Chocolate and Peanut Butter Deliciousness

Chocolate brownies are one of my weak spots.  And these are rich, moist, chewy brownies filled with more chocolate and topped with peanut butter cups and chocolate ganache.  Over the top perhaps, but ridiculously good--and suddenly "plain" chocolate brownies (though these are not plain) become even more special.  I used my favorite brownie recipe from King Arthur Flour for the base, and then topped it, once cool, with the ganache, chopped up peanut butter cups, and then a little more ganache.

Thanksgiving Brunch

Before the feast, we had another feast.  We had to have something to sustain us until the turkey was done.  We tend to have Thankgiving dinner later in the day, so this does actually make sense, though it's possible I went overboard in my baking.  We had fresh scones (cranberry-chocolate chip and pecan praline), crumb cake, apple-cinnamon coffee cake, eggs, bacon, Canadian bacon, cheese, fruit ... just a few things to keep us going during the day.

Happy Halloween!

Sweet treats are all but required on Halloween, no?  These are chocolate cupcakes with a simple vanilla frosting.  The cupcakes are moist with sour cream and buttermilk, while the frosting is light and fluffy.

Sunday Brunch

On a suddenly cold, rainy Sunday, what's better than a cozy, leisurely brunch?  We had a ton of food for five people, but that's how it should be.  Brunch is my favorite meal--you can go in so many directions, and you're supposed to have plenty.  You don't have a bowl of cereal for brunch.  I made a leek and goat cheese frittata, a cinnamon-apple coffee cake made with sour cream and lots of pecans, and chocolate chip-cranberry cream scones.  We also had a selection of cheeses, smoked fish, fruit, olives, nuts, the requisite coffee, apple cider, and pear cider with prosecco--which is every bit as tasty as it sounds.

Chocolatey Chunk Caramelitas

Meet caramelitas ... introduce yourself ... get friendly, because soon you will be very good friends.  They're so simple--a layer of buttery, flaky oat shortbread, topped with dark chocolate chips and fleur de sel caramel, and then another layer of the oat shortbread.  But then it all bakes together, and the caramel melts down over the chocolate, into the shortbread.  The oats start to toast and take on a nutty flavor.  And then they're done, and all you have do is wait for them to cool.  They do need to be completely cool before you slice them, not just kinda, or they'll crumble all over the place.  A short stay in the fridge does wonders if you're impatient.  I found the original recipe over here, but I'm posting my few changes below.

Caramelitas

5-6 oz fleur de sel caramel sauce (I used a jar I had on hand, but you can also make it yourself)
3/4 c unsalted butter, melted
3/4 c brown sugar
1 c flour
1 c old-fashioned oats (not instant)
1 tsp baking soda
1 c semisweet chocolate chunks (I used Callebaut)

Combine the butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, and baking soda in a bowl.  It will be crumbly.  Pour half of the mixture into a foil-lined 8x8 (or similar) baking pan.  Bake for 10 min. at 350 degrees.  Then sprinkle the chocolate over the base layer and the caramel over that.  Crumble the remaining oat mixture on top, and bake for 20 min., or til golden brown. Let cool completely before slicing.  These freeze very well -- I wrapped the rest of mine individually, so I can pull one out of the freezer, without being tempted by the entire pan.

Almond Joy Macaroons

This post is a little late, but I did make these macaroons during Passover. This is just a little twist on a simple coconut macaroon recipe. I added sliced almonds into the mixture and then a chocolate kiss on top, after I took the macaroons from the oven. The almonds add a nice crunch, and the kisses mean no dipping in chocolate, which can be messy (and dangerous, when some of the cookies fall into the chocolate and you have to eat the less pretty ones).  Almond Joy Macaroons(based on Mark Bittman's Minimalist Macaroons) 

2/3 c sugar (I used vanilla sugar and skipped the vanilla below)

2 c unsweetened coconut

2/3 c sliced almonds

2 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

approx. 24 chocolate kisses (optional but good)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the sugar, coconut, almonds, egg whites, vanilla, and salt together in a bowl.  Using a 1/8 c measuring cup (or spoons, or your fingers), scoop out the coconut mixture onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 15 min., or til lightly browned.  Remove from the oven and place an upside down kiss on top of each macaroon.  Let cool completely.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Chocolate Mousse Cake with Raspberries

The Passover baking challenge isn't that you can't use flour--there are plenty of desserts that don't include flour.  But so many of them end up heavy with too much almond or matzo meal or too fudgy chocolate creations.  And it's not that they're not good, but after a big meal, sometimes you don't want something quite as dense.  This cake is impressive in its height, with hints of Grand Marnier cream and raspberries peeking out from between the layers.  And when you slice into it, it's surprisingly soft and light, like mousse, but still deeply chocolatey.  I've made moussse cakes before, but this recipe, from Smitten Kitchen, has the great suggestion of freezing the delicate layers when they're cool, so they're easy to handle when you put the cake together.  This also means you can do the more involved part of the cake on one day, and then just put it together a few hours before dinner, and the frozen layers will help keep things cool as they defrost. 

Chocolate Mousse with Raspberries

This is one of my most favorite combinations of all time. Rich, dark chocolate combined with whipped cream and fresh raspberries? Oh yeah. I have to keep telling myself it's much harder to make than it is (really easy), so I don't find myself alone with an entire batch of this and a spoon.

  - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Chocolate-Dipped PB Pretzels

Say it with chocolate--but don't forget the peanut butter. And adding crunchy, slightly salty pretzels just makes these even better. I found the recipe via Pinterest.  Below are the pretzels waiting for their chocolate bath:
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Chocolate PB Rice Krispie Bars

Theme and variation on the avalanche bars I made for the holidays. I used lots of semisweet chocolate chips, crunchy peanut butter, mini marshmallows, with extra peanuts on top. Yum.

  - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christmasy Cookies

Every year I say the same thing--that I'm not going to go overboard--and every year I end up making a ton of cookies. It's not that I don't like baking cookies--clearly--but there's only so many hours in a day, nor is there a need for bazillions of cookies and candies.  This year my list kept growing and growing, but I was finally able to narrow it down to a mere 10 items.  After I baked the first eight all in one day, and I had trouble locating not-uncommon ingredients for the last two, I decided it was a sign and called it a day.  Starting at the bottom of this picture, there are triple peanut cookies with peanut m&ms, salty caramel oat caramelitas, chocolate-dipped toasted coconut macaroons, coal cookies with white chocolate chips, chewy ginger spice cookies (hiding at the very top), almond buttercrunch, and avalanche bars.  Not pictured are the peanut butter-oat dog biscuits I made, but the dog has tested them and declared them very tasty.  She didn't even bother trying to hide these--as is her usual with a treat--and just ate them right up.

Avalanche Bars

At first glance, these are just Rice Krispie treats with lots of marshmallows. But what they really are is Rice Krispies mixed with white chocolate, peanut butter, mini chocolate chips and lots of marshmallows. They're over-the-top, and not a little sweet--and regular Rice Krispie treats just don't seem the same anymore. Thanks to Cookies & Cups for the recipe.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thanksgiving Just Desserts

After the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and squash, there's not always a lot of room for dessert on Thanksgiving. Still, I usually make three or four pies and cakes so we can have choices. But this year, thinking more is better, and having more people over, I made seven desserts. Yes, seven--it's not like I made 19 pies or anything. From front to back, we had classic apple pie, raspberry key lime tart, pumpkin chiffon pie, carrot cake, chocolate-cranberry-pecan pie, apple crumble cake, and mocha buttercrunch pie. Possibly it was too much ... but I don't think so. One day later, and there's not too much left.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Acorns and Candy Corn

Happy Halloween! These little acorns are super easy to make--which is good, because they disappear very quickly. A Hershey's kiss is topped with a mini peanut butter sandwich cookie, which is then topped with a mini chocolate chip. Done. The pizza below is meant to resemble candy corn, at least in appearance. I made wide stripes of Alfredo and tomato sauce, and then a combination of the two. Once the pizza baked and the cheese melted, the candy corn resemblance kinda faded. But having three sauces on one pizza was pretty tasty nonetheless.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

The combination of chocolate and peanut butter is one of my favorite things. These cookies have both chocolate and peanut butter in the dough and then again in the chips, in the form of the tiniest pb cups ever, from King Arthur Flour. Though micro-mini pb cups are hard to find and you might be tempted to use pb chips and chocolate chips instead, I can say from experience that the cookies will not taste the same, nor half as good. These pb cups don't melt into the dough, and they actually taste like peanut butter, which is not always the case. The recipe, also from KAF, can be found here.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Mounds of Joy Brownies

What happens when an Almond Joy, Mounds, and a brownie collide? Deliciousness, clearly. I always wanted the two candy bars to combine, with coconut covered in dark chocolate AND almonds. So when I recently found a recipe for Mounds-like brownies, adding a layer of toasted whole almonds on top of the coconut wasn't even a question. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Vacation Food

Steamed:


Tiny:


Crunchy:


Huge:


Sweet:


Toasty:


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Chocolate Chip Cookie Fest

It's late June and I have a freezer-full of cookies. We've had some sudden breaks in the high heat, and I feel almost compelled to bake--if only because I can without heating up the whole house. Cookies are always good, and they store well too. The cookies above are toffee-oatmeal-chocolate-chip, based on the recipe in Diane Mott Davidson's "Crunch Time". The cookies below were perhaps a cry for more caffeine: chewy coffee chip cookies (like coffee chip ice cream, not with coffee-flavored chips) and thin, crispy mocha-cocoa chip cookies.







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Chocolate-Guinness Cake

Continuing the Guinness theme, I made a chocolate cake with it for St. Patrick's Day. The cake was rich and moist but light at the same time. The frosting, not the one paired with the cake recipe, was incredibly dark and chocolatey. I actually added a bit more sugar because it was too dark at first. And because I didn't have a pot of gold handy, I caramelized some hazelnuts and added them as a simple decoration around the base of the cake.





Dinner was more like brunch, and it wasn't overwhelmingly Irish. It was good, though: baked tomatoes with breadcrumbs and herbs, soft scrambled eggs, and asparagus. 



Mushrooms sautéed in Guinness


Cheesy baked hash browns

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Valentine's Macarons

Happy Valentine's Day! This year I decided to tackle a project I've been talking about for over a year, possibly two. Macarons are sweet, almond and meringuey cookies that are filled with any number of good things. I made two kinds: one pale pink filled with raspberry preserves and one creamy white filled with dark chocolate ganache. The thing about macarons is that they are a process to make and, with the almond flour, not cheap either. I knew this going in--and they lived up to that. I think I used every mixing bowl around as well as every surface. Also, the cookies are delicate, and breakage will occur. While I don't plan to make these again immediately, I still came away with plenty of cookies and even just the unfilled broken shells are good to munch on.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone