Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Cream Cheese Brownies with Chocolate Frosting

I found this recipe on Jamie's blog. She has so many great recipes! I brought this to a garden get together. I really like fudgy brownies, so maybe next time I would use 3 eggs. I used a completely different frosting recipe because I didn't have enough cocoa powder. I thought they were delicious. My marbling didn't turn out well, I mixed it too much. But it still tasted great. for awesome step by step pictures check out Jamie's post.

Cream Cheese Brownies with Chocolate Frosting
BROWNIE BATTER:
1 C butter, softened
2 C sugar
4 eggs
8 T cocoa powder
1 1/2 C flour
dash salt

CREAM CHEESE BATTER:
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 C sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
dash salt

FROSTING:
1/4 C butter
1/2 C cocoa
4-6 T milk
1 1/2 t vanilla
3-4 C powdered sugar

1. To make the brownie batter, beat the butter, sugar and eggs until creamed together nicely. Should take about 3-4 minutes.
2. In a separate bowl combine the flour, cocoa and dash of salt. Pour the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture and mix until all is well combined.
3. Spray an 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. Spread about 2/3 of your Brownie Batter into the pan.
4. Let's make the Cream Cheese Batter! Beat your cream cheese until nice and smooth. Add the other ingredients and beat for about 3 minutes.
5. Pour it right on top of your Brownie Batter.
6. Spread it all around.
7. Take the rest of your Brownie Batter and spoon it onto your Cream Cheese Batter.
8. Spread the top layer of Brownie Batter around just a bit. You don't want to mix the two batters up too much. They just need to be marbled a bit.
If you stick your knife strait up into the air you can make pretty patterns like this. But seriously...it doesn't matter much. They just need to be marbled together.
9. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean out of the center.
10. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
11. To make the frosting melt your butter in a glass measuring cup.
Pour the cocoa into the melted butter and stir well to make a thick paste.
12. Pour just 2 T of the milk into the chocolate paste and stir until smooth.
13. In a large mixing bowl combine 3 C powdered sugar, the chocolate paste, vanilla and 2 more T milk. Beat the frosting. As it begins to come together add more milk until it is smooth and glossy. If it's too runny add more powdered sugar and beat well.
14. Spread the frosting over the top of your cooled brownies.

Enjoy!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Herbed Pork Roast

I had defrosted a pork loin to make this fabulous meal, but then realized I didn't have any beans. So I went in search of another recipe. I found this one on Allrecipes.com. I didn't have a 5 lb roast - it was just under 3 lbs. I still used about the same amount of rub. It was so good and moist. Although I put it in a baking dish and covered it with foil while it sat in the fridge, and then I didn't take the foil off. I wish I had made potatoes to go with it because there were some great drippings to make a gravy. Because my roast was smaller It didn't need 2 1/2 hours to cook I baked it at 350 for 1 hr and 45 minutes. So delicious! Some reviewers suggested adding garlic to the rub. It would have been good, but I think it was great as is.

Herbed Pork Roast

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons dried marjoram
  • 2 teaspoons rubbed sage
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 (5 pound) boneless pork loin roast

Directions

  1. Combine the first seven ingredients; rub over roast. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
  2. Place roast on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees for 2-1/2 hours or until a meat thermometer reads 160-170 degrees. Let stand for 15 minutes before slicing. Refrigerate or freeze remaining pork (may be frozen for up to 3 months).