Chocolate Yogurt

A while ago I found some recipes for making different flavours of greek yogurt.  It was the chocolate that got my attention - I love chocolate.  Well I tried it, and it was alright.  I liked it, it was great while I had it, but I wasn’t going to rush out and buy greek yogurt to make more.  This may have been for a couple of reasons - I could still taste the “tang” of my yogurt, the is that I am just not used to the thicker texture of the greek yogurt.  It might be the brand I using, I am not sure, but I have found that the flavour will give me issues and I already am a texture eater.

To get to the point of all this though, I recently tried this again with our regular yogurt.  I had bought strawberries as I thought I had some greek yogurt left from a dinner I had made the week before that I wanted to use.  This seemed like a great plan with some strawberries for snacks.  However upon arriving home, the container of yogurt was not to be found - I must have used it in smoothies one morning to get rid of it, oops.  Not wanting to give up on my chocolate snack for the week, I grabbed some of my vanilla yogurt.  The result was fantastic, I love it.  It tastes like a nice dark chocolate mousse, and is light and airy.  Actually this really reminds me of a chocolate mousse.  It is like dessert.  I know that this is not as healthy as the greek version (which is still good), but I am going with it.  It is nice to know that I can make it with the yogurt I keep on hand for everything else and I don’t have to pick up anything special.  


Chocolate Yogurt.  
1 cup vanilla yogurt (I used a french vanilla, but it shouldn’t make a big difference)
2.5 tbsp coco powder

Directions: Mix the coco powder and vanilla together.  Enjoy!

Note: Use your favourite yogurt, I use Astro Original yogurt, it is nice and thick and doesn’t use any of the fake sugars.  I find it is thicker than the other brands I have tried, but not as thick as a greek yogurt.

Chocolate Greek Yogurt
1 cup greek yogurt
2-3 tbsp coco powder
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp maple syrup

Directions: Mix the ingredients together until well blended.  Enjoy.


Reviews:
I like both, but the most popular is the recipe made with vanilla yogurt.  I have also made this with vanilla greek yogurt and it also turned out as well.  A great snack for dipping fruit in or just eating with a spoon.

Sea Salt and Chocolate covered Caramels

This year in all my Christmas baking I made caramels.  Everyone is always impressed with homemade caramels, and I don’t find it too hard to make them.  The only downside is wrapping all the little caramels once they are done. I usually end up doing this over a couple of days, which is how I came to this new small variation.

I had a bunch of caramels wrapped when O informed me that there was a baking competition at work the next day and he should take something.  I handed over my caramels (there were still lots left to be wrapped) and didn’t think anymore of it.  Turns out they were a big hit - they ran out of caramels during the eating/judging of the competition, oops.  What did come out of this though was the suggestion to coat the caramels in chocolate and sea salt.  I had some left and wasn’t excited about wrapping them, so why not play a little?

I am happy to say I did play with them and to my delight they were fantastic.  The bonus is that this doesn’t even take much more time than wrapping them, but really takes them to a whole special place on the dessert table!

I did some slight adaptations to the caramel recipe found on allrecipes.com.  I hope you enjoy these.

Sea Salt and Chocolate covered Caramels
Ingredients:
Caramels:
1 cup butter
1 pound brown sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup light corn syrup (i used golden, as that is pretty much all you can find here)
1 ½ tsp vanilla paste (or 1 ½ vanilla beans - well the insides of the beans - would work)

Coating:
3 cups milk chocolate melting chips
Coarse sea salt

Directions:
1. Prepare a 9x13 pan by lining it with parchment paper (or you could just grease it - I like the parchment paper as you can just lift out the caramels to cut them)
3.In a saucepan (preferably with a heavy bottom) combine the caramel ingredients: butter, sugar, milk, and corn syrup.  
4 Heat the mixture until you reach 234F, then cook for 2 minutes at this temperature, while stirring.
    Note: this will make very soft caramels, if you would like them a little firmer, cook them at 240F (I like the really soft ones, so I left it at 234F).
5. Take the caramels off the heat and add in the vanilla paste/beans.  Pour the caramels into the prepared 9x13 pan, and allow to set.
6. Once the caramels are set, cut them into bite sized squares - I did about ½ inch x 1 inch rectangles.
7. In a double boiler melt some of the melting chocolate pieces.  Once they are melted remove from heat. (if the chocolate starts to harden on you, just put it back on the heat for a couple of min).
8. Dip the caramel squares in the chocolate, set to cool on some parchment paper.  While the chocolate is still soft, sprinkle with some sea salt.

Note:  I found it easiest to work in small batches of the caramels at the time.  It was also easier to have the caramels cool while dipping them, as they held their shape a little better in the warm chocolate, so I kept the other batches of caramels in the fridge while I was working.

Reviews:
These were fantastic.  I had to give most of them away as I found I couldn’t stop eating them!  One person O work with even asked for a bunch of them to give as a Christmas present to someone!  They were a big hit and will have to be something that I make again.

The caramels by themselves are also great, so don’t worry about covering them all in chocolate! 

Burger Cake

A coworker had a birthday and it was my turn to bring the cake.  I didn't want to do a cake with flowers for a couple of reasons.  The first being that this cake was for a male coworker, and although he would not have complained, flowers just aren't really him.  The second reason - I had only recently finished my cake decorating class (alright, well it had been a few weeks) and I was not ready to start making more flowers again.

I came across pictures of a cake that looked like a burger on pinterest and decided to give it a go.  It is a white cake with chocolate frosting (darker for the burger, less coco for the bun), and regular buttercream frosting for the ketchup and cheese.  The lettuce was made using rolled fondant.  The sesame seeds on the bun are large sprinkles.

Everyone at work loved the cake which was great.  I had lot of fun making it and it was nice to make something less girly than I had been making for the last few months.

Frosty!

While playing around on pinterest (oh the time I waste on that!), I came across a recipe to make your own Wendy’s Chocolate Frosty. I love Frosties and find myself stopping for them even in the middle of a Canadian winter! How awesome would it be if I could make them myself at home? That and I am always looking for ways to get my ice cream maker into more use. I did have to cut the recipe in half and that was a good thing as it still made a lot, which of course was promptly finished in 24 hours.... I wouldn’t have been able to fit a full batch in my ice cream maker anyways, so it all worked out.

Ingredients:
½ tub of light coolwhip
½ can of sweetened condensed milk
2 cup 1% chocolate milk

Directions:
Combine all the ingredients in the icrecream maker and let run for 20 - 30 minutes depending on your maker and the desired consistency.

Serve and enjoy!


Reviews:
I loved this and couldn’t stop eating it. O remarked that it tasted just like a Frosty! We also decided for the sake of our waists, we should not keep the ingredients on hand, as it was so quick and simple to make things could quickly get out of control.

Glueten Free Cherry Chocolate Pudding Cake

I have a friend who should not be eating a lot of gluten but she loves baking. She was drooling over the Cherry Chocolate Pudding cake that I made, so I decided to try making her a cake of her own (well actually I put her to work in the kitchen to show her how to do it). I also decided to make it a smaller cake, as it is a fairly rich cake and even with taking it to work with me it was hard to get through a 9 x 13 pan of it. What we ended up with was an 8x8 pan of gluten, egg and dairy free cake!

Ingredients:
¾ + 2 tbsp all purpose GF Flour mix (I used Kinikinik brand)
¼ cup organic whole brown sugar
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp coconut milk (you could also use almond, soy, or rice - I just had coconut on hand)
¼ cup applesauce (unsweetened)
1 cup cherries - rough chopped

½ cup organic whole brown sugar
1 ½ cup hot water
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. (if using a glass pan cook at 325F).
2. In a bowl mix together the flour, sugar, ⅓ cup cocoa powder, baking powder, milk, and applesauce. (I had to add an extra 2 tbsp of milk, try mixing without before adding it. The batter should be thick but not dry).
3. Fold in the cherries.
4. Spoon the batter into a greased and floured 8 x 8 pan (or a pan lined with parchment paper).
5. In the same bowl mix together the dark brown sugar, hot water, and ¼ cup cocoa.
6. Poor overtop of the batter.
7. Bake 35 to 40 minutes (the cake will be set but not firm, you should see some pudding bubbling up on the edges.).

Chocolate Angel Food

I recently had a birthday, as seeing as how my birthday falls in August, I usually have ice cream cake. This year though, the weather has been cooler and I wanted something different. I wanted chocolate, but light and airy as it is summer. When I saw a chocolate angel food cake, I knew I had to make it!

Ingredients:
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
¾ cup granulated sugar


¾ cup granulated sugar
12 large egg whites (make sure not to get any of the shell or egg yolk in with the whites or they won’t beat up properly)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions:
1. Heat the oven to 325F.
2. In a bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar (3/4 cup) and set aside for a minute.
3. In a bowl with a stand or hand mixer (I guess you could do this by hand but there is no way my arm is that strong) mix the egg whites and vanilla. Beat the egg whites on medium high speed until they are frothy.
4. While beating the egg whites sprinkle the cream of tartar into the bowl mixing it in as you go.
5. Continue to beat the egg whites until soft peaks form (the egg white will come up with the beater if you remove it, but will flop over and not really hold its shape).
6. While beating the eggs slowly add the remaining ¾ cup of sugar and continue to beat until the eggs white become glossy and stiff peaks form (will hold a peak shape when the beater is removed).
7. With a whisk fold in the mixed dry ingredients.
8. Pour into an angel food pan (do not grease the pan, or flour it). Using a spatula smooth out the top of the cake.
9. Bake for 40-45 minutes (mine actually took about 55 minutes, but I think my oven might be a little off). The top of the cake should spring back when touched and the cracks should appear dry.
10. Let cool upside down (I stick mine on a top of a bottle or the top of the cake will get soggy).
11. Slide a knife gently around the pan to release the cake.
12. Enjoy

Reviews:
I love this cake! It is great without anything on it, but fantastic with strawberries and whipped cream. It was a great light birthday treat!

Cherry Chocolate Pudding Cake

I came home from vacation with a bunch of cherries and knew I had to do something with a few of them before I made myself sick eating them. I found a recipe for cherry chocolate pudding cake, and I had been wanting to try a pudding cake for a while. I had remembered them from when I was younger and loved the goey pudding mixed in with the cake, so I decided to give it a try. I did change the recipe a little bit to cut down on the sweetness and make a darker richer chocolate.


Ingredients:
1 and 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Sugar (1 original recipe)
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3 tablespoons Baking Powder
¼ + 2 tbsp cup Milk
1/2 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
1 cup Cherries, fresh/frozen, pitted
1 cup Dark Brown Sugar
3 cups Hot Water

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a bowl mix together the flour, sugar, ⅓ cup cocoa powder, baking powder, milk, and applesauce. (I had to add an extra 2 tbsp of milk, try mixing without before adding it. The batter should be thick but not dry).
3. Fold in the cherries.
4. Spoon the batter into a greased and floured 9 x 13 pan (or a pan lined with parchment paper).
5. In the same bowl mix together the dark brown sugar, hot water, and ¼ cup cocoa.
6. Poor over top of the batter.
7. Bake 35 to 40 minutes (the cake will be set but not firm, you should see some pudding bubbling up on the edges.).


Reviews;
This cake got good reviews and it was even good cold the next day. However, O decided that he would like it better without the cherries, or with the cherries chopped into small pieces. I am sure I will make this again at some time.

Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was reading my feed one day and saw that someone had made chocolate chip cookies filled with an rollo- how awesome is that? I folowed to the original recipe and found all sorts of variations, oreo filled cookies, brownie filled cookies - so much yumminess. I knew I had to make these. I decided to try two combinations - oreo (regular not double stuffed) and brownie. I followed the original recipe and formed the cookies around either an oreo cookie or one of my fudgy brownies. Unlike the original brownie filled cookie - I cut my brownies to about the size of an oreo, I needed a cookie that could be eaten in one sitting. The other fun part about this size is I mixed all the cookie together so you wouldn’t know what filling you were getting until you bit into them.

I didn’t change anything in the recipe and the instructions on Picky Palate are fantastic, so i am just going to tell you to go there and check out her recipe.


Reviews:
The dough seemed a little dry when I was working with it, but it worked great. These were delicious and stayed soft while the oreo in the center stayed firm, how awesome is that?

The cookies were a big hit and were loved at my house, my work and O’s office! Only three people have been lucky enough to pull out both an oreo cookie and a brownie stuffed cookies. It was mixed on which was better, it was said that the brownie cookies were better as there was “more love” to them.

No Flour Fudge Cookies

I came across these cookies when looking at some gluten free recipes on King Arthur Flour one day (man I love that site), as a few friends and family members are celiac or at least gluten intolerant. These cookies looked amazing and I had to try them right away.

Ingredients:
2 ¼ cup powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
3 lg egg whites
2 tsps vanilla extract

Instructions:
1.Preheat the oven to 350F and line the cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2.Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth (make sure you scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl).
3.Drop cookies on the cookie sheets (I used my cookie scoop, and that was a good size).
4.Bake for 8 minutes (the tops will be crackly but the cookies will still be very soft). Allow the cookies to cool on the pan before removing to a wire rack.

Reviews:

These cookies are completely addictive; I couldn’t get enough of them. They were fantastic, and I have made a few batches. The cookies were almost like fudge in the shape of a cookie. I did add some instant coffee powder to some of the cookies and these were also enjoyed very much.

Chocolate Cupcakes, White Chocolate Icing

The chocolate cupcakes

For the wedding I decided to do a twist on the chocolate cupcake – a chocolate cupcake with a white chocolate icing (who doesn’t love chocolate on more chocolate). For the cupcakes I used a one bowl chocolate cupcake recipe from iheartcuppycakes. I adapted the recipe for the icing from Cupcakes take the Cake

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Ingredients:
1 ½ cup flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
¾ cup milk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 ½ tsp oil
¾ cup warm water

Directions:
1.Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare your cupcake pan (this recipe doesn’t take long to put together).
2.On medium speed of an electric mixture (or by hand) combine flour, cocoa, sugar baking soda, baking powder in a bowl.
3.Reduce the speed and add in the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla and water. Mix until combined.
4.Fill cupcake liners ½ to 2/3 full (I put about ¼ cup cup of batter, not scraping out what sticks in the cup) into a large cupcake liner and this works well.
5.Bake 17-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
6.Let cool on a wire rack before icing.

White Chocolate Frosting:

Ingredients:
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
5 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
4 - 5 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid
1/3 cup milk, heated to tepid
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1.In a bowl beat the butter for 1 -2 minutes (works best with the paddle attachment of an electric stand mixer on medium speed).
2.Beat in 1 1/3 cup sugar.
3.Mix in the melted chocolate.
4.Blend in 1 1/3 cup of sugar and the milk.
5.Beat for 2 minutes on medium high speed.
6.Beat in the vanilla and 1 1/3 cup of sugar.
7.Beat for 2 minutes and check the consistency – if it is not thick enough (mine was not) add the remaining icing sugar ¼ cup at a time until it reaches the desired consistency.
8.Frost cupcakes.

Reviews:

These cupcakes were delicious and were a big hit at the wedding (especially with the kids!)

I used the leftover icing to fill some chocolate oreo cookies and they were fantastic!

Chocolate Chip Cardamom Cookies

First let me let me apologize for the lack of pictures, my camera batteries were dead and then all the cookies were done before they were charged. Also the last week has been terribly busy, so i apologize that this post is a week late.

I love cardamom and usually only get it in cookies around Christmas time. I had a craving for it this week, but didn’t want to make fattigmen or anything like that. I had seen some recipes for Cardamom Chocolate pots, and figured if it went well with chocolate, it should go well in chocolate chip cookies.

Cardamom Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Ingredients:
1 cup margerine or butter
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 egg
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups all purpose flour
½ to 1 tsp ground cardamom (if it is fresh, you will need only ½, use 1 for preground, or if you really like the flavour!)
Chocolate chips.

Directions:
1.Cream the butter until it is light and fluffy, then cream in the sugar, followed by the egg and vanilla.
2.Mix the baking soda, flour and cardamom together. Add to the butter mixtures and mix until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
3.Using a teaspoon drop cookies onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350F for 10 to 12 minutes.
4.Cool on a wire rack.
5.Enjoy

Reviews:
So I made a half batch with cardamom and a half batch without. I loved the cookies with the cardamom in them and could tell the difference. O thought they were okay, but isn’t a big fan of cardamom so he mostly went for the regular. He could tell which were the cardamom cookies, as he would take a bite then give them to me and get himself a new one!

However the hockey boys could not tell the difference between the two batches. My theory is they weren’t really trying. No complaints on either batch though, and I will be making these again.

All right Game time:
I know I missed last week as I was away – well the boys won sans cookies! Way to go! As for this week, the game ended in a 2-2 tie after 3 periods and one round (5 players) of shootout. They then ran out of ice time and had to leave the game as a tie.

(As this post is a week late, this weeks post will be up soon!)

Chocolate Dream Cake

I received a cakepan that would allow me to make filled cakes really easily. I couldn’t wait to try it and and decided to make a dreamy chocolate cake filled with all sorts of different kind of levels of chocolate.

Starting with Martha Stewart's One Bowl Chocolate Cake, I then filled it with a dairy free chocolate mousse (my friend coming over is lactose intolerant, so I wanted something she could enjoy), and topped it all with chocolate butter cream (Martha Stewart) and chocolate shavings.

The cake was very easy to put together – pop out of the pan, fill, stack, ice. So simple, with fantastic results.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Makes 2 eight-inch square or 3 eight-inch round layers

1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pans
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups soured milk (I used 1% plus 1tbsp lemon juice)
3/4 cup safflower oil (or any vegetable oil)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup warm water
Unsalted butter, for pans


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter round or square cake pans, and line bottoms with parchment; butter parchment, and dust with cocoa.
2. Into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, stir in eggs, 1 cups warm water, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla until smooth, about 3 minutes.
3. Divide batter among prepared pans. Bake, rotating once, until tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes for 8-inch layers, depending on amount of batter.
4. Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for 20 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely, right side up on rack.

Note: the original recipe calls for 1 ½ cups of warm water but only in the directions, which I thought was weird. After adding 1 cup of water, I thought it was a good consistency and baked it. It turned out great.


Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients

4 ounces 80% cocoa chocolate (I used Lindt)
3/4 cup margarine
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, cream the margarine.
2. Add the sugar, vanilla and melted chocolate and beat until fluffy.
3. Add the eggs and beat for 3 minutes until smooth and thick.
4. Refrigerate until serving, or in this case fill the appropriate areas of the cake.



Chocolate Buttercream

Ingredients

Makes enough for 15 cupcakes

1 cups sugar
1/2 cup egg whites (about 3 large)
¾ cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
8 ounces dark chocolate, melted and cooled slightly (I used an 80% cocoa Lindt bar)

Directions

1. Place sugar and egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer set over (but not touching) a pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly until mixture is heated and sugar is dissolved. Whisk (with an electric or stand mixter) until cooled and stiff peaks form (the peak remains after you remove the beater).
2. With the mixer running, add butter, one piece at a time, until completely incorporated. Continue whisking until a light, fluffy cream has formed. Stir in chocolate until well combined.
3. Use as needed.

Reviews:
Oh wow, this cake truly was a dream. It was 8 to 9 inches high and full of delicious chocolate. The mousse was divine, and I admit I licked the bowl out, not the normal lick off the spoon, but I full on broke out the spatula and scraped every last bit out of the bowl. So good! The cake was moist and delicious, I will using this recipe again.

The only thing that I would have done differently? Used white chocolate and milk chocolate shavings on the top as well as the dark chocolate. mmmmmmmmmm

Black Forest Cookies (Bulldogs)

Black Forest Cookies,

I made Black Forest preserves this summer and have been wanting to try using some in some baking, so this week the Bulldogs got Black Forest Cookies using the preserves.

All I knew I wanted for these cookies was rich chocolate cookie, somehow incorporate the preserves and topped with something creamy and light. Basically, I wanted the deliciousness of a Blackforest cake in cookie form.

When I saw these cookies on My Kitchen Café, I thought they looked great as the base for my cookie. I decided on a thumbprint cookie to try the flavor combinations.

Cookie: (makes about 3 to 4 doz)
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
¾ cup butter (soft)
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
¾ cup chocolate chips

Black Cherry Preserve (or cherry filling of your choice)

Vanilla Buttercream – I used Billy’s Buttercream from Martha Steward and added a little extra sugar to make it stiffer (recipe below)


Directions:
1.Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.
2.Cream the butter and the sugar until light. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well mixed.
3.Add 1/3 of the flour to the butter mixture, followed by ½ the sour cream. Repeat until all the ingredients are incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4.Drop the cookies onto a baking sheet with teaspoons and bake at 350F for 12-13 minutes, until set.
5.When the cookies come out and are still warm press a whole in the middle of the cookie. Let cookies cool on a wire rack.
6.When cookies are cool, spoon the black cherry preserves or cherries or jerry jam into the middle of the cookie. Top the cookie with vanilla buttercream to cover the cherry filling.


Vanilla Buttercream
1.In a bowl beat ½ cup of butter until it is soft and creamy. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar, followed by ¼ cup of milk and 1 tsp of vanilla. Beat until smooth.
2.Add another 2 cups of powdered sugar and mix. Add up to another cup of powdered sugar, ¼ cup at a time until it is a thick pipe-able consistency.
3.Put in a piping bag, fitted with a wide tip (or a ziplock with the corner cut out) and pipe onto the cookies.

Reviews:
Everyone loved these cookies, and despite fears that they would be too sweet they turned out fine.
The cookies are great on their own as well if you looking for a good chocolate cookie.

The Bulldogs:
Sadly the losing streak is now at 2, as they lost on Saturday morning. The cookies have been unabe to make up for the cold weather and early mornings.

Mars Bar Brownies

I admit it, my favorite part of Halloween is the cheap minature candy for the days after Oct. 31. This year I hit the stores and came home with a large box of mini mars bars. Why didn’t I get a box that had a few kinds in it? I don’t really know, but that large box of mars bars called to me, it wanted me to bring it home.

So now, rather than just chew my way through the box of 70 chocolate bars in the weekend, I decided maybe I should try and do something with them. The natural and most obvious choice was Brownies.

Mars Bar Brownies:

Ingredients:
½ cup margerine (1 square)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup cocoa powder
½ cup all purpose flour
about 12 mini mars bars

How to:
1. In a saucepan melt the margerine., remove from heat.
2. Add the brown sugar and stir until smooth. Check to make sure that the mixture is now cool enough that it won’t cook the egg, if it is too warm let it sit for a minute.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla, mixing until smooth.
4. Add the flour and cocoa powder, mixing until just mixed.
5. At this point you could cut up the mars bars and add them in, but I decided to go a more interesting route. I poured just enough batter to cover the bottom of my 8x8 pan, then set the bard in lines in my pan.

I then marked the edges of the bars, and covered them with the remaining batter.


6. Bake at 350F for 20 mintues, they will still be very gooey when removed from the oven, don’t worry about it. Let cool in the pan for 5 -8 mintues them remove to a wire rack (I like the parchment paper for this as you can just grab the sides and pick the brownies out of the pan.).
7. Once the brownies are cool, but at the marked lines. Hopefully the bars didn’t shift and the brownies will look like a fudgy brownie along the cut lines. Then when you bite into the middle, you get a caramel and nugout surprise!

Reviews:
I love these brownies, I hate easily ½ the pan of these in a single sitting. I could not stop myself from picking up a new one everytime I went near the kitchen. O said they were allright, but a little too rich for him as he wasn’t able to sit down and eat a bunch of them all at once.

Halloween Spider Webs

I saw these adorable cookies on Good Things Catered, and had to try them! I followed her recipe and directions and came out with some impressive cookies, I almost don't want to eat them. They are a tasty cookie, but not my or Owen's favorite.

These have been a big hit with coworkers and students.

Chocolate Beet Cake

I have a confession – I am not a fan of beets. No matter how many times I try them, I just don’t like them. So this year, my mother as usual ended up with an abundance of beets in her garden. After helping with a couple batches of pickled beets, we were both done with the canning. Still having a sink full of beets however, we had to think of something. I did a little searching and came across Chocolate Beet Cake on Straight from the Farm. Hmmmmm, chocolate – I do love chocolate. Could this be the answer to my aversion to beets – sneek them into a chocolate cake?

I got to work pureering beets, hunting chocolate out of the cupboards and mixed up the cake.

CHOCOLATE BEET CAKE
vAdapted Straight from the Farm
1 c. margarine, softened, divided

1 1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar

3 eggs at room temp

3 oz. dark chocolate

5 medium beets/2 c. pureed beets

1 t. vanilla extract

2 c. all-purpose flour

2 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. nutmeg

confectioners’ sugar for dusting
 


To make beet puree,
1. trim stems and roots off beets and place in heavy sauce pan filled with water.
2. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 50 mins or until the beets are tender.
3. Drain off remaining liquid and rinse beets in cold water as they’ll be too hot to handle otherwise. Slide skins off, quarter the beets and place in blender or food processor. Pulse until a smooth puree forms. Let cool slightly before using in cake. Puree can be made several days in advance.
To Make the cake:
1. In a mixing bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and brown sugar.
2. Add eggs; mix well.
3. Melt chocolate with remaining butter; stir until smooth. Cool slightly.
4. Blend chocolate mixture, beets and vanilla into the creamed mixture (mixture may appear separated).
5. Combine flour, baking soda , salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; add to the creamed mixture and mix well.
6. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. spring form pan.
7. Bake at 375 degrees F for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
8. Cool in pan 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack.
9. Cool completely before dusting with confectioners’ sugar.

Reviews:
The cake came out really nice, with a slight red color to it, which I found really cute and appealing. So this cake was a great texture, really moist but not too dense. I loved that about the cake. The beet flavour was subtle, but sadly so was the chocolate. Next time I make this cake, there will be more chocolate!

Devil's Food White-Out Cake

Note: I apologize for the bad pictures, this cake had survived a trip to and from work (with my husband) before I got to take the picture, and this point the lighting was aweful but I couldn't wait to eat it any longer.

When I took the cookbook Baking:From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan out of the library, it was initially because of this cake. The chocolate and fluffy white layers called to me, they entered my dreams and made me wake up in the morning with my face in a pool of drool. I HAD to make this cake, I NEEDED to take out the book.

Well, i took out the book, I drooled over the cover, but never seemed to have a good enough reason (or enough time) to make this beauty of cake. Then came my husband's birthday - here was the perfect time to try my beloved cake. Little did I know that this cake would become my husband's boss's birthday cake, good thing it turned out all right.

I followed the directions as printed on Confessions of a City Eater. I would type out the recipe, but it is long, I am lazy, the cookbook had to go back to the library, and well, someone has already done it. So click the link, I promise the instructions are good and her cupcakes are adorable! (she make it into cupcakes as well - I will have to try that some time soon!)

The only difference from my cake to the original is that I ended up with four layers. The cakes had large domes on them, so after they came off I didn't need anymore cake to make crumbs and decided to make four layers. Even with that I have leftover crumbs sitting in my freezer to be used to make cakeballs soon.

Anyways the cake was a huge hit. O's boss loved it, O loved it, I managed to get myself a small slice before it was all gone and it lived up to my every dream. I am still in love with this cake.

"Magic in the Middle"

Alright, I have seen these cookies on a couple of blogs now and they looked so cute I had to try them (well that and I am a bit of sucker for anything with chocolate and peanut butter), so I hunted down the original King Arthur Flour recipe and got to work.

Below is the recipe with my notes:
Recipe from King Arthur Flour, Pictures from my kitchen

Chocolate Dough:
1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar (plus extra for dredging)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg

Peanut Butter Filling (I had leftover filling, and plenty in the cookies, so next time I may cut this down to 2/3 cup each).
¾ cup peanut butter
¾ cup icing sugar

1. In a mixer, combine the sugars, peanut butter and butter, mixing until creamy. Add the vanilla and egg, mix until well combined.
2. In another bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to the butter and sugar mixture, mixing until well combined and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl mix the peanut butter and icing sugar together until smooth.
4. Using a teaspoon, or a teaspoon cookie scoop, make teaspoon sized balls of the filling (should make about 26 balls – I had leftovers).
5. Using a tablespoon (or tablespoon sized cookie scoop) scoop out about a tablespoon of the chocolate dough. Using your fingers make an indent in the dough into which you place a ball of the filling. Then fold the sides of the chocolate dough up and around the filling. Roll into a round ball and roll the ball in sugar. (For good step by step pictures go here )
Note: I did several of the chocolate balls at a time, added the peanut butter balls to each of them and then folded them and rolled into a ball.


6. Place the cookies on a sheet and flatten with the bottom of a glass. Bake at 375 for 7 to 9 minutes and let cook on a rack.

Note: The dough got dry on me and was hard to work with so I added a couple tablespoons of milk and it worked great!

Reviews:
These cookies were delicious, and while it looks like it is a lot of work, it really didn’t seem to bad. I couldn’t stop eating these cookies and had to get them out of the house. My boss told me that they were “like magic”, and everyone at my meeting said they were great. My husband’s hockey team also really enjoyed these and he game out with no leftovers (thankfully).

I will definitely be making these cookies again!

Cookie Dough Topped Brownies

Cookie Dough Topped Brownies

I saw these on My Kitchen Café (how on earth I didn’t find this fantastic sight sooner is beyond me) and thought it looked like a great idea. We were heading out to a friends cabin, and they had requested that I bring “anything chocolate” so naturally I decided it was a good time to try these with some fresh guinea pigs.

I used my own brownie recipe, but My Kitchen Café’s cookie dough recipe.

Brownies:
½ cup margerine
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
½ cup flour

1. In a saucepan melt the butter over low heat. Once the butter is melted stir in the brown sugar, stir until smooth.
2. Add in the egg, vanilla and cocoa powder, stirring until smooth.
3. Add the flour and mix until combined (no lumps). Pour into a lined/buttered 8x8 pan.
4. Bake at 350F for 20 to 23 minutes (they will be very soft coming out of the oven but will firm up as they cool).
5. Let the brownies cool while you mix the cookie dough.

Cookie Dough
1/2 cup (1 cube) butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown Sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Cream the butter and sugars together until they are light and fluffy. Add the milk and vanilla.
2. Gradually add the flour into the dough until it is combined.
3. Mix in the chocolate chips (I used chocolate chunks)
4. Spread on the top of the cooled brownies. (I know that this amount of cookie dough was originally used on a 9X13 pan of brownies, but I wanted a nice thick layer of cookie dough and used the full amount on the smaller pan of brownies.)

Reviews:
These took my back to my youth when I would sit in the kitchen waiting for my cookies to bake while eating the dough by the spoonful (alight so maybe that was just last month).

Anyways, when told what I was making I got the comment “you can do that?” and lots of “That is fantastic”. The brownies lived up the expectations and I heard raves all weekend. These will be made again, and I have a feeling that friends will be requesting them as word gets around – lets just hope that the hockey team never hears of these marvelous creations!

Free Blog Counter

BBQ Dinner #1

For the entire weekend the kitchen had been taken over by the jam making and various other fruit adventures, so we ate cooked our suppers on the BBQ. This is one of the meals that we did that weekend:

1. Home made venison sausage - my parents make this every year, and it is great - maybe this year I will actually remember to do a post about it.
2. Grilled Corn on the cob - recipe below
3. Vegetable grill - we picked the zucchini out of the garden that day and couldn't wait to eat it, recipe below.
4. Dessert was smores, mmmm mmmm good - how to below.

Grilled Corn:
!. Peel down the corn husks but do not remove. Remove the silk and soak the corn and husks in cold water for at least 15 minutes.
2. Remove the corn from the water and brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and pull the husks back over. Tie the husks closed with a stray piece of husk.
3. Place on a heated grill and grill for about 15 minutes, turning every 3-4 minutes.


Vegetable Grill:
1. wash and chop the vegetables in large chunks. (We used small to med. Zucchini, green pepper, red pepper, yellow pepper and asparagus - which was my favorite).
2. Toss the vegetables with olive oil to coat, and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Put on a BBQ vegetable grill and place on the heated BBQ, cooking until the veggies are crisp tender. Don't forget to stir the vegetables occasionally during cooking.



Smores on the Grill:
1. Create a smore by stacking graham cracker, milk chocolate, a large marshmallow, and topping it with another graham cracker.
2. Wrap teh smore with tinfoil tightly so it all holds together.
3. Place the smores on the BBQ over low heat. Leave until the squish down when you press lightly on the top. Don't leave them on too long, or on high heat as you don't want to burn the chocolate. They should take no longer than 2 minutes.
4. Unwrap and enjoy!


This dinner was delicious and amazingly I ended up with no leftovers!