For the Love of Chocolate!

What better time of year to make chocolate treats than during the holidays? (Okay, well Valentine's Day might be a good time to bring this one back, especially considering how I love the whole idea of girls making homemade chocolate for the boys they like as they do in Japan).

But anyway, what I love about making your own chocolate is that you can totally control what goes in it, and (if you use chocolate chips for melting), it's so completely fast and easy!

I actually made these Peanut Butter Cups and S'mores Pops in November (shh, don't tell anyone I'm that behind on my blogging!) but the Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries and the Fun Chocolate Shapes were this month at least! As we reach the end of 2011, it's the perfect time for a few final indulges before January rolls around and we all start dieting again!

Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients:

1 bag (about 12 oz.) dark or milk chocolate chips (your preference--I like Ghirardelli 60% Cacao chips since they're easier on my stomach than milk or semisweet chips, plus they have more antioxidants! Note: chocolate over 60% Cacao will be better for you, but taste extremely bitter)
1 jar (about 15 oz.) creamy peanut butter
Mini cupcake liners and a mini cupcake pan


Directions:

1.) Fill a mini cupcake pan with paper liners. Empty the chocolate chips into a large, microwave-safe bowl and microwave for approximately 90 seconds, stirring after 30 second intervals until the chips are melted and smooth.

2.) Immediately pour about 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon of chocolate into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Then, using a teaspoon or other small spoon, drop a dollop of peanut butter into the center of each liner (the amount of peanut butter you want is up to you!). Pour another 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon of chocolate in each cupcake liner so that the peanut butter is completely covered. Twist your spoon to drizzle the chocolate into swirly designs on the tops. You may end up with extra chocolate and peanut butter leftover to do with as you please--it all depends on how many candies you have the desire (and energy) to make.

3.) Refrigerate approximately 30-45 minutes, then remove from fridge and let come to room temperature. Congratulations, you now have delicious homemade "Reese's"! Remove the paper liners and eat the cups up or share them with friends and loved ones! There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's so there's certainly no wrong way to nibble, bite, inhale, and devour these babies!

 

S'mores Pops


Ingredients:
1 bag (about 12 oz.) chocolate chips
1 bag (about 16 oz.) marshmallows (regular or large, not the minis)
Graham crackers of your choice
Bamboo sticks or other small wooden skewers

Directions:

1.) Crush as many graham crackers as you like into small pieces using a food processor or by sealing them in a plastic baggie and running a rolling pin (or a mallet) over them. Place into a bowl and set aside. Empty the chocolate chips into a large, microwave-safe bowl and microwave for approximately 90 seconds, stirring after 30 second intervals until the chips are melted and smooth.

2.) Skewer marshmallows at the end of your wooden sticks and dip immediately into the chocolate until the marshmallows are thoroughly coated. Quickly dip into the bowl of graham cracker crumbs. Let the pops sit out at room temperature until the chocolate has hardened (I found this worked easiest by pushing the skewers through the bottom of a paper cup turned upside-down, and taping the cup to the countertop so it wouldn't topple over).

3.) Eat plain, or light on fire first for a true campfire S'more experience! (Please do not eat while the fire is still going--wait until it burns itself out or else blow out the flame before consumption!) There's nothing quite like the taste of charred marshmallow (I'm serious here--it's SO good!

Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries

Ingredients:
1 bag (about 12 oz.) dark or white chocolate chips
1 container large strawberries (I found long-stem strawberries at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market).
Parchment paper


Directions:

1.) Empty the chocolate chips into a large, microwave-safe bowl and microwave for approximately 90 seconds, stirring after 30 second intervals until the chips are melted and smooth. Immediately dip the strawberries deep into the bowl until thoroughly coated. Remove from the chocolate and let sit on the parchment paper until the chocolate hardens.

2.) Eat immediately, or refrigerate to eat later! With luck these will last in the fridge at least a few days, though they taste best (obviously) when they're fresh!

Fun Chocolate Shapes!

Ingredients:
 
1 bag (about 12 oz.) chocolate chips
Maldon sea salt (a nice flaky salt, or a nice sea salt works best, though any salt will do. For a good explanation of salts, check out this blog!)
Small cookie cutters of your choice
Parchment paper



Directions:

1.) Place cookie cutters upside-down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Empty the chocolate chips into a large, microwave-safe bowl and microwave for approximately 90 seconds, stirring after 30 second intervals until the chips are melted and smooth.

2.) Immediately pour the chocolate into the cookie cutter molds and let sit. Sprinkle with salt (this makes for such a nice salty-sweet contrast!). As carefully as you can (the chocolate will want to escape the molds) transfer the baking sheet to the fridge and let the candies completely harden.

3). When ready to eat, remove the chocolates from the fridge and allow them to come to room temperature before attempting to push them out of the cookie cutter molds. Some will pop out easily while others may require a little more pushing. Yes, you will get chocolate on your fingers. It's delicious.

That's all there is to it! Now you can have your own homemade chocolates any time you want! Even though it's still technically December (for one more day) I've noticed that all the grocery stores are already decked in Valentine's Day displays....  So I guess it's not too early to start practicing your chocolatier skills too. It's certainly never too early for chocolate. So with that, I wish you a happy end to 2011, and a very sweet New Year! More treats to come in 2012!

Coconut Cookies!

If you can host Christmas in July, you most assuredly can invite tropical flavors to baked goods in December. Having a few leftover bags of sweetened coconut flakes from my kids' cooking program at the library (posted here--the spooooky Banana Ghosts) I decided to experiment with making a cookie that I could easily bring in to work around the holiday season and also satisfy my own craving for coconut. This is a love that only recently developed within the past few years when I discovered how wonderful coconut and dark chocolate pair in candy boxes (I couldn't stand "that shredded stuff" as a kid). Instead of going with chocolate in my cookies, however, I opted to put a twist on traditional chocolate chip cookie recipes, using the same basic dough, but adding coconut instead of chips. First found here (a recipe by N. Hoff on AllRecipes.com), I again made a couple of changes for my own personal tastes--basically whole wheat pastry flour and a whole teaspoon of vanilla extract. The results? Such compliments as "awesome & oh so yummy!!" and "the best coconut cookies I've ever had!" Much thanks to N. Hoff for the idea and to my coworkers for their kind words! I now plan to repeat Coconut Cookies whenever I can!

Ingredients:

1 and 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 and 1/3 cups sweetened coconut flakes

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spread a piece of parchment (NOT wax) paper on a baking sheet.

2.) Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and stir together. In a separate bowl, combine the soft butter with both sugars and beat until the mixture is smooth (you can use an electric mixer, but I just used a fork and stirred really hard!). Add the egg and vanilla to the butter mixture and continue to beat until everything is well combined.

3.) Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until no more flour is visible. Then stir in the coconut.

4.) Form the dough into small Tablespoon-sized balls, slightly flattened, and place on the parchment paper (or if you don't have parchment paper, just an ungreased cookie sheet).

5.) Bake for about 10 minutes until the cookies are golden brown around the edges. Allow them to cool slightly, but you can eat them while they're still warm!

I love cookie season! But lots of chocolate is coming up next!

Holiday Feast!

Okay, this really should have been posted in November so that if I decide to look back on my blog for recipes come next Thanksgiving I'll be able to actually find them.... But it is true that same kinds of desserts and sides made for Thanksgiving can also be made at Christmastime (Plus that whole Bronchitis for a month thing really messed up my November plans). So before it gets too late into December, let me post the traditional (and soon to become traditional) Thanksgiving recipes I made this year.

In addition to my regular Pumpkin Pie (I made the recipe this year already in October for a bake sale before baking two more at Thanksgiving), I also had my annual Bourbon Pecan Pie that I've been making for at least five years now, adapted from Paula Deen's recipe. And if that wasn't enough pie, I decided to break tradition and make one of my favorites that I hadn't done in about five years: Sweet Potato Pie. To round out the menu (since Thanksgiving can't be just about dessert--I know, it's sad) I also created a Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce side (hmm, also a sweet dish) and a sweet Pumpkin Cream Cheese Dip (wow, maybe Thanksgiving at my house can be all about dessert?), leaving the turkey, potatoes, and stuffing to my mom.

The easy thing about these pie recipes is that they start with a pre-baked pie shell (I buy whole wheat crusts from Whole Foods) so you don't have to make the dough from scratch and can just focus on the delicious filling. While the cranberry sauce is slightly more labor intensive than the kind from a can (and yes, we had that at Thanksgiving too--don't mess with tradition), it comes together fairly easily with only four ingredients. The pumpkin dip was something new to our Thanksgiving table (a recipe I made for a fall scrapbook party last year), which I served with apple slices and graham cracker sticks. All in all, I think our holiday was quite festive and successful, and I might just have to repeat some of these recipes for Christmas dinner too!

Bourbon Pecan Pie


Ingredients:


1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
3 eggs, beaten
1 and 1/2 to 2 cups pecan halves
1/2 cup whole pecans (may need more depending on how many it takes to cover the top of the pie)
2 Tablespoons bourbon (I've been using the same bottle of Jim Beam Bourbon Whiskey for the past five years)
1 pie shell (8 or 9 inches in diameter)

Directions:


1.) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar and butter. Add the corn syrup, eggs and bourbon, stirring after each addition. Then stir in the pecan halves.

2.) Pour almost all the filling into the pie shell. Leave some liquid at the bottom of the bowl. Add your whole pecans to this liquid and coat them thoroughly. Using your fingers (they will get sticky), carefully lay each coated pecan on the top of the pie's filling to form a pattern (I like to start around the outside edges and just make circles. This part takes a little patience, but the aesthetics of the end result is worth it).

3.) Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees, putting foil around the edges of the pie to prevent the edges of the crust from burning. Then lower then temperature to 350 degrees and bake for about 22 minutes longer until the top of the pecans become firm and a deeper brown. Let cool on a baking rack and serve at room temperature or refrigerate overnight and serve cold the next day. Basically, this pie tastes good at any temperature, and can be eaten for several days after Thanksgiving for dessert, in your lunch at work, for breakfast....

Sweet Potato Pie


Ingredients:


2 cans (16 oz. each) candied yams (I prefer the kind in light syrup, not heavy syrup, since I can't seem to find any without syrup)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk of your choice (I used a can of fat free evaporated milk since I'd been using that for the pumpkin pies)
2 Tablespoons melted butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 pie shell

Directions:


1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients for the filling, stirring until the eggs are beaten and the yams have been mashed in (though I like a few remaining chunks in mine).

2.) Pour the filling into the pie shell and bake for approximately 35 minutes. You can again place foil around the edges of the pie to prevent the crust from burning, or just take your chances if you trust your oven!

At this point you can also top the pie with about 1/2 a bag of mini marshmallows and bake it for an additional 15 minutes to let the marshmallows melt and brown. But I decided to skip the marshmallows this year and just focus on the flavor of the sweet potato, which came out being not too sweet, but just right for me and my younger brother who, it turns out, likes sweet potato pie better than pecan or pumpkin. Looks like this recipe will be a keeper in our house!

Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

2/3 cup water 
1/3 cup orange juice
1 cup brown sugar
12 oz. cranberries (frozen or fresh--this is usually one package of Ocean Spray Cranberries)

Directions:

1.) In a large pot, bring the water, juice and sugar to a boil. Add the berries and return the mixture to a boil again.

2.) After it's started boiling again, reduce the heat and let the mixture simmer for approximately 30 minutes, stirring at regular intervals, until it becomes thick and begins to stay coated on the spoon you use to stir.

3.) Remove from heat and pour into a heat-resistant (glass or ceramic) bowl. Cover and cool in the fridge a few hours or overnight before serving--it tastes best cold rather than warm or room temperature.

I can't remember exactly where this recipe originated from, but I know that during some baking experiments a few years ago I tried to adapt the cranberry sauce recipe from the back of the Ocean Spray bag, combining it with a recipe I found on AllRecipes.com (the inspiration to use orange juice). For a more tart sauce you can experiment with more orange juice and less sugar, but this recipe has served me well for several years as a nice compliment to the canned cranberry sauce tradition as well.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Dip

Ingredients:

2 packages (16 oz.) lite cream cheese
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
4 teaspoons maple syrup (this time I used a "pumpkin syrup" I found!)
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1.) In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, brown sugar and canned pumpkin with an electric mixer until most of the larger chunks are broken up and no longer visible.

2.) Add the syrup and cinnamon and continue to beat until smooth.

3.) Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes, though overnight works well too. Since this is a sweeter dip, serve with fruit, graham crackers, ginger thins, vanilla wafers (basically any kind of mild cookie) rather than chips. Though you could try it with chips. I've never done that before.

Again, I don't remember where this recipe originated from now, though I do remember experimenting with proportions and ingredients last year when I first created it for my scrapbooking party. It makes a nice appetizer for guests who can't wait for the official dinner to be ready, or a lighter dessert for people who choose fruit over pie. Due to the dairy in the cream cheese, I can't eat very much of this dip, but I did taste test in small amounts and absolutely love how the fall flavors shine through. You only get to use pumpkin for so long during the year--I take advantage of every opportunity!

So that was the basic Thanksgiving menu on my end (I still don't know how to cook a turkey and have a personal vendetta against mashed potatoes ever since I learned they are secretly made with milk or cream). But in another year (or maybe for Christmas dinner?) I might add a few new experiments to the list. One day I do plan to try recreating my mom's recipe-less cornbread stuffing, which I never wanted to eat as a kid (due to chunks of celery and onion) but I just can't get enough of now! Overall, my best advice for holiday dinners is just make what you like, try balancing tradition with something new, and (most importantly) don't stress over the food--take the time to enjoy just being with the people that mean the most to you.

Happy Holidays! Christmas cookies and chocolate will be up next!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Bites

Need a tasty cookie in a hurry? Want something both different and familiar? Love the whole, "You got chocolate in my peanut butter" flavor combination? Look no further than these quick and easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Bites! Adapted from my traditional Peanut Butter Thumbprints recipe, this one's even easier. I just put it together last night in a (successful) experiment to be brought to my coworkers this morning. The peanut butter I used is Sunland brand, bought at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and has the chocolate already inside it! (Sunland also makes a variety of other flavored peanut butters that I love, including Banana. Check out their website home page and you'll be greeted by an entertaining Valencia peanut song as well). Or you could always try with Nutella. But to keep the flavors as simple and clean as possible, I stuck with tradition. ("You got peanut butter in my chocolate!')

Ingredients:

1 cup chocolate peanut butter spread
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg


Directions:


1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter sugar and egg, stirring with a fork until all ingredients are well incorporated.

2.) Use your fingers to keep the dough together and form small 1-inch balls by rolling the dough in the palms of your hands. Set on a baking sheet lined with parchment (NOT wax) paper, and flatten slightly to form small discs (or what I like to call "buttons").

3.) Bake for approximately 8 minutes until the edges of the cookies just begin to harden. Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

That's it! You're done! Wasn't that easy? Next time I might try pressing some kind of white chocolate or other candy in the center to make a "thumbprint." Or see how the recipe turns out with that banana peanut butter....

Mini Eggnog Cupcakes!

I have been away from blogging for far too long. The month of November passed with several Thanksgiving projects that I will have to go back and upload including a Bourbon Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Cream Cheese Dip, Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce, and Sweet Potato Pie. But unfortunately coming down with Bronchitis for four weeks knocked me out of commission and away from my keyboard during that time as well. Thankfully, winter colds are all gone now and I can talk about my most recent baking success: Mini Eggnog Cupcakes! I had planned well before the fall to experiment with eggnog baked goods in the winter, and my December office holiday party--complete with a staff potluck dessert arrangement--was the perfect opportunity to get cooking!

I personally love the flavor of eggnog, though the dairy in it keeps me from having it that often (that's why I was so happy to discover Silk Nog soy eggnog!). Since I'd mostly been making cookies for my coworkers lately, I wanted to try some sort of bread or cake with the eggnog flavor instead, and thus searched online for eggnog cupcake recipes until I came across one by Minneapolis couple Matt and Kat on their blog, A Good Appetite. It had all the important things I felt an eggnog cupcake might need: eggnog. And rum. But the amount of butter (thus fat) and use of egg whites (my dad is allergic to them) led me to alter the recipe just enough to make it my own. Even with cutting the butter content in half, however, these cupcakes still tuned out so moist (perhaps because I added extra rum), with the eggnog flavor coming through especially well when paired with homemade eggnog frosting (this I also altered from the original recipe to add actual eggnog in with the powdered sugar). Best of all, the recipe turned out to be so easy to put together the day before the office party, making little mini cupcake bites that no one had to feel guilty about indulging in!

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon rum
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup eggnog or soy eggnog
3 whole eggs


Directions


1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a mini cupcake tin with paper liners. In a large bowl beat together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add the rum, vanilla, and eggs one at a time. Beat after each addition.

2.) In a separate bowl, sift the baking powder, salt, and flour together and mix well. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating between adding the flour mixture and the eggnog until both are well incorporated into the batter.

3.) Fill the cupcake liners to just below the surface of the tin, smoothing the batter flat with a small spoon to spread it evenly. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, until the cupcakes start to brown just slightly and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

4.) Remove the cupcakes from the oven and carefully turn them sideways in the tin to prevent the bottoms from getting mushy. Finish cooling on a wire rack until the cupcakes reach room temperature, then feel free to frost and enjoy! (Frosting recipe below).

Eggnog Frosting


Ingredients

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
1 Tablespoon rum
2 Tablespoons eggnog

Directions


1.) Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer. Add the salt and spices and continue to beat. Finally, add in the rum and eggnog and beat until the frosting is smooth. For a thinner icing, add more liquid. Adjust to your personal taste!

I refrigerated the cupcakes overnight, then let them sit out until they reached room temperature before serving them the next day. The hardest part about making these treats was keeping myself from eating too many of the little things as I "taste-tested" the batter, the warm cupcakes fresh from the oven, the cooled cupcakes at room temperature, the cupcakes with frosting, and the cupcakes after being refrigerated. Thank goodness they were small, and that I still had enough left for my coworkers. Have fun with this holiday recipe--both the making and the eating!