Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Ghirardelli Chocolate Valentine’s Impressions Brownies

Ghirardelli Chocolate Valentine Impressions Brownies 2

Special thanks to Ghirardelli for sending me an amazing box of their Chocolate Valentine’s Impressions (and Easter with cute bunnies and baskets—love them).  Not only is all the chocolate great, and how fun are the Valentine messages printed on each one, but I LOVE the box they came in.  The top lifts open and it’s such a great box.  (I know, it’s the little things for me sometimes.)

Ghirardelli

Some of the Impressions on the milk chocolate squares are dark chocolate and some are white chocolate.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Impressions

Run to your nearest store and get some of these for your special Valentine!  I saw them at Target and was going to make sure to tell you that, but I also just saw them at our local grocery store, so I’m sure you can find them all over the place, wherever Ghirardelli chocolate is sold.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Valentine's Impressions 3

Which would you like more—the white chocolate or dark chocolate?  I prefer to eat dark chocolate, but I love the way the white looks.    I wanted to make something yummy (read—chocolaty) with these, so I made brownies that were full of white chocolate, then I put the Impressions on the top.  Yes, I know it warped the chocolates a bit, but they were still delicious and fun.  You could just make the brownies then once they are cooled and cut you could lay a chocolate on the top, but I wanted them to stick, so they needed to melt a little.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Valentine's Impressions Brownies 4

These were gobbled up here at my house.  You don’t HAVE to add the extra white chocolate to the brownies, but if you’re going to make chocolate brownies, you might as well go all out with the chocolate.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Valentine’s Impressions Brownies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup natural cocoa powder

2 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons (45 grams) all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 ounces white chocolate bar, chopped

9 squares of Ghirardelli Chocolate Valentine’s Impressions, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line a 9 inch square baking pan with nonstick foil.  Spray lightly with cooking spray.  Set aside.

In a small saucepan, let the stick of butter start melting over medium-low heat.  Add the cocoa powder and whisk together until all combined and the butter is melted.  Remove from heat and let sit for about 5 minutes (to cool slightly).  Add the eggs and whisk to combine.  Add the sugar and vanilla and whisk until well combined.  Stir in the flour and salt just until the flour is all combined.  Pour half the batter in the pan and spread evenly.  Lay the chopped white chocolate in an even layer over the batter then drizzle evenly the rest of the batter over the white chocolate.  Bake brownies for 22-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.  Let cool for a few minutes while you unwrap the chocolates.  Set the Impressions chocolate evenly over the brownies.  You can decide how soon after the come out of the oven to do it with how much you want the chocolates to melt.  Let the brownies cool completely. (You can set them in the fridge, too, which hardens up the chocolate faster.)  Remove from the pan by lifting the foil edges.  Remove the foil and cut the brownies in to squares on a cutting board. 

Ghirardelli Chocolate Valentine Impressions Brownies

If you’d like a thicker brownie, you can bake them in an 8 inch square pan.  This is my go-to brownie recipe that I add all kinds of mix-ins to when I make brownies.  Man, I want one.   Thank you so much, Ghirardelli.  Now I’m already excited for Easter, too.

2 comments:

Pam said...

Beautiful brownies who wouldn't want those for Valentine's Day. I would have been over the moon to get that box of chocolates in the mail. Enjoy!

Unknown said...

These are gorgeous! Echoing Pam above, nothing better than getting chocolates in the mail!