Friday. 8AM. Put your first batch of candy corn and chocolate chip cookies with cornflake crunch in the oven.
Give yourself a pat on the back because, not only are you not going to be late for work, but you’ll already have all of your Halloween baking done for the day and you’ll have the perfect Halloween recipe to share on Monday. Look at you, thinking ahead!
Return to the oven in ten minutes to check on the cookies. Realize that they have turned into a burnt sugar chewy disgusting mess because the candy corn has decided to melt. All. Over. The. Place.
Trick.
Friday. 8:30 AM.
Reflect. Ponder. Ruminate.
Maybe it was your oven. Maybe you left out a key ingredient. Maybe all of your years of not really reading instructions have caught up to you. Maybe you’re cursed.
Decide to put together another batch of cookie dough to bake when you get home from work (thank god you had enough gluttonous intent foresight to buy TWO bags of candy corn!).
If you ever get home from work. Because. Now you’re late.
Trick.
Friday. 3 PM.
Sneak onto the computers at work to read the reviews of this recipe. Realize that it was not you, your oven, or your inability to read that led you to cookie doom and destruction. It’s just that the recipe sucks. Christina Tosi, wherever you are – I love your cereal milk ice cream and your compost cookies more than my future firstborn child, but I really don’t know why you’d lie to me like this. I’m not sure that we can still be friends.
Decide that you are going to try to beat the odds and bake another batch of these anyway. Not only are you a glutton for candy corn but you are also a glutton for punishment.
Friday. 5:30 PM.
More melted burnt candy corn sugar. All. Over. Everything.
Realize that you are going to have to bake something else. And you are almost out of butter.
Trick.
Friday. 6 PM.
Frantically search through all of the party-friendly Halloween recipes you’ve bookmarked over the past three years for one that only uses one stick of butter and will not require a single trip to the grocery store. Realize that you are severely understocked when it comes to baking supplies and that maybe you should spend less money on winter squash and more money on butterscotch chips and brown sugar. (Fat chance.)
Stumble across this recipe for pumpkin swirl brownies that you’ve drooled over probably six dozen times. Think – brownie = hordes of butter. Cry a little inside. (And, uh. Maybe outside. Baking disasters make me emotional!)
Read recipe. Realize brownie = only ONE STICK of butter + oil. (See what good things happen when you actually read recipes? POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT. Learn from it.) Thank all of the Halloween baking gods in existence that Bertolli has just sent you a bottle of olive oil to taste test. Bellissima.
Treat.
Friday. 7 PM.
Put brownies in the oven.
Stress eat too much sushi with your roommate.
Try to put on your dresses. Wonder why the two of you haven’t fasted for three days to prepare for this.
Sigh.
Trick.
Friday. 9 PM.
Cut brownies.
Gooey. Warm. Chocolate. Pumpkin. Delicious.
Treat. Definitely. Absolutely. Treat.
Pumpkin Swirl Brownies
Makes 1 9×9-inch tray, adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients
- 8 tbsp butter, plus more for pan
- 6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used Callebaut)
- 2 cups AP flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups pureed pumpkin
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan or dish. Cut a length of parchment or aluminum foil that will cover the bottom and two sides of the pan with a little overhang ad line the pan with it. Butter the lining as well.
- Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, cayenne pepper, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside. Put sugar, eggs and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat until fluffy and well-combined, 3-5 minutes. Beat in flour mixture.
- Pour half of batter (about 2 cups) into a separate bowl and stir chocolate into it. If you find that it is a little thick, then add more batter (until it is pourable) as it will be easier to swirl if this is thinner.
- In the bowl with the remaining batter, stir in the pumpkin, oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Transfer half of the chocolate batter to the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula. Top with half of pumpkin batter. Repeat to make one more chocolate and one more pumpkin layer.
- With a small spatula or table knife, gently swirl the two batters to create a marbled effect.
- Bake until set, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack. Cut into 16 squares.
I feel like as bad as your friday sounded, these brownies pretty much make up for everything! I’m so bad at halloween costumes… my most creative was really for matt the other night when we dressed him as a hipster without any shopping (see, not all that creative).
Those look delicious.
I didn’t even end up dressing up this year. My attempts at a homemade costume all ended in tears. I think 7th grade was the pinnacle of my costume creativity. I was an alarm clock and won a prize at the middle school dance.
Okay I will definitely not win the giveaway considering my most creative outfit was a 80 roller skate girl but other than that the brownies are to die for. I love the swirl to them and I know they would surely make me feel better!
Happy Halloween! I love recipes that use oil rather than butter, and this one looks fantastic. I wonder if anyone ever dressed as a brownie on Halloween?
The brownies look scrumptious, though I don’t envy you the journey it took to get them to your blog. It’s a shame the recipe for the first round was bad. I hate when that happens. At least all ended well. Have a great day. Blessings…Mary
oh how lovely! i never thought of pumpkin in a brownie before!
Those brownies are definitely a big treat!
My most creative was turning 8 PTA ladies into life-size pizza slices with felt and foam.
Pumpkin & chocolate – yes, please! Great recipe.
A favorite costume of mine was a couple years ago when I was an aircraft carrier. I had two bright yellow stripes of tape going down my shirt as the runway and I carried around a toy airplane. It fit my dorky style and my love of puns 🙂
I love this idea! I’m a brownie fan and think this seasonal twist looks fantastic. Might have to make them tonight. 🙂
I was a white tiger for halloween when I was a little girl. Maybe I should do that again… next year!
The brownies look amazing!
You poor thing! What a horrible start to Halloween!
My wife gave me this idea (I believe she saw it in a magazine, but not sure)…
Chef’s Jacket, Chef’s hat (Oddly (sadly) enough, I own both)… carry an IRON and Viola…
I am an IRON CHEF
Glad things worked out in the end, Joanne!! I surprisingly don’t have any canned pumpkin.. how crazy is that??
My most creative costume was Nancy Drew… only the elementary school teacher knew who I was, though, since it was after the movie came out. 😉 For the rest of us, we live off of the books. 😉
Our company server system was down today… attributed to a freak Snow Storm last night in NJ????!! Anyway, power outage or otherwise, I bet these will be comforting for the cold weather… Happy Halloween!
I can’t believe you still had the will to bake after 2 failed batches. I would have been eating icecream and pouting.
I was just reading a recipe for caramel pie and, in the reviews, 2/3 the people said the caramel burned at the temperature stated in the recipe and the 1/3 said it worked. No way I’m trying a recipe like that. What a shame and waste of ingredients. Thankfully, the pumpkin swirl brownies turned out and look delicious!
Great giveaway, I use olive oil all the time and would love to win.
Ha, forgot the costume. It was a pregnant girl scout 😉
Ha – I hate it when recipes go awry! Looks like you finally got it – these look incredible!
Joanne, you write with such wit and aplomb! Love this story – and your persistence in creating these GORGEOUS brownies!!
Let’s see, I grew up on a sheep farm, so my most creative costume occurred when I finally listened to my friends saying “you should be a sheep for Halloween” and did dress up as a sheep… In a costume I made myself, with wool actually from my family’s sheep. I had so much more energy in those days. 🙂
pumpkin brownies for the win! i was a french man one year. beret, eyeliner-mustache and all. 🙂
these look freaking amazing! so soft 🙂
Im bookmarking this one – I love that there is cayenne in it. Incidently, I would have given up after the first batch but Im glad you didnt because I really like brownies!
I was Frankenstein’s monster when I was 8 and it has been downhill from there.
I’m seeing a lot of these pumpkin brownies around. I’m very curious. Costume? Buffy 🙂
Wow, that’s hilarious. You are certainly stubborn to attempt that same recipe 3 times!!
Best costume is one I made for my child. Our baby group was in a parade, and our theme was “under the sea”. Most kids were fish, lobsters, or mermaids. I made my son a sailor suit and we turned his wagon into a submarine.
Only 1 stick of butter plus olive oil and pumpkin? This is practically health food!
My most creative Halloween costume was uh, Beyonce, complete with a wig and lots of bronzer and glitter 🙂
Oh my goodness! First of all, props to you for retrying over and over. I would’ve thrown in the towel long before. But these brownies look awesome! Great job.
My most creative halloween costume was when I dressed up as a burrito. It was amazing.
H1N1 a few years ago…
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Aw, sorry you’ve had so many tricks already, but hopefully the treats outweigh them.
My Halloween costumes weren’t really creative… I stopped dressing up early, like around 10 or so, so I never left the “cute witch,” “cute princess,” or “cute angel” stage. Better than “sexy ___” though…
My sympathies for the first two batches – it sounds like you deal with frustration in the kitchen much more constructively than I do. I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for so long, and this post has definitely convinced me to finally make them!
Ok my most creative halloween costume was probably the one from last year. I am Indian and my boyfriend is Chinese so we went as Harold & Kumar. I made us matching t-shirts with the White Castle logo, and I was pretty proud of myself.
Mmmm…treat indeed. Those swirls of brown and orange look amazing!
Looks divine. I am also curious to see a photo and recipe of the cookie gone wrong but I suppose you don’t want memories. Sue Christina Tosi:) Or at least ask her to send some butter as compensation
Those brownies look great! I’m not very creative when it comes to Halloween costumes. I just don’t want to spend a lot of money. This year my husband and I went as Waldo & Wenda. That was fun.
woman!
you went back again and made them?
knowing fair well candy corn does indeed melt no matter?
oh girl you are fabulous and die hard.
but the brownies really are better than the other thing.
this year i’m going as a woman with a torn ligament. clever right?
I love you for these brownies :).
Happy Halloween! Miriam@Meatless Meals For Meat Eaters
Last year I dressed as “Wendy” from the fast food restaurant “Wendy’s”.
littlegray88 at yahoo dot com
Oooh! I can always put olive oil to good use. =) My most interesting Halloween costume was probably when some friends and I decided to go as the elements. I was Water. Unfortunately, the people who were supposed to be Fire, Earth and Air changed their minds at the last minute, which kind of destroyed the whole concept. Thankfully it was an awesome Halloween anyway.
my most creative costume was a big loveletter for my boyfriend…it was really cute!
Well, you came back from the baking mess victorious at last! These look SO good. Lucky you had that olive oil on hand! My most creative Halloween costume…I honestly can say I’ve NEVER been creative. Witch. Angel. 20s flapper. I guess maybe when I was a mailman and dressed up in my Dad’s uniform (totally illegal, by the way). Not very creative, but I guarantee there aren’t many willing to go to jail in order to dress up for Halloween! haha
Mwah-ha-ha ~ only YOU could make pumpkin in brownies look this sinful. Happy Hauntings to You!
These brownies look like they make up for everything else. Treat, treat, TREAT. Mmmm. Happy Halloween, my dear!
These brownies look great…love the pumpkin swirl. Gorgeous and perfect for Halloween 🙂
Hope you have a great week and Happy Halloween!
Beautiful and delicious cookies, now I have a new found weakness towards pumpkin in baking.
Pumpkin keeps everything so moist. Give us more!
A butterfly.
oh my god, these look freakin’ amazing. I want one now!
Simply, this is a visual treat for me. A real treat if I can munch on them right now!
These look soooo good! I love the pumpkin/chocolate combination. They are also very festive in Halloween colors!
I hate when that happens. Maybe Friday was a full moon., because my husband and I decided to bake a chocolate cake. We went through Nigellas cookbook who happens to have a whole section of chocolate cake recipes. We picked one, whipped it up and put it in the oven only to find out it takes 1 1/2 hours to cook. Trick. Nothing like a little midnight cake! And it sucks, burnt and dry on the outside, raw in the inside. Proceed to reread the ingredients, nope didn’t do anything wrong. trick and no treat.
OMG Joanne, you’re so persistent! And lucky. I can’t believe you found this yummy recipe in such short notice. Way to go!
Happy halloween!
?
Camila Faria
Oh my goodness these look awesome! I just bookmarked this recipe because I am looking so forward to making them!! What a great giveaway!
I always freak out when I run out of butter -_- These are an excellent save from the candy corn disaster!!
What a bummer that the cookies didn’t turn out – twice! The brownies more than make up for it. They look moist, decadent, and so ooey gooey delicious!
These look amazing. I’m excited to try a swirl brownie without the addition of cream cheese. I think my most creative costume to date has been a “yearbook”. I wore a white sweatshirt and white scrub pants, stapled yearbook photos from the internet all over my body and had people sign me all day. Great keepsake too!!
I’m sorry you had such a frustrating time with baking. I hate it when that happens. Your pumpkin swirl brownies turned out fantastic though. I love the pumpkin and chocolate combination. Yum!
I’ve really never been very creative with Halloween. But my favorite costume was when my college roommates and I wore old ’70s one-piecers and went as Charlie’s Angels.
These brownies look fantastic and I have some leftover pumpkin puree in the fridge that will go toward those or some sort of pasta dish.
Your brownies look delicious and I love the story of triumph behind it. You really worked for those!
My most creative foodie related Halloween costume was leftovers – I made a tin foil skirt and a tin foil top! It was back in college where it was acceptable to wear tin foil!
i think last year’s halloween costume in which i dressed as a garden gnome was my most creative 🙂
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
Umm…I’ve never been trick-or-treating. Actually I have once. I dressed up as a Catholic schoolgirl slut. Easy peasy, except I still looked like Virgin Mary.
Btw, admit it. Did you tried that melted burnt candy corn sugar? I would have given them a taste. Was it good? :-p
i went as a gold digger with a shovel and hard hat.
ican’t think of any costume since i’m distracted by these dreamy pumpkin swirls. i think last year i came as a sarah palin zombie, not too creative eh?
I just discovered how well pumpkin and chocolate go together! YUM!
My most creative Halloween costume was a die (one in a pair of dice). It was fun but hard to get through the door with it. A few cocktails and I shed the costume 🙂
the only thing this brownie missing is me gnawing on it. WANTTTTT
Mmmm…they look gooey and delicious. 🙂 Killer bee? Smurfette? Statue of Liberty? I don’t know how creative they were, but they were fun. 🙂
I love the small pumpkin beside the huge brownie! they look really good and the swirl is just perfect
Great combo and love the swirl of this yummy brownies!
Glad to see that you survived all levels of stress with these brownies. That orange swirl is very difficult to avoid…
those brownies look like absolute heaven. much better than candy corn cookies! Happy Halloween!
I have been craving EXACTLY THIS as soon as October began.
Best costume: a (gay) friend and I went as ‘Boy Scouts’.
Holy freakin’ heck! These look ridiculously good! And incredibly moist! Totally salivating here.
can’t say i’ve ever had a creative costume..but i was a witch when i was younger and my mom did a crazy good job on my face paint!
I JUST finished eating a pumpkin brownie. One of the things that keeps me going at 1:30am feedings is the promise of delicious snacks.
that sounds great – brownies and pumpkin are two of my favourite things – and we don’t have candy corn in Australia so I wouldn’t even get the chance to burn it in cookies (not that I want that chance) and I have never dressed up in a costume for halloween but I love pumpkin and brownies
I really loved reading your blog. It was very well authored and easy to understand. Unlike additional blogs I have read which are really not good. I also found your posts very interesting. In fact after reading, I had to go show it to my friend and he enjoyed it as well!
British Food
my favorite costume is nudist on strike–it doesn’t get easier. 🙂
Your brownies look fantastic! Love the swirl effect 🙂
Oh, Joanne. Lol. You poor thing. That’s just way too much work for a Halloween treat. BUT look what you ended up with! YUM-O.
Sorry I’m over here late. Halloween is a big deal over here. Kids and all. And my entire day was consumed with costumes and decorations and…well, luckily no mishaps in the kitchen. I did that LAST week 😉
All the poor, defenseless candy corn that was needlessly sacrificed. Arrrrgh 🙂
My most creative outfit was a reused Ninja cosumte that I recycled and made into a dog costume. Lots of cutting and sewing and I was able to turn a ninja costume into a cute puppy costume!
love the spices in these! i need to get on some pumpkin brownies… and “get on” i mean… make some 🙂
Happy Halloween, Joanne!!!! These brownies look so festive and delicious! Fantastic post!
xoxo,
Tammy
these look fabulous! and i’ve definitely had cookies baking before work that didn’t turn out, either. sad day.
my favorite costume ever was when I dressed up as Mary Catherine Gallagher from SNL (Superstar) – it was so much fun!
Yes, great minds do think alike…lol!
My best friend and I dressed as Siamese twins in high school and won a few prizes for it…that was one of the best costumes I ever had.
I was at a bachelorette party over the weekend where the bride dressed up as a bridezilla! So not my most original idea but it was too cute not to share!
I think all the tricking was definitely worth it considering the final treat 🙂 Amazing brownies!
This year I dressed up as the rose from the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. Epic, my friend. Epic. 😀
These brownies look so lovely. Happy Halloween, Joanne!!!
That looks amazing.
Let’s see, I don’t know about creative but it was fun! This year my friends and I dressed up as different tarot cards. I was the Queen of Pentacles.
Dang, girl. What a crazy way to get the brownies made at last. Nice use of pumpkin in the end though. These look great!
I had two bombs this past week too. It’s no fun. You recovered nicely with these scrumptious brownies! You deserve to eat one. Or two after all that work! I wonder if you had used frozen candy corn if it would of worked out.
YUMMM!!! I made my first pumpkin dessert last week and am now slightly obsessed, Iv got one left in the fridge – going these!!!
nothing even close to being creative in terms of a halloween costume.
those brownies do look awesome !!!!
jacquieastemborski AT comcast DOT net
These brownies look amazing! I would love love love a few of these bad boys.
Also I know I won’t win your giveaway because believe it or not I have never dressed up for Halloween. I had this crazy stepdad who always thought Halloween was the devils holiday. So while other kids went trick or treating my brother and I had to sit in the basement and do nothing. I’m pretty sure I had a sad childhood.
Can’t wait to try these beautiful brownies! Okay,one of my goofiest Halloween costumes was Vincent VanGogh…faux blood-soaked gauze wrap around “missing ear,” fake reddish beard, artist’s smock with brushes in pockets, scruffy straw hat, painter’s pallette in one hand, wine bottle in other hand (of which I enjoyed partaking), and a deranged glare! Thanks for the offer to win some fine olive oil…I use it in everything. Cheers!
I’m totally making these for a potluck tonight 🙂 I’d have to say my most creative halloween costume was when my best friend and I dressed up as old ladies in 5th grade. We had wigs, canes, glasses, the works. We won a contest at her parent’s yacht club, which is filled with retirees 🙂
Pretty sure these brownies must have been worth every trick that day. And maybe all the ones prior. LOVE this recipe!
Dear Joanne, These brownies are just perfect for the season. What a delicious looking treat!! Blessings, Catherine xo
Wow, the perfect Halloween brownies! I love the little hit of cayenne in there. ?
pumpkin brownies…now you’re speaking my language!
Maybe not the most creative, but it was a bacon. My sisters were muffin and egg, so…
Wow good for you for persevering and trying that cookie recipe several times! That’s disappointing about the candy corn melt though. The pumpkin brownies look like an excellent save. 🙂
Holy effffffff! YUM!!!! Can I sub the APF with almond meal? =D And can I sub the chocolate with cocoa and oil or something? Help, I wants these!! =(
mmmK I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t make MY Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Swirl Brownies that have been on my blog for like 4 years. But it’s ok. We’re still friends 🙂 And I know you’ll try them next time! So that you can tell me how my recipe development skills rival Deb’s 😉
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