Holiday Tree Brownies Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and kosher salt. Add the granulated sugar, melted butter, vanilla and eggs and whisk until a few lumps remain. Stir in the chocolate chunks.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar and flake salt. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs, about 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely in the pan.
• Cut the brownie in half. Using the tip of a knife, slice in angles making W's with the cut to form triangular pieces. Remove each piece and decorate with frosting and sprinkles as desired.

Steps:

• For the brownies: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of two 8-inch round cake pans. Cut two 8-inch circles out of parchment and line the bottoms of the cake pans with the parchment.
• Stir together the butter, granulated sugar, vanilla and eggs in a medium bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing the tops. Bake until the brownies begin to gain a crust around the edges, pull away from the edge and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.
• Let the brownies cool fully in the pans on cooling racks, about 1 hour. Cut each circle into 8 equal triangles with a knife. Use a small offset spatula or pie server to lift each triangle out of the pan.
• For the American buttercream frosting: Combine the confectioners' sugar, butter and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or in a large bowl if using a handheld electric mixer). Mix on low speed until mostly incorporated. Add the vanilla, increase the speed to medium-high and mix until smooth. Loosen the consistency with milk as desired. Add 24 drops green food coloring and 1 drop red food coloring and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Set aside.
• To assemble: Using the tip of a paring knife or a skewer, poke a small hole along the bottom edge of each brownie. Insert a candy cane "trunk" into each hole.
• Fill the piping bag with the frosting and cut 1/4 inch off the tip. Using a zig-zag motion, pipe the frosting from the base to the tip of each tree. Decorate the trees with the sanding sugars and candy-covered chocolate, as desired.

Steps:

• 1. First pre-heat the oven to 350F. Then line a 9 inch square pan with foil. Extending about 2 inches over the sides. Then grease the bottom only of the foil with cooking spray or shortening.
• 2. Next make the brownies as directed on the box. Cool fully about 1 1/2 hours. Then remove frm the pan by filling the foil sides carefully & peel away the foil. Then to cut the triangles shapes in the brownies, cut into 3 rows. Then cut each row into 5 triangles. Save the smaller pieces for snacking on later.
• 3. Then stirin the food coloring into the frosting. Then spoon the frosting into a small resealable palstic bag. partially seal the bag & cut off the tiny bottom corner of the bag. Then squeeze the bag to pipe frosting over the brownies. Then sprinkle with the decors.
• 4. Next break off the hooked part of the candy canes & insert the straight end into the bottoms of the triangles to make the tree trunks.