Not Oreos

 

These are not Oreos. These are better than Oreos. Oreos are very good in their own way, there’s still nothing like pulling one apart, licking out the vanilla center, putting the wafers back together and dunking them in milk. But sometimes that vanilla frosting in the center leaves a funny film on the roof of your mouth and then you usually have to go brush your teeth immediately afterwards or risk having little specks of black wafer lurking, just waiting to wedge themselves between your front teeth and embarrass the heck out of you.

These cookies don’t want to embarrass you. And, while a tall, icy glass of milk is a perfect complement to these cookies, they don’t need it to camouflage the store-bought taste of them. Because they’re not Oreos. They are Homemade Chocolate Sandwich Cookies.

You’ll want to make these today. Really. Truly. Today.

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

For the chocolate wafers:

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 large egg

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder (You know how much I love King Arthur’s.)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

For the filling:

4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup shortening

2 cups sifted confectioners sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Set out 3 baking sheets.

In your mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and mix well.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Add to the batter and mix very well.

Drop by tablespoonsful onto the cookie sheets, 12 to a sheet. Dampen your hand with a little water and press down slightly on each ball of cookie dough.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove to cooling racks.

While they’re cooling, make the filling!

In your mixer’s bowl, beat the butter and shortening together until well incorporated.

Add the vanilla and mix well.

Sift in (using a mesh sieve, for Heaven’s sake, not an obnoxious, old fashioned sifter!)  the powdered sugar and mix to combine.

Scoop the frosting into a pastry bag and pipe onto the underside of a cookie. Place another cookie on top and press lightly to seal them together. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Serve to your newly turned six year old, alongside a tall, icy glass of milk, and hear all about how he gets to marry the princess the next day at recess, but only if he can save her from the robots and swamp monsters.

Just a Suggestion

 

Well, my week of chocolate is over. *sigh* But I thought I’d round up all my chocolate recipes that use cocoa powder for when you get your King Arthur Flour Bensdorp cocoa powder. Because if you ordered it last week it should be arriving soon, right? Hee hee :)

Chocolate Comfort Cookies chock-full of toasted hazelnuts and tart cherries.

Mexican Chocolate Cookies with cayenne and black pepper, they taste warm loooong after they’ve left the oven!

Alton Brownies (in bite sized nuggets), one of the best brownie recipes I’ve ever found! Thick and fudgy and when baked in a square pan, the middle piece never quite sets up. Consider it a boon to the baker, top it with ice cream and enjoy the ooey-gooey deliciousness yourself! 

  

My favorite whoopie pie! Dark and super chocolatey, I like mine with cream cheese frosting and made into smaller-than-conventional portions.

 

Chocolate Spice Cake with Cardamom-Scented Ganache, a beautiful, elegant cake perfect for Fall!

Good ole’ Chocolate Cake. Sturdy enough to stand up to gobs of American buttercream, just how my kids like it!

The Carrie Cupcake: A devil’s food chocolate cupcake, filled with salted caramel, dipped in bittersweet chocolate, and topped with salted caramel buttercream.

Blueberry Tart. A melt in your mouth chocolate crust filled with a delicious creamy filling and topped with blueberries.

Hot Chocolate (from a homemade mix) with softly whipped cream. The perfect drink to sip at the bus-stop while you’re waiting for your kindergartner to get home from school!

Mexican Chocolate Cookies

These have been some of my favorite cookies for a long, long time. They have cayenne and black pepper in them, which, I’ll admit, does sound weird, but it gives them a wonderful, warm depth. When I make these especially for men, I always double the amounts of the peppers. They go nuts for them! It is a tad early to be thinking about Christmas, but they nicely round out a tray of assorted cookies, if you’re into that sort of thing! (Which I always am!)

Mexican Spice Cookies a.k.a. MAN Cookies

For my dear, late friend, Nick. I wish I could make these for you again.

6 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 cup +1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 + 1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup flour

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

generous pinch CAYENNE pepper

generous pinch ground black pepper

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Frosty cups of ICE-COLD milk, for serving

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prepare your baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Cream together the butter, brown sugar and sugar.

Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and black pepper.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until well incorporated.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pop the dough into the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.

Drop by rounded teaspoonsful onto the baking sheet, 12 per sheet. Smash the balls of dough fairly flat, they won’t really spread out on their own.

Bake for about 12 minutes or until the cookies are just set, but NOT HARD! Let them finish cooking for two minutes on the tray and then remove to cooling racks.

Serve with ice-cold milk and enjoy!

Gentle reminder:

Today is the last day to enter the King Arthur Giveaway!

Please leave a comment on this post to enter before 11:59pm!

Hot Chocolate

 

So, we had a little heat wave a few weeks ago when Hurricane Earl was heading up the coast. Then, for the next few weeks it got really cold, and I went on a bit of a hot chocolate spree! After trying out more recipes than I’d care to confess to, I have two new favorite recipes. One is adapted from Nigella Lawson (hers is alcoholic) and has to be cooked on the stove. For the other one, you make your own mix and then you can make the cocoa in the microwave if you’re in a hurry. Both are MUCH better than the kind you buy in little packets at the grocery store. And yes, if you follow me on Facebook, you probably saw that I couldn’t make that kind. Here’s the story. . .

One chilly morning Reese asked me for hot chocolate, and being a sucker for warm, soothing drinks myself, I had no problem granting his request. I went to the cupboard and got out some Swiss Miss that promised to be a marshmallow lover’s dream. Now, before I tell you the rest of the story, I just want to say – this was first thing in the morning and I didn’t really have my wits about me. So I started some water boiling in the kettle and ripped open an envelope of mix and poured it into a mug. When the water was boiling I filled the mug. And then stared into it in a great deal of confusion. At which point my dear, sweet husband walked in to the kitchen and asked what was so interesting in the mug. I was still confused and told him that it was just a bunch of marshmallows but it was supposed to be hot chocolate mix. Anyway, we pulled out the box and found that the packets came in pairs (I’d just torn one off) and that one side had marshmallows and the other had the mix. Jay laughed himself sick and has given me no end of grief about not being able to make hot chocolate from a packet. The end.

 

Not a terribly funny story, but since then I’ve been (probably unfairly) a little negatively prejudiced against Ye Olde Swiss Miss. Anywho, this recipe is much more chocolatey and comforting, really easy to make, yields about 8 servings, and is much, much better than the packaged stuff. With the added bonus not of having any confusing additions of pathetic, dehydrated little bits of glue marshmallows. Would make a lovely gift too!

Hot Chocolate Mix

yields 8 servings

1/2 cup of the best cocoa powder ever

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup powdered milk

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

Place cocoa powder, sugar, powdered milk and chocolate chips into the bowl of your food processor.

Blitz in 15 second bursts until the chocolate chips have disappeared into the mixture. Don’t blitz too long in one go because it could cause the chocolate to start to melt.

Alternately, if you don’t have a food processor, whisk the cocoa, sugar and powdered milk together. Then finely, finely, finely! chop the chocolate and add it to the mix.

Store the mix in an airtight container.

To make the hot chocolate: Heat a cup of milk in the microwave or on the stove.

Add 1/4 cup of the mix and stir well to incorporate.

Top with softly whipped cream and enjoy!

Also, I like to use my microplane to grate some chocolate over the top. It grates it so finely that it starts to melt right away, yum!

 

The next one is a recipe I don’t think I could live without. It’s the Nigella one, and oh.my.gosh. is it amazing!!! It’s a bit thicker and more full-bodied than the mix one. This would be a great one to serve to guests after dinner with a big pile of cookies. And it is the perfect drink to make when it’s dark and stormy and you just want to curl up on the couch with a warm blanket and a good book. Makes me drool just thinking of it!

 

Super Rich Hot Chocolate

adapted from Nigella Lawson

Serves 2

2 cups milk

3 1/2 ounces dark chocolate (I used my favorite Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips)

1 cinnamon stick

2 teaspoons honey

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup cream

1 teaspoon powdered sugar

 

In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, chips, cinnamon stick, honey and brown sugar.

Heat over medium heat, mixing constantly, until the chocolate completely melts and the milk starts to foam. This takes about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

Pour the cream into your mixer.

Sift in the powdered sugar, stir to combine.

Whisk the cream until soft peaks form.

Ladle the hot chocolate into cups.

Dollop the soft cream into the hot chocolate.

Sip slowly and attempt not to swoon, it would make a huge mess and be a waste of chocolate!

P.S. I used to use a kitchen scale to weigh out the chocolate, until I realized that 1 of my handfuls of chocolate chips equals about 2 ounces. And I don’t even measure out the rest of the ingredients anymore, I just spoon in the brown sugar, mix in a good glug of honey, etc. This is definitely a recipe that doesn’t require precision! I gave the original amounts more just so you can have a starting point.

 

Gentle reminder: Two more days to enter the King Arthur Giveaway for 1 pound of Bensdorp cocoa powder and a box of unbleached cake flour! All you need to do is leave a comment on this post! Giveaway closes at 11:59pm Thursday, September 22.

How Long Until the Bus Arrives???

 

I really enjoy having a kindergartener. He gives me an excuse to make lots and lots of cookies! (Like I needed an excuse!) He’s been in school for three weeks now and every day when he gets off the bus he comes in the house and has cookies and milk with Amelia and they discuss their respective days. It is the cutest thing EVER! I really need to get a picture of them. *makes mental note*

Anywho, this cookie was a huge hit with them. And with Jay. And with Jilly. And with me! Just a huge hit all around. It’s got a laundry list of ingredients, but this is definitely a cookie you should tackle! It’s from Diane Mott Davidson’s The Grilling Season, which is a murder mystery not a guide to grilling outdoors. It’s a great read, like all her other books.

And, of course, this cookie will be made that much better by using King Arthur Flour’s Bensdorp cocoa powder instead of the Schmershey variety. Just sayin’. Okay. . . . on to the cookies!

 

Chocolate Comfort Cookies

Adapted from Diane Mott Davidson’s The Grilling Season

1 cup chopped hazelnuts

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup dried tart cherries

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted (I just used part of an 85% cacao LIndt bar I had hanging around.)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups+2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup Bensdorp cocoa powder

1 cup marshmallow cream

 

Preheat the oven to 325. Line your cookie sheets with parchment and set aside.

On another baking sheet, spread the hazelnuts. Toast in the oven for 7-12 minutes until they are lightly browned and some skins have loosened. Set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa.

In a large bowl, combine the chips, cherries and cooled nuts.

In your mixer’s bowl, combine the butter, cream cheese and sugar. Beat well.

Add the egg and mix until creamy and smooth.

Add the milk, melted chocolate and vanilla. Mix until well incorporated.

Add the flour mixture to the batter. Mix in the marshmallow cream.

Stir in the fruit mixture and mix until well combined.

Scoop rounded teaspoons of dough onto the cookie sheet, 12 to a sheet.

Bake 10-15 minutes until they are puffed and set, then remove from the oven and let cool on the tray for another 2 minutes. Then remove to a wire cooling rack.

Lather, rinse, repeat with the remaining dough.

Enjoy with hot chocolate or a glass of ice-cold milk!

Makes a bazillion cookies. Or thereabouts.

 

Just a friendly reminder:

To enter to win a pound of Bensdorp cocoa powder and a box of unbleached cake flour from King Arthur Flour, just go to this post and leave a comment!

Easy peasy!

Full of Chocolatey Goodness!

I was going to tell you about this giveaway last week, when I debuted my new blog makeover. But I couldn’t decide which recipe to show you. I fought and argued with myself all week, trying to pick my favorite chocolatey recipe. But I’ve been on a chocolate kick lately and I couldn’t decide on which one, so prepare yourself to be inundated with chocolate goodies!

You’ve probably heard celebrity chefs and cookbook authors say that you should always buy the best ingredients you can afford and that is the secret to great cooking/baking, right? They’re not kidding. And I have one ingredient for you that will change every single recipe you use it in from ‘mmm, that’s good’ to something more like, ‘HOLY MOSES! That is AMAZING! You MADE this????’ That’s not hyperbole, its the truth. And I think you can handle the truth.

You know that can of cocoa powder you have in your cupboard? Stand up, go to the cupboard, grab that tin and throw it in the garbage. Really. Now. Go. I promise you’ll thank me later. Now, go to King Arthur Flour and purchase this, Bensdorp Cocoa Powder. It’s absolutely amazing. My sister-in-law’s mother-in-law (you follow? good.) gave me a pound of this stuff last year and it’s changed my life, people!!! And really, it only costs three dollars more per pound than that tin you just tossed, the one that you can get in every grocery store in America. The one that starts with an ‘H’. And ends with an ‘ershey’. You don’t want that stuff in your house. You want this. . . . .

 

I mean, look at it!!! It’s almost red. It is noticeably richer. When you open the package it smells deep and chocolatey and almost earthy. If you were to smell the box of the stuff you already threw away (but you can’t because you trusted me when I told you to hock it, right???), it smells sugary sweet. Like candy, almost. This Bensdorp cocoa smells like ooey gooey brownies. Or devils’ food chocolate cake. Really, it’s the difference between a chocolate bar of, well, one that rhymes with Schmerchey, and a bar of Valrhona, or Ghirardelli or Scharffen Berger. They all make cocoa powders too, but I think this one is the best. (P.S. Please don’t tell my hubby that I’ve tried all those or how much they cost. He’ll blow a gasket. Thanks.)

Now, one of you will get the chance to try some for yourself! King Arthur Flour has generously offered a bag of their Bensdorp cocoa powder to one of my readers!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post!

I’ll pick a winner on Friday and that person’s life will never be the same! You’ll shudder when you see that box of drab, flavorless stuff sitting there on the baking aisle, telling shoppers that it will make their chocolatey dreams come true. It’s a liar! Or at least, deluded.

But, that is not all. Oh, no! That is not all! (Name that children's book.) King Arthur Flour is also offering a box of their unbleached cake flour for our giveaway! I’d show you a side by side comparison of that too, but I don’t want to buy a box of the bleached stuff just for a photo op. (I only had a tin of the Schmerchey stuff because it was down in my basement pantry from when we moved in and I had forgotten that it even existed.) But when I tried out the King Arthur’s cake flour I got to see it next to a dab that I had left of some other brand I’d gotten at the grocery. I was sort of expecting the unbleached to be a lot darker. It wasn’t. The bleached stuff was stark white, and the KA cake flour was nice and creamy colored. And it made a wonderful cake! As light and fluffy as you could wish for! I am DEFINITELY making the switch to this stuff. I noticed that my grocery store is carrying it now, how convenient!

So, this is the recipe I finally decided on. For Day One anyway! When I got the box of cake flour from King Arthur I was sort of in a quandary. I had been wanting to make a spice cake, but then there was this really great looking chocolate cake recipe on the back of the box. So, I decided to just combine them, since the quantities were so similar to my spice cake recipe. Oh. My. Gosh. It made SUCH a wonderful cake!!! And my house smelled absolutely incredible while it was baking. I made a simple ganache scented with cardamom to drizzle over it, which I did while the cake was still warm, so it soaked into the cake a bit and made it absolutely scrumptious!

 

Chocolate Spice Cake

Adapted from King Arthur

2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Cake Flour Blend

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground clove

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

3/4 cup cocoa powder (use the good stuff, not that Schmershey stuff)

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk

1/2 cup water

4 eggs

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 2 round 9” pans with baking spray and set aside.

Place a strainer over you mixer’s bowl and sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices, cocoa and sugar.

Add the butter and mix at low speed for a minute. While the mixer is running, add the oil and continue mixing until the mixture looks like sand.

Combine the vanilla, milk and water and add all at once. Mix for a minute at low speed, then scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl well and mix another 30 seconds until all the dry ingredients are well incorporated.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well at medium-high speed between additions. The batter will be thin.

Pour into prepared pans and bake 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

While the cakes are cooling make the ganache.

P.S. We had a lot of treats around when I baked these, so I only served one layer. After the second layer was COMPLETELY cooled I wrapped it well with cling wrap and stashed it in the freezer.

 

Ganache Glaze

4 ounces dark chocolate (I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips)

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons water

a scant 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)

 

Put the chips in a heat-proof bowl and set aside.

In a small saucepan, bring the cream, sugar, water and cardamom to a full boil.

Pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for 30 seconds, then gently stir the chocolate together. It should take 3-4 minutes before you get a gorgeous, shiny glaze.

Pour the glaze over your still warm cake and spread it around to coat the sides.

Makes enough glaze for one 9'” cake. 

 

So, to enter the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post!

I’ll pick a winner on Friday, so get your entry in by 11:59pm Thursday!

Good luck!

Kindergarten Cookies

Yesterday was Reese’s first day of kindergarten! I wanted to have some nice, warm cookies waiting for him when he got home, so I got started on one of my favorite cookie recipes. But when I went to my baking pantry, I found it bare. You see, while my mom was here visiting we baked up a storm. I think we made a treat just about every day! And I haven’t been to the grocery yet to replenish my cupboards. I was out of EVERYTHING, which, if you know my ingredient hoarding habits is really saying a lot! I don’t feel safe unless I have a stockpile of chocolate and baking stuff. I was out of powdered sugar, Pam, dried cherries, dark chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, almonds, yeast. . . the list goes on and on! I’m going to have to raid the entire baking aisle when I finally get to the store!

So, since I was out of pretty much all the extras that go into these cookies (and only barely had enough of the base ingredients!), I’m going to rename them Kindergarten Cookies. That’s the great thing about this recipe, it’s wonderfully adaptable. You could also call them Kitchen Sink Cookies! The original recipe (which came from a Diane Mott Davidson murder mystery) calls for dried tart cherries, almonds and two kinds of chocolate. (And it is divine.)  I used cranberries, walnuts, a scant bit of semi-sweet that I had left, bits and bobs of dark and milk chocolate bars I had lying around, and white chocolate, and they were just wonderful!

 

Also, this recipe makes about a bazillion cookies. It calls for 3 pounds of extras aside from the base batter itself! So it’s a great recipe to portion half of it out and freeze the little balls of unbaked dough because you’ll still end up with 3 dozen or so freshly baked cookies. Then, anytime you want a snack you can pop however many you want out onto a baking sheet, bake ‘em up and have warm, gooey cookies with no effort!

 

Kindergarten Cookies

Adapted from Chocolate Coma Cookies in Diane Mott Davidson’s Tough Cookie

(The original ingredients are in parentheses)

1 cup walnuts, chopped (1 cup blanched silvered almonds)

4 oz. white chocolate (4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped (Godiva Dark, Lindt bittersweet))

1 cup dried cranberries (1 cup dried tart cherries)

 12 oz. assorted bits and bobs of dark, milk and semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips)

2 cups rolled oats

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ lb. unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

 

 

 

Preheat oven to 350.

Chop chocolate into small chunks and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine dried fruit, chocolate, nuts, and oats, and set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

In your mixer’s bowl, beat butter until creamy.

Add sugar and brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

Add eggs and vanilla and beat until well combined.

Add the flour mixture, and beat at low speed until well combined.

Add chocolate mixture. Mix on low until incorporated.

Drop in 1 tablespoon balls on baking sheet, about 12 per sheet.

Bake 12-14 minutes* or until cookies have set and are slightly flattened and light brown. Cool on sheet for 2 min, then transfer to rack.

Enjoy!

*Note: I like to bake my cookies for about 10 minutes or until they are juuuuust set and let them finish on the hot sheet out of the oven. I think it makes them softer and chewier, but feel free bake them all in one go if that’s not how you like them!

 

 

 

P.S. Do you read Diane Mott Davidson? I love her mystery series! There are 15 books in all and of course, I have all of them.  It’s about a caterer in Colorado who solves local crimes, while cooking up a storm! And the books all have recipes in them. I need to try more of them out, the ones I have done are ALL keepers! I really should have mentioned them at the beginning of the season because they make great summer reading!

 

P.S.S. Yum. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum! Yum!

Blueberry Tart

 

 

I’ve had such a wonderful summer! And part of it was definitely due to the 20 pounds of blueberries I got last month! I’ve had so much fun making yummy treats with them! I didn’t get around to posting any recipes yet because I’ve been busy with my family here, we were having too much fun! But they’ve gone home now and I can get back to business.

This tart is such a nice summery treat! The chocolatey crust is baked, but only for 15 minutes, nothing outrageous when it’s hot outside. The creamy filling is made with white chocolate and marscarpone cheese. I added a smidge of sugar and it’s just dreamy. This would be a great dessert to make when having guests over because you could easily do everything up in advance and just put it together before serving. The tarts are made in individual tart pans which my kids just loved! They love getting their own little dessert all to themselves. Sometimes sharing is overrated!

Chocolate Blueberry Tarts

Adapted from How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

1 cup + 2 tablespoons cake flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon ice water

2 ounces white chocolate

1 cup +2 tablespoons mascarpone

1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar

2 pints blueberries

6 tartlet pans with removable bottoms

 

For the tarts: In the bowl of your food processor combine the flour, cocoa, sugar and salt and pulse to blend.

Cut the butter into small pieces and pulse with the flour mixture until it looks crumbly.

Beat the yolk and ice water together and add to the mixture.

When it comes together, turn it out of the processor and work it together with your hands. Form into two discs and wrap in plastic. Let rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Remove the dough from the fridge and divide into 6 equal portions. I cheated and used my kitchen scale.

Roll each portion into a circle a bit larger than your tartlet pan. Form the dough to the pan with your fingers. Don’t stress if it tears, it patches like a dream!

Freeze the tartlet pans for 30 minutes. While the pastry is freezing, preheat the oven to 350 and slip in a baking sheet.

Pop the tartlets into the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes. Remove and cool.

While they are cooking, melt the white chocolate in the microwave. Try 30 second bursts, stirring in between.

Beat the marscarpone, sugar and cream together and fold in the melted, cooled chocolate. If the filling still feels thick add a bit more cream.

When the shells are cool, remove them from their pans and fill with the cream.

Top with the blueberries and enjoy!

Chocohotopots!

 

Don’tcha hate it when someone asks you what you’ve been up to and you just stand there looking blank and trying to come up with something, anything, to tell them? No? Just me? Well, then. . .

For the last few weeks I’ve been up to nothing much. Trying to stay on top of the laundry, keeping the kids happy, entertained and fed, starting to get ideas together for a Halloween party, reading. Seriously, not a whole lot. I did make the mistake of checking out a cookbook from the library. Big mistake. You see, my mom loves to read cookbooks. Even when she’s dieting. She’s a little nuts like that. Anywho, she is always borrowing cookbooks from the library. But me? I have a problem with books. If I like it, I’ve got to own it. I get twitchy if I can’t pick the book up at any given moment and check a reference or a recipe or whatever. Twitchy! And antzy. And a little bit loopy. So, up until a week or so ago, I’d never tempted myself by borrowing a cookbook from the library. I have shelves of cookbooks that I never use as it is, thankyouverymuch!

But a couple of weeks ago I walked down the wrong aisle at the library looking for a book. Woops. I saw Feast by Nigella Lawson just sitting there, calling out to me. And then it jumped off the shelf and landed in my arms. So, I checked it out from the library. I told myself I could handle this. Shortly thereafter (yes, I totally just said ‘thereafter’.) I started having daily arguments with myself about the pros/cons of buying all of Nigella’s books. Arguments I ultimately lost. Sorta. (I hate losing fights with myself!!!) I finally caved and ordered How to be a Domestic Goddess. I’ve been arguing with myself ever since about going back and buying Feast. It is a wonderful cookbook. Really, truly. If you have stronger self control that I do, I really do recommend borrowing it from the library. Or if you have room on your bookshelves, just buy a copy. Everything I’ve made from it (about a dozen recipes and counting) has turned out beautifully and just to die for delicious!!! Hachapuri (Georgian cheesebread), lamb meatballs, perfect rice pilaf, to die for chocolate cake, roasted potatoes. . . . . . . *drool*

Although this recipe is featured in Feast, I first encountered it on an episode of one of her shows. She talked about how her son came up with the name: they are chocolate, they are hot, and they are in little pots. And that’s about all the description the cookbook gives it. So had you not watched her make (and eat) one you would never know how absolutely awesome they are!!! It’s like a brownie and a bottle of fudge sauce got together and had a lovechild. I’ve made them about a dozen times since watching that episode and everyone I’ve served them to has gone just a little bit nuts over them. And it’s SUCH AN EASY RECIPE!!!! Seriously, just get up and make these, right now!!! I promise that you won’t be sorry!

By the way, I think this is a great recipe to make if you are having people over for dinner. You can throw the dry ingredients together earlier in the day if you want and then right before serving dinner just melt down the chocolate and butter, whip them up, and pop them in the oven to bake while everyone is eating. Perfect!

 

Chocohotopots

adapted from Feast by Nigella Lawson

serves 4

1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, plus some for buttering the ramekins

4 oz semisweet chocolate (I used Ghiradelli 60% cacao chips)

2 eggs

3/4 cup superfine sugar (you can just buzz regular, granulated sugar around in your food processor for this, just be careful it doesn’t turn to powdered sugar! Do it in 2-3 second pulses.)

3 tablespoons flour

 

 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Butter four 2/3 cup ramekins.

In the microwave (in 30 second bursts) melt the chocolate and butter. Set aside to cool a bit.

In a medium bowl, mix the eggs with the sugar and flour.

Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture.

Bake for about 20 minutes, the tops will be cooked and a bit crackly.

Remove the ramekins to a small dessert plate and watch yourself, the ramekins will be HOT!!!

Perfect Chocolate Pudding

 

Have you ever had one of those days where everything you touch turns out perfectly? I’ll admit, that doesn’t happen to me very often, but yesterday was one of those days. At one point I stood there in my kitchen surrounded by bubbling pots and busy sheet pans thinking, ‘this is all going SO well, what else can I make???’

I was having a craving for chocolate and although I had already made one dessert, I decided to make some pudding. I started hunting for pudding recipes but just didn’t find one that sounded amazing. Then I stumbled across this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Apparently hankering for perfect pudding recipes happens to other people too! Her recipe came from John Scharffenberger, as in Scharffen Berger chocolate, so I just took it on faith that it was going to be wonderful! And, oh boy, was it!!! You are going to want to make this. Like now. It is really an easy recipe, not quite as easy as ripping open a box of instant Jell-O pudding, but oh-so-very-much worth the extra effort!

Like I said, I had a lot of other things going on in my kitchen and although I was prepared to stand there and whisk for 20 minutes I didn’t need to. I just kept an eye on it and whisked it every so often and it turned out great! The texture is divine, perfectly creamy. I used two 70% cacao Lindt chocolate bars and it was SO good. A little on the grown-up side of chocolate pudding. So for the kids, I dressed it down with crumbled graham crackers and marshmallow fluff that I toasted with my crème brulee torch. S’more pudding! For me, I whipped up a little cream with a hint of raspberry, to help cut the dark chocolate kick. It was just perfect, you will absolutely want this recipe in your repertoire!

 

Silky Chocolate Pudding
Adapted from John Scharffenberger, via Wednesday Chef, via Smitten Kitchen

Serves 6

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 cups whole milk

6 ounces 62% semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

 

Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in the top of a double boiler.

Slowly whisk in the milk, scraping the bottom and sides with a heatproof spatula to incorporate the dry ingredients.

Place over gently simmering water and whisk occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. 

After 15 to 20 minutes, when the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon, add the chocolate.

Continue stirring for about 2 to 4 minutes, or until the pudding is smooth and thickened.

Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a serving bowl or individual serving dishes.

Place plastic wrap on top of the pudding and smooth it gently against the surface before refrigerating.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.

 

Raspberry Scented Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon raspberry extract

1/3 cup powdered sugar

 

About 30 minutes (at least) before serving: Chill your mixer bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer.

Add the cream and raspberry extract to the mixer bowl.

Sift in the powdered sugar.

Mix on low until the sugar is incorporated.

Turn the mixer up and keep an eye on it!!!!

You should reach soft peaks after 3-4 minutes.

I served it at this point because I liked the softness of the whipped cream against the pudding, but feel free to whip it up into firmer peaks!

Easter Treat with FIBER!

No, seriously! Fiber! And chocolate! Does it get any better than that? I submit that it does not. You could even have these for breakfast. Am I right? Shredded wheat and eggs. Sounds like breakfast to me. Never mind that the shredded wheat is drenched in chocolate and the eggs are made of the same! Let me do my own justifying, mmmmmkay?

I made these chocolate nests with the kids last year after seeing them on Angry Chicken. They were fun and easy and the kids had a glorious time making a mess in the kitchen. We made them again this year. Man! What a difference a year makes! The kids were PROS at making these, and they turned out looking like actual nests! lol!

Anyway, these are SO quick you could definitely pop some out before Easter. If I was having Easter dinner at my house I’d like to use them for place markers! Wouldn’t that be cute? Just type or write the person’s name, cut it out and tape it to a toothpick or skewer before you get started and then just jam that in there with the eggs and let the chocolate harden! So fun!

Here’s all you need. Shredded wheat, 6 of the big squares, a bag of good milk chocolate, and most importantly, Cadbury mini-eggs. (I think those little babies have finally replaced the Cadbury Creme Egg as my favorite Easter candy. So yummy! And with a crunchy candy shell! Love them!)

Oh, and two little kids to do all the work for you. . . .

Here they are, busy at work shredding the Shredded Wheat. Huh. In the meantime, microwave the chocolate in 30 second bursts, stirring between zaps. Should take you about 2-2 1/2 minutes.

Pour the chocolate into the shredded wheat and stir until all the chocolate looks absorbed. This is best accomplished in hand-me-down Christmas jammies and with a ragamuffin hair-do.

P.S. This picture was taken at about 2pm and after the child had gone through about 37 wardrobe changes. Aaaaah, we’re at that stage. Yay for Laundry Fairies, right? *sigh*

This is a optional step. I do recommend parchment or wax paper, it makes getting the nests off the pan a billion times easier. But most of my nests were destined for little paper boxes (more on that in a minute). So I traced the bottom of the box onto the BACKSIDE of the parchment paper so that we would have a guide when we formed the nests.

Scoop the chocolate mixture onto the paper, form into a circle and press down in the center with a spoon to make a little crater for the eggs. Size doesn’t really matter here, you could go really tiny or make one giant one if you wanted!

Place eggs in the crater.

        

Let the nests harden, about 1 1/2 hours. Done! How easy was that???

I went a step further, because I can. Hehehe :) Have you been to The Toymaker? Gorgeous things on there, gorgeous! I printed out some of the paper dolls and my kids loved them to death! I just love the artwork, with it’s sort of vintagey feel. And Marilyn comes out with new stuff all the time! This little box is new for Easter. . . .

 http://www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Easter/Butterflybasket.pdf

I printed it out on cardstock, cut it out and taped it together, filled it with Easter grass, and popped a nest in. Cute! And easy!

Happy Easter!

Reese’s Birthday

We had a pirate party for Reese today. He’s five years old, I cannot believe it!

I had so much fun putting together his pirate party! I just don’t have it in me to go totally all out for a kids party, but we had some cool things! When the kids arrived we marched them upstairs and had them ‘fish’ through this vent we have (essentially a hole in the floor) for a bandana, eye patch, tattoo and mustache. (The birthday boy got a Captain’s hat too.) Then we came down and tried to get their pictures in front of the flag. Being as we had 7 kids between ages 8-2, well, that didn’t go over real well.

I just have to show you this again. I’m just so please with how it turned out :) P.S. It really is centered in the middle of the fabric, it’s just scrunched over to the left in this picture.

I made the flag from a 2 yard long piece of black twill. I went online and found a picture of a skull and crossbones and just blew it up on my printer. Then I traced it onto freezer paper, cut out the stencil and ironed it onto the fabric. Then I used regular acrylic craft paint and filled in the stencil. (I did two coats because I wanted it really bright.) The freezer paper just pulled right off afterward and left me with a perfect skull and crossbones! I’ve seen people all over Blogland do cool projects with freezer paper and was a little skittish about trying it, but MAN! It was a piece of cake! It probably took me about 2 hours start to finish, including the time it took to hem it and make it into a curtain. (It’s destined for the window in Reese’s room.)

After the kids were all pirated up, we played a really clever version of ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’. I found the directions online somewhere, I’ve already forgotten where, sorry! Anyhow, you draw a treasure map. . .

Disclaimer: I did not draw this. I can draw stick figures. . . poorly. It’s awesome having an artist in residence!! Thank you, Jay!

On the back of the picture you affix a large X. Then you make little Xs for the kids with their names on them.

You can blindfold them or not, doesn’t matter. They put their Xs on the map and then you take it off the wall and hold it up to a window or a light. The X on the back shows through and the kid with the closest X wins! Isn’t that super clever? I wish I HAD thought of that on my own :) This game was a HUGE hit with the kiddos!

 

Then we played a version of Musical Chairs. We just slapped some construction paper squares on a board as a plank and put down a blue towel as the ocean. Then when the music started they had to Walk the Plank and run around and walk the plank again until the music stopped. The kid in the ‘water’ was out and we went again and again. Once they got the hang of it they had a great time!

 

This is the kids hunting in Tick-Tock Croc. I especially liked this game. It was quiet!!! I made a little croc out of felt and left an opening in his tummy. Then we put a kitchen timer in it and hid it in the living room. (So it’s like the croc in Peter Pan, get it?) The kids had to come in and listen for the tick-tock and find the croc! They really liked this game, more than I expected. And I liked the brief hiatus from all the noise!

That blurry thing is the croc ;)

 

But I think the best game was the treasure hunt. I’d given Reese a couple of riddle clues earlier in the week and he just looked at me blankly like I was some kind of idiot. So I dropped the riddle idea (I’m not great at coming up with that kind of thing anyway) and took close ups of the places I intended to hide the loot. There were 7 kids playing and I took pictures of 10 spots, so three of the spots had little, hmmm, I don’t know, neiner neiner cards that said to keep on looking.

I printed all the pictures out onto cardstock and then burned the edges. (with my creme brulee torch, haha!) They actually ended up looking pretty cool and the clues were just the right toughness for the kids.

I went online and found a site with pirate lingo and borrowed heavily from that for these cards!

I had so much fun with their treasure boxes. I loved things like this when I was a kid, little treasure chests and jewels and things! These had pirate coins, chocolate coins, plastic jewels, a pirate pouch, a skull ring, extra moustaches and tattoos, and beads for the girls. I sprung for some really yummy chocolate coins from Honest Foods, but I probably could have gotten away with the cheaper more cost efficient ones. Most of this stuff came from Oriental Trading.

 

This is Reese’s cake. It’s chocolate on the inside and and my favorite frosting on the outside. I used some really wonderful cocoa powder from King Arthur’s Flour that my sister-in-law’s mother-in-law gave me (you follow? Good!) and it was to die for. The cake was almost black with chocolate! My kind of cake!!! I had grand plans of forming a pirate ship out of rice crispie treats and covering it in fondant for a cake topper. But when we went to my friend April’s son’s birthday (you follow? Good.) he had a cake with a real Lightning McQueen and Mater toys on it and all the kids thought it was SO COOL. “You get to keep the Lightning McQueen!!!!” So I decided to just slap on the pirate I had bought Reese as a gift so he could keep the pirate!!!!

Then I stumbled across a set of pirates at a local shop. $6 for 12. Sold. They look like cupcake toppers to me!

 

Super cool cupcake toppers!!!

 

The birthday boy was thrilled with his cake! And he got to keep the pirate!!!

 

So I’ll leave you with the cake and icing recipe. This icing is really wonderful. It’s got cream cheese in it and it really cuts the sweetness and gives it a nice tang. The cake is my go-to chocolate cake recipe. I’ve used it for years. I think it’s originally from Martha.

Chocolate Cake

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 buttermilk

1 1/2 cups hot water

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8” round cake pans (or two 6” round pans and 24 cupcakes) with Baker’s Joy and parchment paper.

Sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into mixer bowl.

On low, stir in eggs, buttermilk, hot water, oil, and vanilla; beat until smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping bowl as necessary.

Pour into prepared pans and bake, rotating the pans once, 35-45 minutes. (Less for the cupcakes)

Remove cakes to a cooling rack and let cool in the pans for 15 minutes before unmolding.

When the cakes (and cupcakes) are completely cool, frost with icing.

 

Best Frosting Ever

1 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 bricks (16 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature

2 pounds confectioner’s sugar

1 TABLEspoon vanilla

food coloring of your choice

 

In your mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

With a mesh sieve, sift the powdered sugar into butter mixture and mix on low to incorporate.

Add vanilla and food coloring.

Enjoy!

(This makes plenty of frosting. Enough for my 6 inch cakes and cupcakes with a little leftover. Leftovers are yummy smeared on graham crackers. Just sayin’.)