Tuxedo Brownie Bites

April 9, 2012
Staying with the tuxedo theme, I made some tuxedo brownie bites to accompany the tuxedo peep cupcakes. Bite-sized brownies topped with a white-chocolate, cream cheese frosting and garnished with fresh berries, hard to go wrong with that. And of course, the fact that they are bite-sized make them so much more appealing and less guilt-inducing.
While the original recipe features a maraschino cherry on top, I switched it out for strawberries and raspberries. Mostly, because I just personally never learned to like maraschino cherries. Although, I wish I did like them, because they just give off that perfect ice-cream sundae look. And, after experimenting with a couple of possible combinations (from turtle to blackberries to chocolate), I found that once again, the strawberry and chocolate combination never fails. Of course, any brownie recipe would work here, but I definitely encourage you to try out the frosting in the recipe!


Tuxedo Brownies
Yield: a little over 3 dozen
Recipe from Culinography Blog
Brownies:
8 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 stick unsalted butter, cubed
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour mini muffin pan or spray with cooking spray.

Set a metal bowl over a pan of almost simmering-water. Add chocolate and butter to the heatproof bowl. While constantly stirring, melt the mixture until smooth. Remove from pan and set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla on high speed for about 2 minutes or until mixture is thick and light-colored. Whisk in the chocolate mixture and fold in flour.

Fill each cup in the mini-muffin pan about 2/3 full of batter. Bake 12-14 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and while brownies are still hot, press the back of a teaspoon into the tops of the brownies to make the indentations. Let brownies cool for about 15 minutes and remove from pan (a toothpick is helpful in releasing brownies).

White-chocolate, cream cheese frosting:

4 oz white chocolate
4 TB heavy cream
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Berries, garnish of choice
melted semi-sweet chocolate for drizzling(optional)

In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave white chocolate and heavy cream in 20 second increments, stirring in between, until mixture is melted and smooth.

Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar together on low speed. Add and beat in white chocolate mixture to cream cheese mixture until smooth. Decorate as desired and refrigerate brownies for 1-3 hours before serving.