Glazed Mint Brownies Recipe, Taste of Home Recipes

I wanted to make something appropriately festive for dessert for St. Patrick's Day and decided to go with this Glazed Mint Brownies Recipe from a a little small publication I picked up from Taste of Home last year called Irish Food & Fun. I can't find the publication online anywhere to provide a link to purchase the publication, nor could I find it at Taste of Home's website either, so apparently it was a one time, limited publication. That being the case, I'll share the recipe since I can't find it anywhere to purchase.

Firstly, however, here's our critique of these chocolaty minty brownies.... We liked them, but they came out more fudge like than brownie like. Not that we're complaining, we liked them a lot and ate every single one of them over the course of the next few days, but they weren't as much cake like as they were fudge like. 

It is a recipe I'd make again, as we all liked them flavor of them, but they need a little tweaking on. Mine didn't rise very much in the middle and kind of sunk so they were very thin in the middle. I do, however, live at 7,500 feet in elevation, and tweak on my recipes a little bit to adjust for high altitude cooking, but these still didn't really work in adjusting for the altitude. If they were made at a normal elevation I'm sure they'd turn out perfectly.

Another thing I'll mention is that these were to be made in a 9-inch square pan, which I did, and I thought they were quite thin, especially when it came to the layers. I barely had enough of the layers to cover the previous layers, especially with the chocolate glaze on top. Just a little more would have been better. 

Bottom line, they were good, just need a little tweaking on, at least in high altitude.

Here's the recipe, enjoy!

GLAZED MINT BROWNIES

BROWNIE LAYER:

• 2 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour

In a microwave, melt chocolate and butter; stir until smooth. Cool slightly. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and flour until blended. Stir in the chocolate mixture.

Pour into a greased 9-inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

MINT FILLING:

• 3 Tbsp. butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' (powdered) sugar
• 2 Tbsp. milk (approximately)
• 3/4 tsp. peppermint extract
• 3 to 4 drops green food coloring, optional

In a small mixing bowl, beat the filling ingredients until creamy, you may need a little more milk if it seems too stiff. Spread over brownies.

GLAZE:

• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 Tbsp. butter

For glaze, in a microwave, melt chocolate chips and butter on half power, stirring every 15 seconds, until smooth. Spread over filling.

Refrigerate until filling and glaze are set.

Makes 12-16 brownies.

Irish Soda Bread Recipe, St. Patrick's Day Recipes

For St. Patrick's Day this year I really wanted to make a few traditional Irish recipes. I'm not really even sure if this is a traditional Irish dish, but since it's called Irish soda bread I just assumed it is. But you know what happens when one assumes. 

I buy these mini magazines at the grocery store sometimes when I'm standing in line; yes, I am an impulse shopper sometimes and it's a weakness of mine to flip through cookbooks at the store. Last year I bought this little booklet from Taste of Home called Irish Food & Fun. I did a search for it online and at Taste of Home's website and can't find it. Since I can't find the cookbook to purchase anywhere, I'll share the recipe here.

I've never had Irish Soda Bread before and I really LOVED this bread, as did everyone else in my family. I'm kind of picky about raisins and fruit in my breads. I like them in some things, and not in others. My hubby loves them in anything. He likes them in the cinnamon rolls I make, but I don't like hot, plump raisins. But I do like regular raisin bread. So I wasn't sure how I was going to like this bread. Turns out, I loved it, as did everyone else. My daughter doesn't like raisins in her cinnamon rolls either, and didn't think she was going to like this either, but she did. 

And the leftover bread was great toasted the next morning with some butter or jam on it. 

I will probably make this recipe again next year as part of our traditional Irish dinner. 

Here's the recipe, enjoy!

IRISH SODA BREAD

• 1 pkg (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
• 3 Tbsp sugar, divided
• 1 cup warm buttermilk (110 to 115 degrees)*
• 2 Tbsp. butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup golden raisins

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add 1 tablespoon sugar; let stand for about 5 minutes. Beat in the buttermilk, butter, salt, baking soda, 1 cup flour and remaining sugar until smooth. Stir in raisins and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes (I use my Kitchen Aid mixer with the bread hook for this and just walk away while it's kneading). Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 40 minutes (I put mine in the microwave and turn the light on under the microwave and the heat from the light helps warm it; or in the oven with the light on and the temperature off).

Punch dough down. turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead for 2 minutes. Shape into a round loaf. Place on a greased baking sheet. With a sharp knife, cut a 1/4-inch deep cross on top of the loaf. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from pan to cool on a wire rack.

Makes 1 loaf.

*Warmed buttermilk will appear curdled. The first time I heated my buttermilk in the microwave I did it for too long and it not only curdled, but separated as well. The second time I did it in short intervals of 15 seconds on half power and stirred it in between. This worked much better.

Apple Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Taste of Home Cookbook

Since my family wanted me to stop cooking from the Best of Cooking Light I have just decided to pick different recipes from the hundreds of cookbooks I have on my shelves in my pantry and just find a recipe that sounds good and I have most of the ingredients for on hand.

Tonight, my first night in switching it up, I Apple Stuffed Chicken Breasts from the TASTE OF HOME COOKBOOK. Here is our evaluation of this dish...

APPLE STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS, just ok...

As I mentioned the last time I made stuffed chicken breasts (Artichoke Stuffed Chicken Breasts) I struggle getting my stuffed chicken to look pretty like they do in pictures and at restaurants. I need to do a You Tube search to see if I can find a video to learn how to do it properly.

The chicken in this dish turned out very tender and was cooked properly, but the stuffing was a bit mushy and I could not taste any of the apple flavor. The sauce also got a little over browned as well. Adding the butter at the end helped, but I don't think it was supposed to be as brown as it was. The flavor of the sauce was good, however.

If I were to make this again I would probably make a couple changes to this dish. Instead of shredding the apple I would probably dice it so you had bigger pieces of apple and could recognize the apple flavor more prominently. And the bread crumbs were supposed to be soft bread crumbs. Maybe if the bread crumbs were dried bread crumbs it would not have been as mushy. And probably adding a little more apple juice and sherry to the sauce would have been a little better.

Overall it was a decent dish, but nothing memorable or one to rave about.

So the fact that I switched from cooking from the Best of Cooking Light to other recipes in other cookbooks isn't really going to make a difference in the grand scheme of things. I think there will be some good dishes, some ok dishes, some dishes we really don't like, and some dishes we absolutely love no matter what cookbook I'm cooking from.

So I'll just cook whatever and share our experiences about them.