Surgical Brownie Conversation Heart Cookies

Woot! I'm back after a few months of slaving away and studying for the in-training exam. I wish I had more time to bake, but I'll take what I can get! I'm writing this post on my last 27hr call on SICU and I thought I would go ahead and bake ahead for Valentine's day. So I made these brownie conversation heart cookies with some funny surgical pick up lines.

 My fave has probably got to be "You look post call", which I've been pretty much looking like daily :(. I don't usually wear anything than skin care on my face, which I thought was okay, but the nurses have been telling me I look sick today 😰😰... so I guess not??

Anyhoo, I hope you enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed making them! Happy Valentine's Day!

Surgical Brownie Conversation Heart Cookies

makes 15 three inch cookies and many small ones

1 stick butter, at room temp
3/4 cup white sugar
1 medium egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

Frosting
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp whole milk
1 tbsp light corn syrup
coloring of choice

1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy in a stand mixer. On low speed, add egg and vanilla
2. Place all dry ingredients, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into the mixer and mix on medium speed until well incorporated. Scrape down sides with a spatula if needed
3. Wrap the cookie batter in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or 15 minutes in the freezer. I left mine in the fridge overnight
4. Preheat oven to 375F. Let dough rest on the counter for 5-10mins. Roll out dough between baking paper or silicon mat for easy lifting. Otherwise, sprinkle a mix of flour and cocoa powder to prevent sticking while rolling. Roll to about 1/4" thick
5. Cut out shapes and place on a pan prepared with a baking mat or paper. Bake for about 8-10 mins and let it rest on the pan for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack
6. Once cookies are completely cooled, whisk frosting ingredients together. Place into a small piping bag and decorate cookies. Leave to dry for at least 2 hours

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Thai Tea Skillet Brownies

I hope you guys had a splendid Easter weekend! My Easter holidays growing up usually involved church and my mum forcing me to play some hymn on the violin. I used to have terrible stage fright, and I still do! But, my mum kept making me do all kinds of things in front of people because "it builds character". Now that I'm an almost adult, I get to wake up late and eat left over Easter dessert/candies for breakfast :P.

It's raining in Richmond today, so I can't imagine what doing a egg hunt would be like in this weather. My roommate and I did some major spring cleaning. Honestly, we only clean when we have prospective renters look at the apartment, so I'm glad some people want to see it tomorrow. We really needed a reason to kick our butts into high cleaning gear!! You don't even want to know some of the things I found under my desk! It's difficult when you have two girls with long black hair shedding all over the place :P

Cleaning is some back breaking work though, so we'll be treating ourselves to some leftover brownies a la mode. The butter here is infused with Thai tea, so it gives it some depth and extra flavor! I'm using the same Revol mini dishes that I used in my last kimchi chili tots post. These are perfect for serving and portion control...otherwise, I'd eat the whole pan! And, because of the gooey nature of these brownies, it's difficult to clean but these "cast iron" dishes are able to go into the dish washer! What a relief, because I have absolutely no strength to even wash dishes :D

Thai Tea Skillet Brownies

makes 3-4 mini skillet brownies

1 stick butter
4-5 tbsp loose thai tea leaves
5 oz unsweetened chocolate chips, melted
2 eggs, room temp
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
sweetened condensed milk

1. Put Thai tea leaves in a cheesecloth or tea bag. Melt butter in a small saucepan and place tea bags into the butter to let steep for a few minutes (I let it sit for 5-8 mins). Some thai tea leaves have orange food coloring in them, so if your butter turns bright orange, don't be alarmed!
2. Preheat oven to 350F and butter mini casserole dishes. Once the tea is done steeping, take out the tea bags, add in chocolate chips and the residual heat will melt it. If it isn't quite melted, just put it on low heat for a few seconds and it will melt quickly. Set aside and let cool
3. In a large bowl, mix together sugar flour, baking powder and salt. In a smaller bowl, lightly beat eggs with the vanilla extract and stir this into the cooled melted chocolate. Mix together the wet and dry ingredients until just incorporated. Try not to over mix, or you'll get a more cakey brownie!
4. Bake for 20-25mins, or less if you want your center to be very gooey. And that's okay because we're going to be eating these with spoons anyway!
5. Serve with a giant scoop of ice cream and drizzle on sweetened condensed milk

I developed this recipe for Revol; all opinions expressed are my own. I love their beautiful and creative kitchen bakeware, serve ware and cooking tools :) Thank you for the support!

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Oreo Cheesecake Brownie Bars

Ah... It feels like I haven't been posting for a while! I swear I've been sweating it up in the kitchen baking, cooking and testing out recipes. I have so many posts lined up that I'm super excited about, so I promise I'll have it up soon. But, for now I'm going to post something I made last year. Haha oops. I've been meaning to post these oreo cheesecake brownies that I made when I just felt I needed the ultimate indulgence. It isn't one of my usual East-meets-West recipe, but sometimes there are foods like cheesecake brownies that you just can't tamper with.

Do make these and save them in the fridge so you can have them on one of those long and exhausting days. Or if you're like me and you become cookie monster at a certain time of the month ;) 

Hopefully I'll be able to post some cooler recipes soon! 

Oreo Cheesecake Brownie Bars
makes one 8x8" pan

Brownie
1 stick butter, melted
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cheesecake
2 - 8oz packages cream cheese, room temp
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
About 1 cup crushed Oreos

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line pan with parchment paper
2. Brownie: mix wet ingredients (melted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla), gently stir in the dry ingredients (cocoa, flour, salt, baking powder) and just mixed. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into the pan. Smooth out if necessary.
3. Cheesecake: Whip cream cheese until light and fluffy. Whip in the sugar, sour cream and vanilla. Gently fold in the crushed Oreos.
4. Carefully pour cheesecake batter over the brownie batter and smooth the top
5. Put in the oven for 20mins (do not open the oven door). Lower the oven to 325F and bake for another 20 mins. Again (DON"T open the oven door), lower temperature to 300 and bake for 10 mins
6. Now crack open the oven door just a little bit, turn off the oven, and let it sit for 30-40mins. Let it cool and then stick it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

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