Rocky Road Brownies & Candied Pecans

I'd like to say that I'm commemorating the beginning of a new blog with a double post of recipes but really, I promised to (well sort of) send these two my two partners in crime (I'd call them my two better halves, but then that'd mean I'm just a squishy blob..wait..let's not go there) in SD and I wanted to make them before I started classes.

The rocky road brownies are delicious brownies that A of Buttered BlasphAmy made over the summer. H fell in love with them and prodded me into getting the recipe from A and I thought it was only appropriate that I make these and send them to H for her birthday next week!


before baking


all done :)

The candied pecans come from a recipe I found on allrecipes.com that I made over winter break. My brother couldn't stop eating them and neither could a good number of my friends who came over Thanksgivmas (yes, we combined Thanksgiving and Christmas into one random Friday night in December lol). I have to say I'm not a huge fan of pecans, but these I couldn't keep my hands off of these either. I only made the regular version here, but I also made a small batch with Splenda for my diabetic father and my mother actually enjoyed that version more than the original. I found the batch with Splenda had a more salty overtone than sweet and preferred the original, but nevertheless my father found it necessary to hide the small tupperware full of the Splenda coated pecans to keep my mother from devouring them all while he was out! But I digress..I intended on making these again while I was at home so my beloved F could try some since she couldn't come to Thanksgivmas and I raved about them to her, but I didn't have time to. Luckily, I found extra egg whites in my freezer when I got back to Michigan and now she's getting her own box full of them to munch on at her new job XD


mmm delicious

Rocky Road Brownie Bites

1/2 cup butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup blanched almonds, chopped or slivered almonds
24 mini-marshmallows

Equipment: Mini-muffin tin or regular
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Over hot water in a small bowl, melt the butter and chocolate together. Let cool to almost room temperature while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

In a mixer or with a whisk, whip the eggs with the sugar until fluffy. Stir in the vanilla and salt with a wooden spoon. Add the melted chocolate mixture and stir. Add the flour and stir in only until incorporated. Add nuts and mix briefly.

Grease a non-stick mini muffin (or regular) tin and divide the batter evenly by spoonfuls filling each 3/4 full. Top each with a mini marshmallow, pressing it in slightly. Bake for 20 minutes for chewy brownies and 25 minutes for cake-ier brownie bites. Let cool then ease them out of the pan.

*I didn't have a mini muffin pan so I lined a 9x9 pan with foil and baked them for 25 minutes and the edges came out done and the middle quite fudgey- actually I tried these after they cooled and they're more underdone than I prefer, so for chewier brownies I'd recommend trying 30-35 minutes.

Candied Pecans
adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sugar-Coated-Pecans/Detail.aspx

2 egg whites
2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound pecan halves
1 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Grease one baking sheet.

2. In a mixing bowl, whip together the egg white and water until frothy. In resealable gallon-sized bag, mix together sugar, salt, and cinnamon.

3. Add pecans to egg whites, stir to coat the nuts evenly. Remove the nuts, and toss them in the sugar mixture until coated. Spread the nuts out on the prepared baking sheet.

4. Bake at 250 degrees F (120 degrees C) for 1 hour. Stir every 15 minutes.