Pumpkin Swirl Brownies & Halloween Crafting with Martha Stewart {Naptime Entertaining}
Around the holidays I love to get extra-crafty with my gift-giving and celebration style. Most of the time when I give a batch of cookies or brownies to a friend I employ a simple, pretty packaging technique that always looks good but doesn’t take a ton of effort. But, when the holidays roll around, I like to break out the big(ger) guns and see what fun stuff I can come up with. This month I’m all about pumpkin recipes and Halloween and packaging up cute treats to take to friends like these awesome pumpkin swirl brownies!
Earlier this month Martha Stewart sent me an awesome box of Halloween crafting supplies from their Michael’s craft line. I can’t believe how generous it was! There were about a million little things I wanted to craft right off the bat but I decided to start with my favorite kind of crafting: festive holiday food packaging. By simple I mean I did not break out crazy glue guns or unusual, expensive crafting supplies. Instead, I kept it all manageable using my Martha Stewart craft bin and the spirit of the season (BOO!) for inspiration.
Of course, it seemed only appropriate that I adapt one of my favorite Martha Stewart recipes for the crafting occasion. These awesome fall brownies feature gooey chocolate swirled with pumpkin in every single bite. I love making them to take to friends or for casual afternoon gatherings. On this particular day I wanted to bake them as a thank you for a good friend who recently helped me with last minute childcare.
The recipe is below – it is so easy! – and here is how I packaged them up for my friend!
Recipe
Pumpkin Swirl Brownies
adapted from Martha Stewart
Ingredients
| 1 | stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter |
| 6 | ounces dark chocolate, roughly chopped |
| 2 | cups all-purpose flour |
| 1 | teaspoon baking soda |
| 1 | teaspoon kosher salt |
| 1 ½ | cups granulated sugar |
| 4 | eggs |
| 1 | tablespoon vanilla extract |
| 1 | 15-ounce can packed pumpkin puree |
| ¼ | cup vegetable oil |
| 1 | teaspoon pumpkin pie spice |
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9×9 baking dish and set aside.
2. In a heatproof bowl melt the butter and chocolate together by heating on high for 45 second increments. Stir them together well until smooth and glossy.
3. Meanwhile, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
4. In an electric mixer beat the sugar, eggs, and extract until light and foamy. About 4 minutes. Then, beat in the flour mixture with the mixer on low spread. Scoop two cups of the batter and place it in the bowl with the melted chocolate and stir them together.
5. With the mixer on the low beat the pumpkin, oil, and pumpkin pie spice into the remaining batter until smooth.
6. Layer one half of the chocolate mixture on the bottom of the baking dish. Layer ¾ of the pumpkin mixture on top of it. Finally, layer the remaining chocolate mixture over the pumpkin and smooth everything flat with a spatula. Drop the remaining ¼ of the pumpkin mixture on top of the chocolate layer and use a knife to swirl the pumpkin into the chocolate. This only takes a few strokes so don’t overmix.
7. Bake the brownies for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean. Then, allow the brownies to cool completely before packaging.
Naptime Notes
Naptime Recipe Serving ideas
These festive brownies are awesome for the season and also taste amazing at Thanksgiving! For an extra punch try adding 1 cup of chocolate chips to the batter or some chopped walnuts.
Naptime Stopwatch
20 minutes prep time, 45 minutes bake time
Naptime Reviews
These are always a hit and my friend adored their expert packaging. 🙂
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