Hazelnut Brownies

A brownie....a member of the Girl Scouts. (nooo not that brownie)

A tiny, fanciful, good-natured brown elf who secretly helps at night with household chores. (not that kind either but we can come back to this one later)

A small, chewy, cake-like cookie, usually made with chocolate. YES...thats what I needed to hear.

Why?

Because this recipe calls for a cake mix. And it calls itself a Brownie. And I wanted to make sure it really is a brownie before I spread the word. Cuz these are sooo yummy. And waaaay easy.

I once met a gal in BakeSpace named Mary, and we continued our friendship into Facebook. She's a funny gal, witty and outrageous and for some reason keeps proclaiming that she can't cook. Or something to that affect. I dunno...she's nuts.

My point is, she shared a recipe called Peanut Butter Brownies. And of course that got my attention. I have this weakness love for peanut butter and chocolate. (and it really bums me out that reeses pieces gives me a tummy ache if I eat more than like.....5 of them. Does that happen to anyone else?). Now you might be wondering why these are Hazelnut Brownies if my love is in the peanut butter and chocolate arena. Just hang....it'll make sense in a minute.

I needed an excuse, a reason, a justification. Well crap....I just needed to feel better about making them cuz my girls, even though they'd chow down on them in minutes, would give me crap about making stuff "that's not healthy" (eye roll). And I only wanted to taste them. I didn't want to..... taunt myself with them and end up eating bunches of them. I didn't really need to make them. But I really wanted to.

Thus comes the sought after reason.

A gal at work (ya...we'll blame the working gal). She was leaving the company and moving on to other pastures.

So sad. :(

But here it is....my REASON! I'll make her some "Going Away Brownies".

::::::::::Happy Dance::::::::::

Then for some odd, out of the blue, unknown reason, I asked her. "Do you like peanut butter?" Her reply, "No."

oooooh.

But by now, my head is in full gear....I am mentally committed to this recipe. There's no stopping me now. But I have to go to plan B.

Of course, I have to think of a plan B before I go there.

Well, the original recipe calls for peanut butter and Nutella, or some peanut butter chocolate thing. Ok. We can keep the Nutella for sure. Maybe I can find some sort of chocolate spread thing that can replace the peanut butter. Chocolate syrup....eeeehhhh, not so sure.

With that floating around in my head, I set off to do my weekend shopping. My firsts stop was the "international" market. I usually stick to the meat counter, the produce section and the spice isle. This day I went down all the isles. I saw the Nutella and plopped it into my cart, when something creamy and interesting lured my eyes over to the left just a little.....Armella. A creamy hazelnut spread.

Whoooaaa!!! Does anyone else know about this stuff?! (and you haven't told me? whats the matter with you!) It's Nutella without the chocolate.  It's amazing. It's exactly what I need for these non-peanut butter brownies

And now we can discuss the recipe for Hazelnut Brownies. (rest assured, I will one day soon, make the coveted Peanut Butter Brownies)

Hazelnut Brownies

Printable Version

1 box of yellow or white cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup of oil

2/3 cup Nutella

1/4 cup Armella

Preheat the oven to 350' F

Combine the cake mix, eggs and oil until thoroughly mixed. 

Lemme just show you again how creamy this Armella is before we add it to the recipe

Don't you just want to stick your finger in there and taste it's creaminess? (and who said food isn't sexy?)

Add the Nutella and Armella to the cake mixture. 

Mix until incorporated. But I didn't mix it thoroughly (because Mary said she didn't either)....giving it a "marbled" effect. 

Scoop it into a greased or parchment paper lined 9 x13 dish...and smoosh and spread (I use the term "spread" lightly cuz you'll have to smoosh and push more than spread) the very thick batter to the edges

Bake in a 350' F oven for about 20 minutes. 

Allow to cool before removing from the pan

Cut into squares, eat a few, especially the "messy" looking ones along the edges and send the rest to a co-worker who is leaving, whom you will miss cuz she's so sweet and has a wonderful smile and you always want to keep those kinds of people in your life.

Oh ya...and as for the elfin type brownie.... anyone know how to go about getting one? I'm sure I could keep him busy for years to come.