I was in the mood to make an Easter treat to share with the office, but I didn’t want to do anything too complicated. So I broke out my Mom’s tried and true brownie recipe, whipped up a bit of butter cream and voila! Brownie bunny sandwiches with dark chocolate buttercream.
I generally use Wilton’s chocolate buttercream recipe. To make a dark chocolate version, I just substituted dark chocolate cocoa. And I might have substituted real cream rather than milk because that is what was in my fridge and I might have made it with just butter because I was also out of Crisco (WHAT?!). So that’s practically my own recipe, but we’ll have to have a long conversation about buttercreams and icings another time – we’re making brownies now!
For Jane’s Old Fashioned Brownies, you’ll need the following:
Ingredients:
4 Eggs
2 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Melted Butter (That’s two sticks y’all – in my head I’m saying that in my Paula Dean accent)
4 Squares Baker’s Bitter Chocolate, Melted
1 Cup Chopped Nuts
1 Cup Cake Flour
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Not listed in my Mom’s ingredients, but she adds it every time: 1/4 Cup Nestle’s mini chocolate morsels
Ingredient Notes:
- I generally use walnuts in this recipe, but you can easily substitute pecans or another nut
- Cake flour? I reserve it only for my cakes – this brownie turns out fabulous with AP flour
- Not listing an ingredient is a hallmark of my mother’s recipes – I don’t think she does it to sabotage you, it just sort of happens that way
On to the cooking! Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees because this isn’t going to take long! In a medium sauce pan over low heat, melt your butter and chocolate. Ok, Ok, so that’s not Baker’s chocolate. I was out (Gasp! What is going on with my baking cupboards?!? To the grocery store….but not tonight) so I substituted 4 oz of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate. This was not enough chocolate, if you make this substitution be sure to add at least an extra two ounces of chocolate, if not four. I compensated for the lack of chocolate-y goodness by making the dark chocolate buttercream for the sandwiches. If you are making these brownies as a stand alone dessert either use the Baker’s chocolate or six to eight ounces of Ghirardelli.
In another bowl, mix together sugar, eggs, vanilla, and salt. Whisk until combined. You’ll have a yellow grain-y soup. Mmm, doesn’t that sound delicious?
Once the chocolate is completely melted, slowly mix it into the egg mixture. Whisk throughly until fully incorporated.
I hope you got all your stirring out of you in the last step because this step involves the minimal amount of stirring possible. Add the flour, nuts and mini morsels to the chocolate egg mixture. Stir only until the last bit of flour is gone. Sometimes my Mom even leaves a bit of flour in there. Over mixing at this stage will give you a tough brownie and all you really want in life is tender goodness.
As you can see, my Mom thinks I always over-mix, honestly, there’s some flour still in there! Pour the mixture out into a pre-greased pan. For regular brownies, that’s a 9×13, but for this application I went with a jelly roll pan.
Bake brownies for 30 to 35 minutes if you’re using a 9×13 pan, bake for 20-25 minutes if you’re using a jelly roll pan. Allow the pan to cool before slicing your brownies or you’ll end up with a gooey mess. Since it’s the Easter time of year, I’m using a bunny cutter to cut out bunnies.
And aren’t they adorable? Don’t forget to make bunnies that face both directions for proper sandwiching later. Since bunnies aren’t square there are all kinds of brownie scraps left. These are excellent over ice cream.
Whip up your favorite buttercream icing and get to sandwiching
Hi cutie!
A whole pile of bunny sandwich goodness.
I hope you enjoy!
–Martta
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