Ultimate Mounds Brownies

Did you ever get tired of the same old type of dessert? Brownies are brownies are brownies. Flour, cocoa, eggs, sugar plus a few other ingredients and you end up with an awesome end result.  Sure you can frost them, add nuts or cookies to the batter.  Heck you can add load of chocolate. Or better yet, cut ’em, stick a wooden stick in them, freeze them then dip ’em in chocolate and sprinkles/nuts and you have one AMAZING treat! I have a KILLER treat like that which also includes fudge and ice cream on a stick that I HAVE to share with you later this summer!

This recipe kind of just evolved.  You see I had to make 2 types of brownies for an order and the customer said “Just make ’em different” is all she said.  No rhyme or reason – just have at it as she would say. Now this honestly is some of the most difficult type of orders as I am not one to guess what the customer wants.  It’s a HUGE compliment when they tell me to make whatever as that means they love all the stuff I make but what if I make something and they aren’t say in the mood for peanuts or raspberries?  It’s tough.

So there I stood looking at my baked tray of brownies trying to figure out how to top them.  I did the Fudge Ripple Turtle Brownies ones so those were out and I always go for tons of chocolate – always an awesome standby. No this time I wanted something different.  Normally while I’m in the kitchen I either have some food show playing in the background for noise of the radio.  Well it was during a commercial I heard that old jingle “Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.  Almond Joy’s got nuts, Mounds don’t” … go one sing it again, cause I know you are *wink*

As I stood there singing it, semi-off key, I decided to go with a “Mounds” version of a brownie.  It’s funny when it came to this particular candy in my house growing up as we truly were a house-divided when it came to it.  Either you wanted the almonds or you didn’t.  There were no “Well I’ll eat this one even though my other is the favorite.”  Literally I think that was the only thing someone in my house passed up food of any kind.  Not me though; I don’t discriminate.  I loved them both (still do).

Now this filling took me a little while to concoct as it’s not as straight forward as one would think.  It needed to be not baked and one that would set when you cut it.  It could be left out if need but not for hours on end. And most importantly, it needed to taste awesome. I couldn’t use heavy cream or milk as that would have been too thin of a base.  I thought about making a plain buttercream but that would have been nothing more than coconut frosting.  While that totally would have rocked it wouldn’t have given me the desired outcome I wanted.

So off I trekked downstairs into my storage room.  Now in there, you folks will laugh, I will sit there and just stare at my ingredients until something hits me.  Yes I have a milk crate in there, which means I get waffle butt after sitting there for so long, but it’s super quiet and it’s all of my stuff.  I mean I have 3 HUGE commercial shelving units that have enough food porn props (thank you Home Goods!), All-Clad pots and pans (love them!), food supplies and stuff that I could open my own small shop!

As I was sitting there I could hear Mr. Fantabulous upstairs hollering for me “Honey… honey?  Where in the hell did she go this time? Baby?” then I hear him come down the steps and walk back towards my area.  Now if you recall last time he did that I shut off all the lights and held a flash light in front of my face.  As soon as he walked through the doorway I simply flicked on the flashlight, said “Boo!” softly and pretty much took 15 years off of his life that day.  That man swore 7 ways from Sunday and was FURIOUS with me.  The madder he got, the more I laughed.  This time I didn’t have a flashlight and I left the lights on.  As he walked back into the room he cleared the corner and as he saw me he jumped back 3 feet, into the other shelving unit rattling the stuff on it, yelping (though he would say he manly growled.. LOL) and cursing me.  Now I sat there, just smirking and saying “Honey I was just sitting here.  I said not a word, no lights were shut off and I did nothing.”  He just said “So help you God Lori Ann you giggle once and I’m beating your butt til it’s purple!  Don’t do it… don’t you dare laugh.”

Okay so to know me I can’t keep a straight face to save my soul and I laugh all the time.  I literally had to bury my face in my lap and clamp my hands over my mouth to stop laughing out loud.  You could see my body shaking from internally laughing so hard and tears pouring down my face. Finally after a few minutes I composed myself.  He walked away, cursing at me and then I heard him go up the stairs…or so I thought. I let out such a belly laugh that I swear that man grew wings and flew back to that back room to see what I was doing.  As soon as I saw him I started to cough like I had something caught in my throat.  Do you know that man made me go upstairs, sent me to my room and grounded me for an hour!  Yep a whole hour… he got hungry after that!  LOL

As he was making me go to my room I grabbed a can of condensed milk on my way up and set it on the counter.  I’ll tell you what, being sent to your room as an adult is NOT A PUNISHMENT fyi!  It’s a blessing!  To be told to go to your room and ‘think about what you’ve done’ is awesome!  Sure, I’ll think about it while I lie in bed, watch tv and relax.  Please, ground me again Mr. Fantabulous!  LOL

Once my punishment was lifted I had to feed him and then went to making these.  The condensed milk did just the trick.  It was thick, not too sweet and just like a mounds bar filling.  To top it I whipped up a thick chocolate ganache and let it cool in the fridge.

Mr. Fantabulous went NUTS over this recipe so much so that I had to make another batch just for him.  As for my customer she couldn’t stop raving over them.  Now before you ask, if I’m giving you the recipe, why would someone buy mine?  The brownie recipe is not my commercial one – sorry, that’s proprietary and differs from this one.  This one is really good but trust me, try mine and you’ll fall in love!

Ultimate Mounds Brownies

• Author: The Kitchen Whisperer

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Ingredients

Brownies

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• almost 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp chocolate extract (can substitute in vanilla)
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 Tbl cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp espresso powder

Filling

• 5 1/4 cups coconut flakes
• 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2-3/4 tsp salt

Chocolate Ganache

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk chocolate
• 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate

Instructions

Make the Ganache

1. Place 1 cup of the chocolate pieces in a glass bowl.
2. Heat the cream over medium heat just until it starts to get bubbles around the edges.
3. Immediately remove it from the heat and pour it over the chocolate pieces.
4. Let it sit for 2 minutes and then stir slowly. As you stir, gradually add the rest of the chocolate pieces until they are all melted and the mixture is emulsified. This takes about 2 minutes. You want it super smooth and shiny.
5. Allow the ganache to set up for about 2 hours at room temperature. You want it thickened but still pourable.

Make the Brownies

1. Preheat oven to 350°F, rack in the middle.
2. Line a half sheet pan with parchment spraying the sides.
3. In a double boiler, melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler stirring occasionally. Essentially you want to bring about 1” of water to a simmer then place your bowl that has the butter and chocolate in it over top but NOT touching the water.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
5. Stir in the sugar, salt, and chocolate extract.
6. With a sturdy mixing spoon, beat the eggs in one at a time until blended.
7. Add flour, espresso, baking powder and cocoa and beat until the batter is just smooth. Don’t overmix.
8. Pour the batter into the pan.
9. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean – a few moist crumbs are okay.
10. Set the pans on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

Make the Filling

1. In a bowl mix together the coconut, condensed milk, sugar and salt until well combined.

Assemble

1. Take your spoon to the ganache and stir again to smooth it out. It should be thick but still pourable.
2. Spread the filling over top the cooled brownies all the way to the edge.
3. Using the back of a spatula, gently press the mixture down firm to remove any air pockets.
4. Next, take the melted ganache and pour over top.
5. Use an offset spatula to smooth out.
6. Place the entire pan, uncovered in the fridge for at least 2 hours to set.
7. Once set and the ganache is hardened, cut and serve. I stored mine in the fridge, covered though these are OK to be left at room temperature (as long as they are covered.

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