Chocolate Sorbet

No, I didn't mislabel this post. This is chocolate sorbet, not chocolate ice cream. Like a fruit sorbet, it's pretty much water, sugar, and chocolate with a little vanilla extract and vodka thrown in. The vanilla brings out the flavor and fruitiness of the chocolate, and the vodka keeps the texture smooth and from being too icy. The article accompanying this recipe in Wine Spectator speaks of a true chocolate-lover who dislikes chocolate ice cream because he thinks that the milk and eggs and cream take away from the real flavor of the chocolate. Keep that in mind when you choose a kind of chocolate. It's worth a splurge for this recipe since it is such a crucial ingredient. For real chocolate lovers who want a cool summer treat, this is for you!

Chocolate Sorbet
source: Wine Spectator: July 31, 2010

Ingredients
1 cup water
1/3 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/2 cup sugar
4 oz dark chocolate, chopped or grated
1 tbsp vodka
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Preparation

1. Whisk water, cocoa, and sugar over low heat until combined.
2. Meanwhile, melt dark chocolate very gently in a double boiler.
3. Turn heat under cocoa to medium, stirring constantly, until the liquid just boils.
4. Remove from heat, and add melted chocolate, salt, vodka, and vanilla to cocoa mixture. Stir thoroughly.
5. Let cool completely, then refrigerate until cold.
6. Freeze mixture according to your ice cream maker's instructions.

Coffee Toffee Bars

On Monday afternoon, Joe's childhood pet, a 17 year-old terrier named Toffee was put to sleep and sent to the big farm in the sky. She was in bad health, so Joe said good-bye to her when we were up in Wisconsin in July. But as I know all too well, even saying good-bye to an elderly pet can be painful, so I decided to honor Toffee's life and the love she gave and was given by baking these treats. Note that these are for human consumption and not for dogs!

I was afraid that these would not turn out and that I would've just wasted two sticks of butter. I almost threw in an egg to help the dough along, but it's just a really crumbly dough, so be warned. The taste is different considering from the visual that you're thinking, "Oh! Chocolate chip cookie bars!" But the coffee and the almond extract give it a different depth of flavor. We will eat these and raise a glass in Toffee's memory. Rest in peace.

Coffee Toffee Bars
source: Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
  
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Almond Extract
• 1 Tablespoon Instant Coffee
  
• ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 2-½ cups Flour (approximately) (I used 2 cups)
  
• 1 cup Chocolate Chips

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.

Cream together the butter and brown sugar.

Blend in the almond extract, instant coffee, baking powder and salt.

Add enough flour to make a stiff dough.

Press into a well-greased 9×13 pan and sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

Bake at 350 F for 20 to 25 minutes.

Cool in the pan on a rack. Cut into pieces as desired.

Cocoa-Nana Bread

Joe has been asking me to make me something with chocolate in it for his breakfasts, and until now, I've managed to avoid that. When I saw this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, it looked like a great way of appeasing Joe while using up some of the bananas in my freezer. Some people balked at the chocolate-banana combination, but I thought of bananas dipped in chocolate...yum! This is a definitely doable fairly dense, quick bread recipe, and the chocolate flavor is the predominant flavor for the banana-averse.

Cocoa-Nana Bread
source: Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours via Obsessed with Baking

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup semisweet cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 stick unsalted butter at room temp
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped, or 1/2 cup store-bought chocolate chips

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and place it on an insulated baking sheet or on two regular baking sheets stacked on top of the other. (This extra insulation will keep the bottom of the bread from over baking.)

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed for about a minute, until softened. Add the sugars and beat for 2 minutes more. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute after each addition. At this point, the batter may look a little curdled -- it's okay. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the mashed bananas. Add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing only until they disappear into the batter. Still on low speed, add the buttermilk, mixing until it is incorporated. Stir in the chopped chocolate. Scrape the batter into the pan.

Bake for 30 minutes. Cover the bread loosely with a foil tent to keep the top from getting too dark, and continue to bake for another 40 to 45 minutes (total baking time is between 70 to 75 minutes) or until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for at least 20 minutes before running a knife around the edges of the bread and unmolding. Invert and cool to room temp right side up.

Oatmeal Crisps

I must've not been paying very close attention to the title when I decided to make these and was surprised when they came out quite crispy. Good work, Kira. I agree with Erin's assessment that they're like a dessert granola bar. These are a nice, easy, quick treat. I threw mine in the refrigerator to harden up the chocolate a bit. I've been kind of mindlessly munching on these, which perhaps isn't the best plan knowing that there's a stick of butter in there...

Oatmeal Crisps
source: Rebecca Rather's The Pastry Queen via Dinner and Dessert

Ingredients

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup shredded coconut

½ cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan with butter or cooking spray. Melt the butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup in a saucepan set over medium heat. Stir 1 to 2 minutes, until the brown sugar is no longer grainy. Remove the pan from the heat. In a medium bowl, stir together the oats, baking powder, salt, and coconut. Add the butter mixture and stir to combine.

Spoon the dough into the pan. Lightly coat your fingers with cooking spray or butter and press the mixture evenly into the pan.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool for 20 minutes and cut into narrow fingers. In a small, heavy saucepan, melt the chocolate chips over low heat, stirring constantly. Drizzle over the bars.

Traveler's Chocolate Muffins

I like to eat healthy things. But I also like feeling rebellious and eating cake for breakfast. These muffins straddle that line beautifully. With indulgent chocolate chips melting inside but only 2 tablespoons of oil, I don't feel that guilty having these for breakfast. And doesn't chocolate have antioxidants?

Anyway, blog posting has been a little slow. If you weren't aware, I'm working as a hospice chaplain this summer, which is so amazing but so tiring and leads to Joe and I eating less-than-bloggable dinners. And I've been trying to do a little bit more cooking and baking on the weekends, but this weekend my mother-in-law is in town and next weekend Joe and I are heading up to the Milwaukee-area for the 4th. All of this to say, I'm really glad these muffins are in my freezer.

Traveler's Chocolate Muffins
source: Baking and Books
Yields 6 jumbo muffins or 12 regular

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups low-fat milk
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• About 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar, for sprinkling

Preparation

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease your muffin tins with baking spray.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt, mixing with a whisk. In a large bowl combine the milk, brown sugar, egg, olive oil and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix to combine. Add the chocolate chips and chopped walnuts, stirring to combine.

Fill your muffin cups 3/4 full then sprinkle sugar on top of the batter. Bake jumbo muffins for 30-35 minutes and regular sized muffins for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then run a butter knife around the edges and move the muffins to a wire rack.

Chewy Chocolate-White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Apparently being in Bloomington got me on a baking kick, because one of the first things I did when I got home was bake some cookies. Joe had a rough time at work and stuff while I was gone, so these were like an I'm back! present for him as well as clearing out a few things in the pantry. I also wanted to use my pretty pink new cookie scoop.

For some reason, chocolate-white chocolate chip cookies remind of the box lunches from Jason's Deli that we would get for church meetings. While I like regular chocolate chip cookies, I always wanted to trade for a chocolate-white chocolate chip or a white chocolate-macadamia cookie. So this kind of cookie reminds me of delis and turkey sandwiches and church.

I particularly like the strong chocolate flavor set off by the sweetness of the white chocolate. The dense chocolatiness makes the cookies feel like such an indulgence, even though they aren't any moreso than any other cookie.

Chewy Chocolate-White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
source: Confections of a Foodie Bride via Dinner and Dessert

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup dutch-process cocoa*
1/2 cup butter, cubed and room temp
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups chopped white chocolate (I used white chocolate chips.)

*Don’t substitute with natural cocoa. The Oreo-like flavor comes from the richer dutch-processed cocoa.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 and place oven racks in the upper and lower middle position.

Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa, and set aside. Beat the butter on medium-high until light and add sugars, creaming well. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternately with the milk in one batch, mixing well. Chill dough for 15 minutes.

Scoop the dough onto a parchment- or silpat-lined cookie sheet (however you bake your cookies) and bake (see note below). Let the cookies cool completely on the cookie sheet and store in an air-tight container.

Here’s a tip from Shawnda:

Let’s talk about the size of of this cookie. I use a No 12 scoop to drop a well rounded scoop of chilled cookie dough (a little less than 1/2 cup of cookie dough) onto parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 24 minutes. I get 8 or 9 cookies with a diameter of 6 inches using the No 12 scoop. Perfect if you’re going for the “real bakery” look, perhaps less-than-perfect if it’s just you and 8 of your new chocolatey friends over a weekend. If you scoop a more normal sized cookie, I’d estimate 12-16 minutes in the oven.

I used a normal cookie scoop, which yielded about 2 1/2 dozen cookies (counting the few I dropped on the floor). 16 minutes was about how long it took the cookies to bake.

Brownies Cockaigne

When Joe finished taking Step 3, the last test for his state medical license, on Thursday, I wanted to make a little Congratulations dessert for him. His tradition for all of the different Step exams has been to go out for Mexican and margaritas afterward, so we did that with my parents as well. I love making brownies because I usually have the ingredients on hand, and brownie recipes can vary so much. I decided to try the Joy of Cooking recipe since that's always a good place to start.

The brownies came out wonderfully, perfectly fudgey in the middle but with a crisp top. My mom said these were the best brownies she'd ever had! I added in about a cup of chopped walnuts much to the delight of Joe and my dad. Sometimes I have trouble remembering who likes add-ins and who doesn't, so I was glad they went over so well!

Brownies Cockaigne
source: Joy of Cooking, 75th anniversary edition

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
4 eggs, room temperature
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler and then cool mixture *If you don't cool the mixture, your brownies will be heavy and dry.

Beat eggs and salt until light in color and foamy in texture and gradually add sugar and vanilla. Contine beating until well-creamed.

With a few swift strokes, combine the cooled chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar. *Even if you normally use an electric mixer, do this manually. Before the mixture becomes uniformly colored, fold in the flour, again by hand. Before the flour is uniformly colored, stir the nuts in gently. Bake in a greased 9x13 pan for about 25 minutes. Cut when cool.

Chocolate Guinness Cake and Valentine's Day Menu

For the past several years, Joe and I have passed on expensive dinners out on Valentine's Day in lieu of making something nice at home. Last year's Valentine's Day ended at the pet neurologist with a half-paralyzed cat, so we were hoping that this year would be a little better. I planned out a menu but neglected to take pictures of anything except the cake before we polished it off.

Valentine Day's Menu
Pan-seared bay scallops over linguine with a tomato cream sauce
Roasted Asparagus
Garlic Cheddar Biscuits
Becker Vineyards Viognier
Chocolate Guinness Cake

Since I had some Guinness leftover from the Guinness Beef Stew, this cake that popped up on Annie's Eats blog seemed like a natural choice. I had actually been debating between several desserts including a chocolate chunk bread pudding with Kahlua in it, but there is something about a cake that seemed nice for Valentine's Day. It turned out so moist and flavorful. The Guinness-chocolate combination is incredible, and the frosting complemented it nicely.

I had a few minor problems: I don't have a springform pan, so I used a regular 9-inch cake pan, and it overflowed in the oven. Nothing caught fire though. I also took it out a little early, and the center sank a bit, though it was nothing a little frosting couldn't fix!

Chocolate Guinness Cake
source: Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
For the cake:
1 cup Guinness beer
10 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups superfine sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking soda

For the frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese (no need to soften)
5 tbsp. butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour the sides of a 9-inch round springform pan, and line the bottom with parchment paper. In a small saucepan, combine the Guinness and butter. Heat over medium heat until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat. Whisk in the cocoa powder and sugar.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until well combined. Add the Guinness mixture to the bowl and mix until incorporated. In a small bowl, sift together the flour and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of the mixer and mix on low speed until just incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes back clean. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Once cooled, remove the sides of the pan.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer. Cream on medium-high speed. Add the powdered sugar to the bowl in batches, beating on low until just combined and then on high speed until desired consistency is reached. For a stiffer icing, add more powdered sugar. Frost cooled cake as desired.

Turbo-Charged Brownies with Praline Topping

Oh wow. Look at all that delicious praline topping. Do you say pray-leen or prAH-leen? Joe and I have an argument going on that. I'm from Texas, so I say pray-leen. He went to college in New Orleans, so he says prAH-leen. Anyway, I grew up on pecans (the state tree of Texas!), and we even had a pecan tree in our backyard, so I love anything that calls for pecans. They're even better all mixed in with butter and sugar on top of a delicious fudge-y brownie.

When I first saw this recipe, I knew it would be perfect for two things: 1) using up the pecans and heavy cream I had left and 2) Super Bowl dessert. We went over to our friends' the C's to watch the Super Bowl game and eat chili and drink beer. They have a killer sound system and TV, and Mrs. C and I definitely share foodie interests. I thought these brownies would go over quite well, which they did. They're also kind of addictive, so watch out.

Turbo-Charged Brownies with Praline Topping
as seen on Dinner and Dessert

Ingredients

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar (I used light brown sugar.)
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon boiling water
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Praline Topping
1 cup pecans
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup firmly packed golden brown sugar
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 tablespon vanilla extract

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 9 x 13 inch baking sheet with foil, leaving several inches hanging over the short ends of the pan. Grease the foil with butter or cooking spray.

In a large metal bowl set over a pan filled with 2 inches of simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has completely melted. Stir in both sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla all at once and stir until the batter is smooth and shiny. In a small bowl, combine the espresso powder and the boiling water; stir into the brownie mixture. Stir in the flour and salt.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it evenly. Bake about 30 minutes, or until the brownies have just begun to shrink slightly away from the sides of the pan. Do not overbake; the brownies should be slightly wet inside. Cool completely while making the praline topping, about 1 hour at room temp or 15 minutes in the freezer. Leave the oven at 350.

To make the topping: Arrange the pecans on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast for 5-7 minutes, until golden brown and aromatic. Break the nuts into large pieces.

Combine the cream, brown sugar, butter and corn syrup in a 2 1/2 quart saucepan and stir over medium-low heat until the mixture is smooth and the butter has melted. Bring to a slow boil; boil without stirring about 6 minutes. (If the mixture starts to boil over, you’ve set the heat too high. Turn the burner down a notch.) Remove the mixture from the heat and let cool about 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla and pecans. Pour the topping over the cooled brownies, spreading it with a knife or spatula to cover evenly.

Let the topping cool at least 15 minutes at room temp. Lift the brownies, still in the foil, out of the pan and cut them into pieces.

Peppermint Cheesecake Brownies

Confession: I don't even like peppermint, but when I saw these brownies in Cooking Light, I knew I had to make them. Unfortunately, I was about halfway through the holidays when I realized that I didn't want any more sweets around. So I decided to save them to make for an open house we were going to on New Year's Day. Sure enough, they were a big hit. Reviews of the recipe said that the peppermint flavor wasn't terribly pronounced, so I doubled the amount of extract. Even I liked these!

Peppermint Cheesecake Brownies
adapted from Cooking Light, December 2008

Ingredients

Cheesecake Batter:
1 8 oz block of 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 tbsp all-purpose flour

Brownie Batter:
4.5 oz all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
Cooking Spray

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. To prepare cheesecake batter, place cheese in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add granulated sugar and peppermint extract; beat well. Add 1 egg and 1 egg white; beat well. Add 1 tablespoon flour; beat mixture just until blended.

3. To prepare brownie batter, weigh or lightly spoon 4.5 ounces (about 1 cup) flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine 4.5 ounces flour, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, vanilla, 2 egg whites, and 1 egg in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until well blended. Add flour mixture to brown sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until blended.

4. Reserve 1/2 cup of brownie batter. Pour remaining batter into a 9-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Carefully pour cheesecake batter over top; spread evenly to edges. Dot cheesecake batter with reserved brownie batter. Swirl top two layers of batters together using the tip of a knife. Bake at 350° for 26 minutes or until top is set. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 213 (32% from fat)

Fat: 7.5g (sat 2.6g,mono 2.3g,poly 1.1g)

Protein: 4.4g

Carbohydrate: 32.3g

Fiber: 0.7g

Cholesterol: 37mg

Iron: 1.3mg

Sodium: 169mg

Calcium: 32mg

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies

I don't normally take things like cookies and cakes and look for healthier recipes. If I'm going to indulge, I'm going to indulge. But when I was flipping through back issues of Cooking Light, I found these cookies and just so happened to have all the ingredients in my pantry. I made some slight changes, recorded below, based on suggestions from the reviews on the Cooking Light website.

As a warning, these are not really drop cookies as the recipe advertised. The dough is pretty dry and crumbly, but it isn't difficult to roll into balls. The cookies came out perfectly with crisp outsides and chewy insides. These would be great cookies to leave out for Santa and his reindeer, especially if Santa (*ahem* Dad) really likes pecans.

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies
adapted from Cooking Light, December 2007

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup regular oats
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt), stirring with a whisk; set aside.

Place sugars and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg; beat until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Stir in pecans and minichips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until edges of cookies are lightly browned. Cool on pans 2 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Yield: 3 dozen cookies (My cookies were bigger and made about 2 dozen.)

Peanut Butter Blossoms

If you can possibly believe it, I did not like peanut butter as a child. It was too goopy and stuck to the roof of my mouth and got inbetween my teeth. It wasn't until I went to boarding school and started eating peanut butter on bananas to avoid the awful cafeteria food that I began to like peanut butter.

These are such a classic cookie that it's hard not to like them. I made them after taking half of my finals, and the act of rolling the dough into little balls was so calming and mindless after my brain had been fried. I served these on Saturday night when we had a few people over before going out to dinner.

The recipe states that it makes about 4 dozen cookies, but I only got 3 dozen out, most likely because I rolled them a little larger than recommended. I waited until I had a count to unwrap the Hershey's Kisses, saving me from having some unwrapped kisses with no cookies to go on.

Peanut Butter Blossoms
(source: Hershey's Kitchens)

Ingredients

48 Hershey's Kisses
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
granulated sugar

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.
2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet. 4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

About 4 dozen cookies.

A Tale of Two Brownies

To celebrate all that we had accomplished that semester (3 papers, 2 exams, and 15 books read), my pastoral care and theology class had a party during part of our last class this past Thursday. After seeing Ginger Brownies on Reservations Not Required, I thought that this party would be the perfect opportunity to make them. Ginger is one of my favorite flavors, and I liked the idea of jazzing up regular brownies with a little unexpected flavor.

But Joe always gets a little sad when I make baked goods and then whisk them away before he gets to eat his fill, and I had been eyeing a brownie recipe in a cookbook that I rediscovered on my shelf that looked like a great go-to brownie recipe, so I decided to make a batch of those and throw in some walnuts for Joe and me to have.

Both brownies turned out really well. I guess it was the recipe I was using before, but my previous brownies always looked ugly and were too fudgey for my taste. Joe preferred the pure chocolate taste in the regular brownies on a blind taste test, but I really enjoyed the ginger brownies. I was curious to see, besides the added flavors in the ginger brownies, how the different amounts of the basic ingredients affected the brownies. Using more chocolate in the classic brownies definitely made them fudgier, and they had a more pronounced chocolate feel in the mouth.

Ginger Brownies
source: Reservations Not Required

Makes 16

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for baking dish
• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Line bottom with parchment paper, allowing 2 inches to hang over 2 sides. Butter parchment; set aside. Melt butter and chocolate together in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in remaining ingredients.
2. Pour batter into prepared dish. Smooth top with a rubber spatula. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes. Lift out, and let cool completely on rack. Cut into sixteen 2-inch squares. Brownies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 4 days.

New Classic Brownies
source: Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies
Yields 16 brownies

Ingredients
8 tbsp unsalted butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400-degrees F. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven.

Melt the butter with the chocolate in the top of a double boiler or in a medium heatproof bowl set in a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently until the mixture is melted and smooth.

Remove the top of the double boiler (or the bowl) from the heat. Stir in the sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring until each is incorporated before adding the next. Stir in the flour and beat with a wooden spoon until the batter is smooth and glossy and comes away from the sides of the pan, about 1 minute. Stir in the nuts, if using. Scrape the batter into the pan. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the brownies just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. The surface of the brownies will look dry but a toothpick inserted in the center will still be quite gooey.

When cool, slide a knife between the pan and the brownies on the unlined sides. Lift the ends of the parchment or foil liner and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 squares. May be stored, airtight, for 2 or 3 days.

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

Poor Joe has been practically begging me to make a pecan pie ever since this summer, but it just didn't feel quite right in the summer heat to be eating pecan pie. And, to be fair, I'm not that big of a fan of regular pecan pie. Because I know how many calories are in it, I've found that it isn't really worth it on most occasions.

But this, this is different. I knew Joe would go for the bourbon flavor, and I liked the addition of the chocolate. I altered the amounts and the method based on the comments and reviews of the recipe, and those changes are reflected below. Joe said he would've liked a stronger bourbon flavor, but since I didn't know how our other guests would feel about it, I reduced it.

This pie will knock your socks off. You will find yourself returning again and again to the pie plate wondering who ate all of the pie until you realize that it was you. The chocolate is marvelously gooey, and the pie has that great caramelized crunchy top. If you make this pie, everyone will love you!


Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
source: Allrecipes

Ingredients

• 1 (9 inch) deep-dish pie shell
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 tbsp bourbon (If you prefer a stronger bourbon flavor, the original recipe calls for 1/4 cup)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (I didn't measure, just covered the bottom.)
  
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees F).
2. In a small saucepan combine sugar, corn syrup, and butter or margarine. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until butter or margarine melts and sugar dissolves. Cool slightly.
3. In a large bowl combine eggs, bourbon, vanilla, and salt. Mix well. Slowly pour sugar mixture into egg mixture, whisking constantly. Stir in pecans. Create a layer of chocolate chips on the bottom of the pie shell and pour mixture over the chocolate chips, into pie shell.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until set and golden. May be served warm or chilled.

Chocolate-Glazed Pumpkin Cookies

When I saw the picture of these in Sherri's blog, they looked so fluffy and delicious that I knew I had to try them at some point. They are very cake-like, and the hardened chocolate really takes them over the edge. I'll admit I had a lot of fun swirling the chocolate over the cookies. The spice is very subtle, so you can taste the pumpkin nicely. These also look gorgeous. I currently have them stacked up on a covered cake stand, and they look like I bought them from a bakery!

I used a round tbsp to scoop them out, and the dough yielded 20 cookies.

(If you haven't noticed, I recently discovered the food setting on my point-and-shoot digital camera, so my pictures have gotten SO much better, in my opinion.)

Chocolate-Glazed Pumpkin Cookies
(source: yum.)

Ingredients

2 c. flour
1/2 t. soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 t. salt
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 c. pumpkin puree
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375.

Whisk dry ingredients together. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light. Add egg; beat, until smooth. With mixer on low alternately add flour in two parts and pumpkin in one. Beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Do not overmix.

Bake until puffed and golden- about 15 minutes.

When cookies have cooled, melt chocolate either in microwave at 30 second intervals or over double-boiler. Drizzle over cookies and cool in refrigerator until chocolate is set.

Reference: Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine.

Molton Spiced Chocolate Cabernet Cakes

After scoring some ramekins for cheap, this was the first thing I knew I wanted to make, and it ended up being the perfect end to a nice meal. I don't normally make dessert at night, so Joe knew this was a special treat! I halved the recipe to only make two cakes. This was deliciously spiced, and I love cooking with wine. It gave me a good excuse to open a bottle for dinner as well.

Molton Spiced Chocolate Cabernet Cakes
(source: Lovestoeat's Weblog)

Yield: 4 cakes

Ingredients:
4 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 tablespoon Cabernet Sauvignon or other red wine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
6 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Butter 4 (6-ounce) custard cups or soufflé dishes. Place on baking sheet.
2. Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwavable bowl on HIGH 1 minute or until butter is melted. Whisk until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in wine, vanilla and confectioners’ sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and yolk. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour batter evenly into prepared custard cups.
3. Bake 13 to 15 minutes or until sides are firm but centers are soft. Let stand 1 minute. Carefully loosen edges with small knife. Invert cakes onto serving plates. Sprinkle with additional confectioners’ sugar. Serve immediately.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Sheesh, what's with all this chocolate pumpkin nonsense? Don't you make real food anymore? Actually, I swear I had a good reason to make this bread. The music director at the church Joe and I have been going to was leaving, and Sunday was his last day. Since I sing in the choir, the choir was responsible for the food for the reception after the service.

This recipe makes two loaves, so if I hadn't been taking it to church, I probably would have halved the recipe. Fortunately, I made both loaves because the bread went quickly, and Joe was disappointed at how little there was left. Maybe this is sad, but it was definitely a boost to my self-esteem to see people keep reaching for my bread.

(Oh, and I so want to make a "loaves and fishes" joke, but I'll spare you.)

You seriously want to make this bread. Words cannot describe how moist and flavorful it is, the way the chocolate melds with the pumpkin spice. Did I mention it's a Cooking Light recipe?


Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

source: Cooking Light via Brooke

Ingredients
2 cups sugar

2 cups canned pumpkin

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup fat-free vanilla pudding (I used fat-free plain yogurt + 1 tsp of vanilla extract)

4 large egg whites (I used 2 eggs)

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Cooking spray

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in chocolate chips.
Spoon batter into 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Yield: 32 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Nutritional Information:
CALORIES 152(30% from fat); FAT 5g (sat 1.2g,mono 2.5g,poly 1.1g); PROTEIN 2g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 10mg; SODIUM 137mg; FIBER 1.1g; IRON 1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 26.5

Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

I don't know what's gotten into me. I'm not really a baker but something about the impending coolness of fall and the slight chill in the air has gotten me in the mood for baking. Fortunately this coincided perfectly with several occasions that allowed me to off-load some of my baking.

These brownies are ridiculously good. I had been drooling over the recipe for a while and used my relatively calm second half of the week (following a Greek test and a Pastoral Care paper) to bake them, knowing that I could take them to a gathering at a friends' house on Friday night.

Let me just say, that I don't know how I managed to not eat half of the pan before Friday night. I did sneak a few and allowed Joe to have them. I am never that person that brings something to the party that everyone fawns over, but these brownies are that dish. Word cannot describe how good these are. They are the perfect combination of something familiar and something a little unusual.

Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

(source: Cara's Cravings)

Ingredients:

Brownie Batter:

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

Cheesecake Batter:

6 oz cream cheese, softened (I used fat-free.)

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp flour

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp each ground ginger and ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8x8" square metal baking pan.

For the Brownies:

Beat together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla, then beat in eggs one at a time. Combine dry ingredients and then gradually stir into butter mixture by hand.

For the Cheesecake:

In a separate bowl, beat together all ingredients.

To assemble:

Spread about 2/3 of chocolate batter into prepared pan. Spread the pumpkin batter over it, distributing evenly. Drop the remaining brownie batter over cheesecake batter. To make the swirls, run a butter knife back and forth through the pan. (I totally failed at this part! Oh well, they still tasted amazing.)

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until center is set. Cool completely and chill before cutting and serving. (Mine took a little longer to cook, probably because I used a glass pan instead of dark metal. I baked mine for about 50 minutes.)

Chocolate Chess Pie

On my chess pie entry, Kelly left a comment that I should try her version of chess pie, which is her great-aunt's recipe for chocolate chess pie. Joe seemed particularly excited by this, so since he was on-call Wednesday night, I decided to have it waiting for him on Thursday when he came home. Besides, nothing is better than an older Southern woman's recipes for pie.



Let me tell you, this is an incredibly sexy pie. It has all of the smooth creaminess of the chess pie with the darker flavors of the chocolate. Joe came home and ate a whole quarter of the pie; that's how good it is. It's the kind of pie that will make you moan when you take that first bite. And it still has everything I love about the plain chess pie, namely that great hardening on top, almost like creme brulee.



Kelly's Great-Aunt Jeanne's Chocolate Chess Pie

1 9" single pie crust

3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 stick of butter
2 eggs
1 small can of evaporated milk (5-6 oz)
1 tsp of vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Mix cocoa with sugar; add melted (but cooled) butter and stir well. Mix in 2 eggs, then evaporated milk and vanilla. Beat for 5-6 minutes. Pour mixture into pie crust. Bake on 350 for 40 minutes or until set in middle. Let cool and chill until ready to serve. It's best served chilled.

I was a little nervous at first because the filling was really liquid-y, but I had no problems with it setting.