dry. And the brownie batter is pretty much amazing. Just try not to lick your spoon and bowl clean. Also, there is icing. MAKE THEM Y'ALL!