colorful dessert | EASYBAKED

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.

Rainbow Oreo Pops~ and a celebration of all things OREO!!!

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Ruthanne

You’ll feel like you’ve struck gold when you bite into one of these fun rainbow Oreos. A perfect way to celebrate St. Patrick’s day and SO easy to make!

Prepare yourself.

National Oreo Day is just two days away. This year, the momentous occasion falls on Thursday, March 6th. There isn’t a store-bought cookie that I like better than an Oreo. All the fun flavors (cookie dough, peanut butter, birthday cake, mint, marshmallow…) are great- but I like mine just plain double stuf (I just realized they left an “f” off of stuf last week!) I’m not alone in my passion for this little cookie- over 362 billion cookies have been sold since it was first introduce in 1912!

This week I created these little rainbow Oreo pops in honor of the day (and to give you a head start on your St. Patrick’s Day ideas!)

They are incredibly easy to make. Once your Oreo has been dipped, those rainbow stripes are just painted on with gel food coloring.

Here’s the recipe: (for a printable recipe click here, for a picture tutorial click here)

INGREDIENTS:

One package of Double Stuf Oreos
2 (12oz.) bags of Wilton White Candy Melts
24 Lollipop sticks
Food color gels in purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red -I used these

DIRECTIONS:

Carefully twist apart all of the Oreo cookies
Using one of the pop sticks, make an indentation in the white filling of each cookie.
Melt the Candy Melts in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring until completely melted and smooth.
Dip the end of one stick into the melted white chocolate, drizzle a little in the center of the white cookie filling and then gently press it into the indentation made.
Place the top of the cookie back on and allow white chocolate to harden (10 minutes or so), cementing the cookie back together with a stick inside.
Holding the stick, lower the entire Oreo into the bowl of melted white chocolate, spooning it over the top and sides to cover it completely.
Allow the excess white chocolate to drain off and gently place covered Oreo on a piece of parchment paper to harden.
Allow white chocolate to harden and cool completely.
Using a small paint brush (you can get one specifically made for food that won’t shed bristles- like a Wilton 7-Piece Decorating Brush Set), start in the middle of the cookie using the yellow, and paint a stripe across. Paint a yellow stripe on all cookies.
Wash and dry your brush and paint the other colors, working from lightest colors to darkest.
Allow the “paint” to dry for several hours.
Eat and enjoy!!!

Aren’t they fun?????

My thoughts: You can see that I sprinkled a little bit of edible glitter on top when I was done. You have to do this before the paint completely dries. It makes them very fun and sparkly- more fun and sparkly than you can see in the pictures! Just an option, if you want to add it. You can also see that I didn’t agonize over painting perfect lines and not going over the edges. I really liked the messy paintbrush look of these. Put on your artist hat and have some fun!!!