Trick & Treat Brownies

So I'm just now returning from hiatus, I haven't been swamped per say but more accurately I've just been in a "mood". It seems like every year around this time we're uber broke and it sucks. All the years of pay raises, promotions, successes... down the drain. With a blink of the eye its gone. Its because of tax increases, health insurance hikes and for my family the real hit is at the grocery mart.  Don't get me wrong I'm grateful and quite thankful for all the great things that we do have, and all in all we still have each other, but quite honestly I'm just frustrated. Every now and again I find myself questioning my intentions and I seriously wonder...why do I even bother spending the extra time and effort to make everything from scratch if ONE: my family could care less and TWO: the real kicker...its starting to be more expensive in a lot of cases. Our grocery bills have gotten outrageous, although we don't really buy things much different than we normally have our grocery bills have doubled what they were just a few years ago.

For example butter has doubled in price just in the past year or so, off brand butter is $3-4 per pound! Heaven forbid you want good butter.  These brownies for example are approximately 5 times the cost of the sh-stuff in the box. A bag of chocolate chips and the butter used in this recipe already make up the cost, double the cost even from what you can get from a  box, and then add the almost half a dozen eggs? ouch! These treats and all of my other home baked goods are made with love as the only additive. Love does not enhance the shelf life, so making breads and cakes from scratch the staying power dwindles and food is wasted (not brownies of course but you get the idea). So I'm really overwhelmed with concern that sometimes I'm hindering the success of our budget by not just giving in to their food desires. Although its not food I'll be eating any time soon, maybe I just suck it up and let them eat their hot dogs and boxed macaroni. Does this sound awful to admit? I mean I've never struggled with leftover toxic orange macaroni...oddly enough it vanishes within seconds. I find this stuff not to be food, more like interpretations of food, but hey they LOVE it. Can I fight this? Can I  cheaply produce something comparable? Do I really even want to? Probably not...so maybe the answer is that I give them their "cheat foods" more frequently. My palate is not so advanced that I can not appreciate a good hot dog now and again but I don't really like eating the same thing regularly. 

I don't want to resort to beanie weanie night, but I really cant afford to waste food with experiments or "cat foods" that no one else wants. They WANT hot dogs every Tuesday, they want spaghetti night and pizza night. Whats become my life's mission to cook different from scratch foods all the time has become a huge pain in their ass, and well I really feel kind of guilty about it. Why cant I make them not want that stuff? Whats wrong with me? I mean I've been the fat kid in gym class, the weird girl in wood shop etc. I've coped with all my "flaws" just fine. I'm truly more self-conscious of my cooking than anything else...ever. Lately I've realized this is not their mission, its mine. SO I guess its just a work in progress, maybe when they're grown they will sincerely appreciate that I wouldn't let them buy store bought cup cakes?  Maybe they'll realize how much of a gem I really am :p . I really hope so. -END RANT. 

So these are my Trick & Treat brownies, I just now realized its been about two weeks since Halloween (as I said I've been pouting) the trick to these brownies is that they were made with everything I stole from my kids trick or treating bucket, lots of great odds n ends, candies, cookies a little bit of everything really. The treat... they were made with all the stuff I stole from my kids trick or treating bucket. I didn't spend $6 for brownie candies, or mix ins, and I ended up with gooey, decadent, delicious brownies....toothache cake so to speak, its treat and treat. Yum! The base brownie recipe is a recipe I've been using for quite some time now, its my favorite decadent and rich brownie base although packed with butter, sugar and lots of eggs I find that they're worth the splurge in cost. I've made other brownie recipes that are delish, this is the one. You CAN NOT find something like this in a box. Although it seems somewhat humble in nature they really are a regular in my house. Its one of the no fail recipes, you cant really go wrong with brownies however you can go terribly right. I use these in cup cake liners or tins, I top them with ganache, I vary the flavors and frostings but no matter what the basic recipe is a priceless family favorite.

Deep Chocolate Brownies:

These are decadent, rich and gooey. The most delicious brownie. Sometimes I vary flour and cocoa powder ratio, (instead of 2/3 flour, 1/3 cocoa I use 1/2 cup of each instead) sometimes I add no flour at all and make a flour-less chocolate cake. (baked at a lower temp, longer about 325 for an hour maybe?) The end result is always delicious and rich. I stash some in the freezer, they are great to nibble on frozen plus its a great last minute snack for un-expected company. Just allow them to thaw 20-30 minutes and they're as good as fresh...well maybe they're a little yummier warm but they really are totally delish!

2 sticks butter
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips or dark chocolate chunks
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder or cinnamon
5 eggs
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare a 9x13 pan or a square brownie pan (8x8 or 10 x 10) by spraying with cooking spray or greasing with butter. Sprinkle with cocoa powder, pat the powder around the pan to coat the butter with it. Using the cocoa powder instead of flour allows for a better appearance as well as a buttery, chocolatey boost to the crust of your brownies.

Over a double boiler or in the microwave gently melt butter, chocolate squares and chocolate chips. Combine salt, espresso powder, and sugar. Stir to combine. Add eggs one at a time stirring to combine each egg entirely. Once the batter is smooth add flour and cocoa powder. Spread evenly into prepared pan and bake 25-35 minutes. I like mine a little gooey so I find that 30 is about perfect.

Trick & Treat brownies: 
spread half of the brownie batter into the pan, top with candies, cookies etc. I used about 6  crumbled Oreo cookies, 8-12 miniature reeses cups chopped roughly. Top this with the remaining batter and smooth out. Bake as usual.