Raspberry Truffle Brownies

I'd been wanting to make these forever. I bought seedless raspberry jam on sale like two months ago specifically so I could use it in this recipe. (Note: seedless raspberry jam is weird in PB&J. Especially if you bought reduced fat peanut butter that tasted gritty. You should learn from my mistakes; I shan't be making either mistake again.) The reason I didn't make them immediately the moment I had all the ingredients was that I did not want Cory and myself to have to eat them all on our own--which is why I jumped at the chance to make something for game night. Hooray for excuses to make good food!

(Note: If you're one of my siblings, you should already have this recipe--I found it in the Taste of Home cookbook Mom gave everybody for Christmas a couple years ago.)

Raspberry Truffle Brownies

BROWNIES:

1 1/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 lg. eggs
1 tsp. instant coffee crystals (opt.--I had dark hot chocolate mix on hand, so I used that. Regular baking cocoa probably wouldn't hurt either...)

2 tbsp. water
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 c. all-purpose flour

TRUFFLE FILLING:

1 c. semi-sweet real chocolate morsels
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. seedless red raspberry preserves

GLAZE:

1/4 c. semi-sweet real chocolate morsels
1 tsp. vegetable shortening

BROWNIES: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 9 inch baking pan (I used an 11x7, which is the closest I have to a 9x9). In heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt chocolate morsels with butter. Cool slightly. In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs together. Add chocolate mixture and coffee crystals dissolved in water, mixing well. Add flour and baking powder, mixing again. Spread evenly into prepared baking pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.
TRUFFLE FILLING: Melt chocolate morsels in heavy saucepan over low heat. Set aside. In small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with powdered sugar until fluffy. Beat in raspberry preserves. Add melted chocolate, mixing until well blended. Spread over top of brownies.
GLAZE: (I skipped the glaze, because I was out of chocolate.) In small heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt chocolate morsels with shortening. Drizzle over top of truffle mixture.
Chill before cutting.

When I made them they didn't really have time to chill; they were in the freezer for maybe half an hour before we cut them, and it worked fine. But the next day, straight out of the fridge, they were fudgy and even more delicious than before.

In summary, you should make these, because they're amazing.

Thanksgiving!

Cory's been on my case about not posting anything yet, so here we go!

Thanksgiving was a nice quiet affair at the Stephens home. No turkey, because it's a hassle and the odds of all two of us polishing off an entire turkey (small as it may be, by turkey standards) are quite slim. Instead, we put a pork roast in the crock pot with sweet potatoes and onion, whipped up some (boxed) stuffing, some (boxed, but hand-seasoned) mashed potatoes, and some (not boxed) glazed carrots. I also made a key lime pie for dessert, which was incredibly easy and is, to this day, incredibly tasty. (Read: we've only eaten half of it.)

Oh--and I, uh, bought a bag of King's Hawaiian sweet rolls, because we like them and because yeast is expensive here (stupid California). And that's not milk in our glasses, it's Cory's homemade egg nog, which was excellent.

The reason Henry doesn't look too happy in the picture isn't because he's sitting in a pink chair or because he didn't get to eat any of our delicious food, but because he's exhausted. Just as we were about to start eating he decided he'd had it and when nothing could console him, we wrapped him up and put him in his bed while we had dinner. Half-way through, to our great astonishment, he did something amazing: he stopped crying.

This was momentous. This was unprecedented. This was the first time EVER that we had put him to bed crying and he had actually fallen asleep on his own; usually we have to feed and/or rock him to sleep. He did the same the next night, though last night I had to go in and hold him for a minute. Hopefully the trend will continue, but who knows--once upon a time he was sleeping clear through the night, too.

And in case you want to know, here's the pie recipe, pretty much Key Lime Pie VII from Allrecipes.com:

Key Lime Pie!

Crust:
16 whole graham crackers, crushed
1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted

Mix together and press into a pie pan. (SO much better than store-bought crust.)

Filling:
2 cans (14 oz each) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. sour cream
3/4 c. key lime juice

Mix together in a bowl and pour into the crust. Pop it in the oven at 350 for 5-8 minutes (you don't want it to brown.) Cool it, chill it, and serve it with whipped cream (lots, if you're me). Fabulous.