Chocolate chip brownies ( Mary Anne’s recipe)

This is a recipe my mother in law Sue sent me. I like that it has both chocolate and vanilla chips ! 

Ingredients 

All purpose flour - 1 cup 

Sugar- 3 cups 

Eggs- 6

Vanilla- 1 tbsp

1.Cream flour, sugar and eggs. 

2. Add vanilla and mix 

All purpose flour - 2.25 cups

Baking cocoa - 1/2 cup

Baking soda - 1/2 cup 

Salt- 1 tsp

3. Blend all of the dry ingredients in with the creamed mixture above- do not over mix

4. Now add the following to the mixture 

Chocolate chips - 1 cup

Vanilla chips - 1 cup 

Chopped walnuts - 1 cup 

5. Pour into greased 10x15 deep jelly roll pan 

6. Sprinkle chips and nuts on top Bake at 350 F for 35-40 minutes 

7. Stick a toothpick in the center to test 

If it comes out clean the brownies are done 

8. Cut into squares abs serve 

9. This makes 3-4 dozen brownies 

Toffee topped with cashews

My dad usually gets toffee for Christmas from a company he works with and he loves it , but this year the person that sends them retired ! So he had no toffee. I set out to make toffee and looked for recipes and found this one I modified it a little bit and I had awesome toffee. Even my sister (who is not easily impressed ) was impressed . Try it out and let me know what you think 

Ingredients 

Unsalted Butter - 2 cups ( 4 sticks ) 

Sugar - 2 cups 

Salt - pinch 

Semi sweet chocolate chips- 2 cups 

Unsalted Cashews chopped in to small pieces - 1 cup 

Candy thermometer 

Instructions :

Have a baking sheet lined with buttered parchment paper ready on a flat surface. 

1. Place a heavy bottomed saucepan on medium heat . Add the butter, sugar and salt . Let the butter melt and stir occasionally once the butter is melted place a candy thermometer on the side to measure the temperature of the mixture.
   
   
   
   
2. Let the mixture come to a boil and cook until it turns a beige/ light brown color. Stir occasionally with a wooden spatula to ensure the mixture doesn’t stick to the pan.
   
3. Let the mixture come to 290 F ( also known as the hard crack stage ) . If you drop a little ball of the mixture into cold water you will get a brittle mixture 
4. Once this happens take off  the stove immediately and pour the mixture on pan lined with the parchment paper and let it get evenly spread and let sit for a couple of minutes. 
   
5. Immediately evenly sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the warm mixture so that they melt and spread the melted chocolate evenly over the mixture with a silicone spatula 
   
   
   
   
   
6. Now sprinkle the chopped nuts on top evenly 
   
7. Place the pan in the refrigerator for atleast 2 to 3 hours or until completely set. To break the toffee lift up the parchment paper and drop from a few inches height over a hard clean flat work surface. Do this a few times and it will have broken into uneven pieces. Toffee is ready to serve. Here is a  popular video on YouTube showing all the steps ( there is some variation from my recipe ) for visual learners. Enjoy !