Candy Bar Brownies

Gooey.... and ALL MINE

After Halloween, I was left with a giant bowl of leftover, fun-sized chocolate bars — a result of last-minute Halloween candy purchasing and my lack of willpower when faced with a bargain. I can’t resist a good deal! Usually, I end up snarfing them all up in a couple of sittings. Instead of eating them all at once, do I give them away, freeze them for later (haha no) or make them into something else? Luckily, I found this brownie recipe that I tweaked until it became something delicious. It uses about 10 fun-sized chocolate bars, or 2 full-sized bars. The brownies are rich and fudgy, and the chocolate bar centre stays soft and liquidy.

You can use the chocolate bar of your choice, and then choose a complementary topping. I used Mars bars with toffee bits as a topping. Another version could be fun-sized Snickers bars, with chopped peanuts as a topping. It’s your call — what do you have leftover?




Candy Bar Brownies Based on this recipe by Carla Hall
Ingredients
Brownies:
1 cup butter
8 oz semisweet chocolate
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 fun-sized chocolate bars, frozen and chopped (if you have a food processor, it makes this step so easy!)
Non-stick vegetable spray

Ganache frosting:
9 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 cup whipping cream, unwhipped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup topping, such as chopped nuts, toffee bits or coconut

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350° F. 
2. Spray a 8” x 8” pan with non-stick vegetable spray and set aside. 
3. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt semisweet chocolate and butter together at medium heat until melted. Stir until smooth and set aside. 
4. In a small bowl, stir together flour and salt. 
5. In a large bowl, whisk gently both sugars, eggs and vanilla. Stir in chocolate mixture. Stir in flour mixture until just blended. 
6. Pour half and the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle chopped frozen chocolate bars over the batter, then pour in remaining batter to cover. 
7. Bake for 20 minutes. Rotate pan, and bake for another 10 minutes. The brownies are done when the brownies just start to pull away from the sides of the pan. (You won’t be able to use a tester here, as the gooey chocolate bars in the centre will prevent that from working). Cool brownies on a wire rack. 

To make the ganache:

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt bittersweet chocolate at medium heat. Stir until smooth. 
2. Add cream and salt, and stir until blended and smooth. 
3. Pour ganache over top of the brownies and sprinkle with your favourite topping. 

Refrigerate until set and cut into squares.

This column first appeared in Stimuli Magazine. Check out my column

'Just Desserts' for more sweet and delicious recipes!