Cookies and Cream Brownies

One second it's 4pm Friday evening and the weekend lays stretched out ahead of you,m full of possibilities....the next second it's Sunday evening and the weekend has disappeared in the blink of an eye. This weekend has gone especially fast and whilst part of me feels I have accomplished very little, part of me knows the only thing on my to do list that I didn't accomplish was getting a hair cut...and honestly that's not the end of the world. The weekend started on Friday night when OH and I went out for dinner to a restaurant called the Salamanca Beef and Seafood Grill. Neither of us had been there before and it on first glance it was a really nice little restaurant. I ordered a dish called Chicken Havarti which was chicken breast stuffed with spinach, semi dried tomato, havarti cheese and dried apricots. The apricots were actually a great addition to the dish, the flavour combination between the sweet apricots and the tart tomatoes was spot on :) Meanwhile OH was in heaven, he ordered a 3-tier Beef and Seafood Grill....which (obviously) was 3 tiers of beef and seafood goodness - the bottom tier was a huge bit of steak served on kumara mash with pepper sauce, the 2nd tier consisted of smoked salmon, smoked prawns, marinated octopus, smoked blue eye and anti pasto vegetables and the top tier was beer battered chips, battered prawns, scallops, calamari rings and blue eye and when they brought it out of the kitchen, the whole restaurant stopped to check it out...it did look very impressive! OH managed to demolish the lot, suitably impressed by everything on the plate...and then proceeded to come home and have a big bowl of ice cream....I'm really not sure where he puts it all!!

The on Saturday morning, OH went to work at 6am so I enjoyed having the bed to myself and slept in for awhile. It wasn't long though before I braved the cold and went to meet Ali and Allie for our wedding make up trials - we don't scrub up too bad hey!!


Seeing as we looked so gorgeous, we took ourselves out for lunch to a cafe called Salt. I had to have my favourite - Crusty sour dough bruschetta topped with pan-fried eggplant, zucchini, spinach, pesto and ricotta....yum yum yum!! Although Ali had pesto scrambled eggs with fried tomatoes on fried pita bread which smelt devine, I might have to try that next time....although I said that last time, but the bruschetta has a hold on me!!

Then today I thought I better do some baking for OH's lunches seeing as we have been producing a phenomenal amount of cupcakes and he hasn't been getting any of them! OH was particularly fond of the cookies and cream frosting I have been making for the cupcakes so I tried to think of a way I could incorporate that into his lunches....and what better way then with a gooey chocolatey brownie! I was just going to top the brownies with the frosting but OH suggested I sandwich it between the brownies to make it more lunch box friendly.


I used my favourite brownie recipe....

For these you need:
125g butter
180g milk chocolate melts
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced.
Line a slice tin with baking paper.
Place butter and chocolate in a heat proof bowl in the microwave and heat in 45 second bursts (stirring in between) until smooth.
Stir in sugar.
Whisk eggs into chocolate mixture until combined.
Add sifted flour and cocoa. Whisk to combine.
Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes or until top is firm to touch. Set aside to cool.

For the frosting you will need:
125g butter (at room temperature)
2-3 cups of icing sugar
5 oreo biscuits (crushed)

Combine the butter and icing sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat at medium high speed until well combined. You may need to add more icing sugar to get a nice thick consistency.
Stir through the crushed oreos.

When the brownies are nice and cool cut into squares.
Cut each square in half through the middle. Spread one half with the frosting and sandwich together with the other half.


You will hate me for this....they are just so damn good!!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend :)

I am waiting for my vegie burger and home made chips to cook...and I may even get into bed to eat them...it's just too cold!!

Em x