Rocky Road Brownies

My mom buys the same woman's magazine weekly, and has for years. When I was about 14 I saw an ad for Baker's Chocolate that had me ripping the page out and stuffing into my mom's recipe binder in hopes I'd make it one day (mom was never much of a baker). The recipe was for Rocky Road Brownies. A rich fudgey brownie with nuts and topped with roasted miniature marshmallows and chocolate drizzle. I made them once and loved them!

A few days ago I stumbled upon the ad tucked into an old folder with my gazillion recipe books and I knew it was time to make these again. My memory of these hadn't faded, they were just as good the second time as the first. I sent them into work with my hubby and his co-workers loved them too. Give them a try and let me know if you think they're the yummiest brownies ever!

Baker's Best Fudgey Rocky Road Brownies

4 squares Baker's semi-sweet chocolate
1/3 c. butter
2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. chopped almonds
2 c. miniature marshmallows
1 square Baker's semi-sweet chocolate

Instructions:

1. Melt 4 squares chocolate with butter over hot water, and cool.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Beat eggs and blend in sugar, chocolate/butter mixture and vanilla.
4. Stir in flour mixture.
5. Fold in nuts.
6. Spread into greased and floured 8 x 8 inch pan and bake at 350ºF for 25 minutes or until brownies pull away from the sides.
7. Sprinkle warm brownies wit marshmallows and broil under pre-heated broiler until golden brown.
8. Drizzle with 1 square melted chocolate. Let cool and cut with wet knife.

* Please excuse my pictures not doing the brownie justice, I was too eager to try one and cut them while still hot. They were delicious though!

Creamy Raspberry Squares

It was a hot spring-almost-summer day and I woke up with a craving for raspberries. I had raspberry jam on toast for breakfast, some frozen raspberries stirred into vanilla yogurt for a snack and I'd even popped a few fresh ones in my mouth throughout the day. Nothing says summer's here like berries! When my husband told me my in-laws were coming for dinner I went looking for a raspberry dessert and found this in a copy of "What's Cooking", the Kraft magazine.

Cool whip, graham crumbs, cream cheese, jell-o and frozen raspberries come together to make a not-too-sweet, cool, fruity dessert that's great for after a BBQ on a hot day. My in-laws liked it so much they took 2 tupperware containers of it home!


Creamy Raspberry Squares from Kraft What's Cooking

2 c. graham crumbs
1/2 c. margarine or butter, melted
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 pkg. Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. icing sugar
3 c. Light Cool Whip, thawed
1 c. boiling water
2 pkg. sugar free Raspberry Jell-O
3 c. frozen raspberries

Instructions:

1. Mix together crumbs, cinnamon and melted margarine/butter.
2. Reserve 2 tbsp. Press remainder into a 13" x 9" pan.
3. Beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy and then fold in 1 c. Cool Whip.
4. Spread mixture onto crust and refrigerate.
5. Add boiling water to Jell-O powder and stir for 2 minutes.
6. Add berries to Jell-O and stir until slightly thickened.
7. Pour over cream cheese mixture layer. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
8. Cover with remaining Cool Whip and reserved crumb mixture. Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hello, my name is Amanda, and I'm addicted to Peanut Butter. It feels good to admit it.

There aren't many days that I don't indulge in the nutty goodness that is peanut butter. I'll even eat it right out the jar with a spoon (no double dipping though!) so needless to say I love peanut butter desserts. I was fixing my oldest some toast with peanut butter today and got some on my finger and the second I licked it off (paper towel? pffft!) I knew cookies were in my very near future.

This cookie recipe is ridiculously easy and doesn't require a lot of time or effort, perfect!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. smooth peanut butter (chunky would probably rock too)
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
3 tsp. flour
1/2 c. mini chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Mix together peanut butter, sugar and egg to combine.
2. Mix in flour 1 tsp at a time.
3. Add chips and mix.
4. Drop by teaspoonful onto baking sheet. (I used a 1 1/2" scoop)
5. Bake at 325 degrees for 18-20 minutes.

yields 24 cookies.