Brownie Triffle

I had this several years ago and then again a couple of weeks ago at bible study.  Yum!!  Wow, so decadent and delightful!  Very easy to assemble either in a trifle bowl or individual cups or glasses.

I made some brownies from a Betty Crocker mix and baked them till they were nice and chewy. I started making the pudding while the brownies were baking then put the pudding in the freezer to chill before I added it to the trifle.  Then I made some whipping cream that honestly just takes minutes.  In the layers of all this goodness you add either heath bars or symphony bars.   I bought the package of Heath Bar Toffee bits on the baking aisle (pic below).

You can eat this right away or chill it for a couple of hours.

In class we made this in clear cups because we all take whatever we make home!  I thought it would be easier for us to take a cup home instead of dishing it out so the pictures I have show this in cups and a trifle bowl.

So just make brownies as instructed on the box or make your favorite brownie recipe.

                In a saucepan add the sugar, flour and cocoa and blend.  Alternating add milk and eggs ending with milk

Cook over low to medium heat until thickens.  Then add vanilla and butter. 

                In a deep mixing bowl, beat one cup heavy cream until soft peaks form

Sprinkle sugar over cream; beat until soft peaks return.  Do not over beat.

You can buy heath bars or this works great!!

Start with crumbled brownie, then heath bar, pudding, whipping cream and repeat

This made 5 - 12 oz cups

Trifle Bowl

Brownie Trifle

1 brownie mix prepared according to the package

3 Heath Bars or Symphony Bars  -chopped/crushed

Chocolate Pudding (recipe follows)

2/3 cup sugar

2 T flour heaping

2 T cocoa

3 egg yolks

2 cups milk

1 t vanilla

2 T butter

In a saucepan add the sugar, flour and cocoa and blend.  Alternating add milk

And eggs ending with milk.  Cook over low to medium heat until thickens.  Then add vanilla and butter. 

Whipping Cream

2 cup heavy cream (chilled)

2 Tbsp powder sugar or granulated sugar (add more if needed)

1 tsp vanilla

In a deep mixing bowl, beat one cup heavy cream until soft

peaks form. Sprinkle sugar over cream; beat until soft peaks

return.  Do not over beat.

Assembling the Trifle

Crumble ½ of the brownies into the bottom of your bowl then add top with 1 crushed heath bar, top with chocolate pudding spreading it to the edge of the bowl then spread whip cream and repeat layers ending with a crushed heath bar.

*allow brownies and pudding to cool before assembling

German Chocolate Brownies

I made these brownies in my cooking class this last week along with a Brownie Triffle.  After eating the Brownie Triffle I couldn't even think of tasting the German Chocolate Brownies.  The next day I thought I need to try that and boy was it good!!  The brownie is so moist and chocolaty with the topping being what you would expect for a german chocolate cake.

I have made many different brownie recipes some with a pound and a half of chocolate others with coffee and tons of chocolate and I am going to be honest I keep going back to Pillsbury and Duncan Hines brownie mixes because they are so good and moist!  I am anti cake mixes most of the time but I do  use cake mixes for recipes like the Neiman Marcus Cake which you basically use the cake mix for the crust and then maybe 3 more recipes I use a cake mix for like the dump cake for but everything else is by scratch. 

I was in a bake study last year in Dallas, they had different businesses representing two were from a couple  bakeries, one from a diner another from a cafe and I was there for catering..  All of them said like me they use brownie mixes!!  I was so happy that I wasn't the only one!  We all said you can almost not make a brownie as good as those!  You can add so much to that mix and make it your own or just leave like it is because it has a well mixed combo of chocolate and moistness.

Until now that is did I like a brownie mix over a recipe!  This recipe is what I have been looking for!
I plan to make it without the coconut mixture next time even though I do like the coconut but for a basic brownie I think it might be the one to go to!

The recipe calls for 3 of the Baker’s® German’s® Sweet Chocolate  with the option of omitting the 3rd one.  I did omit the 3rd one and they were still very good!  I didnt' want to pay $7 to $8 for 3 bars so I went with two and it was still delicious!

* Also I only put the pecans in the icing and not the brownies.  You can do both if you would like.  I used 1 cup of pecans in the icing and it was plenty. 

Melt chocolate and butter in the microwave pour into mixing bowl then add sugar, eggs

and vanilla

add flour, baking powder and salt then fold in the pecans

Pour into a greased and floured pan

In a medium saucepan, stir together the evaporated milk , egg yolks, sugar, butter and vanilla  until well blended. Cook this mixture over medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly, until thick and bubbly.

add coconut and pecans

Pour over cooled cake

Delicious!!

German Chocolate Brownies

Makes a 9×13″ pan 

§  3 (4-ounce) bars of Baker’s® German’s® Sweet Chocolate (a total of 12 ounces; use 2 bars for melting and stirring into batter; coarsely chop the third bar to mix into the batter–or you can omit this chopped chocolate bar if you want)

§  3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter

§  1 1/2 cups sugar

§  4 eggs

§  2 teaspoons vanilla

§  1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (regular or unbleached)

§  2 teaspoons baking powder

§  1 teaspoon salt

§  1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13″ baking pan, or line pan and sides with parchment paper (leave a little extra parchment paper sticking out so you can grab edges to lift brownies out of pan after they’re frosted and cooled; the brownies are really easy to cut when they’re out of the pan).
• Coarsely chop 1 of the 4-ounce bars of chocolate, if using, and also chop enough pecans to equal 1 cup; set these ingredients aside. Note: the chocolate bar will be easier to chop if it’s been chilled in the refrigerator.
• Microwave 2 of the 4-ounce chocolate bars and butter in a large microwaveable bowl for 1 to 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Remove from microwave and stir chocolate and butter together until chocolate is completely melted.  Add sugar to chocolate-butter mixture, blending well; then add eggs and vanilla, blending well. Add flour, baking powder, and salt, mixing until blended. Then fold in the chopped chocolate, if using, and pecans from Step #2. The batter will be fairly thick.
• Spread your batter evenly into the prepared 9×13″ pan and bake for 35-38 minutes, or until top middle of brownies is set and toothpick inserted in center comes out almost clean–it won’t come out completely clean because of the chopped chocolate in the batter. If you decide to omit the chopped chocolate in the batter, your baking time may be a little less, like 32-36 minutes. Cool brownies completely before adding the frosting…

COCONUT PECAN FROSTING

§  3 egg yolks

§  1 1/4 cups sugar

§  1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

§  1 teaspoon vanilla

§  1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk

§  2 1/2 to 3 cups sweetened flaked coconut

§  1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

In a medium saucepan, stir together the egg yolks, sugar, butter, vanilla,  and evaporated milk until well blended. Cook this mixture over medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly, until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in the flaked coconut and chopped pecans, blending well. Let mixture cool for about 30 minutes, then give it a final stirring and spread evenly over the completely cooled brownies.