Kahlua Brownies With White and Dark Chocolate #recipe #giveaway #bookclub @AbbottMysteries

By VICTORIA ABBOTT aka Mary Jane and Victoria Maffini

 

Welcome to Book Club Week! This is possibly the best week in the year, in my humble opinion. We are so glad you have invited us and our books to your book club.  Naturally, we brought a contribution for the table as well as our book to talk about.

My own book club has two rules: 

Rule # 1: There must be chocolate

Rule # 2: There must be wine.

We’re thinking that these black and white chocolate Kahlua brownies will cover both. But if not, then allow us to assure you, they are very good with white wine, red wine and rosé.  We are very happy to contribute this recipe. 


On our recent Facebook ‘survey’ about favorite desserts, brownies came out top of the list. That sent me scampering for a great recipe.  I found this one in my printed recipe files and, of course, tweaked it. Alas it is one of those where the original source is not visible, but here’s my huge vote of thanks to whoever originated it. 

We liked it so much that we ‘practiced’ making it four times. Ahem. We've done it with a sprinkle of sea salt and with toasted slivered almonds and twice just choco.  We love all the versions.

It was a big hit at my book club and at several social events. It’s so easy (one bowl, no mixers needed, although I still use the stand mixer on stir) and it’s a keeper.

As for the book, we’re very excited to bring THE MARSH MADNESS, the fourth book collector mystery to your meeting. But more about that after we make the brownies.

You will need:

2 cups granulated white sugar

1 ¹⁄₄ cups all purpose pre-sifted flour

²⁄₃ cups good quality cocoa (we used Penzey’s)

¹⁄₂ teaspoon baking soda

¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt

¹⁄₂ teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup butter, melted and cooled (we melted it in the microwave and stuck the bowl in the fridge after – very quick)

4 extra large eggs, at room temperature

¹⁄₄ cup Kahlua

2 teaspoon real vanilla extract

½ cup toasted slivered almond

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

¼ cup white chocoate chips

Sprinkle of pink sea salt (optional)

Tin foil

All you do is:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour a 13x9x2 baking dish and set aside (can use a mix of cocoa and flour to prevent white edges around finished brownies) In a big bowl combine  (by hand or stir with mixer)  sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Add melted butter.

Add eggs, vanilla, and Kahlua, and stir with a wooden spoon just until blended (Do not over mix).

Put batter in prepared baking dish, evening out the batter with a spatula.

Bake for 40- 45 minutes or until the edges of brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the dish.

Remove from the oven and put dish on wire rack to cool.

Immediately sprinkle dark chocolate chips over top of hot brownies.

Cover baking dish with tin foil to hold in heat.

After about 5 minutes, spread melted chips over the brownies with a spatula.

Immediately randomly sprinkle white chocolate over the frosting, and cover with foil for a couple of minutes.

When white chocolate is melted, gently swirl chips into the dark chocolate to create a marble pattern.

Add toasted almonds here and there.  Or sprinkle a bit of sea salt. We did it with and without almonds and sea salt. We like all the versions.  

This is the plain choco version.

Let cool thoroughly before cutting.

They are quite rich, so we found cutting into small squares was best. But then, you will know your book club or audience best. 

This makes a generous 9 x 13 pan.  We usually freeze some for brownie emergencies, of which there are many.

That shadowy figure known as Victoria Abbott is actually artist and photographer, Victoria Maffini and her mother, Mary Jane, author of three other mystery series.

And now to the book:  The Marsh Madness is the fourth outing for our young sleuth, Jordan Kelly Bingham.  It hit the shelves on September 1st and we'd like you to know it contains many delicious meals and there are no dogs on the table once you're past the cover.

  

Jordan is the research assistant and book scout to Vera Van Alst, wealthy curmudgeon and book collector.  Jordan’s also the first person in her large family to go straight.  The Marsh Madness brings Vera and Jordan and Uncle Kev (the less said about him the better!) to Summerlea, the palatial summer home of the wealthy Kauffman family for a special luncheon. The sole heir, Chadwick Kauffman will transfer a complete set of fine first edition of Ngaio Marsh’s mysteries. Vera will leave behind a satchel of cash, in turn.  Jordan has a raspberry dress for the occasion.  She has had her troubles what with murder and mayhem and it hasn’t always been easy staying on the right side of the law. She deserves this wonderful outing. After all, what could possibly go wrong? 

We loved writing this book!  We were given twenty-nine Ngaio Marsh books (thank you, Nancy Reid!) in pristine condition.  The re-reading was almost as much fun as the writing, except of course, we like to be the detectives.  

We hope you like it and you find time to nibble a brownie or two while you’re enjoying the ride. 

GIVEAWAY!  Because you've been such a great book club, we're offering one of our limited edition  book collector totebags.  Just leave a comment here. 

Find out more about the book collector mysteries here!

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