Category: Brownies

Whiskey and Rye Blondies

A long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile….

Why I am I quoting that bit of pop perfection and rock and roll enigma that is American Pie?  Because today, 15 January, way back in 1972, American Pie reached number one on the Billboard charts.  And we are celebrating that event not with an American Pie (because that would be waaay too obvious…and we want options for the 50th  Anniversary next year!) but with some good ol’ Whiskey and Rye Blondies!Whiskey and Rye Brownies 1

Whiskey and Rye Blondies

The recipe for these Whiskey and Rye Blondies comes from Ella Risbridger and her wonderful book Midnight Chicken. I can heartily recommend this book – it was my choice for a Tasty Reads book last year but if you don’t want to buy the whole book, you can get the recipe for these blondies here!

The Blondies are very rich – a little really does go a long way with these.  But they are also delightfully fudgy and more-ish so if you are tempted by a second helping I won’t blame you!

Why not whip up a batch now as we delve into the 8-minute 33-second opus that is  American Pie?

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American Pie – The Song

American Pie is the titular track on the Don McLean album American Pie. The album with its absolutely iconic cover was in my parent’s record collection for as long as I can remember.  I am sure they played other songs but the only ones I can ever remember hearing are American Pie and Vincent.  And I remember hearing a LOT of American Pie and Vincent when I was growing up.

I also occasionally like to torture my friends by choosing American Pie as a karaoke song. By which  I mean I did it once and was politely asked to never repeat the performance.  By management.  And my friends.

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American Pie references many people and events – the recurring theme of the “day the music died” is about the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper in February 1959. It also mentions The Beatles, The Byrds Bob Dylan, Karl Marx, Charles Manson, the Rolling Stones, James Dean, the Kennedy’s and good lord…so much more!  There are multitudes of explanations about the lyrics of American Pie on the internet.  You can find one of them here.  This is an absolutely fascinating rabbit hole to go down if you have a few hours / days to spare.

But before you do that, let’s all join together and sing…

Bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good ol’ boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “This’ll be the day that I die

Have a great weekend!

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And if you have another 8.5 this parody is also worth a watch!

Smore’s Brownies & Sweet Revenge Book Review

The old saying tells us that revenge is a dish best served cold.   A new baking book will also have you believing that revenge is a dish best served sweet.  Sweet Revenge: Passive-Aggressive Desserts for Your Exes & Enemies by Heather Kim, due to be released in January 2018 is a super fun read and contains over 50 sweet treats to help you weather the storm when life gets tough. 

Because you know what?  Sometimes when a girl has had gee, I dunno, a week of totally mixed messages and is feeling hurt betrayed and just downright shitty, she just needs a little something something to get her through the day.   And by something something I mean a shit ton of booze cake. Or pudding. Or some  totally amazing S’mores brownies aka…

S'mores Brownies Those of you who are regular readers will know that I adore a pun so the names of the recipes in this book were pure gold for me.

In additions to the Everyday I Regret You S’more Brownies you can also find:

  • Shut Your Stupid Cake Hole – a coconut mochi cake with sesame coconut pecan icing
  • Stop Texting Me You Crepe – a crepe cake with Oreos
  • You’re A Piece of Sheet Cake – a cinco leches cake with malted milk whipped cream and salted dulce de leche drizzle (OMG…yes!!!!!)
  • Go Fudge Yourself – Macinac Island chocolate fudge with white chocolate candied ramen
  • I Ain’t Puddin’ Up With You – Butterscotch puddin’ pots with chocolate sauce

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I was beside myself with joy at some of these.  Truly. And not just for the names. I mean cinco leches cake with malted milk whipped cream and salted dulce de leche drizzle sounds like heaven.  Who even knew there were that many leches?  But now I want all cinco of them baked in a cake.  With a   dulce de leche drizzle…

As for the S’mores Brownies, let’s start with the base which a dark, glossy, fudgy brownie which was ridiculously easy to make.

Smores Brownies2Kim provides the recipe for home-made marshmallows to top this.  Being lazy, and in a hurry, I chose to buy some marshmallows.  Which all went wonderfully until….2 pink marshmallows short!!!!!

If you put these on the Brownies whilst they are still warm, they melt a little and fill some of the gaps between…sadly, not all of them!

Never mind, because we are about to cover it all with a Graham Cracker Streusel. And sprinkles!  And then, you get to blowtorch the hell out of it all.  Which is another great way to get out some frustration!

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Sweet Revenge not only has some great recipes like the ones above but also handy tips, gorgeous photos and cute drawings.  The downside of Sweet Revenge was that some of the flavour combinations were a little too out there for me vis a vis:

But you know what?  There are always going to be recipes that I don’t  fancy in any book. And it might be better to be edgy than boring! And I know I am making a judgement on a sample size of one but this seems like a pretty solid book – the brownies were amazing!

Here’s the recipe.  This is straight from the book so you can get a feel for the style:

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Here are some wise words from Heather on why you should bake for your enemies and exes:

And more wise words on revenge from Old Blue Eyes himself…

Get out there and be successful!  And bake these brownies!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Capstone / Switch Press for the ARC.

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