Whoopie!

Well,  the good news is that I finally made Whoopie Pies.  The bad news is that they were from a boxed mix.  Whilst out shopping a few days ago my daughter spotted a mix for Red Velvet Whoopie Pies and looked at me with a hopeful face.  How could I say no?  Secretly I wanted to try it too, so into the basket it went.

We were amazed that the mixture came out looking like a chocolate cake mix, but as soon as I added the eggs, water, and oil it started to get a red color to it.  After a quick mix with my hand-held Kitchenaid it was really red.  The mix came with a piping bag and a sheet to place on the cookie tray as a guide to making heart-shaped Whoopie Pies.  I think there may have been a little too much batter for the bag, but of course I didn't realize this until it was too late.  I was trying to pipe and batter was oozing over the top of the bag and running down my fingers.  I was desperately trying to stop it from getting all over the cookie sheet, and also trying to plug the hole in the bottom of the bag, as I moved from spot to spot.  Seriously, it looked like a crime scene.  In the end it didn't matter how careful I was to pipe the hearts because they ran on the tray into blobs.  I gave in to the nature of the batter and piped circles instead on my Silpat, realizing that I could just use a cookie cutter to achieve the hearts at a later stage.

Once the cookies were cooled I peeled them off the Silpat and let them cool completely on a wire rack.  As they cooled I made up the cream cheese filling that had come in the box.  Let me just say that it had a very "distinct" smell.  I likened it to an extremely strong cheese smell.  I won't tell you what my husband likened it to.  After adding a few ingredients as directed it still had an unusual smell to it, but it did taste like vanilla.  I kept thinking "what in the heck am I eating"?  However, I really wanted to take photos so I went ahead and filled the Whoopie Pies.

Honestly, I would not buy this again.  I definitely need to try making Whoopie Pies again, but this time from scratch so I can get a real feel for them.  At the moment I am just not sure if they are my kind of thing.  I am wondering if I would like a macron better because of the crunch factor?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Kit Kat Brownies

The time is always right to do what is right ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

I awoke to a strange noise this morning.  OK, it was 8:00 a.m but I was still hoping to sleep in a little longer.  It turns out the noise was the sound of a "do not park" sidewalk sign being collapsed and thrown in the back of a truck over and over.  The Sony Open was on this weekend near my house and I guess they were doing a little housekeeping.

After a quick breakfast I decided it was a great day for baking.  I always have a list of recipes I want to try but today I was asked to bake brownies by one of my daughters.  To make them a little different I though I would add a layer of Kit Kat chocolate bars.  I purchased the two of the King Size Kit Kat's that contain 12 bars per packet.  For a 9x13 pan I used 16 individual Kit Kat bars.  After covering the bottom of the brownie pan with non-stick baking paper I added a layer of brownie mix.  I then added two even layers of Kit Kats, and topped them with another layer of brownie mix.

Now for the confession.  I used a box mix to make these brownies.  A friend of mine used to own a coffee shop and she had the most incredible brownies for sale.  I asked her one day what the secret was to her moist, chocolaty brownies and she confessed that she bought the Ghirardelli mix in bulk from Costco.  From that time on I also purchased the Ghirardelli Chocolate Triple Chocolate - Semi-Sweet,  Milk, Bittersweet - Brownie Mix from Costco to make my brownies.  It works for me but please feel free to substitute your favorite brownie recipe.

So, there is no official recipe for these brownies but here is what I did.  I used two packets of brownie mix so that I could have enough to make a bottom layer and to cover the top layer of Kit Kats, and followed the directions on the box.  As I mentioned above I used one and a half packets of the King Size Kit Kat packets (16 sticks).  They baked for 50 minutes and they were pretty darn good, even if I do say so myself.