Bun in the Oven - by Summer

I am excited to announce that my little bun who was baking in my oven finally made his appearance on Wednesday March 17!  He decided to cook a little longer than his due date of March 6, but he doesn't appear to be overdone in the least!

Introducing Edward David.  He was 8.5 lbs and 20 1/2 inches long.  I love being a Mama!

I would expect to be baking to our baking challenge the week of April 19, but for now I am going to enjoy spending time with my little boy! 

Toblerone Brownies - by Lisa

Talk about a bite of heaven! Few things are better than homemade brownies fresh out of the oven! This was a pretty easy recipe for me. Luckily, I didn't have the troubles Summer did with finding the bittersweet Toblerone and managed to find it at my regular grocery store. I was just lazy about waiting to make it until the weekend. :)

There wasn't anything too complicated in this recipe. I just had to take the extra time to chop the chocolate (still need to find a way to get more efficient with that). Melting it with the butter in the double broiler was a breeze and as always, using my stand mixer makes short work of whisking ingredients together. Although, I did follow the instructions verbatim for mixing in the chocolate chips and flour mixture by hand. The only thing I omitted was the optional walnuts.

Lucky for me, Summer's experience with the baking of these brownies tipped me off to bake them a little longer. I ended up keeping them in the oven for 38 minutes. They ended up being just the slightest bit gooey in the middle which is just how I like my brownies! As good as these were, I can't wait to try out the recipe Beth posted for fudgy toffee-pecan brownies. That has my mouth watering!

Hubby sampling the goods

Toblerone Brownies - by Summer

I have to be honest - baking hasn't really been on my mind this week.  I would have made these even sooner, but I actually had trouble finding the bittersweet Toblerone that this recipe calls for.  I had checked 4 different stores, with no luck, but fortunately my husband stopped at a store on his way home from work tonight and found them!  So now that I had the missing ingredient, I wasted no time getting to work to make these brownies.

A little bit of background about this particular recipe.  When I was at the bookstore checking out You Made That Dessert to see if we wanted to pick this book, I saw this recipe right away.  My husband loves Toblerone chocolate bars!  I figured well this would be one dessert that he is sure to like! I do like making brownies.  They are typically chocolate, easy to make, and there are a ton of different varieties out there.  In fact, one year for our anniversary, my husband gave me an all brownie cookbook! 

I think the hardest part about making this recipe was finding the Toblerone!  I used my Kitchen Aid mixer to whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla.  Quite frankly it seemed a lot easier to whisk using the mixer than by hand for 2-3 minutes.  These brownies came together quickly.  The only problem - I think I under-cooked them :-(

Is there anything you can do if you underbake brownies and discover after they are out of the oven for an hour?  I ate one and thought it was really gooey.  But it was really tasty!  You can taste the Toblerone in the brownies, which gives it a unique flavor.

As I mentioned earlier, I haven't really felt like baking this week.  Tomorrow (Sat, March 6) is my due date!  I guess it's not too surprising that I was distracted while baking today. Here's a picture of me chopping up chocolate tonight:

Lisa and I have entertained the idea of making another recipe next week if the baby doesn't come, and I am still up to it.  I will see how I feel on Sunday, but right now, I think this will be my last recipe before the baby is born.  We plan on taking about a month off as I adjust to being a mommy, but don't fear - we'll be back to our weekly schedule soon enough!