Many years ago, I started a little something serious with chocolate peanut butter balls. A wonderful coworker always brings these to holiday Christmas party potlucks, friends make them....they're a big deal in my world.
If you haven't yet had the pleasure, let me introduce you to your new favorite sinful treat. Peanut buttery. Crunchy. Salty. Dark chocolatey. Yum.
3 c. crisped rice cereal
1 c. powdered sugar (a little more or less depending on how sweet you prefer it)
1 1/4 c. natural peanut butter/almond butter (I mixed the two--up to you. You could use regular, I suppose.)
Good grind of fresh sea salt
1 stick butter
3 c. extra dark chocolate chips (we used Guittard)
Melt butter in microwave in big glass bowl. Add in sugar, cereal, peanut butter, and salt. Mix well to combine. Form into balls (or eggs for upcoming Easter). Lay balls or eggs on waxed paper lined cookie sheet. Freeze for 30 mins.
Melt chips in glass bowl in microwave, using lower heat and short intervals between stirs. Remove treats from freezer and dip into bowl of chocolate to coat completely. Note: You want a high quality chocolate chip on this, or you may have mixed melting results. I know many use some shortening or similar to add to chocolate to make it smooth and satiny for dipping, but I just dip the treats into straight chocolate.
The main difference here is that mine look matte when finished and the others look shinier and more professional. My feeling? They're not going to be around long enough to observe how glossy they are, right? Still, if you're taking them to a gathering...
Place dipped balls/eggs back on waxed paper sheet and put into fridge to harden several hours or overnight. When you're done, you'll have several dozen glorious chocolate candies to share at your next family dinner or potluck. These are the very best peanut butter and chocolate can be together, if you ask me.
Hope you try them soon--people will be begging you for the recipe and suspiciously forget all about certain peanut butter eggs that are in check out lines this time of year. Enjoy!
Showing posts with label chocolate cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chocolate cake. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Chocolate Lollipops
Around Christmas, we bought some fancy chocolate from a chocolatier, and Doug made dipped pretzels that were absolutely delicious. So encouraged were we by this exciting chocolate development that we've since made a few batches of chocolate lollipops. We took our cue from Ina Garten on this one, and boy, was it a good decision.
The only problem with these is that they're not the size of my head.
Chocolate Lollipops
3 c. good quality chocolate morsels (we used Chuao) -- don't use chips--they don't melt well
Chopped nuts
Chopped dried fruit
Lollipop sticks
Cellophane bags and ties
Feel free to make this with dark, milk, or white chocolate. We prefer dark and white so usually go with those. Melt the chocolate in 30 second microwave intervals. If you're using good melting chocolate, this should be easy to do within a minute and a half. If you try this with chips, you'll probably get a dry, goopy mess. You're going for a silky, satiny texture with the chocolate. Higher quality is always better here--I say, better to have fewer lollipops that all taste delicious than more that taste like cheap chocolate. Right?
While the chocolate is still warm, use a spoon to drop it into disc shapes on a wax-paper lined cookie sheet. Twirl the stick in the base of each disc while the chocolate is still warm. Working quickly, drop your choice of dried nuts and fruits onto each disc. My favorite is pistachio with dried cranberries or cherries. White chocolate is great with dried blueberries and macadamia nuts. Cashews and dried apricots are good on either. We prefer salted nuts to raw ones, but it's up to you. Then place lollipops in freezer to set.
After about 45 minutes, pull each lollipop out and wrap individually in bag with a tie. I got the sticks, bags, and ties back at a cake shop several years ago and still have them leftover. You could probably find them there or at Michaels. What we love about these is how impressive they look once they're done. We store ours in the freezer and pull out for company. Not really. They don't last that long.
This recipe could make you 10-15 pops, depending on how big you make yours. Enjoy!
The only problem with these is that they're not the size of my head.
Chocolate Lollipops
3 c. good quality chocolate morsels (we used Chuao) -- don't use chips--they don't melt well
Chopped nuts
Chopped dried fruit
Lollipop sticks
Cellophane bags and ties
Feel free to make this with dark, milk, or white chocolate. We prefer dark and white so usually go with those. Melt the chocolate in 30 second microwave intervals. If you're using good melting chocolate, this should be easy to do within a minute and a half. If you try this with chips, you'll probably get a dry, goopy mess. You're going for a silky, satiny texture with the chocolate. Higher quality is always better here--I say, better to have fewer lollipops that all taste delicious than more that taste like cheap chocolate. Right?
While the chocolate is still warm, use a spoon to drop it into disc shapes on a wax-paper lined cookie sheet. Twirl the stick in the base of each disc while the chocolate is still warm. Working quickly, drop your choice of dried nuts and fruits onto each disc. My favorite is pistachio with dried cranberries or cherries. White chocolate is great with dried blueberries and macadamia nuts. Cashews and dried apricots are good on either. We prefer salted nuts to raw ones, but it's up to you. Then place lollipops in freezer to set.
After about 45 minutes, pull each lollipop out and wrap individually in bag with a tie. I got the sticks, bags, and ties back at a cake shop several years ago and still have them leftover. You could probably find them there or at Michaels. What we love about these is how impressive they look once they're done. We store ours in the freezer and pull out for company. Not really. They don't last that long.
This recipe could make you 10-15 pops, depending on how big you make yours. Enjoy!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Chocolate Cloud Cake
Our house is very divided in the age old chocolate v. vanilla cake debate. Doug loves chocolate and usually wears it as a moustache and beard after licking beaters or brownie bowls. Vanilla resonates more with me--there's something simple and light about it, and it's so much prettier on my cake stand.
But every once in a while, we come together on a chocolate cake idea that's a little out of the ordinary. My recipe was inspired by a delicious cake I had as an intern at a nonprofit years and years ago. A few tweaks and additions later, here's a new spin on it!
Chocolate Cloud Cake
3/4 c. butter (I used Irish Cream and loved the results)
3 large eggs
2 t. vanilla
Splash almond extract
1 1/2 c. milk
3 T. unsweetened applesauce (makes it so moist--worth adding to any darker cake batter!)
2 c. flour
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t. baking soda
3/4 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
2 c. sugar
1 c. extra dark chocolate chips (60%)
Mix softened butter, eggs, extracts, and sugar in a big bowl. I do this by hand because I hate the noise of a mixer. Add applesauce. Mix dry ingredients (except chocolate chips) together. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk. Fold chocolate chips into batter.
Pour cake into a gresed 13 x 9 pan, and bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 mins. Watch it closely; you don't want it to dry out or burn.
Pull cake from oven, and immediately top with 2 c. mini marshmallows and 2 c. sweetened coconut. Let marshmallows melt on top. (You could substitute enough marshmallow cream to cover the top too--whatever you have.) Alternatively, you could use chopped almonds in addition to or instead of the coconut--play with it a little.
Once the cake has cooled a bit more (30-45 mins), top it with homemade chocolate buttercream. I'm all about the homemade frosting--canned tastes so chalky and chemically. It's worth the effort to mix your own. I never use a recipe for mine, and if I happen to be over at my mom's when I make it, I beg her to do it. Her buttercream is always better than mine, though we mix it the same way and use the same ingredients. Moms are better at so many things.
We start with a stick of butter and add vanilla, a dash of milk or cream, and a few cups of powdered sugar. My mom only uses C&H, but I generally get whatever powdered sugar is cheaper. I guess this could account for the difference in the end result too, eh? Hmm...
This cake is so rich that we had to cut it into thin rectangle slices rather than square pieces, but it's so worth it. The applesauce makes the cake moist, and the marshmallows on top seem to help too. What's even better is that this cake is easy to whip up and uses ingredients most of us have on hand.
Everyone loved it, except our cat, who loves a little vanilla frosting occasionally, but obviously couldn't have any chocolate anything. Doug's going to take one of these to his employees tomorrow. Perhaps we'll start a weekly baked goods ritual to kick Mondays off right at the office. That's a trend I can get behind!
What do you add to make your chocolate cake special?
But every once in a while, we come together on a chocolate cake idea that's a little out of the ordinary. My recipe was inspired by a delicious cake I had as an intern at a nonprofit years and years ago. A few tweaks and additions later, here's a new spin on it!
Chocolate Cloud Cake
3/4 c. butter (I used Irish Cream and loved the results)
3 large eggs
2 t. vanilla
Splash almond extract
1 1/2 c. milk
3 T. unsweetened applesauce (makes it so moist--worth adding to any darker cake batter!)
2 c. flour
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t. baking soda
3/4 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
2 c. sugar
1 c. extra dark chocolate chips (60%)
Mix softened butter, eggs, extracts, and sugar in a big bowl. I do this by hand because I hate the noise of a mixer. Add applesauce. Mix dry ingredients (except chocolate chips) together. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk. Fold chocolate chips into batter.
Pour cake into a gresed 13 x 9 pan, and bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 mins. Watch it closely; you don't want it to dry out or burn.
Pull cake from oven, and immediately top with 2 c. mini marshmallows and 2 c. sweetened coconut. Let marshmallows melt on top. (You could substitute enough marshmallow cream to cover the top too--whatever you have.) Alternatively, you could use chopped almonds in addition to or instead of the coconut--play with it a little.
Once the cake has cooled a bit more (30-45 mins), top it with homemade chocolate buttercream. I'm all about the homemade frosting--canned tastes so chalky and chemically. It's worth the effort to mix your own. I never use a recipe for mine, and if I happen to be over at my mom's when I make it, I beg her to do it. Her buttercream is always better than mine, though we mix it the same way and use the same ingredients. Moms are better at so many things.
We start with a stick of butter and add vanilla, a dash of milk or cream, and a few cups of powdered sugar. My mom only uses C&H, but I generally get whatever powdered sugar is cheaper. I guess this could account for the difference in the end result too, eh? Hmm...
This cake is so rich that we had to cut it into thin rectangle slices rather than square pieces, but it's so worth it. The applesauce makes the cake moist, and the marshmallows on top seem to help too. What's even better is that this cake is easy to whip up and uses ingredients most of us have on hand.
Everyone loved it, except our cat, who loves a little vanilla frosting occasionally, but obviously couldn't have any chocolate anything. Doug's going to take one of these to his employees tomorrow. Perhaps we'll start a weekly baked goods ritual to kick Mondays off right at the office. That's a trend I can get behind!
What do you add to make your chocolate cake special?
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