EASYBAKED

Candy Tea Spoons!

Posted on November 25, 2016 by Ruthanne

Delicious little candy spoons make a perfect gift! Stir them into tea or cocoa to add sweet, fun flavor!

Want a little lemon with your tea? A little peppermint or butterscotch in your cocoa? A fun gift idea? This is your recipe!

Happy Black Friday to you! Just in case you have finished with the lines and crowds and feel the need to hit something hard…

We are here for you!!!….Here you go.

Smash hard candies into bits and pieces that are melted into a cute spoon mold to make these treats! Staple them up in little cello bags with fun gift tags and you’ve let out your frustrations and created fun little gifts. Perfect and perfect. *smile*

Here’s how to do it! (printable recipe here)

INGREDIENTS:

Unwrapped hard candies in whatever flavors you want. Note: the harder candies like cinnamon disks and butterscotch disks melted into sturdier spoons than lemon drops and peppermint candies (which are more crumbly than hard). I didn’t have ANY break until I had them all bagged up and I was tossing them into a basket for transport. then I had 2 peppermint and 1 lemon snap.
A silicone candy spoon mold. I got mine in the Czech Republic, so I can’t link to the exact one, but these are similar.

DIRECTIONS:

Place unwrapped candy into a zip-top bag and using a mallet or hammer, smash those candies up! Make sure to do this on a safe surface that can’t be damages by hammer hits!
Preheat oven to 300F degrees
Place mold on a cookie sheet
Spoon candy pieces into mold and heap them up (as they melt, they settle).
Place in oven and watch. In my oven, it took about 8 minutes to melt completely. After about 4-5 minutes, pull them out and sprinkle extra candy into any gaps or openings that might be forming as they melt. Place them back in the oven to finish melting.

*Notes* The “softer” candy melted faster than the “harder”. Also, if you leave them in too long, the lighter candies get a little browned.

Remove from oven and tap gently to remove bubbles- you will still have little bubbles on the outer surface of these- you can see this in my photos. Cool completely and peel out of silicone mold.

Place individually in small cello bags and tie them shut or print and fold these pre-designed tags over the open edge and staple them shut.
Stir into hot beverage and ENJOY!!!

My thoughts: These are really fun little gifts. I personally loved the butterscotch in hot chocolate the best! The peppermint tea was pretty yummy too!!! When I do this again, I will crush the candy up more finely- maybe use a food processor- it was a little more difficult to “pile up” those bigger pieces. They worked fine- but I feel like it would just be easier with more finely crushed candy. Hope you get a chance to try these!!! Enjoy! ~r

Man, I hate it when my ink runs out mid-print! Used them anyway! 🙂

Other gift ideas here on Easybaked:

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Posted in Beverages, Candy and tagged butterscotch spoons, candy spoon gifts, candy spoons, Christmas gift ideas, cinnamon spoons, Edible Christmas gifts, edible spoons, edible stocking stuffer, edible tea spoons, free christmas printable, hard candy gift, hard candy spoons, lemon candy spoons, peppermint spoons, spoons for cocoa, spoons for tea. Bookmark the permalink.

Caramel Pecan Cup of Cake!

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Ruthanne

Take a plain cupcake and turn it into a layered work of art this Thanksgiving!

Everyone loves those beautiful layered trifle desserts. This recipe creates individual layered desserts. Aren’t they fun?? I used butter pecan cupcakes with yummy caramel sauce, pecans and homemade butter cream frosting. They were delicious! You can use this idea with literally ANY combination of flavors though! Get all the flavors of a “filled” cupcake- but SO much easier to assemble!

Plus, you can wrap them up in cello bags with pretty fall ribbon and ties for an elegant holiday dessert!

Can you tell that I enjoyed taking pictures of these!?! Here is how we made them (printable recipe here):

INGREDIENTS: (Makes 24 cups of cake!)

Cake:

One boxed cake mix (plus oil, water and eggs to make according to package). I used Betty Crocker’s Butter Pecan cake mix. It was AMAZING!!!!!!!

Caramel sauce:

32 unwrapped Kraft caramels
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

Buttercream:

4 sticks of butter (softened)
3 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
You will also need 4-5 pecan halves per cup- and small clear Solo cups!

DIRECTIONS:

Make cake mix according to package and bake in 24 cupcake tins as directed by box (spray the pans with non-stick spray if you don’t use liners!). Cool.
Make caramel sauce by placing caramels, butter (1 stick) and sweetened condensed milk into a saucepan.
Melt over stove, stirring constantly, until caramels are entirely melted and smooth.
Cool and place in a zip-top bag.
Make buttercream by placing 4 sticks of softened butter, powdered sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.
Use hand mixer to beat on high for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.
Place frosting in a zip-top bag that has been fitted with a decorating tip. Set aside.
To assemble, cut a cupcake in half. Pipe a little bit of frosting into bottom of cup and press cupcake bottom in cup.
Clip a corner off the bag of caramel and pipe along edge of cup on top of cupcake bottom.

Press pecans into caramel along edges
Pipe a little frosting between pecans (only use a little- mine had a touch too much icing in the middle- you could even skip this step and just have frosting on the bottom and top)
Place top of cupcake on, pipe a little more caramel on top of cupcake, and pipe a swirl of frosting on top.
Add a pecan and decorate as desired. I used cute icing leaves by Wilton that I found at Michael’s.

You’ll want to wrap these up or put them in an air-tight container to keep them fresh. I chose cello bags and ribbon ties- and they made me smile 🙂 These stay fresh for 3-4 days when covered.

My thoughts: These got RAVE reviews. Personally, I thought they were a little sweet and I wished I had used less frosting (plus I ran out of frosting with 3 to go!) so use a little less than pictured (or make a little more…if you really like frosting!!) One of my friends HIGHLY recommended crumbled bacon as a layer in these 🙂 The GREAT news is that you literally can add anything you want to make these into your family’s favorite dessert! Enjoy!! ~r

Other yummy pecan and/or caramel treats here on Easybaked! (click on a photo to see the recipe)

Pumpkin-stuffed Oreos

Posted on November 12, 2016 by Ruthanne

Why have plain old pumpkin pie, when you can have these Oreos- filled with pumpkin and dipped in white chocolate?!?

Admission: I don’t like pumpkin pie. I never have and probably never will. I don’t like pumpkin spice anything either. The best way to ruin a Starbucks drink is to add pumpkin spice. Ew.

So I made these for you. All of you lovers of pumpkin out there! I also distributed these to as many pumpkin-addicted friends as possible, to get their thoughts. They LOVED them. I like that they are cute. Cute is always good.

Like that photo, pumpkin people??? 🙂 I bet you do…. If you love pumpkin pie- you will go crazy over these fun little cookies!

Here is how we made them (printable recipe here)

INGREDIENTS: (makes about 20 cookies- but see notes at end of recipe)

1 (15 oz) can of pumpkin
1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 refrigerated pie crust
1-2 boxes of Oreo Thins in vanilla (see notes)
1-2 bags of Wilton’s Candy Melts in white (see notes)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375F degrees.
Place pumpkin, condensed milk, TWO eggs (save one), pumpkin spice, and salt into a medium mixing bowl and blend well using a whisk.
Pour into a baking dish (a pie plate works perfectly!)
Bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes- until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Remove from oven, spoon into a clean mixing bowl and blend until fairly smooth (it’s pumpkin, so it won’t be creamy smooth- but without big lumps).
Freeze for 30 minutes- until chilled through.
While baking /freezing pumpkin, make pie crust toppers.
Unroll pie crust and use a small cookie cutter to cut shapes out. Place these on a parchment paper-covered cookie sheet.
Separate remaining egg and keep just the white. Use a brush to coat top of each pie piece with egg-white. (I added a bit of orange and green food coloring in separate bowls to give them a hint of color- but this is optional!)
Bake at 375F for 7-8 minutes. Keep an eye on them! Mine got a little too brown. I just popped these in while my pumpkin was still baking. Cool on counter.
Place 1/2 of Oreo Thins on a small cookie sheet.
Scoop cooled pumpkin on top of each and gently press second Oreo on top.

Freeze for at least 30 minutes (until pumpkin in the center is fairly hard).
Melt Candy Melts in a bowl the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring until smooth.
Set a pumpkin-stuffed Oreo into candy melts and spoon over the top and sides.
Remove using a fork. Tap against edge of bowl to drain excess away and gently slide onto parchment paper.
Before candy hardens, place a pie piece on top and sprinkle with a little pumpkin spice seasoning.
Allow candy to fully harden ( a couple of hours).
Serve in a pie plate- or bag them up in cute cello bags with ribbon.
Enjoy!

My thoughts: Honestly, these take a little time. You bake a pie and then turn it into cookies. Everyone loved the HUGE amount of pie filling in each cookie- but if you haven’t done much dipping in chocolate before, I highly recommend you get a second box of Oreo Thins and put less in between each cookie. The hardest part of this process was coating such a tall cookie in white chocolate. If I made these again I would use less pumpkin filling to make that easier. If you do this, you will need a second bag of candy melts as well.

See… half that amount would still be enough! Once these were hardened, I placed them in little cello bags and tied them with ribbon. They were still yummy (to my pumpkin loving friends) several days later. Because of the moist pumpkin filling, I recommend you serve these fairly soon after making them though. Within a few days. Enjoy!!! ~r

Other fun recipes for Thanksgiving! (click on a photo to see the recipe)

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Posted in Cookies, Pies, Seasonal dessert and tagged chocolate covered pumpkin pie, dessert, fall dessert, fall recipe ideas, Oreo dessert, Oreo Thins, Oreos, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin dessert, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pie dessert, thanksgiving, thanksgiving dessert, thanksgiving dessert with oreos, white chocolate. Bookmark the permalink.

Fall Marshmallow Cakes

Posted on November 3, 2016 by Ruthanne

These delicious little chocolate cakes are filled with creamy sweet marshmallow, and decorated to make everyone at your fall table smile!

I’ve been craving HoHos lately. Do they even still make those? Seems like Hostess went out of business awhile back…? Anyway- or those Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls. Both of those desserts remind me of high school lunches. My friends and I would sit at lunch, peel them apart in layers, and talk about boys and such while we ate them.

Anyway… so I started thinking about a way to do a grown-up version of these flavors. My friend Angie gave me SUCH a fun pan- it makes little cakes with a cavity in the center that holds filling. See what I mean HERE. I’ve used these pans before here on Easybaked and they seemed perfect for this idea. Instead of topping cake with cake—- I topped each cake with a thick layer of chocolate glaze that was decorated with chocolate transfers.

I love how they turned out! This was my 1st time using transfers, and they are a little fussy- but the wow factor….!!!!!

Mmmm……!! So there is some special equipment to make these exactly like I did (cake pans, silicone molds to make the top chocolate layer). If you hate to purchase the pans and chocolate mold, make these as cupcakes. Fill them with marshmallow and pour the glaze over the top. Or make this as a layer cake maybe- with the marshmallow in the middle and the glaze drizzled over the top?

However you choose to make it, the flavors are wonderful together!

Here’s how we put these together. (Printable recipe here)

Ingredients (makes 8 mini cakes)

Cake:

1 chocolate cake mix (plus water, oil and eggs to make according to package)

Filling:

2 cups marshmallow creme
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Topping:

2 cups chocolate chips
12 tablespoons of butter
1 large (12″x16″) chocolate transfer sheet (here is where I got mine)

Directions:

Start with the chocolate toppers. To add a chocolate transfer on top, cut 8 circles in a 4 inch diameter. I traced the pans with a marker and the cut the transfer just inside the line. Place the smooth side down and the rough side up inside a 4 inch silicone cake mold (I got mine here, in the medium size).
Place chocolate chips and 12 tablespoons of butter into a microwave safe dish and melt in 30 second increments, stirring between until smooth.
Gently spoon chocolate over the top of each transfer until it is covered completely.
Freeze for about 20 minutes- until completely hard.
Gently peel away the silicone mold, leaving the chocolate. Keep this chocolate in the freezer until use.

Repeat process (re-melt chocolate glaze if needed) until you have 8 toppers in the freezer.
Make cake according to mix and bake in 4 pans as directed on box. Only fill the pans 1/2 full, or they will overflow. And grease the pans generously!!! My 1st batch stuck a little.
You will need to bake two batches to get your 8 cakes. Cool completely.
Make filling by beating together the marshmallow creme and the butter until smooth and light (about 2 minutes).
Slowly add the powdered sugar, beating on low until it is fully mixed in, and then increasing to high and beating until light and fluffy (another 2 minutes or so).
Place filling into a zip top bag and zip it tightly closed. Clip a corner off and squeeze filling into each open cake cavity.
Gently set a chocolate topper over the filling, pressing it lightly against the filling. As the topper warms to room temperature, it will soften and stick more firmly to the cake.
Gently peel away the plastic from the top of the transfer.

Keep at room temperature until serving. Kept covered, these can be stored for two to three days.
Enjoy!

My thoughts: If you don’t mind the extra equipment and a little bit of time, these are positively the most elegant and delicious little cakes! I had so much fun serving these as individual desserts- and everyone loved them. If what you are aiming for is extra special- this is your dessert. If you need your chocolate fix right now? Get those Little Debbies!!! 😉 ~r

Other fall treats here on Easybaked:

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Posted in Cakes, chocolate and tagged cake, chocolate, chocolate transfers, fall dessert, fall recipe, filled cakes, fudge, ganache, glaze, how to use chocolate transfers, individual dessert, marshmallow, marshmallow chocolate cake, thanksgiving dessert. Bookmark the permalink.

A Collection of 10 Halloween Treats!

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Ruthanne

halloween dessert collection

My thoughts: These are some of my favorites!!!! Click on a photo to see each recipe. Enjoy!!! ~r

Spiderweb Oreo Pops

Posted on October 21, 2016 by Ruthanne

These web-wrapped Oreos with M&M spiders are not only cute fall treats- but delicious ones!

It’s that time of year again. That time when spiders think it’s too cold outside, and find little cracks around my windows and doors to creep in through. There’s nothing worse than sitting here, innocently blogging about a dessert recipe, only to be shocked by a giant black spider racing out from behind the couch. Seriously- they move so fast!

In any case, I make a lot of spider-themed treats. Maybe because candy spiders are so cute- and they don’t move. These are especially cute little guys- and they are perfect on top of these web-coated Oreos! Plus, as is true with all Oreo pops, you can make them weeks ahead and have them all wrapped in pretty bags and ready for a party. I love recipes like that.

Here is how we made them: (printable recipe available here)

INGREDIENTS: (makes about 24 pops)

One box of Double Stuff Oreos
24 lollipop sticks
2 bags of Wilton’s Candy Melts in white
1/4 cup of Wilton’s candy melts in dark chocolate
36-ish dark brown M&Ms (no worries–you can eat the rest of the bag while you work 🙂 )

DIRECTIONS:

Make your spiders 1st.
Melt dark chocolate melts in microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between until melted and smooth. Spoon into a small zip-top bag and clip a tiny corner off (or use a decorator tip, if you have one).
Pipe spider legs on parchment paper (see photo) and place an M&M in the center. I make more than 24, because the legs sometimes break when you peel them off.

The photos below are from my recipe for Spider Eggs, and some of them are piped on Lindt truffles. You can see how I piped them on parchment paper though.

Let spiders harden while you assemble your Oreos.
Twist apart all of your Oreos.
Melt a small amount of candy melts (<1/4 cup) in the microwave in 3o second increments, stirring between until smooth.
Dip the end of a lollipop stick into the melts, and press into white filling of Oreo. Place other half of cookie back on top and press together.
Place Oreo and stick on a cookie sheet. Repeat this process with remaining Oreos, and then freeze all Oreos until firm (10-15 minutes).
Melt one and a half bags of white Candy Melts using method from above.
Once Oreos are chilled, hold with stick and dip into Candy Melts until completely coated.
Tap on side of bowl to get excess off, and drag across lip of bowl to scrape excess off back of cookie.
Set on parchment paper to harden.
Melt remaining white Candy Melts and place in a zip-top bag. Clip the corner off and drizzle over each Oreo to make a messy web-like pattern.
Immediately place a “spider” on this melted drizzle and allow everything to harden up for at least a couple of hours.
Once hardened, store in an air-tight container or tie up in little cello bags.
Enjoy!!!

My thoughts: *Smile*!!! These are fun little treats- and not too difficult to make. I always love my Oreo pops. One of these days I should put all of them in one post since I’m getting such a large collection of them! I hope you get a chance to try these fun little treats! And I hope they are the only spiders you find in your home this fall!!! ~r

Other spider-y treats found on Easybaked: (click on a photo to see the recipe)

A bowl of eyeball cookies!

Posted on October 15, 2016 by Ruthanne

These delicious little cookies are the perfect creepy treat for October!

Ah…these were fun to make and really fun to share! They definitely gave kids a pause. I heard one little girl say, “Mom- I’m a little scared of those cookies because they are looking at me!”

Love it.

Ok- so these don’t involve baking. You could certainly bake cookies and decorate them this way- but if you are like me and you needed a recipe at 10pm the night before- Nilla Wafers and Ritz crackers will do just fine (and taste GREAT!)

Here is how we put them together (and there is no printable recipe- because there isn’t really a recipe for these- just a technique!)

INGREDIENTS:

Nilla Wafers (and some mini-Nilla wafers, if you’ve got them!)
Ritz crackers
Wilton Candy melts in green, blue, white and black
Candy eyes (although these aren’t technically necessary, since you have the white and black candy melts).

DIRECTIONS:

Melt candy melts, one color at a time, in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between until melted and smooth.
Spoon into a zip-top bag and cut a corner off. (Or use a squeeze bottle fitted with a decorating tip if you have one)
Use green to outline the edges of the Ritz crackers and then fill in. Use white to outline and fill in the tops of the Nilla wafers.

Draw eyes of different sizes on the Ritz crackers, using a toothpick to make the tiny pupils in black (use candy eyes if you have them, for one size) I even added some little green blotches on these just to make them more weird.
Use blue and black candy melts to make eyes on the Nilla Wafers.

Let these harden and then serve them up in a fun bowl- or maybe put them in little cello bags and tie them with ribbon!
Enjoy!

My thoughts: Aren’t they fun? You don’t have to be fussy about making them perfect- the crazier the better! Those Ritz crackers are especially yummy with the sweet candy on top. Yum. Enjoy these quick and easy treats!!! ~r

Other creepy recipes for your October: click on a photo to see the recipe.

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Posted in Candy, Cookies and tagged cookies, crackers, dessert, easy fall dessert, eyeball cookies, eyeballs, fall, funny, Halloween, Halloween dessert, nilla wafers, October, recipe, ritz crackers, sweets. Bookmark the permalink.

Hairy Monster Oreo Pops

Posted on October 8, 2016 by Ruthanne

These fuzzy Oreo monsters aren’t TOO scary- and they taste delicious!

Oh Oreo Pops… I love you! So many possibilities and so little time! Aren’t these so cute? They remind me of the little pom-poms with eyes that we used to put on the tops of pencils. Yes..pencils…back in the olden days when we used paper 😉

In any case- these are perfect for Halloween and even for just fun fuzzies at kids parties! The only requirement??? You need to like coconut! I know that eliminates a few of you out there…but believe me- if you like coconut, you will LOVE these! Coconut plus Oreos?? Bam!

Here’s how we made these fun little guys: (printable recipe available here)

INGREDIENTS: (for about 24 cookies)

One package of Double Stuff Oreos
Wilton’s Candy Melts– you need about a bag and 1/2- so if you do all three colors you need 1/2 bag of each.
Candy eyes
About 3 cups of shredded, sweetened coconut
Food coloring in desired shades
About 24 lollipop sticks

DIRECTIONS: (if you’ve never made Oreo Pops, check out our tutorial here)

Place coconut in small zip-top bags and add food coloring in desired shades. Zip bag shut and shake and squeeze until coconut is completely colored. Set aside.
Twist apart all of your Oreos.
Melt your candy melts in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until melted and smooth.
Dip the end of a lollipop stick into the melts, spread a little on the top of the white filling of the Oreo and then press the stick into the white filling.
Place the top of the Oreo back on so that the stick is in the middle with the filling.
Do this for all the Oreos, and set them on a large plate or cookie sheet to FREEZE for about 10 minutes.
Hold a chilled pop by the stick, and spoon candy melts (in desired color) over the top, bottom and sides of the Oreo.
Tap stick against the side of the bowl to get extra melts off, and gently pull the bottom of the Oreo along the edge of the bowl, scraping off excess melts.

Set Oreo on parchment paper to harden- but before it hardens, sprinkle a generous amount of coconut on the top of the candy melts, and gently press it up against the sides.
When all Oreos of a given color are dipped and covered, take the remaining candy melts and use a dab on the back of each candy eye-ball to “glue” these on top of the coconut. I used a toothpick to add this dab of candy melt to the eyeball.
Continue until you have all colors finished. Allow Oreo pops to completely harden (a couple of hours). You can freeze them to speed up this process.
The BEST way to serve these is to wrap them in cello bags and tie them with a ribbon. This keeps all that coconut in place (and not all over the other colors of coconut!)

My thoughts: These are quick, but a little messy to put together, They are adorable and delicious though– so well worth the effort in my opinion!!! I liked them even better after a couple of days- when the coconut gets a little firmer in texture from sitting out and it’s less oily. These will keep for at least a week (maybe longer?) when wrapped up in cello bags. I do hope you get a chance to try them! Enjoy!! ~r

We specialize in making kids smile here at Easybaked. Here are a few more ideas: (click on photo to see recipe)

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Posted in Candy, Cookies, Kids recipes, Uncategorized and tagged coconut, coconut dessert, coconut oreos, dessert, fuzzy monster dessert, Halloween, Halloween dessert, Halloween Oreo Pop, Halloween party idea, Halloween recipe, kids party Oreo pop, monster dessert, Monster Oreo Pop, Oreo dessert, Oreo pop, Oreos. Bookmark the permalink.

Spiderweb Brownie Tart

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Ruthanne

Fun stripes of color make this tart a beautiful addition to your fall table. Rich dark chocolate and creamy mint filling make it a delicious one!

Isn’t this fun? I love the October colors and the mint filling, but this could be made with any flavoring and in any combination of colors. Plus….it is EASY- I promise! The only special equipment you need is a 9 inch tart pan with a removable bottom- and if you don’t have that, you can make these in a regular 9×9 brownie pan. They aren’t quite as pretty- but still very fun!

This is my mom’s famous brownie recipe. If you’ve been following us on Easybaked for very long, you know that I use this recipe ALL THE TIME. I just rearrange it into different ideas. You also know that we lost my mom almost two years ago very suddenly to cancer. Every time I re-make her recipe into something new, it makes me smile. She would have loved this idea, and I wish she were here to try it!

The original recipe for these is here. The brownie is baked in a large jellyroll pan (like a Texas sheet cake) and then covered in mint and chocolate glaze. That recipe was WAY too large to use in a tart pan, so I reduced it to 1/3 of it’s size for this idea. I had to google crazy things like “what is 1/3 of 2 cups”- only to realize that 1/3 of one cup times 2 is…..(wait for it)….. 2/3 of a cup. Sigh. Math is not my strong suit. 🙂

I really hope you enjoy making, serving and (of course!) eating this fun little tart, dear friends!

Here is how we made it: (printable recipe is here)

INGREDIENTS:

Brownie:

1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons of dark cocoa powder (try to use dark- it makes it easier to color the brownie black)
Pinch of salt
2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup milk
Food coloring gel in black

Mint filling: (this makes a little more than you need- but makes certain you have enough of each color)

5 cups powdered sugar
8 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons mint extract
Food coloring gel in orange, green and purple

Chocolate glaze/spiderweb:

1 cup of dark chocolate chips (again, use dark so it is easier to color black)
6 tablespoon of butter
Food coloring gel in black
About 1/4 cup of Wilton’s candy melts in each color: orange, green and purple

DIRECTIONS:

NOTE: Throughout this recipe, be careful when moving the tart pan, as holding it from the bottom will cause the edges to slide off. I usually keep tarts on a cookie sheet when I bake and decorate them- I took this one off (very carefully!) so I could photograph the process for you.

Brownie:

Preheat oven to 350F.
Cream butter and sugar together.
Beat in eggs, cocoa, vanilla and salt.
Add flour and milk (alternating them and mixing well in between)
Add black food coloring gel until batter is a dark almost-black color.
Spread evenly in 9 in tart pan that has been set on a cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool completely.

Mint filling:

Melt butter and add to powdered sugar.
Add extract.
Mix well, using water to bring it to a thick but spreadable consistency.
Divide filling into three bowls and mix in gel food coloring until you get a desired shade of green, orange and purple.
As soon as color is mixed in, spoon each filling color into a small and sturdy (use freezer, not sandwich) zip-top bag. Push all the air out and seal tightly. As this filling is exposed to air it begins to harden up- so sealing these up right away prevents this. If you are slow, you can always add a little more water to get it back to the right consistency.
Set aside until brownie has cooled.
Cut a corner off each bag, and squeeze filling out into a circle at the center. Alternating colors, add rings around this until the entire top of the brownie is covered with filling.

Once the top is covered, set a piece of parchment paper or wax paper on top and gently press the filling down so that it goes all the way to the edges. You might need to push it into some of the fluted edge. Try to make it nice and flat. The glaze will cover all the ridges, but you want to be sure that the edges are pushed down enough that the glaze has room to get to the edge of the pan without overflowing.

Chocolate glaze:

Melt butter and chocolate together in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between until completely melted and smooth.
Add black gel food coloring until glaze is a dark almost-black (I added quite a bit and never got it completely black- but close!)
BEFORE pouring glaze onto tart: melt each color of candy melts and place each in individual zip-top bags (so they are ready as soon as glaze is poured)
Pour glaze over top of mint filling, using a spoon or knife to push out to all the edges.
Before glaze hardens, cut a small corner on each bag of melted Wilton’s candy melts and pipe circles (like a target shape) in alternating colors on top of the melted glaze.
Use a toothpick or skewer to draw lines through the glaze, starting at the center and drawing lines out to the edge.
Add (if desired) black Sixlets at each point around the edge.
Chill until top layer of glaze is hardened. Do not remove outer ring of tart pan until this has completely hardened. Then, push up on the bottom firmly, until the edges slide out of pan. This takes a little patience- I refrigerated my tart overnight and then let it sit out for about 30 minutes before I was able to push the bottom up and remove that outer ring. If you have a hard time, push up in different spots along the edge, loosening all the edges 1st, before pushing the whole thing out.
Enjoy!

My thoughts: I wish you could have seen my face when I cut into this and pulled out that first piece. So many recipe ideas work great in my head but are a flop in the kitchen. This one was not a flop! It worked perfectly- and I love that striped layer SO much! I really hope you give this one a try, and enjoy it as much as I did! As always, when I post this brownie recipe… this one’s for you mom! *heart*

We have LOADS of fun October dessert ideas here on Easybaked! Here are a few of them: (click on photo to see recipe)

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Posted in Brownies, Tarts and tagged brownie, brownie tart, chocolate, chocolate glaze, colorful dessert, fun dessert ideas, Halloween dessert, halloween party ideas, Halloween recipe idea, kids halloween ideas, kids recipe, mint, mint brownies, mint tart, October dessert, October recipe ideas, spider dessert, spider recipe, tart. Bookmark the permalink.

Chocolate “Poo” Emoji Cookies!

Posted on September 24, 2016 by Ruthanne

Send a little smile with these Poo Emoji Cookies! They are a really delicious chocolate cookie swirled around a Hershey Hug!

Ok. Some of you are shaking your heads… 🙂 When I made my Emoji Oreo Pops last week, everyone loved them and the next question out of their mouths was, “What about the little Emoji Poo?? Are you going to make little Poos?”

Since an Oreo isn’t triangular, I went back to one of my favorite chocolate cookie recipes that doesn’t spread out and keeps its shape when baked. I wasn’t sure it would form swirls or keep this particular shape- but it worked perfectly! Plus it is the yummiest cookie recipe ever.

Here’s how we made them: (printable recipe available here)

INGREDIENTS:

1 bag (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
3 tablespoons of butter
1 1/2 cups flour
15-20 Hershey Kisses or Hugs (unwrapped)
Candy eyes
White fondant (or white candy melts piped into the shape of a smile!)
A little white chocolate (melt chips, or use a few candy melts)

DIRECTIONS:

Unwrap Kisses/Hugs.
Place parchment paper on a large cookie sheet.
Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Place chocolate chips and butter together in a microwave-safe bowl and melt in 30 second increments in the microwave. Stir between until melted completely. It will be a fairly firm mixture.
Add condensed milk and stir until smooth.
Add flour until it becomes thick. This is the trickiest part to get right- you want to be able to pipe it out of a bag- so don’t add so much flour that you can’t squeeze it out. You want it to hold it’s shape though- so you have to add enough flour for that. As I was piping mine, I thought- PLAYDOUGH- this is the consistency of fresh Playdough.
Immediately scoop dough into a zip-top bag and seal.
Clip a large corner off the bag and squeeze out a small circle of dough. Place a kiss/hug in the center and then continue piping dough in a swirl that covers the kiss up. Use your other hand to press the swirl together as you go- so that the kiss is covered up completely.
Continue piping these “poos” out on the cookie sheet- you can put them fairly close together on the sheet- they don’t spread out much at all.

Eventually, the heat of your hands will draw some of the butter out of the dough and it will get harder to pipe in a swirl. You can: A. Place the dough back in the bowl and re-knead it together, place in a clean bag and pipe more swirls OR B. quit making swirls and just make some plain old poo cookies. (I promise that the plain ones will get more laughter than the swirls….really! Plus you don’t use up so many eyes!!)

Milk and cookies anyone??

Bake at 350F degrees for about 8 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet.
Use a little white chocolate or some White candy melts to “glue” eyes on, and use the same white chocolate to pipe on a smile (or— use white fondant and our fun cookie cutters from my Oreo Emoji recipe to cut out a smile and glue that on!)

My thoughts: These just make me laugh. They are funny and cute (and those non-emoji ones are SO gross- if one of those got dropped on the floor, my dog would get a talking to!) Have you seen the Kitty-litter cakes? Let me find a link to one in case you haven’t….. hold on….. found one (on a super cute blog called tbsp.- click here to see it) Who needs tootsie rolls when you can have such realistic cookies??? Bring on the Halloween gross-factor! Pair them up with Emoji cookies, or serve them alone… however you make them or serve them, I hope you enjoy!! ~r