Homemade Cosmic Brownies

Your favorite Little Debbie brownies speckled with rainbow candy coated chocolate chips might be even better homemade!

You may find this hard to believe but all of these ingredients were in my kitchen without a trip to the grocery store. I bought the candy coated mini chocolate chips from Jo-Ann Fabrics awhile back when they were on sale (when I first bookmarked this recipe), and the heavy cream was leftover from making Butterbeer ice ceam. As for the rest, I have a stock pile of the basic baking supplies at all times. I should take a picture of the insanity that is my baking pantry one of these days. It’s a black hole of various nuts, dried fruits, chocolates, sugars, and flours. My brown sugar is running low though – commence panic mode.

These brownies were my favorite treat to get from the vending machines in middle and high school, with the huge sprinkled sugar cookies coming in second. They were so moist and dense with a fabulous fudgy coating topped with crunchy bits of wonderful. I would always hope to get one with an extra load of the candy coated chocolates. Sometimes if the next one in line were sparsely covered it would deter me from getting it (enter the giant sugar cookie). Thankfully with this recipe, not only can I recreate the brownie itself but I can put on as much topping as I want! Wee!

HOMEMADE COSMIC BROWNIES

Makes 16 brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter, melted

2 Tbsp water

2  eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1-1/3 cups flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt + pinch, divided

1/2 cup heavy cream

7 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

Rainbow candy coated chips or sprinkles, for decorating

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13 x 9 inch pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil, then lightly grease. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the sugars, butter and water with a whisk. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and 1 tsp salt. Stir the dry mix into the wet stuff and stir to combine. With a rubber spatula, spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 18 minutes. Set aside on a rack to cool.
3. While the brownies are baking, prepare the ganache: Place the chocolate in a bowl and set aside. In a small saucepan, heat the cream just to a simmer. Don’t boil it, just wait till you see little bubbles starting to form around the edges. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Sprinkle with the salt and let it all sit for a minute or so. Gently stir with a rubber spatula until all of the chocolate is melted. (Whisking the heck out of it will just add air bubbles and we don’t want those.) Set that aside to cool a bit.
4. When the brownies are mostly cool, pour the ganache over and spread it evenly over the top. Sprinkle as many or as few of the candies/sprinkles over the top as you like. I cooled mine in the fridge until the ganache was set. When you’re ready to cut them into squares, lift them out with the foil and cut into the size or shape you like.

Source: Fake Ginger, originally adapted from Elle’s New England Kitchen.

Post updated 4/25/18, picture above is the original.

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