Ingredients:
For the brownies:
5.3 oz bar (70%) semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup cocoa
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup malted milk powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
To decorate:
1 16-oz Pillsbury Filled Pastry Bag (Cream Cheese)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray with baking spray or grease and flour one 8×8 inch baking pan. Set aside
In a saucepan, melt the butter, cocoa, and chocolate together over low heat. Stir occasionally, and when the chocolate is nearly melted, remove from heat. Whisk until smooth. Set aside.
In a small bowl, stir together flour, salt, malted milk powder and baking powder. Set aside
In a separate bowl, beat together the brown sugar, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Slowly stream the chocolate mixture into the eggs and mix to combine. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients and mix until the batter is thick and glossy. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with one or two crumbs. Cool completely in pan, on a wire rack. Make “star” shapes with the Pastry Bag holding the bag vertically with the tip about 1/4 inch above the brownies. Squeeze the bag to form stars.
Pull tip straight up. Repeat in rows until brownies are covered in stars.
Slice into squares and serve. Store leftovers up to 3 days in an air-tight container.
My thoughts:
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Pillsbury™. The opinions and text are all mine.
I was excited when Pillsbury™ approached me to develop a homemade treat to showcase their new Pillsbury Filled Pastry Bag. Despite taking a cake decorating class some years back and blogging here since 2004, I am pretty hopeless when it comes to using a pastry bag and piping anything! I’d had an idea to make some iced chocolate malted brownies, but I wanted them to look cute so I kept putting it off. When this opportunity came up, I thought it was the perfect time to finally make these brownies! I found Pillsbury Filled Pastry Bag right at my local Giant near the icing and cake decorating supplies.
The pastry bag was super easy to use with the built-in star tip (even my husband tried it out and he has zero cake decorating experience) and the results were great. It’s so fun to use with the whole family and it was a great way to jazz up a homemade brownie! Bonus, there was no mess trying to fill a pastry bag with sticky frosting myself, something I’ve always had trouble doing.
The brownies themselves are moist and delicious. They really taste like a chocolate malted milkshake! The creamy, cream cheese frosting really adds to the effect, sort of like the whipped cream on top of a milkshake. The pastry bags also come in flavors like vanilla and chocolate fudge! The slight tang from the cream cheese frosting kept the brownie from being overly sweet. I also used chocolate with a high cocoa content for an extra rich, chocolate flavor.
I like a big square of brownie so I sliced this 8×8 inch pan into nine brownies but feel free to make them smaller if you are serving a crowd or are dainty eaters! You can also double the recipe to make a 9×13 inch pan of brownies. There is enough frosting in the pastry bag to pipe on the icing on a larger batch. I iced my brownies in the pan because I served them directly from pan but if you are slicing and arranging them on a platter for an event, you can also ice each individual brownie for cleaner lines and no frosting smears. It is up to you!
Right now, if you shop at Giant, Stop & Shop, or Martins you can get a coupon for Pillsbury Filled Pastry Bags! Check it out here!
