We were hosting wine club in our backyard, and I wanted to find the perfect Halloween brownies recipe to the mix. But I hadn’t had much luck with brownies or piping, so I was a little nervous about how well they would turn out. Luckily, I found this terrific Halloween brownies recipe, complete with a cream cheese spiderweb design, on the King Arthur Baking website. If you are intrigued, read on as I offer my tips on making this recipe work for you.
Click for Full Halloween Brownies Recipe
My Halloween Brownie Recipe Tips
Tip 1 Pre-measure all the ingredients. Timing is essential when you are mixing the batter and heating the sugar/butter mixture.
Tip 2 Read through the entire brownies recipe and set out things like butter and cream cheese that need to be at room temperature. If you begin that process before you start baking, it will make your life a lot easier. I fail at this all the time!
Tip 3 I didn’t have Dutch-process cocoa. I substituted it with Valrhona Unsweetened 100% cocoa powder, and it worked very well. The brownies were a bit fudgier with this substitution, but we didn’t experience any extra acidity.
Tip 4 Cut your butter before heating it with the sugar. For me, the melting process is smoother, and there is less risk of the butter burning if you accidentally leave the stove on too hot or too long before stirring.
Tip 5 For the chocolate chips, I used a blend of Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate discs and Nestle semi-sweet morsels because I didn’t have enough of either one. That ended up being a blessing because the combination helped create an even richer experience.
Tip 6 The cream cheese filling recipe makes a lot of filling, so be prepared to add design to other baked goods or go very heavy on the piping. It’s delicious, so whichever way you go, you’ll be fine.
Tip 7 Watch the Halloween brownies carefully in the oven once you get to the 25-minute mark. Because the batter was so thick, I was worried that they wouldn’t bake in the center. So, I let it go for the full 30 minutes, and I ended up lightly burning the filling. Thankfully, it didn’t ruin the taste at all.
Overall, this Halloween brownies recipe was a big success with my friends and paired very well with our red “spooky” wines (For the most part, Cabernet Franc, Grenache, Shiraz, and Cabernet Sauvignon.