Something a little sweet

I'm sorry for the lack of posting yesterday, but Tuesdays are wing nights and therefore I don't often cook anything on Tuesday. So I have nothing to blog over. I also go to a friend's house on Wednesdays for dinner, and while I do cook it's not always easy to blog it when I'm somewhere else. But to make up for the breaks between, with the cooler weather now here I can do some baking once a week. I have even more dessert recipes saved than I do savory foods.

I knew I wanted to bake, but looking around the cupboards we only have boxed stuff and that's unsuitable for blogging. It's my first winter in the house so I've had zero need to get things like cocoa or shortening, or anything to do with the oven really. But I have always wanted to make cake pops. Except I don't have cake mix. But I do have brownie mix! Brownie pops can't be bad can they? People love brownies. People love frosting. People love chocolate and sprinkles. It's gotta be a winner.

Brownie Pops

Ingredients:

• 1 pan prepared brownies (either homemade or boxed) 
• 1/2 cup of frosting 
• 6 oz. bakers chocolate 
• sprinkles, colored sugar, crushed nuts, and/or melted chocolate for decoration 
• Lollipop sticks (I used shish-kabob skewers. I was not spending more money for more leftover sticks to float around my utensil drawer.) 
• You will also need a block of foam of some sort to stand the pops in while they dry

Directions:

Once your pan of brownies is COMPLETELY cooled, crumble the brownies by hand in a large mixing bowl. Also set aside a baking sheet covered in parchment or tinfoil.

Add the frosting and mix by hand until well incorporated. The mix should hold together well, but shouldn't feel like raw batter. You may add more frosting if you find it's too dry/less if it's too wet.

Now take about a tablespoon of the mix and form it into a ball like you would meatballs.

Put them on your baking sheet and freeze for two hours.

If your freezer looks at all like mine, you may need to get a little creative for this step. Either acting in shifts or becoming a Balancing Wizard.Once they are frozen, remove them from the freezer and melt your bakers chocolate, following brands directions. Some require shortening so check before you get to this point.

Poke a hole in the top of each ball. This will become the bottom of the pop eventually.

Take your lollipop (shish-kabob) sticks, and dip the ends into the melted chocolate before sticking them in the holes to create a sort of glue.Now take the pops one at a time and dip them into the chocolate, allowing the excess to drip off.

Once the chocolate as stopped dripping, gently roll in sprinkles, nuts, or whatever other toppings you have chosen. If you have an alternate color of chocolate to melt, you can fill a ziplock bag with it, cut the corner off, and make a piping bag to drizzle chocolate over the top.

Alternatively, you can set them upside down. I opted to do this because I had some casualties. If you can keep all but the 4 or 5 you're about to dip in the fridge or even freezer, it works better than allowing them to get to room temperature.

I found I liked them more if I sprinkled the toppings on by hand. Sure it made a mess, but it worked better for me. Stand in styrofoam and put in the fridge. I find if you don't keep them cool, its a disaster. If you're using skewers like I did, use scissors or wire cutters to remove the tips and make them a manageable length.





Mangia!