Desserts for BUNCO

I play BUNCO once a month with a lovely, and sometimes rowdy, group of ladies. We each bring a dish and eat/gab for an hour or so before we start playing. It should come as no surprise to you that 90% of the time, I bring a dessert.

For April BUNCO, I made this amazing Cookie Dough Dip from Add a Pinch (her photo, not mine):

I don't have any photos of my version because every time I went to take a picture, I ended up eating some.  It was so rich and so, so good!  If you need a quick dessert to take to a potluck or summer outing, then this is it!  I served my cookie dip with plain animal crackers, chocolate animal crackers and graham crackers.  I liked it on graham crackers the best, but let's be clear: the cookie is just the delivery device for the dip. The dip is the star here!

Then, for May BUNCO, I made Pioneer Woman's Knock You Naked Brownies (again, her picture, not mine):

These brownies start with a boxed cake mix and turn into something so much more.  These brownies are so rich, so delicious, that they really do almost knock you naked. Even if it's because you eat so many that your clothes no longer fit and you have to run around naked and when you go to the store to buy new clothes you end up buying more ingredients to make more brownies.

In unrelated news, I'm trying to make muumuus the big fashion hit of this summer. Stay tuned. 

PW notes that this dough is really thick, and she mentions shaping a glob for the top layer of brownie with her hands.  My solution is much neater than that: flatten the glob between two sheets of waxed paper for less mess.

Finally, while PW's recipe calls for baking the bottom layer for eight minutes before adding the caramels and top brownie layer, I skipped that step and just baked the whole thing at once. It turned out just fine.

Give these two desserts a try--you'll be glad you did!

Turtle brownies

Whoever invented the brownie is of superior intellect. Whoever invented the Turtle is downright brilliant. And the person who put them together to make a Turtle Brownie is a diabolical genius. Who is this culinary daredevil/deviant, you ask?

It's Betty Crocker. You didn't see that coming, did you?

This recipe for Turtle Brownies arrived in my inbox via a weekly Betty Crocker enewsletter--you can sign up for your enewsletter by clicking on the "Dinner Made Easy" banner to the right or at the bottom of the page.

The directions are fairly simple, though I would make a few changes the next time I bake them.

For example, the recipe says to pour 1/2 the brownie batter into the pan and bake for 15 minutes before adding the caramel, pecans, chocolate bits and the rest of the batter. TMI recommends that you put in 2/3 of the batter, let it bake for 20 minutes, then add the toppings with the rest of the batter.

My experience with the recipe as-is was that some of the caramel sank through the unbaked batter to settle too close to the bottom of the pan for easy removal. Not that I minded plowing through the entire pan of Turtle Brownies with a fork in hand, but in the event that you plan to share this tasty goodness, you'll want the caramel to stay towards the top of the brownie for easier serving.

And TMI wholeheartedly recommends sharing these Turtle Brownies. That is, after you've made a secret second batch that's all for you and currently hiding in the storage drawer under your oven. (No one ever looks there!) That one is all for you. TMI recommends plowing through it with a fork. Enjoy!