Hi guys, I'm Laura Vitale and on this episode of Laura in the Kitchen I'm going to show
you how to make homemade Cosmic Brownies.
Now when I shared my zebra cake recipe I asked you what other childhood favorites you'd like
to see me make here on Laura in the Kitchen and I compiled a really good list, Tweeted
about it, we had the best conversations about it and this one was the one with the most
thumbs up.
So I figured I would start here first and then work my way down, so you know cosmic
brownies they're delicious.
Let's get started with the ingredients, you need brown sugar and granulated sugar, all
purpose flour, some natural unsweetened cocoa, instant espresso powder, salt and baking powder,
vanilla extract, some milk, melted butter and your eggs.
You're going to need a few ingredients, of course, to make the topping.
Now, I've got my oven preheating to 350F and I have a 9 by 13 inch baking pan that I've
sprayed with non stick spray and I have laid the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper
just because it makes it easy to get them out and I don't know if this will matter to
many of you but I have found that using a glass pan really makes a difference, I find
that they bake a lot more evenly so that is why I'm using a glass pan, but you could use
metal of course and it'll be just fine.
Alright, I've got a large bowl, both kinds of sugar, to it I'm going to add my eggs and
a good splash of vanilla extract, make sure you shake your vanilla,
Now you know, cosmic brownies, classic childhood treats, they're not super thick brownies,
which I think makes a difference in this recipe that is why I'm using a 9 by 13 instead of
a 9 by 9.
They're just so good, I'm going to go ahead and whisk these together because I want the
mixture to be really nice and smooth.
Perfect, now to it I'm going to add milk, the butter, and all of my dry ingredients,
real simple, just make sure to give your dry ingredients a quick little mix, not too much
because it's going to end up getting thoroughly combined.
Just add that right in.
I'm telling you these are so good you're not going to know what to do with yourself.
Do I even dare say this?
They might be slightly above my fudgy brownies.
I can't believe it either!
Unbelievable!
Mix it until combined and that's pretty much it.
That looks and smells unbelievably good.
Okay, then just dump it in your prepared pan, just even out the top, to make sure it's nice
and even, and these are just going to go into the oven at 350F for about twenty to twenty
five minutes, basically you just want to make sure that the brownies look set when you just
gently press with your fingers you want them to feel set but still have a little bit of
squidginess, you don't want them to feel completely set because you've over baked them and then
they get a cakey texture which is still delicious but it's not that deeply dense and fudgy brownie
that I love so much.
So just about there, even this out and pop this in the oven.
Now to make the topping for the brownies, all you need is some semi sweet chocolate
chips and some hot heavy cream, I just placed it in the microwave for 30 seconds until it
was nice and hot.
You pour the cream over the chocolate chips, and I just kind of sink the chocolate chips
into the cream and let them sit for a couple of minutes until they pretty much melt.
Just going to set these aside and now these - the brownie base is perfectly ready.
Squidgy just a little tiny bit and it's not hard and cakey which is perfect, and then
for the topping you're going to need some mini chocolate coated candies, I just like
to use these mini M&Ms, I think they're perfect for this but if you wanted to do the walnut
version you would just add about a half a cup of chopped walnuts in the batter and then
sprinkle some walnuts on top and you'd have the walnut version.
So whatever tickles your fancy.
Alright, I can tell that my chocolate chips are already melted, so I'm just going to go
ahead and start to give them a stir and by the time I'm done stirring you can see that
everything will be nice and smooth, and even though it might not seem like it will be,
it will be just trust me.
You've just gotta keep at it and the more you stir, the smoother the chocolate will
be.
And it works out really nicely and that way you don't have to worry about tempering chocolate
which, I don't do that.
I don't do that, just thinking about it makes me nervous.
Alright, take this, pour this gorgeous chocolate lava onto your gorgeous brownie base, get
it all out of here, make a nice smooth layer as evenly as you can manage, no I don't know
if I'm alone in this.
And you can tell me in the comments below if you agree or disagree if you do it like
I do or not.
Doesn't matter, potato potato.
I love my brownies really dense.
So I pop them in the fridge every time I'm done making them, because it really keeps
them dense and then to store them I store them in the fridge, because I don't like a
light fluffy brownie, I like a dense deeply chocolaty brownie, so if you're like me then
you and I are twins.
I'm going to now scatter my little candies over the top.
And then I'm going to pop these into the fridge to set like I said you don't have to pop them
in the fridge, you can leave them at room temperature, its just you know it's deeper
and fudgier and more chocolaty and I just love it, so I'm going to go ahead and once
the chocolate coating is set we're going to cut and serve.
That's it!
My brownies were in the fridge for about an hour or so to set the chocolate on top, and
now you're pretty much ready to go right in, you can just tell that these are going to
be so rich and incredible, look at the layer of brownie to glaze or frosting, or whatever
you call it.
Technically a frosting, these make me really ridiculously happy, I'm not going to go any
further.
So good!
Everything a good brownie should be.
It's rich, dense, chocolaty, not overly sweet.
It's what you know and love about a cosmic brownie, go to LauraintheKitchen.com to get
the written recipe.
It is so good.
Hope you've enjoyed spending time with me I'll see you next time.
Bye.