Valentine's Day Desserts

Well, tomorrow's the day... that dreadful, annual reminder of singleness. Even though I'm obviously not a fan of Valentine's Day, I admit it's a good excuse to indulge in chocolate. Or bake cutesy, heart-shaped desserts. In this post, I'm sharing two simple desserts to help us survive the "day of love."

So, for any fellow single girls reading, keep your chin up, eat some chocolate, and know that pretty soon, it'll be February 15th. A normal, average, uneventful day. Better yet, by the 16th, no one should be talking about Valentine's anymore. It'll be over before we know it. :)

One-Bowl Brownies

Recipe from Baker's Chocolate

Ingredients

• 1/2 C. cocoa

• 3/4 C. butter

• 2 C. sugar

• 3 eggs

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 1 C. flour

• 1 1/2 C. walnuts or pecans (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13 glass baking dish with butter.

2. Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on high for about 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour and nuts; mix well. Pour into baking dish.

3. Bake 30 to 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Avoid the temptation to overbake. We want these fudgy.) Cool completely.

Serve warm with a generous scoop (or two) of ice cream and drizzle with chocolate syrup.

These are just as good, if not better than, the à la mode desserts at Dairy Queen. (N.B. If you make your own brownies, you'll have an entire pan to enjoy, not just one serving. Just sayin')

Or if you feel like going along with the holiday theme, you could make a giant heart-shaped cookie...

I used the Blue Bonnet Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, as I always do. Form it into a heart on a cookie sheet. Bake and let cool completely, then frost with rosettes and stars of Magnolia's Vanilla Buttercream. (A half batch of the frosting should be sufficient for this project.) A few carefully-placed metallic dragées make it extra classy. ;)

Thank you for stopping by,

Eva

P.S. Next up is the 200th blog post! Stay tuned for something exciting!