To wake up sweetly...

Sunday morning, and you wish you could stay in bed until noon... but no, the sweet little voice is calling you from her bed, "Mommy, shall we wake up?" ... Oh, I guess you already are awake, or you wouldn't be calling me ^__^
If there's something that consoled me in that moment, it was the box of the yummiest, most delicious, moist and extremely chocolaty brownies. I've been eating them slowly, trying to make them last, although it's the hardest job ever.
Give your day a real chocolate kick with these, or enjoy with a cup of espresso after lunch.
But when the little devil sits on my shoulder, I cut them into very tiny pieces and mix into Caramel ice cream...

Caramel swirl brownies


150 g butter
200 g dark chocolate, divided
2 eggs
175 g muscovado sugar
55 g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
55 g chopped toasted hazelnuts or walnuts
4-6 spoonfulls of Dulce de leche or caramel

Prepare a square cake pan, 20x20cm, line it with baking paper, grease and dust with flour.
Melt 55 g of chocolate and the butter together in the microwave or over a pan of simmering water and let cool a little.
Beat the eggs and the sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.
Add the flour, mixed with the baking powder and sifted together, mixing on low speed.
Then add the chocolate-butter mixture and beat well until well combined.
Chop roughly the rest of chocolate and the nuts and stir them into the batter with a wooden spoon.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and level with a spoon.
Spoon the Dulce the leche or caramel over the top and just lightly stir into the batter creating sort of marble effect.
Bake the cake in the oven preheated to 180°C for about 30 minutes, until the toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry - mind you however that the cake should be baked but stay moist, so don't overbake it.
Remove the cake from the pan lifting it together with the baking paper and let cool completely before cutting it into squares.

You may want to take a walk at this point as the temptation to cut it and swallow a few pieces while it's still hot is too big ^__^

Caramel swirl brownies (Brownies al caramello)


150 g burro
200 g di cioccolato fondente
2 uova
175 g di zucchero di canna (muscovado)
55 g di farina "00"
1 cucchiaino di lievito in polvere
55 g di nocciole tostate e spezzettate
4-6 cucchiai di Dulce de leche o caramello pronto


Sciogliete 55 g di cioccolato insieme al burro nel forno a microonde o a bagno maria, e lasciate intiepidire.
Sbattete le uova con lo zucchero fino a farle diventare chiare e spumose.
Aggiungete la farina mescolata al lievito continuando a mescolare a velocità bassa.
Unite alla fine il burro con il cioccolato fuso e lavorate bene con le fruste fino a ottenere un composto omogeneo.
Aggiungete il resto di cioccolato tagliato a pezzetti e le nocciole (o noci) spezzettate, mescolando con un cucchiaio.
Versate l'impasto in uno stampo quadrato (20x20 cm) ricoperto con la carta da forno, imburrato e infarinato.
Distribuite il dulce de leche o caramello sulla superficie mescolandolo leggermente con l'impasto base (creando una specie di effetto marmorizzato).
Infornate il dolce per circa 30 minuti nel forno già caldo, a 180°C. Controllate se il dolce è cotto inserendo uno stuzzicadenti al centro - deve uscire asciutto, ma il dolce non deve asciugarsi troppo, deve rimanere morbido e umido.
Toglietelo dallo stampo alzandolo insieme alla carta e lasciatelo raffreddare completamente prima di tagliarlo a quadratini.

Caramel swirl brownies (Brownies s karamelom)


150 g maslaca
200 g tamne čokolade
2 jaja
175 g smeđeg šećera
55 g brašna
1 žličica praška za pecivo
55 g nasjeckanih lješnjaka ili oraha
4-6 žlica gotovog karamela ili Dulce de leche


Uključite pećnicu na 180°C.
Pripremite četvrtasti pleh promjera 20x20 cm - namažite ga maslacem i pospite brašnom, ili obložite papirom za pečenje.
Otopite 55 g čokolade s maslacem na pari ili u mikrovalnoj, i ostavite da se prohladi.
Ostatak čokolade grubo nasjeckajte, kao i lješnjake, (izrezala sam svaki na 4 dijela)
Umutite jaja sa šećerom dok ne postanu pjenasta.
Dodajte brašno prosijano s praškom za pecivo, a zatim i otopljenu čokoladu s maslacem.
Izmutite opet dok se sve dobro ne sjedini.
Umiješajte žlicom nasjeckanu čokoladu i orahe (/lješnjake) u smjesu i istresite u pripremljeni pleh.
Stavite odozgor žlicom karamel ili dulce de leche.
Lagano samo umiješajte karamel u tijesto kao da radite mramorni uzorak.
Stavite peći u zagrijanu pećnicu oko 30 minuta, otprilike dok ne primijetite da se tijesto počinje skupljati prema unutra. Za browniese je važno da ostanu vlažni, stoga ih nemojte prepeći.
Kad se kolač ohladi, izrezati ga na kocke.

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Family news:
on  16th Feb, my big princess turned seven, and of course she had a birthday party with her friends.
She decided she wanted a Hello Kitty cake, and I really wanted to try my hand on Hello Kitty cake pops that I saw over at Bakerella. They were really cute, and while the girls went "Ohhhhhhhhhh" the boys shouted "Burn Hello Kitty! Burn Hello Kitty!"
Anyway, these are the only photos I have. The cake itself was extremely delicious and got yummiest comments in the world. It's a chocolate cake with white chocolate pastry cream between the layers, and chocolate ganache on top (dark and white chocolate ganache painted pink), with white chocolate wrap, painted pink, of course ^__^