Tag Archives: chocolate

I Have No Brain Cells Left

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This why you haven’t had a post in a handful of days (not counting the guest post as that was written quite a while ago). I’ve been cooking, I’ve been eating… just have been in one of those blogger moods of not knowing what to write. Yes, every once in a while, my extreme creativity and ginormous  writing skills go on hiatus *cough cough… gets hip boots*.

I like to think that right about now, my writing “skills”, such as they are,  are lying on a beach on Tahiti with a Mai Tai and a trashy novel. I just hope they haven’t forgotten sunscreen cause I burn easily.

I have however been spending way more time than usual reading cooking blogs. It never fails to amaze me how many of them there are out there now. Some totally suck donkey toes, others are outstanding and make me feel like I need to give up blogging because in comparison to them, my blog sucks donkey toes. Continue reading →

Just Because I Love You…

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Browned Butter Chocolate Chip & Toffee Cookies

And you and you and you…and yeah, you too, even if you DO drink pepsi. 😀

Just because I love you all… well, maybe not you; you annoy me. But the rest of you are pretty darn cool. Soooo… as I was saying… just because I love you, I made cookies. Quite a few of them. And if you get a plane ticket, book a hotel room because if you stayed here you’d be clinically insane within three hours so that you can be all comfy, bring your own booze cause what I have would probably bore you and please make sure you have a Scrabble dictionary with you because I am going to force you to play Scrabble with me but no one can touch my Scrabble dictionary because it was my dads…. if you do all of this, I’ll feed you these utterly delicious cookies. I might even be persuaded to make some dinner for you and whip you up a cup of my famous hot chocolate. Continue reading →

There’s A Reason I Do Certain Things

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Triple Berry Muffins

Like using muffin/cupcakes liners when making those baked goodies. Muffin pans hate me. They really do. It’s a vast right wing conspiracy! I did NOT have sexual relations with that woman!

Sorry; I was channeling the Clintons. But really… muffin pans hate me. It never fails. I make a tasty batter… I spoon into HEAVILY greased pans… they come out looking completely beautiful.

Then they stick. Did I mention that muffin pans hate me? They are evil sentient life forms that delight in my agony.

Muffin pan liners however are wonderful angelic sentient life forms that make my muffins come out easily and not in 37 pieces (we ate all those straight from the pan or as piles of muffin mush in bowls… still tasted great lol). Yes, I know that sometimes the sight of a whole muffin with no liners is prettier but muffin pans hate me. I’m not sure if I mentioned that yet.

So I bet you’re wondering what the recipe will be today right? Don’t stop now; click here!

“Just One More Box Hon!”

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I’ve talked about my dad in here before.  He died in 2006 from complications due to diabetes after having lived next door to me for about 8 years.He was an ornery cuss at times and did things I know he regretted because he apologized many times over for them but he was my best friend nonetheless.

He was generous to a fault and man did he love his food, especially sweets. That man could inhale some sweets! I mean, really. He would buy a six pack of ice cream bars and eat them in one night. Or on Halloween, he would buy a few gazillion bags of candy, ostensibly for the trick or treaters but I still laugh over how the kids got all the smarties or dum dum suckers and somehow, there just HAPPENED to be 14 bags of “the good stuff”, aka mini Snickers and the like, left for him to eat. As a diabetic, he shouldn’t have been eating it at all, but he had no willpower when it came to candy. He would give me that wonderful little boy giggle he had, smile and tell me he would only eat a little this time. My dad was a wonderful mix of a wise man and a young boy all tucked into a six foot tall sweets loving body.

One of the things he totally loved was cherry cordials. OMG, could he eat those like they were going to be going off market any second! He would buy a ton of them when they were on sale at Christmas (as well as 97 other times during the year) and when I would pretend to glare at him as he shoved boxes in his grocery cart, he would laugh and say, “just one more box hon!”

Dad would have loved these bars. He and Russ, my husband, would have been fighting over them because they are one of Russells favorites among the baked goods that I make. Speaking of inhaling… Russ is a diabetic also and is pretty good about not eating the bad things but when I make these, all control goes out the windows. So I don’t make them often. When I do though, I quietly smile over the mental image I get of dad and Russ sitting down together to talk with some coffee and a plate of these Cherry Cordial Bars. I wish they’d met.

This recipe originally comes from food.com. I have made some changes over the years but not many.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Bars

  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons almond extract
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 can cherry pie filling
  • 1 bag Dove Dark Chocolate And Cherry Swirl candies, coarsely chopped (can use the dark chocolate and Raspberry ones too when the others aren’t out, but the flavor will be different)
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13×9 inch pan.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Beat until fluffy.
  3. Add in the eggs and extracts.
  4. Combine the flour and baking soda together and mix into the bowl of wet ingredients. The mixture will be thick.
  5. Pour in the cherry pie filling and mix well.
  6. Fold in the candy pieces. Spread mixture in the prepared pan.
  7. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until light brown and the top springs back when touched.
  8. Let cool and cut into squares.
  9. This is a very moist bar, pretty much a cross between a cake and a bar cookie.

Ahem… Anybody Still Out There?

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I know I know… I disappeared for a little bit (believe me; my FoodBuzz rating shows that I have been gone for a week and a half. Erhmmm…ack?) and shouldn’t be asking you if you are still out there. Instead I should be begging your forgiveness for leaving right?

C’mon now… you know I love you all dearly but can you REALLY see me begging for forgiveness? 😛 Didn’t think so.

I had to leave for a while… honest. Personal issues (and we know I’m just full of issues hehe) plus my grown kids were coming home for Christmas and I was getting too caught up in things that weren’t as important as that.

But… I’M BACK! And I come bearing goodies.

Ok, no I don’t. But I come bearing a recipe for goodies. Do your own baking darn it. 😀

I know a lot of people do New Years Day Brunches so I come bearing a scone recipe. Please say scones in a lively sort of upper crust British accent. Or Scottish. Scottish is good too. I expect a perfect accent before you even attempt to make these.

I was originally going to make a scone with other dried fruits and I am sure I will get to that at some point or another. But today, chocolate possessed me. Surprise huh? So I made chocolate covered strawberry scones. But as my strawberries were dried and rather chewy. added a shot of amaretto to them to rehydrate them. Honest, it HAD to be amaretto… water would not have worked. *Looks innocent* Then I made a creamy strawberry butter to slather all over these bad boys. Or maybe they were girls. I’m not sure; I didn’t check. I tend to leave the gender of baked goods alone. I am big on respecting the privacy of my scones.

Be warned; these spread a lot. So if you like precise more crisp edges, don’t put these close because they will blend together. if you like soft edges however, place them about an inch apart. Either way, they aren’t the prettiest daintiest looking scones in the world but darn, do they taste good!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Scones

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar (plus sugar to sprinkle on the top)
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 12 tablespoons (a stick and a half) of cold unsalted butter
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 4 ounce bag dried strawberries
  • 3 tablespoons amaretto
  • 1 cup dark or semi sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup strawberry preserves
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Chop the dried strawberries and put them in a bowl with the amaretto. Set aside for about 15 minutes to soften.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
  3. Using a pastry blender, cut in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
  4. In a measuring cup, combine the cream, extracts and the eggs. Beat well,
  5. Pour the cream mixture into the flour and mix just until combined.
  6. Mix in the strawberries (leave behind any excess liquid) and the chocolate chips.
  7. Dump mixture onto a lightly floured board and pat into a 1/4 inch thick circle (or triangle or hexagon if that’s your thing). Using a 2 inch biscuit cutter, cut out the scones and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Gently re-pat out the scraps and cut them. I got 12 scones and a teenie tiny baby scone from the dough.
  8. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until they are golden brown.
  9. To make the strawberry butter, combine the 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup strawberry preserves. Beat until fluffy. Do NOT forget to let your butter soften well or you will end up with strawberry butter that has noticeable butter pieces in it, like in my photo. Oops.
  10. Serve with strawberry butter. Think to yourself that these may not be pretty, but darn, do they taste good! 😛

You Got Your Chocolate In My Peanut Butter!

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Anybody else remember those extremely silly commercials from back in the day? You have one person walking somewhere with a jar of PB (like the person who posted the video asked, who walks around munching from a jar of peanut butter?) and another walking around with a chocolate bar. They crash, the foods collide and junk food magic is created, aka Reeses Cups.

 

 

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a huge peanut butter fan. I would go hungry before eating peanut butter cookies (I can’t even handle the smell of them cooking lol), I tend to omit the peanuts or PB in any recipes needing it and I eat a PB&J sandwich maybe twice a year. I DO however like Reeses Cups (and cinnamon raisin peanut butter but that’s a different post). They may be peanut butter but the taste is different. So when I saw the following recipe here on Big Red Kitchen , I knew I had to try it. Especially since I knew that in my family, it would be a hit. One of my sons is about like me when it comes to PB but the rest of them like it and my daughter in law would kill someone to swipe this from them Love you Tiffy!) 😛 .

As for those I know in the blogger community, Erin ,
Peabody and Lindsey , this is for you ladies who if I remember correctly are peanut butter fans. I know I am remembering correctly that Peabody shares my love for a certain brands cinnamon raisin peanut butter 🙂

The rest of you, if you like peanut butter or Reeses Cups, give this a try. It tastes amazingly similar to a pb cup yet is more fun somehow with the big chunks (ok, that’s just cause I’m a pig) and homey look of it. This is exceedingly simple to make…and way too easy to eat. 😛 The only thing I really changed from the original recipe was to use chocolate chips instead of candy coating because I don’t care for the somewhat fake flavor of coating.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bark

  • 2 1/2 pounds candy coating (or chocolate chips. (I used half milk chocolate, half semi sweet.
  • 1 pound peanut butter  (I used a full 18 ounce jar. I was NOT about to try and measure out a pound. I just used it all.)
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  1. Melt half the chocolate according to package directions.
  2. Spread it out to about 1/4 inch thickness on a lightly greased baking pan. The original called for parchment paper lined but over time (over 30 years of cooking. OMG, I’m freaking OLD!), I’ve learned what can go w/out the called for parchment and I  knew that since the chocolate would harden in the fridge and be able to be lifted off, it wouldn’t be needed.
  3. Set aside in the fridge.
  4. In a large bowl, combine the peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla. Beat well. The mixture will be thick.
  5. Crumble this over the top of the first chocolate layer.
  6. Melt the remaining chocolate and pour it over the peanut butter layer. Spread it out making cutesy little swirls 😛
  7. Refrigerate this for at least a few hours or overnight until totally hardened.
  8. Break up in pieces.
  9. Store in the fridge.

Oh Noooooo! It’s….Corn Syrup! RUNNN!!!!

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Ummm, that title was my warped way of saying that yes, I use ingredients that are on todays list of “OMG; eat this and your kidneys will turn purple and fall out through your nose and your children will be born with 17 toes… on their hands… and you will weigh 752 pounds within one week of ingesting it. Then you’ll get a rare terminal condition and they will have to bury you with a bulldozer”.

All corn syrup is not alike. Let me just say that much. Part of what make HFCS so bad for you is the processing method. You can find brands (Karo) of bottled corn syrup that are NOT high fructose.

I’m 46 years old. In that time, I honestly can’t remember how many things I have seen go on the “bad foods” list that later either came off the list and were replaced with a different food after they said  “oops; we didn’t mean it was bad. Sorry ’bout that. Maybe that study that involved 14 people wasn’t defined enough?” or were obviously so NOT too worrisome since you heard about them for maybe a month or two (remember all the fuss about how Twinkies were more akin to chemicals than food? Well…erhmmm… they kinda are still on the shelves, nobody is talking about them anymore beyond saying how state fairs are deep frying them and anyway, nobody better mess with my Twinkies 😛 ) and then suddenly all the hoopla was over and things went back to normal. I think it is just the nature of the media to have to have something to worry people over at any given time.

So yes; I use corn syrup. One of my all time favorite desserts is Pecan Pie and I will be sharing that closer to the holidays. But today I have another that uses the deadly dreaded corn syrup. How many of you have had a Tin Roof Sundae or Tin Roof ice cream? It’s harder to find these days but every once in a while I still see it. For those who haven’t, it’s similar to a Peanut Buster Parfait from DQ but not exactly like it. Think chocolate, salted peanuts, marshmallows and just pure decadent creaminess. What I have for you today is a bar cookie that echos the flavors of a tin roof sundae or tin roof ice cream. An easy chocolate base covered in an ooey gooey marshmallow Spanish peanut topping. It bakes up to a yummy chewy mass of goodness. 🙂 It’s a great after school snack and at our house that time of year starts again today. So give it a try. 😀 This recipe is adapted from one by Karo.

Gooey Tin Roof Bars

  • 1 box chocolate cake mix
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2/3 cups light corn syrup
  • 1/3 cup dark corn syrup
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 1/2 cups salted Spanish peanuts
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
  • 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Combine cake mix and 1/2 cup melted butter. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 13×9 inch pan.
  3. Bake in the 350 degree oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until set.
  4. Meanwhile, combine eggs, corn syrup, 1/4 cup melted butter and vanilla in a large bowl.
  5. Stir in peanuts, marshmallows and chocolate chips. Pour over crust.
  6. Bake for another 30 to 35 minutes (took 35 for me) or until filling is set.
  7. Cool on wire rack then refrigerate for at least one hour. Cut into bars… small ones; this is pretty rich.

I STILL Don’t Like Peanut Butter But…

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My family does. I have kids still at home including a two year old who eats his weight in peanut butter on a weekly basis. To me, peanut butter is that stuff they put in Reeses Cups, Butterfingers and Nutter Butter Cookies. Oh, and a PB&J maybe two times a year. But I’ve never had the obsession with it that many people do. I have other obsessions thank you very much 😀 (cough cough Twinkies and Cheetos)

I have said that I will never make peanut butter cookies and I have stuck to that. They smell ick to me. But I still sometimes make treats with peanut butter for my husband and kids. And with Russ’s kids being here too, it seemed like a good time because I knew there would be no leftovers 😀

I am currently reading the King Arthur Whole Grain Cookbook (yes reading; not scanning; doesn’t everyone do that? 😛 ) and they have a recipe in there for peanut butter chocolate chip waffles. I saw that and knew it would perfect for both my family and the peanut butter loving blog community. This also takes it into the Elvis realm with a banana topping. Now THAT I liked. With a spoon. In my mouth. by itself. YUM! The recipe didn’t call for the following but to up the “OMG” level for everyone I made a chocolate/peanut butter sauce to put on top also.

If you like waffles, or like peanut butter or like chocolate or like bananas, you will like this 😀 As they cooked the whole kitchen smelled like a peanut butter factory lol. The original recipe calls for spelt flour so feel free to sub that if you want. This is a long list of ingredients but very quickly put together.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Waffles

With Banana Cream And

Peanut Butter/Fudge Topping

  • For the waffles-
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • For the banana cream-
  • 2 large bananas
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • For the Peanut Butter/Fudge Topping
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup hot fudge sauce
  1. Banana Cream- Mash the bananas in a small bowl with the sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice. In separate bowl, beat cream until stiff peaks form. Fold the banana mixture into into the heavy cream and refrigerate until the waffles are done.
  2. Waffles- Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a small bowl. Set aside.
  3. Cream the peanut butter and sugar together until the peanut softens up. Pour in the melted butter.
  4. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until well blended and mixture is smooth. Add the milk gradually. The mixture will be very soupy.
  5. Add the flour all at once and stir just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.  Set aside to rest for at least ten minutes while you preheat your waffle iron and make the fudge sauce.
  6. Peanut Butter/Fudge Sauce-
  7. Mix the peanut butter and hot fudge sauce in a small bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds. Stir well. Microwave again until mixture is smooth.
  8. Pour about 1/3 to 1/2 cup waffle batter (depends on the size of your iron; mine took close to half a cup) in the waffle iron and cook waffles until are golden brown. Top with some of the banana cream and peanut butter fudge sauce. This will make about 5 waffles.

Let Them Eat Cake

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As you can see, I stink at decorating 😛

 

But if you let them eat cake, make sure you refrigerate it after frosting it. Why you ask? Oh, just go look at the picture at the bottom of the post and you’ll understand hehe. This is what happens to a butter based frosting when left in a warm kitchen for too long. All I could think of was “omg, I am SO glad I got the photos taken!” My husband has more than once paid me the supreme compliment of calling me the most laid back person he’s ever known but I’m not sure how laid back I’d have been if the only photos I had to show you were the last ones lol. Though I did die laughing when my son called me (my husband and I were out) to tell me the cake had “collapsed”. I figure it still tastes good and I’m sure not out to prove to all of you how perfect I am so I want you to enjoy the laugh too.

So do as I say not as I did in this case. REFRIGERATE THE CAKE!!!! And maybe don’t put quite as much frosting in between the layers as I did. 😀 Just eat it from a spoon because you are going to have extra frosting because I am feeling too lazy to refigure the math to cut down the amounts so that you don’t have too much frosting between your layers. Just give the kids a spoon or offer the neighbor some frosting. They won’t refuse; I promise 😀

Ok; moving on (hehe… I think those words are becoming my trademark. I can’t write them now without giggling. I’m not going to tell you that this is a quick fix cake or something to start when you need a quick dessert. But for a special occasion or just cause you want to treat your family, this is an excellent choice. It’s showy (especially if you are better at decorating than I am which isn’t difficult because I’m horrible at it), rich and moist and tastes great. But it DOES take time. You could use a box mix for the cake I would guess and it would work but I make no promises as to whether it would be as good.  The cake recipe comes from Food Network and the frosting is from me.

Chocolate Fudge cake

With

Chocolate Raspberry Butter Cream Frosting

  • CAKE-
  • 3 cups brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup canola oil
  • 3 eggs (bring to room temp)
  • 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 1/8 cups cocoa powder (unsweetened)
  • 1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam, melted (you will be using this after the cake layers have cooled and this is my own addition so feel free to omit if you want)
  • FROSTING-
  • 1/2 cup pureed and strained raspberries (2 pints got me the half cup and some extra raspberries for decorating)
  • 1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam
  • 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
  • 3 cups semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  • 3 to 5 cups powdered sugar (will vary)
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon raspberry extract (optional; I didn’t think it needed it but wanted to post it for those who might like it)
  1. Cake- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three nine inch cakes pans (I used Bakers Joy instead; the spray that has both oil and flour in it and it worked fine)
  2. In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar and oil. On low speed of your mixer, add the eggs. Set aside and mix together your flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
  3. In a measuring cup, mix your vanilla into your milk (yes; this recipe makes a lot of dirty dishes 😛 ) and set aside.
  4. Bring the water to a boil and pour over the cocoa and whisk until it is well blended and smooth.
  5. To the egg mixture, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl off after each addition.
  6. At low speed, add in the cocoa mixture.
  7. Pour into the prepared cake pans and bake at 350 until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. When cake layers have cooled, remove from pan and refrigerate the layers while you make the frosting. If you have no room to put in the fridge, just cover and set somewhere cool.
  8. FROSTING-
  9. While cake layers cool, make your frosting. Melt the chocolate with the heavy cream in the microwave until chocolate is melted (about 1 1/2 minutes). Stir until smooth. Set in the fridge to cool down somewhat, about ten minutes. Don’t leave too long or it will harden back up.
  10. Beat the butter, raspberries, raspberry jam and vanilla extract until well blended. Beat in the chocolate mixture.  One cup at a time, beat in the powdered sugar, stopping at four cups.
  11. Refrigerate frosting mixture for one to two hours.
  12. When thoroughly cold, beat mixture at high speed until thick and fluffy. If not thick enough to be spreadable, add more powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
  13. Take melted jam and using a pastry brush, brush generously over two of the cake layers.
  14. Set one cake layer (one of the ones with with jam) on serving plate and frost generously (but…ummm… not too generously like I did lol). Carefully top with the other jammed layer and frost. Top that with the last layer and frost top and sides. The cake can now legally use the name “Mount Cakesuvius”. Decorate as desired.

 

Mount Cakesuvius after it exploded