Bake or Break

Pecan Shortbread Brownies

My baking habits and tastes have changed over the years, but longtime favorites still endure. Chocolate, pecans, and shortbread are always winners for me. When I find a recipe that combines all three, how can I not make it?

I happened upon the recipe for these brownies when browsing through Fat Witch Brownies. Fat Witch is a delicious little brownie shop in New York’s Chelsea Market. When we lived in Manhattan, we lived just a few blocks away and visited the market frequently. We often ate dinner at one of the restaurants there, did a little shopping, and then hit up Fat Witch for our brownie fix.

Now that we live in Brooklyn, I don’t get to visit Fat Witch as often. But, with their cookbook, I can recreate some of that deliciousness at home. I can’t remember seeing these brownies in the shop, but I couldn’t resist baking them.

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Cream Cheese Brownies with Toffee and Pecans

These days, my brownie love runs the gamut from the all-chocolate varieties to the kitchen-sink varieties. Essentially, I haven’t met many brownies I haven’t liked. These flavor-packed brownies are no exception.

The first question usually asked about brownies is whether they are cakey or fudgy. The original recipe describes them as not too much of either one. To me, they’re cakey. That works very well with the cream cheese topping to make them not seem so heavy.

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Peanut Butter Streusel Brownies

It’s been a while since I baked anything using chocolate and peanut butter. While I do believe variety is a good thing, I also believe with absolute certainty that the combination of chocolate and peanut butter is a very, very good thing.

I’ve made peanut butter brownies many times, but these are different from any of those. The difference? Streusel. Not just any streusel. Peanut butter streusel. I’m pretty sure that’s a new one for me.

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Sour Cream Brownies

Okay, go to your refrigerator and check for sour cream. Got it? Good. I know you’ve got chocolate, so scroll down to the recipe and start baking.

These, my friends, are my new favorite brownie.

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Peanut Butter-Pretzel Brownies

Pretzels are a bit of a mystery to me. More specifically, it’s the appeal of pretzels that I don’t get. I don’t dislike them, but I just can’t really seem to get behind them on their own. But, add some pretzels to something more interesting, and now we’re talking.

Little bits of pretzels are mixed into these peanut butter-y brownies to give you little pockets of saltiness. Any shape of pretzel will work for these, but I like to use pretzel rods for bigger salty bites.

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n-Layer Brownies

So, here’s the thing. This recipe is one of the bonus recipes in my new cookbook that’s available in the iBookstore. My intention was not to share it here on BoB, but I’ve gotten such strong reactions to these that I feel that it would be a disservice to you non-iPad owners.

These brownies took less than an hour from the ghost of an idea to warm, gooey chocolate awesomeness. I was inspired by those Magic Cookie Bars we all know and love. While they are perfectly delicious with their graham cracker crust, it seemed that making the base a fudgy brownie would make something decidedly amazing.

I was so right.

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