Chocolate-Gingerbread Twix Brownies

Merry Christmas! The day has finally come when you are supposed to hang out with loved ones, eat lots of goodies and spoil yourself with presents! The day when blasting your N'SYNC Christmas Album is acceptable. When admitting you were a Justin Timberlake (JT) teenie bopper fan, the days when he had yet to hit puberty, comes without judgement. Okay, okay...that always comes with judgment BUT I am right there with you. I used to do the Bye, Bye, Bye dance when TRL (yes, remember TRL?) used to play them and run fan comments on the bottom. Submitting comments is where I drew the line but JT screen saver was still within the line ;) Hahaha...this blog is like my dirty little teenage secret space of confession on the itnerweb. Unless, you are JT -- and in that case -- I LOVED YOU  ;)

My boys (my big one and my furry one) were excited for Christmas and so was our fur-baby guest. Ninja and his friend Deacon had a fun helping to open their presents! 

Christmas "cookies" for the pups

One of the recipes I want to share with you are these gingerbread brownies with chunks of Twix. Not just regular Twix, which are already delicious by itself, but GINGERBREAD Twix. They are yummy! I thought it would be pretty nifty to pair the chocolate-gingerbread candy bar with a chocolate-gingerbread brownie! It came out perfect. Usually chocolate covers the subtle taste of gingerbread but these bars have a wonderfully strong gingerbready taste with just a hint of chocolate. And the crunchy Twix mixed in gives great bursts of flavor and crunch. The hubby is actually eating them as I write. I recommend getting two bags of of these Twix because they are so yummy that you are going to want to eat one as you make these brownies. Ain't nothing wrong with that ;)

CHOCOLATE-GINGERBREAD TWIX BROWNIES

Gingerbread Brownies adapted from Martha Stewart 

INGREDIENTS

Preheat Oven to 350F Degrees 

1/2 stick of butter, melted 
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. pumpkin-pie spice
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. honey or molasses
1 egg
1/2 c. sour cream
10 oz. bag of gingerbread Twix, chopped into pieces

DIRECTIONS

Line a 8x8 baking dish with aluminum foil. Grease aluminum foil with butter, shortening or cooking spray. This will help when removing bars from baking dish, allow for cooling, and easier, cleaner cutting into squares. Dust with cocoa powder, set aside. 

In a small bowl, whisk together cocoa powder, flour, ginger, pumpkin pie spice and baking soda -- set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, combine butter, brown sugar, honey, egg and sour cream until creamy and smooth. Stir in dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Remove from stand mixer and fold in 1/2 of the chopped Twix. 

Transfer batter to the lined baking pan and smoothed top with spatula. Evenly distribute remaining Twix pieces on top of the batter and slightly press in. Bake 30-35 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before cutting.

Enjoy,
Chika