Ice Cream Brownie Cupcakes

This past weekend, Sarah, Colleen, and I went to poor bed-ridden Brooke's house for lunch. Whenever we get together, we all bring a dish so that it's never extra work for the hostess (unless you're me and you suddenly find that you have a clean your house because you haven't cleaned it in about 3 months because your 2-year-old just destroys everything you clean).

I volunteered to bring the dessert, and I could not decide what to bring. Nothing seemed exciting or special enough. Finally, the day before our lunch, I sat down to make my grocery list and forced myself to just make a decision.

To procrastinate, I decided to check out my Google Reader, and lo and behold, fate intervened. The very top post was a recipe for Ice Cream Brownie Cupcakes from Annie. It was different, interesting, and very delicious sounding. Perfect.


I ended up with a few changes; I decided to keep the chocolate them going and used Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream instead of strawberry. I also ran out of time to make the ganauche (we were out getting Ryan his big boy bed!) so I had my husband run to the store and grab me a bottle of Magic Shell. Perfect.

Overall, I very much enjoyed the concept of this recipe. The only thing I didn't like was the actual brownie. I was skeptical about it from the beginning, because the batter was very dry and didn't really "spread" in the oven. I also thought it had kind of a weird taste to it... I'm sure it's the fault of the baker and not the recipe! I would for sure try these again.

(Annie later informed me of a typo in the original recipe. It should be 3/4 cups of flour, not 3 cups! No wonder... I fixed it below. Thank you, Annie, for salvaging this yummy dessert for me!)


Ingredients
For the brownies:

• 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/8 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the ice cream:

• 1 batch of chosen ice cream, slightly softened

For the ganache:

• 3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

To garnish:

• Fresh strawberry slices (I omitted)

To make the brownie bottoms, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cupcake pans with foil liners. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl; stir together and set aside. In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water combine the butter and chocolate. Heat, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth. In a large mixing bowl combine the eggs, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla extract. Whisk to blend. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture, and then the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

Scoop 1 tablespoon of batter into cupcake liner. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 6-8 minutes. Leaving the brownies in the cupcake pans, cool on a wire rack to room temperature. Freeze for at least 30 minutes. Top with strawberry ice cream until the cupcake liner is full. (If the ice cream is freshly made, it is just the right consistency for filling the cupcake liners.) Return the cupcake pans to the freezer for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

To make the ganache, place the chocolate chips in a small bowl. Bring the cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. Pour the cream evenly over the chocolate, let stand for 1 minute. Stir until smooth with a rubber spatula. If the ganache is too thin, allow it to stand at room temperature to cool and become more easily spreadable. Once the ganache is at the correct temperature, scoop it by the teaspoonful on top of the ice cream cupcakes and spread over the tops. Garnish with fresh strawberry slices, if desired.

Remove cupcakes from the freezer 5-10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!