Yesterday I purchased a new cookbook, Good Housekeeping Brownies: favourite recipes for Blondies, Bars & Brownies, which is available on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.

This is the 2nd GH cookbook I own and I like their style because they are sturdy books with a ring binding, easy to prop up, and have decent pictures. I’m not a big brownie fan, and consequently have only made them 2-3 times before, from a mix.

This recipe caught my eye. Seemed like a good one to try  from scratch.

Time required: 20 min prep, 20 min bake, and 1-2 hour cooling

Yields: 32 squares

Cost per brownie: 38 cents

Total cost if you have none of the ingredients: $50.00

Special kitchen implements I used:

• 9″ x 13″ pan
• tinfoil

Good to know before you start:

Altogether you need just under 2 whole sticks of butter, but divided into separate (and not equal) parts for the batter and frosting.

A 100g bag of Maltesers is about 1C.  The official recipe calls for 1½C of the candies, so you’d need 2 packages. I had 2 packages but um…. ate quite a few of them while preparing my batter. 1C is fine.

Official baking time is 25-30 minutes, but I removed mine from the oven after 20 minutes, and found that after cooling they were a bit dry. The frosting was applied last night and it still hasn’t set, I suppose it will stay gooey?

Brownie recipe:

• 1½C flour
• ½TSP baking powder
• ½TSP salt
• ¾C unsalted butter, softened (1.5 sticks)
• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate (4 squares)
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate (2 squares)
• 1½C granulated white sugar
• 1 TBSP vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temp

Frosting recipe:

• ¾C malted milk powder
• 3 TBSP milk
• 1 TSP vanilla extract
• 3 TBSP unsalted butter, softened
• 1C icing sugar
• 1C malted milk balls, quartered

Step 1 – use centre rack, pre-heat oven to 176°C / 350°F.

Step 2 – line a 9″ x 13″ pan with tinfoil, wrap the foil over the outside of the pan to get the shape, then transfer to inside of pan, flatten down, and grease.

Step 3 – make batter, using whisk to combine 3 ingredients in a medium bowl; flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Step 4 – melt butter in sauce pan on Low. Meanwhile…

Step 5 – use serrated blade to chop chocolate

Step 6 – add chocolate to melted butter (still on Low), stir until melted, then remove from heat

Step 7 – use wooden spoon to mix sugar into chocolate, then vanilla – stir until thoroughly blended

Step 8 – beat eggs into chocolate

Step 9 -Transfer chocolate to a large mixing bowl, and add the flour about one third at a time, mixing until blended. (My sauce pan is too small to add the flour to the chocolate in the original pan). Colour lightens quite a bit.

Step 10 – pour batter into foil-lined pan, bake at least 20 minutes. When done, a toothpick inserted about an inch from the edge should be clean.

Step 11 – leave in pan, cool on rack completely. Meanwhile…

Step 12 – make frosting; using a whisk in a small bowl to stir together3 ingredients; malted milk powder, milk, and vanilla.

Step 13 – cream in butter until blended, I used a pastry blender for this

Step 14 – cut in icing sugar, about one third at a time

Step 15 – spread frosting evenly over brownie

Step 16 – chop each malted candy in half, and then halve each piece again (quartering them), sprinkle on top of frosted brownie – let set

About half of the malt pieces are added here:

Step 17 – after frosting has set, lift entire brownie from the pan using the tinfoil edges. Peel tinfoil away.  Use sharp knife to slice lengthwise into 4 strips, then cut each strip crosswise into 8 pieces.

I had to beat Boyfriend away with a spoon to keep him from plundering the pan while they set, haha. I enjoyed these a lot. Now I’ve got a serious milkshake craving, and since I’m in possession of a blender and malt power, I’m off to procure some ice cream today. ^^

If you are curious about why I post the total cost of ingredients I will talk about that soon.