Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

This was one layer So now I had 1/2 c of Mascarpone left and I was going away for a few days to a conference. I needed to use up the remainder of the Macarpone. What to do? What to do? Brownies of course! Adapted from Food 1 c butter (2 sticks) 3 oz semisweet chocolate 1 1/2 c sugar 1/4 c cocoa 1/2 c Mascarpone 3 eggs 1 t vanilla 1 t chocolate extract 1/2 c flour 1/2 t salt Ganache: 6 oz semisweet chocolate 6T heavy cream 3T butter 1 t vanilla 1 t chocolate extract 1/2 t salt Line a 8" square pan with aluminum foil. Melt butter and chocolate in microwave (or on stove top). Sift in sugar, cocoa. Stir in Mascarpone, eggs, vanilla, and chocolate extract until smooth. Gently fold in flour and salt. Pour into pan and bake for 45 minutes at 325. Let cool. Meanwhile, melt chocolate, heavy cream, and butter in microwave (or on stove top). Remove brownies from pan. Spread ganache over brownies.  Place in refrigerator until firm.  Slice into serving sizes....

Glaze pools in the center - yum! This cake made me realize a few things: 1.  I need a new bundt pan. 2. When a cake sticks to the pan (see item 1), chocolate sauce hides a multitude      of sins. 3. Patience is a virtue I don't possess - waiting for this cake to cool seemed an     eternity. 4.  If you gave me some cold milk, I could probably eat this entire cake by      myself. So what is this marvelous cake? It is the Tunnel of Fudge Cake from Cook's Country. I changed it up a little-slightly.  I saw this suggestion after I had the cake in the oven. Mixing 1T of butter with 1T of melted butter and coating the pan. This might have helped me with item 1, but I still think I need a new pan. It is a good brand pan (Nordic Ware) and a pretty fleur de lis design. I see they now offer it with a different coating. Chocolate cakes seem to stick worse than yellow cakes. My pan has a black coating and I'm wonder...

Brownies packed in a tin - all ready for travel Usually when the eldest visits from the UK or we visit her, I try to send home/bring her some baked goodies.  She was a little concerned about luggage weight this time since she was bringing back a bunch of books. I probably should have done cookies because they are lighter, but I decided to make brownies instead.  The boyfriend is a big chocolate fan too and I thought these would work. They are just ooey and gooey - the way brownies should be.  I hate brownies when they are cakey.  If you want cake, eat cake.  If you want brownies, they have to be gooey or they just aren't brownies. I've made this recipe for brownies many times before using peppermint patties as the recipe calls for but I didn't have them. I thought perhaps I would do some chocolate chips.  But then I remembered I had some dinner mints and thought those would work. Peppermint Brownies (adapted from Martha Stewart) 1 stick butter 8 ...