White & Dark Chocolate Heart Brownies

Sweet Treats

My latest cooking obsession (besides my new KitchenAid and Cuisinart) is Smitten Kitchen blog. I just love all of her recipes. Last night I tackled some incredibly delicious and cute Smitten Kitchen brownies. I couldn't believe how perfect they came out...

White and Dark Chocolate Heart Brownies

They remind me of New York's famous black and white cookies...but in brownie form.

Not only do these brownies look absolutely adorable with the heart cutouts, but they taste scrumptious and homemade.

Ingredients:

*you will need a 1-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter*

White Chocolate Brownies

• 4 ounces of *high-quality white chocolate (ie. Ghirardelli white chocolate bar)

*VERY important to use good chocolate. According to Smitten Kitchen, cheaper "white chocolate baking chips" melt into yellow-oiled chunk...ew!

• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

Dark Chocolate Brownies

• 4 ounces of semisweet chocolate (ie. Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate bar)
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

Recipe:

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8-inch or 7x11-inch baking pan with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter.

-Now, here's the interesting part. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a simmer. Place a large bowl on the pot...

Like so.

Smash the chocolate bar to pieces.

Melt the white chopped white chocolate and one stick of butter in the bowl. Stir to prevent burning.

Whisk in the sugar.

Whisk in the eggs (one at a time), flour, and salt. Then add the vanilla. Stir until just combined.

Spread into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

-Repeat these steps for the chocolate version...

-But...bake the chocolate brownies for 25-30 minutes!

-Place the baked brownies in the freezer for 30 minutes. This will make the "cookie-cutting" much cleaner and easier.

Measure and cut the brownies.

Yum.

Cookie-cut the centers out of the brownies.

Put the dark chocolate centers into the white chocolate brownies.

And the white chocolate centers into the dark chocolate brownies.