When brownies fail, make trifle



My Taste Testers



Brownie Trifle

For the Brownies—

Melt:
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed
2 T. cocoa powder
1 T. instant coffee granules
Stir in:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. table salt
3 eggs
Fold in:
1 cup all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350° and coat an 8" square baking pan with nonstick spray.
Melt chocolate, butter, cocoa powder, and coffee for brownies in a bowl in a microwave on full power, stirring every 30 seconds (or in a heavy saucepan over low heat). Remove when chocolate is nearly melted and stir until totally smooth.
Stir in sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition.
Fold in flour. Spread batter in prepared pan.
Bake 350 for 30-40 minutes
Salty Caramel Topping
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
couple drops of lemon juice
cook in heavy duty pan until color of tea. Swirl to dissolve sugar but do not stir with spoon. Off heat add 6 TBS butter and 1TBS rum. Add 1 cup salted peanuts and pour over warm brownies. Sprinkle with sea salt.
Cool brownies in pan; cover and chill overnight. To cut, coat a knife with nonstick spray and slice into small squares.
If recipe fails cut into chunks and layer with whipped cream, chocolate pudding and toffee bits.

I have made this recipe from Cuisine at Home many times. I love the magazine and have given so many subscriptions over the years to friends. I don't know what happened the other day. Was it the high humidity or was I not paying enough attention to the directions? The brownies failed me. The salty caramel topping was yuck! It turned out hard and way too chewy. I had the best of intentions for these treats. I was making them for a swim meet BBQ to share with friends. I decided it would be best to turn them into a trifle instead. It worked so much better! The bad news is that due to a freak thunder storm, our BBQ was cancelled and rescheduled for days later. I now have a huge bowl of trifle in the fridge calling my name every time I open the door. Glad that I got a long run in so I can enjoy this without too much guilt.