Friday Finds: Cookbooks I Love

Given that I’m a kitchen-cooking-appliance-tool-food junkie, I’m often asked questions about which is the best pasta maker (it depends on whether you want electric or a hand crank), what type of butter I buy (always purchase unsalted, you can always add salt in later), and what are people going to give me at my wedding, since I already own every kitchen gadget known to man (there is this green paper stuff called “cash,” as my mom says, it’s just as good as money).

But my favorite questions are always around what recipes I like and what cookbooks I own. Now, some people are all snobby and of the “I don’t cook from a recipe” persuasion, but they can go kick rocks. Cookbooks are great because the recipes have ALREADY BEEN TESTED and therefore there is less chance of YOUR FOOD SUCKING. Plus, a recipe is a great starting point and you can always change and spice it up however you like.

Here are five of my favorites. Open any one of these at my house and you’ll find the pages filled with notes, fingerprints, and turned corners marking whats really good.

1. Dinosaur Bar-B-Que: Although Dino has been spreading to posh areas like NYC, the restaurant was born and bred in Upstate NY. Their cookbook is filled with amazing recipes for sauces and spice rubs, plus the phenomenal dishes they are known for. My loves are the ginger green bean salad and the mac & cheese.
2. The Glorious Pasta of Italy: If I cooked from this book every day, my food life would be amazing. Sauces, pastas, casseroles, raviolis, italian grilling…just love this book. I suggest checking out the smoked mozz and eggplant twist on traditional baked ziti.
3. The Joy of Cooking: If you don’t own this book, go buy it. Or, scour a good garage sale and you can probably find a copy. Mine cost me $1.00 at a church yard sale. JOC is a kitchen staple—each section gives you the basics of what you need to know on any topic, from baking to broiling to tin foil. My favorite recipe is the mac & cheese. (Yes, I might be slightly obsessed with anything that involves pasta and cheese…)
4. The Big Book of Cupcakes: Betty Crocker really ups her game with this book. It has hundreds of creative recipe ideas for every possible occasion and holiday. Plus, it’s full of recipes hacks, each recipe has instructions on how to make it from scratch or how to doctor up a box of cake mix for the same effect. I’m partial to the peanut butter cupcakes.
5. Everything Tastes Better with Bacon: I don’t think this book needs much more of an explanation. Every delicious recipe involves bacon, with recipes for breakfast foods, sauces, side dishes, main courses and desserts. (Yes, bacon desserts.) You can find this cookbook in my kitchen, my mom’s kitchen, my sister’s kitchen, my friends’ kitchens…it’s just that good. I love the bacon-vodka sauce and the bacon-spinach-parmesan mashed potatoes.

Happy Friday and happy weekend cooking!

What are you favorite recipes or cookbooks?

Banana Maple Chocolate-Chip Pancake Muffins

For all those times you want a pancake in travel-friendly form. Or for when you can’t decide between a muffin or a pancake.

Just make a pancake muffin.

Like this.

You don’t even need a mixer.

Just combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and give them a good whisk to fluff them a bit.

And mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. With the mashed bananas.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet.

And mix in some chocolate chips, just to ensure maximum deliciousness.

Divide, bake, and conquer.

The secret is in the maple syrup. I always add in a bit extra than the recipe calls for. Just make sure you are using pure maple syrup—not the imitation kind that comes in a squeeze bottle with a smiling lady on it. Even better if you have a friend who makes their own. Liquid gold people. Pure and amazing.

Banana Maple Chocolate-Chip Pancake Muffin Recipe:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/3 cups buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 4 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) melted unsalted butter
• 2-3 ripe mashed bananas
• 1 cup miniature chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk briefly to combine ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the buttermilk, eggs, maple syrup, and melted butter together until well combined. (If you don’t have buttermilk, you can substitute regular milk mixed with white vinegar in a 1 cup milk to 1 tablespoon white vinegar ratio.) Mix the mashed bananas into the buttermilk-egg mixture. Slowly fold in the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Mix in the chocolate chips. Using a large cookie scoop, divide among 24 muffin cups and bake at 350F for 20 minutes, or until done.

Hazelnut Chocolate Brownies, the Old-Fashioned Way

And by old-fashioned way, I mean “from scratch.” Not from a box or from Wegmans. And, contrary to what everyone may say or think, a box of brownie mix is not equivalent to chocolate-filled brownies made with white sugar and butter. But it’s just the same ingredients, pre-mixed.

Erroneous. It’s not the same. It’s not like these.

White sugar and butter, people. It’s amazing.

Start by melting two sticks of butter. Yes, two. This is where it’s super handy to have a glass bowl for your mixer. Add in the sugar, vanilla and then the eggs. Butter + sugar + vanilla + eggs = yellow goodness.

Next, add in the chocolate.

Then flour, salt and baking powder.

Yum.

As if this mix didn’t look good enough, I decided to be especially gluttonous delicious and top the brownies with a hazelnut spread before baking. It helps to have a friend who works for a peanut butter company…who gives you things like hazelnut chocolate spread. Mix up with butter and confectioner’s sugar, and you’re good to go.

Serious chocolate goodness. And way better than anything out of the box.

Hazelnut-Topped Brownie Recipe

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup Hershey’s cocoa powder
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the topping:

• 1 cup hazelnut spread
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar

Heat the oven to 350F. Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl. Add in the sugar, and stir until well-dissolved. Mix in the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the cocoa and mix until the ingredients are throughly combined. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add to the chocolate mixture, until just blended. Pour into a greased 13 x 9 pan.

To make the topping, melt the butter and then mix in the hazelnut spread. Add in the vanilla and confectioner’s sugar. Evenly spread pour over the brownies and swirl a knife through the batter/topping to combine slightly.

Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

Pitcher-Perfect Margaritas

Do you ever have those moments where you just crave a good margarita? And not the kind that comes out of a giant bucket and guarantees you heartburn and a terrible hangover and not one of those watered down ones from TGIFridays…and no, I don’t need 37 pieces of flair either.

Just a good margarita. One like this.

I had one of these moments last night. It was awesome.

And because I am a firm believer that everyone needs a good margo recipe (especially now that it’s outdoor & day-drinking season), I’m willing to share.

CakeryPapery’s Pitcher Perfect Margaritas:

• 1 part tequila
• 1 part triple sec
• 1 part orange juice
• 1 part sour mix
• Splash of lime juice

Mix everything together and pour over ice. It’s really that simple.

If you are like my Aunt Marie and are thinking stop watering down my booze with all this ice you can shake with ice and serve it up too. Or refrigerate beforehand and then you don’t need ice. Or if you like it frozen, blend with ice and then serve. Or add strawberry puree to make strawberry margaritas. These are great for day-drinking parties because you can whip up a pitcher and then just pour over ice when your guests arrive. The possibilities are endless. Word to the wise—drink these someplace where you can walk home.

How did I get so good at margaritas? Let’s just say…I have lots of practice making (let’s be honest—drinking) margaritas. And it helps to have a good margarita spot where you can chat up the bartender and learn some tricks.

And it doesn’t hurt to get a fancy pitcher and glasses to serve them in. It makes them look impressive. Mine are from Crate and Barrel. Love Crate and Barrel. I’m on the hunt for an antique martini pitcher, but until then, this one will do.

Cheers!

A Frosting-Less Orange Pound Cake

So I’m still not up for making frosting.

But I still love cake.

And I still go on fruit kicks, and last week I was really craving oranges. Or, I just really wanted a mimosa.

But, day-drinking is frowned upon (lame), so I made orange cake.

You start by zesting (i.e. grating the rind) of two medium oranges. You need about two tablespoons, give or take.

Next, whisk the dry ingredients together in a stand mixer. I’ve never made a cake with the whisk attachment before…but, as we all know my opinion on sifting dry ingredients (lame) I figured why not.

Be sure to use cake flour for this recipe. Regular flour is too heavy and has too much gluten to make a light, fluffy cake.

Here’s the fun part. Cut the butter into chunks and toss into the flour mixture.

Whisk on medium until it’s all chunky. It will first look like this.

Keep whisking. When it’s like this, stop.

Mix the eggs, milk and vanilla together in a separate bowl.

I substituted maple syrup for vanilla, since I am out of vanilla.

Two side notes. One, stop having t-rex arms, and spring for real vanilla. Imitation vanilla, while cheaper, is sub-par. Two, if you ever travel south of the border, hit up one of the local shops—you can find pints (yes, pints, not the lame tiny bottles that they sell in the US) of pure vanilla extract. With a price that even t-rex arms love.

Back to cake. Slowly add the egg mixture to the butter-flour mixture. When it is just moistened and everything has loosened up, stop. Overmixing will bring out too much of the cake flour’s gluten.

Pour into a greased bundt pan, and bake at 350F for 30 mins. Check to make sure the edges aren’t getting overcooked, and bake another 15-30 minutes, until the top bounces back when you press on it slightly.

While the cake is cooking, juice the zested oranges. You need about 1/2 cup of fresh orange juice. Heat the OJ together with 1/3 cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons triple sec until it boils and the sugar is dissolved. I knew I could work booze into this recipe somewhere…

Pour the juice-sugar mixture over the cake while it is cooling in the pan. When the juice has absorbed into the cake. remove the cake from the pan and finish cooling on a wire rack.

I’d suggest serving with a mimosa. Just saying…

Glazed Orange Pound Cake:

• 13 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 3 tablespoon milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons grated orange zest
• 1/2 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons triple sec

Preheat oven to 350F. Zest the orange with a small grater or zester. Combine the cake flour, sugar and baking powder in a mixer. Add in the orange zest and butter and whisk until clumps form. Mix together the eggs, milk and vanilla and slowly add to the flour mixture. Pour into greased pan and bake until top is springy. Boil together the OJ, remaining sugar and triple sec. Pour over cake and let glaze soak in. Flip cake out of pan and finish cooling on wire rack.

The Lasagna Recipe

So I’ve gotten a few angry comments requests in for my eggplant lasagna recipe, that I featured here. I, apparently, did not share.

And, I just saw on FB that the lovely, smart, beautiful (and she’s my Hokie bff) VCM made her own version. Which LITERALLY made my day. As in, I was clicking the “like” button and commenting like a pre-teen on a Justin Bieber post.

Which means I need to share the love. Here’s the recipe.

Bechamel Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 5/8 cups whole milk
• Pinch of nutmeg

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour. Whisk in the whole milk and increase heat to medium-high. Continue whisking until sauce has thickened, about 6-10 minutes. Add in nutmeg and remove from heat. When sauce has cooled slightly, use it to coat the bottom of a 9 x 9 baking dish.

Red Sauce:

• 28 ounces San Marzano tomatoes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• Garlic, chopped
• Tomato paste
• Olive oil
• Italian seasoning
• Dried basil
• Fennel
• Red pepper flakes
• Salt and pepper

In a large saute/saucepan, heat up the olive oil (about two turns of the pan) on medium heat. Add in the chopped onion and mix until the onion begins to soften, about 5-7 minutes. Add in good-sized scoops of chopped garlic, and the seasonings/spices (start with about a teaspoon of each). If you crush the dried spices in your hand before adding to the pan, it will open up the flavor. Next, mix in two tablespoons of tomato paste and the San Marzano tomatoes. If the tomatoes aren’t chopped (which they probably aren’t, as San Marzano tomatoes come whole), chop the entire can of tomatoes in a blender first. Adjust seasonings and add salt & pepper to taste. When the sauce bubbles, remove from heat.

It should be noted that I am going out on a SERIOUS LIMB and risking getting ostracized from the Italian community by releasing my sauce recipe. But, I really, really, feel for the people who don’t have a good sauce recipe. So I’m sharing.

Lasagna:

• 1 large eggplant, sliced lengthwise into 9 pieces
• 15 ounces whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 2 large eggs
• 1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and pressed dry
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 9 slices of good prosciutto
• Whole-milk mozzarella, grated
• Olive oil

On a rimmed cookie sheet, coat both sides of the eggplant slices with olive oil and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Bake for 15 minutes at 450F until the eggplant has softened.

To make the lasagna filling, mix together the ricotta, eggs, parmesan, and spinach. Top each slice of eggplant with a piece of prosciutto, then filling, and top with some grated mozz.

Roll up, and place in the bechamel-coated pan.

It looks a bit like this.

Top with the red sauce, and grated mozz. Cover with foil, and bake at 400F for 15 minutes. Uncover, and bake for 10-15 minutes more.

The best part? You can make this recipe in advance/in pieces. Make the marinara the day (or week, months, etc) before. The sauce freezes well. The filling keeps, without separating, for about five hours, so you can prep the eggplant part a few hours before and throw in the fridge. Top with the sauce just before baking. Be sure to add 10-15 minutes to cook time if you’ve refrigerated the eggplant part.

A special bit of cakerypapery goes out to VCM. You’re more than just my Hokie bff—you were the one of the reasons I got up and out of the pitch-dark places after April 16, because you were there to help pull me up and out. I love you always.

Buckeye Brownie Cupcakes

Some days, I’m just too cool for frosting.

Don’t get me wrong—I love, love, love frosting. But some days, it’s nice to pull a cupcake out of the oven and not have to worry about piping bags and couplers and which size star tip I should use.

Which is why you always need a good frosting-less recipe. I prefer the ones that involve, you know, multiple bags of chocolate chips and peanut butter…

The other good thing about this recipe? It’s great for days when you are too lazy to haul out just don’t have the counter space for a KitchenAid mixer. If you find me a kitchen with room to store a KitchenAid mixer near a plug and out in the open ready for use, you’ve found the Moby Dick of kitchens. And quite possibly my next house…

So just pull out a good-sized microwave safe bowl and let’s get this party started. First, melt together butter and sugar in the lazy-girls’ stove, aka the microwave.

Then mix in some chocolate chips. They’ll melt into the hot butter-sugar mixture and become just…nice.

Add in eggs and vanilla, mixing until well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Then slowly stir these into the aforementioned chocolate mixture.

Let everything cool down for a few minutes, and then add in some more chocolate chips. Because, why not?

Get out a cookie scoop (have I raved about my Oxo large cookie scoop lately? AMAZESAUCE.) and portion out into lined muffin cups. Bake for 13-15 minutes at 350F.

If you have noticed that I never use an unlined muffin tin, you’re correct. IMHO, unlined muffin cups are just a mistake. Hard to get cupcakes out of and hard to clean. And we all know I hate cleaning.

When you pull the brownie cupcakes out, you need to let the centers fall as they cool. If this doesn’t happen, help them along by giving a couple taps with the back of a spoon.

When the brownie centers have all sunk in a bit, it’s time for peanut butter.

I am beyond brand loyal to Peter Pan. I highly suggest you try it.

Heat a couple scoops in the microwave for 30 seconds, and then spoon into each of the brownie cupcake tops.

Give the peanut butter a minute or two to cool, and then (surprise, surprise) top each with more chocolate chips. I like to use a mix of semi-sweet and milk chocolate for the topping.

If this was a cooking show, this would be the part where I show the buckeye brownie cupcakes with an ice-cold glass of milk.

Buckeye Brownie Cupcakes Recipe:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus 1/3 cup for topping
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips, plus 1/3 cup for topping
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Combine butter, sugar, and water in a microwave-safe bowl. Melt together in microwave for 30-60 seconds. Stir until sugar is combined with butter. Mix in 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips while butter is still warm. Chips will melt as mixture combines. Stir in egg and vanilla. Add flour and baking soda, mixing until just combined. Mix in 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips and scoop into cupcake tin. Bake at 350F for 13-15 minutes. After brownie centers fall, melt peanut butter in microwave. Spoon onto top of cupcake brownies and garnish with remaining chips. Finish cooling in pan.

Delish-spo: Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins

Living in the tundra that is Upstate NY (yes, it did snow last week), one of my favorite things about spring (besides that fact that it’s here) is that Wegmans starts to get in fresh fruits and vegetables and they aren’t ungodly expensive any more. Which means I get to bake delicious things. Like these muffins.

The recipe for these is from Cook’s Illustrated, which is the magazine of America’s Test Kitchen. If you’ve never had the amazing opportunity to catch an episode of ATK on PBS—run to your DVR and set it up to record.

Unlike ordinary cooking shows, ATK actually teaches you useful things, like “what exactly is emulsification” and how to avoid common kitchen problems like overcooked meats. The show also tests an insane amount of cookware products—everything from cutting boards to meat grinders. And ATK taste-tests products, so you know helpful things like which type of semi-sweet chocolate chips you should buy. Did I mention that ATK is recipe science? Each recipe gets tested with a mix of ingredients and cooked multiple ways, until it’s pretty much awesome sauce.

Like these muffins. Which come with instructions for using fresh or frozen blueberries, and four different toppings.

To start, you make a blueberry jam, which is what makes these extra great. Blueberries + sugar.

You might think adding more blueberries would be the trick to upping the awesome factor, but as ATK found out, this just makes the muffins heavy and the berries sink to the bottom. So make the jam. It’s worth it.

While the jam cools, whisk together the wet ingredients. Eggs and sugar first. Then buttermilk, vegetable oil, butter and maple syrup.

Sift the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, and you’ll need one more cup blueberries.

Slowly fold the wet ingredients into the dry and then add in the blueberries. Be careful not to over mix the batter. It will be slightly lumpy.

Use a cookie scoop to divide evenly among muffin tins. My batch made 18 muffins.

Scoop a bit of the cooled jam on top of each muffin, and swirl with a toothpick to mix it up a bit.

Next is the really good part. Make a streusel topping and crumble this over the muffins.

Bake for 15-18 minutes and you’ll end up with these.

Thank you America’s Test Kitchen. I’ll just file these under delish-spo.

Recipe:

Jam:

• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 tsp sugar

Muffins:

• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 1/8 cups (8 oz) sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons maple syrup

Streusel topping:

• 3 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons (3.5 oz) all-purpose flour
• 5 tablespoons melted butter

Make the jam by cooking blueberries and teaspoon of sugar over medium heat, mashing the blueberries. Cook until the mixture has thickened, about six minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until well mixed. Add in the butter and oil, followed by the buttermilk and maple syrup, whisking until combined after each addition. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix until just moistened. Carefully fold in the remaining blueberries. Scoop into muffin tins and top each with a teaspoon of jam. Swirl the jam into the muffins with a toothpick. To make the streusel, mix the dry ingredients together. Drizzle the melted butter over the dry ingredients and mix with a fork until sticky. Sprinkle the streusel over the muffins and bake for 15-18 minutes at 425F.

The Most Delicious Lasagna. Ever.

Did I mention that it comes with from scratch red sauce? On a creamy bed of from scratch béchamel sauce? And that it also involves eggplant and ricotta and prosciutto? Like I said.

Most. Delicious. Lasagna. Ever.

Step 1 of most delicious lasagna ever is sauce. It’s also step 1 of a variety of other delicious Italian meals.

Start with a chopped onion and some olive oil.

Add in some garlic.

Then Italian seasoning (duh), basil, crushed red pepper and tomato paste.

Stir in the tomatoes and when the sauce bubbles, you’re done.

If at this point you’re saying something like “But I just don’t have time to make sauce” or “Sauce in the jar is just as good” I have two thoughts.

One, it doesn’t take that long to make sauce. You can even do things like make a double batch and then freeze it, ensuring that you’ll always have red sauce on hand, like every good Italian cook does.

Two is that jar sauce does not taste the same. It tastes like jar sauce. If you do have a good reason for buying jar sauce (although the only two I can think of are sudden loss of blood or death), make sure you check the ingredients–whole tomatoes should be listed first. And whatever you do, don’t ever buy sauce that costs less than a dollar for the entire jar, or has a name like ‘ragu,’ ‘prego,’ or ‘franscico rinaldi.’

Moving on from my jar-sauce-hating rant…

Once you’ve got the sauce going, start on the lasagna part. Slice an eggplant lengthwise and lightly brush each side of the slices with olive oil. Season with salt & pepper and bake at 450 for 12 minutes. The eggplant goes in looking like this.

And comes out looking like this.

While the eggplant is cooking, start the bechamel sauce. Bechamel is just a fancy name for white cream sauce. You don’t need to make it for this recipe…but I think it’s really what tips this dish towards delicious.

Start by melting butter.

Whisk in some flour and then whole milk. Continue to whisk over medium heat until the sauce bubbles and thickens. Add in a pinch of nutmeg and you’re done. Use a generous layer to coat the bottom of your lasagna pan.

Next you need to make the filling. Ricotta, eggs, parmesan, and spinach. Just mix it all up together. No fancy technique needed.

The rest is easy. Layer a slice of prosciutto, some filling, and grated mozzarella on top of the eggplant slices.

Roll up each eggplant slice, and arrange in your bechamel-coated pan. Top with the red sauce, and more grated mozz.

One more thing. Do yourself a favor and not use mozzarella that comes in a plastic bag. Go to the cheese department, buy some good whole milk mozz, and grate it by hand. You’ll thank me for this later.

Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes more. Remove from the oven and let set for five minutes.

Then victoriously enjoy the most delicious lasagna ever.

I’d also highly recommend getting a sweet baking timer like this one.

Not only is it super cute and way sexier than using your microwave kitchen timer feature, it’s mobile. So you can do fun things like bring the timer outside and drink wine on the porch.

And yes, I did just describe my kitchen timer as sexy.

Cinnamon Cayenne Pepper Brownies

No, I’m not losing my mind. And yes, I actually did make brownies with cayenne pepper.

They look like this.

They started out looking like this.

And at one point looked like this.

And in the end just looked good enough to eat.

So how did the whole cayenne pepper brownie idea start?

I saw these cinnamon baking chips at Wegmans. And I pretty much had to have them. Like, IMMEDIATELY.

Because…I might have a slight fascination with all things cinnamon and chocolate. And by fascination I mean…mild addiction and/or obsession. I even buy this crazy Abuelita Mexican hot cocoa that Nestle makes because it has cinnamon in it. And don’t even get me started on how much I love cinnamon lattes. I can quit any time, I swear.

Since the cinnamon chips aren’t chocolate, I needed to combine them with something that was chocolate. And since cinnamon has a bit of a kick, it’s the perfect spice to join forces with cayenne pepper.

I also had some semi-sweet chocolate chips left over from the 16 ounces debacle, so I added those in just to make things extra gluttonous yum. Don’t judge. Lent is over in like six days.

If you’re worried that the cayenne pepper is going to make things too spicy, don’t be. It gives the brownies a little something extra, you know, like if my resume was pink and scented.

And besides, when was the last time you got to say “oh, these are spicy brownies” in normal conversation?

Cinnamon Cayenne Pepper Brownie Recipe:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 bag cinnamon baking chips
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips (maybe 6 ounces??)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Melt the butter and them combine with the sugar in an electric mixer. Add in the eggs and vanilla, and mix until well combined. Mix in the cocoa powder. Slowly add the spices, then gradually add the flour and mix until smooth. Stir in the baking chips and pour into a greased 13 x 9 inch pan. Bake at 350F for 25-35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.