Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram This year Eric and I dressed as The Swedish Chef and his Popcorn Shrimp. The kids are obsessed with The Swedish Chef (specifically that popcorn video) and when we surprised them with our costumes, they cheered as if we were celebrities for a solid 2 minutes. 😂 (Charlotte is Disgust from Inside Out, and Truman spent HOURS making his own homemade proton pack for his Ghostbusters costume!! I love how into it my kids are!) Eric and I run the blog together these days, and just like real parenthood, it makes us want to tear our hair out sometimes!! But it’s always worth it in the end. I just don’t think I’ll ever run out of recipes I want to share with you, the ideas never stop. I can’t let another year pass without telling you how much your support of my blog and business means to me! A blog without a community is nothing, and I’m so grateful for all your comments, emails, photos, tags, etc., that let me know you are enjoying and using the content we work to hard to create. It makes me so incredibly happy to think that people all over the world (18 million so far this year) are making my own family’s beloved recipes. What an honor! Thank you for being here.
The first blog post on The Food Charlatan (2011): Pumpkin Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies 1st Anniversary (2012): Cake Mix Coffee Cake 2nd Anniversary (2013): Pumpkin Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Cookies (I did a photo reshoot of my first recipe, which I totally regret!) 3rd Anniversary (2014): The Food Charlatan’s New Blog Design 4th Anniversary (2015): The Best Chocolate Cake I’ve Ever Had 5th Anniversary (2016): Death by Chocolate Bundt Cake 6th Anniversary (2017): Upside Down Almond Crunch Cupcakes 7th Anniversary (2018): Ginger Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake 8th Anniversary (2019): Sour Cream Coffee Cake, with a Ridiculous Amount of Streusel 9th Anniversary (2020): Homemade Spice Cake 10th Anniversary (2021): Classic Cheesecake (and an IRL party for 10 years! 🥳) 11th Anniversary (2022): Pumpkin Coffee Cake 12th Anniversary (2023): Picnic Cake with Buttermilk Glaze
They are a true brownie, with all the fudginess and texture you are looking for, but the taste is completely different. White chocolate and regular chocolate are just not the same! They have totally different flavor profiles. I started out making Absolutely the Best Brownies I Have Ever Made, and just swapping the chocolate bar called for in the recipe with white chocolate. It was a bust. Browning the butter overwhelmed the flavor (white chocolate is delicate) and the texture was not right. They barely baked up properly. Several tests later, we have our winner. We are even tossing the vanilla out of this recipe. (I know, WHAT?) We are so used to all white desserts being vanilla flavored, it just seems natural to add it in, and I did on my first 3 tests. But I realized eventually, after trying over and over to amp up that white chocolate flavor, that even gentle, subtle vanilla was overwhelming the white chocolate in this recipe. So! Off with the vanilla and a 7 ingredient recipe becomes a 6 ingredient recipe. When you have a recipe with so few parts, you HAVE to make sure those parts are high quality. And that means: REAL white chocolate, my friends. The only white chocolate I ever had growing up was in the form of white chocolate chips, or as a coating on cheap candy. I’ve never been a fan. It’s waxy and kinda bland tasting to me. But a few years ago I was researching white chocolate for this Penuche Fudge recipe, and discovered that White Chocolate Chips are not made from white chocolate; it is mostly sugar and palm kernel oil. Whaaaaatt I like to use chopped Ghirardelli Premium Baking White Chocolate for these brownies, Lindt or Guittard will do as well. The flavor, texture, and smoothness of the melted chocolate is absolutely incomparable to white baking chips. First up, add some sugar, salt, and eggs to a large bowl: Use a hand mixer (or even just a whisk and some elbow grease) to beat the eggs and sugar together for about 2 minutes, until it looks light and fluffy, like this: Meanwhile, add 2 bars of white chocolate and a stick of butter to another microwave safe bowl. Melt until allllllmost melted, not more. You don’t want to scorch it. White chocolate is delicate, be careful! I stopped when it looked like this: Stir it until the white chocolate melts. Then scrape it into the bowl with the beaten eggs. Now for the last ingredient: flour. Do NOT over-mix your flour. This will make your brownies tough! Scrape the batter into the pan. Then, chop up your last bar of chocolate and dump it on top of the batter. Gently fold it into the batter with a spatula. I like this method better than stirring the chopped chocolate directly into the batter (in the bowl) because white chocolate melts SO easily. If your batter is still warm at all, it could melt all your “chips.” Then: the hour long bake time. Feels weird, I know. Regular brownies usually take about half the time! There is so much chocolate in this recipe (and so little flour, necessary for that FUDGY texture) that they need a long, lower bake time in order to set up. And now: a waiting game. These brownies absolutely unequivocally must come to near-room temperature before cutting into them. Trust me. They will melt into a complete mess if you cut into them while warm. (You can chill in the fridge if you’re impatient.) Once they have set up, you can reheat a single serving of brownies in the microwave if you want to eat it warm, no problem! And voila! That’s it! Super easy.
THE BEST Brownie Recipe I’ve Ever Made! » if you’re not a white chocolate fan, these are THE brownies to make instead! Browned Butter Blondies » the browned butter in these makes them extra rich and butterscotch-y Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars » oatmeal cookie bars, with peanut butter and chocolate combo on top?!?!?! YES. Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Bars » you’re going to love the buttery shortbread crust and copious amounts of fresh raspberries Fudgy Mint Chocolate Brownies » my mom made these every year on Thanksgiving since they were my Aunt Pauline’s favorite. They’re so good! Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookie Bars » like your favorite sugar cookies, but in deep-dish, luxurious bar form Graham Cracker Cookie Bars from Lana’s Cooking Blueberry Blondies from Cambrea Bakes
