I came to an important realization while making this recipe: I cannot follow directions. I have been excited about making these brownies for months ever since I decided to host the Halloween potluck at work. Normally I opt for box-made brownies because I think they are just as good (Sacrilegious, I know).
I found this recipe on King Arthur Flour and they seemed simple enough and so perfect for a Halloween party. The picture shows one large spiderweb, seemingly thick so I assumed that one 8'' pan would suffice. I'm pretty sure I even read that in the footnotes. Wrong! I ended up having to cook these brownies so long since the batter was so thick in one pan that the spiderweb turned brown. Horror or horrors! I decided to post it anyhow since it's such a cute idea and the brown web doesn't look too horrible. Let's just hope it isn't rock hard!
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Serves: 2 dozen
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp espresso powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 cups chocolate chips
Spider web mixture:
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp All-Purpose Flour
1 large egg yolk
1/2 tsp mint flavoring (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan or two 8’’ round pans. In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Or simply combine the butter and sugar, and heat, stirring, until the butter is melted.
Continue to heat (or microwave) briefly, just until the mixture is hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating the mixture to this point will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.
While the sugar heats a second time, crack the 4 eggs into a bowl, and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla till smooth. Add the hot butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth.
Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Note: If you want the chips to remain intact in the baked brownies, rather than melting in, let the batter cool in the bowl for about 20 minutes before stirring in the chips. Spoon the batter into the lightly greased 8" pans.
To make the spider web:
Combine the cream cheese, sugar and flour in a small bowl, and mix until smooth. Add the egg yolk and flavoring (if using), mixing until smooth once again. Transfer the mixture to a disposable pastry bag, and cut just the very tip off the end.
Place a small pool of the mixture in the center of the brownie batter. Draw circles around this pool, about 1 inch apart, moving out from the center each time. Once the circles are drawn, take a table knife, wet the tip, and draw it back and forth through the circles. Once you've gone all the way around the circles, take up your pastry bag again. Use the remaining filling to trace the path where the knife traveled, to create the spokes of the web.
Bake the brownies for 30 minutes, until the brownies just barely pull away from the edge of the pan. The center will rise while baking, but will sink back level once the brownies are cool. Remove them from the oven and cool before cutting.
