Classic Fudge-Walnut Brownies

The most recent recipe in the competition, it won unanimously because of the intense richness from cocoa, melted chocolate, and chocolate chunks. --Recipe by Maureen Callahan, September 2011

Ingredients

3.38 ounces all-purpose flour (about 3/4 cup)
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks, divided
1/3 cup fat-free milk
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, divided
Cooking spray

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl. Combine 1/2 cup chocolate and milk in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave at HIGH 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds. Stir in butter, vanilla, and eggs. Add milk mixture, 1/2 cup chocolate, and 1/4 cup nuts to flour mixture; stir to combine.

3. Pour the batter into a 9-inch square metal baking pan coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup nuts. Bake at 350° for 22 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Cut into 20 pieces.

Bailey’s Irish cream cheese swirl brownies recipe

“I love food. I have always loved food. Most importantly, I have always loved sweets. Almost every great memory in my life can be traced back to food in some form or manner,” she explains.

“My husband is a big fan of Bailey’s Irish Cream and so I thought I would throw that into the mix of some cream cheese brownies to make them a little more special,” she wrote.

BAILEY’S IRISH CREAM CHEESE SWIRL BROWNIES

For the Swirl:
3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 TBSP unsalted butter, room temperature
¼  cup sugar
1 large egg
1 TBSP all purpose flour
2 TBSP Bailey’s Irish Cream

For the Brownies:
6 ounces sweet baking chocolate (I used semisweet), chopped
3 TBSP unsalted butter, room temperature
½  cup sugar
2 large eggs
½  cup all purpose flour
½  tsp baking powder
¼  tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

For the Glaze:
4 ounces sifted powdered sugar
1 TBSP Bailey’s Irish Cream
milk to thin out (amount will vary)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 8-inch square nonstick baking pan. Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter in medium bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and beat until well blended. Beat in egg. Mix in flour, Irish Cream, and vanilla. Set mixture aside.

Stir baking chocolate and butter in heavy small saucepan over low heat until smooth. Cool slightly. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs in large bowl until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt. Mix in chocolate mixture and extracts. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spread half of chocolate batter (about 1 1/4 cups) in prepared pan. Using rubber spatula, spread cream cheese mixture over chocolate batter. Spoon remaining chocolate batter over top of cream cheese mixture. Using tip of knife, gently swirl through batter, forming marble design. Bake brownies until tester inserted into center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 30 minutes.

Make glaze. Combine powdered sugar and Irish cream. If too thick thin out with milk.
While still warm brush (using a pastry brush) glaze over brownies. Let sit for 15 minutes. Cut into squares.

Chocolate-Mint Bars

You'll love these if you're a big fan of the thin chocolate mint Girl Scout cookies. The dense base layer is like a rich, fudgy brownie, so don't overcook it or the dessert bars will be dry. Refrigerating the mint bars allows the chocolaty top layer to set properly. You can make the dessert up to one day ahead. For a more grown-up taste, you can also use dark chocolate chips for some or all of the semisweet chocolate chips in the glaze.

Ingredients

Bottom layer:
4 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup egg substitute
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, beaten
1 (16-ounce) can chocolate syrup
Cooking spray
Mint layer:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons fat-free milk
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 drops green food coloring
Glaze:
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter.

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare bottom layer, weigh or lightly spoon flour into a measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and salt; stir with a whisk. Combine granulated sugar, egg substitute, ¼ cup melted butter, 2 tablespoons water, vanilla, eggs, and chocolate syrup in a medium bowl; stir until smooth. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture, stirring until blended. Pour batter into a 13 x 9 inch metal baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 23 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

3. To prepare mint layer, combine powdered sugar, ¼ cup melted butter, and next 3 ingredients (through food coloring) in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer until smooth. Spread mint mixture over cooled cake.

4. To prepare glaze, combine chocolate chips and 3 tablespoons butter in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until melted, stirring after 30 seconds. Let stand 2 minutes. Spread chocolate mixture evenly over top. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Cut into 20 pieces.

Cottage Pudding (Cake for Strawberry Shortcake)

"This is a wonderful shortcake recipe my grandmother used to make for strawberry shortcake. It is moist and sweet and can be eaten by itself too."

Ingredients Edit and Save
Original recipe makes 1 9-inch square cake Change Servings

    2 cups all-purpose flour

    2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

    1/4 teaspoon salt

    1/3 cup vegetable shortening

    1 cup white sugar

    1 egg

    1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

    1 cup milk

Directions

    Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch square cake pan. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl; set aside.
    Beat the shortening and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Pour in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing until just incorporated. Pour the batter into prepared pan.
    Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
 

Are Your Body Hair Removal Habits Normal?

We're guessing you don't chat about hacking away at your armpits, bikini area, or upper lip at brunch, so you might be curious about what the "normal" hair-removal protocol is. That's why we asked more than 5,000 of our readers about how they get rid of it—and they gave us all the details. Fun facts: 36 percent of the readers surveyed said they consider themselves "hairier than average," and the top annoyance was that it grows back too fast (the second was that de-fuzzing freaking hurts—raise your hand if you've been personally victimized by a razor blade). Check out the hair-raising (sorry, had to) stats we pulled from the survey, and tell us if this sums up your habits.

Do You Sweat More Than Normal?

Sure, it's the season of sweat. But are sweatier than the girl next to you?

"They" say girls don't sweat, but mist. "They" lie.

Each and every hour, the average girl sweats five ounces—enough to fill a wine glass, says Michael Shapiro, M.D., medical director of Vanguard Dermatology in New York. And that’s before you factor in scorching temps, stress, and killer workouts.

That's pretty darn sweaty—and chances are you sweat even more than the average lass. Why? One study published in Experimental Physiology found that fit women sweat much more than their unfit counterparts. And despite the pit stains, that's actually a great thing.

The sweat-fitness connection: During exercise, your body adapts to sweat both at a lower internal body temperature as well as at a higher rate. Basically, your body learns it's going to work hard on the regular, so it ups its sweating game to keep you cool—and prevent heat exhaustion—during upcoming physical demands.

According to some researchers, that might be why women still sweat less than men (four times less, on average, according to Shapiro). Just think: Women of our hunter-gatherer ancestry didn’t have to do nearly as much physical labor as their male counterparts did.

But while sweat is any fitness-lover's friend, you can sweat too much—and about one to three percent of all women do, says Shapiro. Hyperhidrosis (layman's term for excessive sweating), can not only be embarrassing and annoying, but if really severe, it could lead to dehydration and off-kilter electrolyte levels. If you feel like you're sweating more than you used to, you perspire when you're neither warm nor stressed (all over or even just on one spot of your body), or you suffer from night sweats, see your doctor to find out if you might have the condition.

Things Everyone Gets Wrong About Marriage

Know what you’re really getting into before you say “I do.”

For something most of us have either done or plan to do someday, getting married sure comes with a lot of myths. We can credit old-school mindsets and princesses living “happily ever after” for most of them. Here are six of the biggest things most women get wrong about marriage. You’ll be thrilled about some. Others, not so much.

1. Half of All Marriages End in Divorce
Flip a coin: Heads you get divorced. Tails you don’t. Sounds pretty bleak, right? Luckily, it’s also false. The 50/50 stat came from a 1970s projection after courts legalized no-fault divorce and people started getting them left and right. In the mid '80s, the divorce rate actually peaked around 66 percent, says Terri Orbuch, Ph.D., research professor at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research and author of 5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage From Good to Great. And it’s much lower now. According to 2009 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 30.8 percent of all marriages ever have ended in divorce, and research shows that in 2011, just 3.6 people got divorced out of every 1,000 adults.

  2. Happy Couples Don’t Argue
“A lack of conflict means you aren’t dealing with things that matter,” says Orbuch, who has followed more than 350 couples for 28 years and found that, yes, happy pairs fight. What’s more, research from the University of Tennessee shows that couples who recognize that there’ll be rough patches in their relationship are more satisfied over the long haul. “What makes happy marriages different from unhappy ones is that the spouses learn how to deal with conflict and disagreements in a healthy, productive manner,” says Orbuch.