Chocolate anyone??

 

Mom’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 3.5 dozen

Note: This recipe is from my mom.  You can substitute chocolate pudding and white chocolate chips or make up your own combinations.  Chocolate-chocolate, chocolate-butterscotch, vanilla-chocolate… the list is long.  I usually eliminate nuts from any recipe, and this recipe doubles well.

 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup butter

1/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

1 pkg instant vanilla  pudding

1 – 12oz. pkg. chocolate chips

1 cup nuts, chopped (optional)

 

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 357 degrees.  Cream butter and sugars.  Add egg and beat until smooth.  Add vanilla, baking soda, and flour.  Mix until ‘just’ mixed.  Add pudding, chocolate chips and nuts.  Mix together.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Let cool a few minutes on the cookie sheet.  Remove from cookie sheet to a cooling rack and cool completely before storing.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate

… is always a good combination!

 

 

Peanut Butter Finger Bars

Yield: 20 servings

 

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

DRIZZLE INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 Tbls. peanut butter

3 to 5 tsp. milk

 

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream butter and sugars.  Add peanut butter and blend together.  Add egg and beat until mixed.  Add flour, oatmeal, baking soda, vanilla and salt.  Mix well.  Spread mixture into a 13x9 inch pan.  Press evenly.  Bake for 15-20 minutes in a 350 degree oven. 

Immediately after taking bars out of the oven, sprinkle 1 cup chocolate chips over the top.  Let stand 5 minutes, then spread evenly to coat bars. 

In a small bowl, mix together the Drizzle Ingredients.  Drizzle over chocolate frosting.  Cool completely and cut into bars.  These bars freeze quite well.

Suzie's Divinity

Suzie’s Divinity
Yield: about 6 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:
2 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
½ cup water
2 egg whites
1 tsp. flavor extract (Almond is my favorite, but Vanilla is most common)

Directions:
1. Mix sugar, corn syrup and water in an 8-cup microwavable measure or bowl (I use my Pampered Chef Large Batter Bowl) until sugar is thoroughly moistened.

2. Microwave uncovered on high for 5 minutes, take out and stir, return to microwave and heat for another 5 minutes. The original recipe said 13-15 minutes, but my microwave gets the syrup to hard ball stage (260 degrees on a candy thermometer) at 10 minutes. This part will take a little bit of experimentation, but once you figure out your microwave, write it down on your copy of the recipe. If you need more than 10 minutes, you’ll want to stir the mixture every 5 minutes.

*Before microwaving the sugar mixture, I separate the eggs and put the egg whites in my mixing bowl.  I lay out my waxed paper while the sugar mixture is in the microwave.  When there is 2-3 minutes left on the microwave, I start up my Kitchen-Aid mixer.  This is the perfect amount of time to have the egg whites at stiff peak stage.

3. Beat egg whites in medium bowl (I use a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer for ease) until stiff peaks form. In my mixer, the egg whites are stiff in about 2 minutes at high speed.

4. Continue beating while pouring hot syrup in a thin stream into egg whites, beating constantly on medium speed.

5. Add Almond extract. **It’s so easy to forget this step. Set out your flavoring near the mixer as a reminder!** Beat until the mixture holds its shape and becomes slightly dull. The dullness is key for me.

6. Drop mixture from teaspoons onto waxed paper. Let stand at room temperature until the candies feel firm.

7. Freeze in an air tight container between layers of waxed paper.  Each batch makes about 6 1/2 dozen - 'little larger than a tablespoon' sized drops of Divinity.

Note: Some prefer to add nuts. You can add 2/3 cups of coarsely chopped nuts at the end of step 5, but I think it spoils the Divinity! I expect Divinity to melt in my mouth and nuts obviously thwart that expectation.

Birthday cake...

... it's a little silly, but I'm making myself a birthday cake.  I saw a tantalizing picture of this cake

 in the catalog for this company and couldn't resist trying to make the blend of chocolate cake and mint ice cream.  I was going to make homemade fudge, but I purchased a jar ... just in case I got LAZY!  I'm going to use the jar of fudge. 

Ingredients:
Chocolate cake mix (plus eggs, oil & water)
Fudge - one jar
Peppermint Stick ice cream (from Schwans) or substitue Chocolate Chip Mint or your favorite minty flavor

Putting 'it' together:
The cake was baked last night, I let it cool on the counter overnight (you wouldn't need to wait that long!).

This morning, I leveled the cake by cutting off the rounded top with a serrated knife... I didn't want a leaning torte! .  I also cut the cake into thirds (lenthwise), so each section is a little over 4 inches wide and 9 inches long.  While preparing the cake and fudge, set the ice cream on the counter to thaw a bit.

Warm the fudge in the microwave until it is spreadable.  Spread 1/3 on the top of each cake section.  ** I didn't refrigerate at this point, but it would be a good step to add.  Then, your ice cream will not melt slightly like mine!

Spread ice cream over two sections - about 1/2 inch thick.  Stack the layers; the cake with only fudge goes on top.  Wrap the torte in plastic wrap and freeze for at least one hour.  If you want to make it 'pretty', sprinkle crushed peppermint cany over the top.  Slice as thick as needed and ENJOY!!

This is before freezing ... but doesn't it look yummy anyway??  I may or may not add crushed peppemints.  Maybe I'll just add another scoop of ice cream to the top of each slice.

** UPDATE:  Make sure to cool the layers of fudge topped cake in the frig before topping with ice cream.  My ice cream melted - pretty much all of it - even though I thought my fudge was cooled and the completed cake was taken to the freezer immediately.  It still tasted wonderful because the peppermint ice cream soaked into the cake layers, but it didn't look as pretty.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Last week, Angelina and I mixed up a quick batch of Peanut Butter Blossoms.  I use my smallest cookie scoop (it's about 1 Tbls. in size) to scoop the batter onto a plate. 

Angelina rolled the scoops into balls and then rolled them in sugar and placed them on cookie sheets.  Using my large Doughmakers cookie sheets, it only takes two trips to the oven to get about 3.5 dozen cookies (if I'd have used convection, it would have been one step baking for a single batch!).  I prefer Hershey's kisses for the chocolate top; the kisses are placed right after taking the cookies out of the oven.

After cooling completely, the Peanut Butter Blossom cookies are stored between layers of waxed paper in the freezer.  I have a small collection of Christmas tins, but they are still in storage ... so, these cookies will be frozen in Tupperware containers.  They can be stored at room temp. for 1 week or frozen for up to 3 months.

Holiday Goodies still on the list:

• Divinity
• Cashew Brittle
• Pizzelles
• Turtle Cookies
• Suzie's Favorite Sugar Cookies
• Creme de Menthe Brownies
• Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies
• Jam Thumbprints
• New This Year (my experimental recipe): Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints

 Note:  I keep a master list of what I've frozen.  However, I try NOT to remember all the goodies going into the freezer until it's really time for them to be used!

Chocolate Frosted Maple Cookies

Okay, I obviously lean toward chocolate and desserts on this blog; this post adds another in that column. Maybe I should have called it Domestic Family Desserts!

This is a recipe I came across in a brochure called 'Pure Facts'. The recipe wasn't even named and it made an extremely small batch. So I've tweaked and doubled to come up with a recipe that produces more and lets us eat a little longer on the sweet treats.

Chocolate Frosted Maple Cookies
Yield: 2 dozen 2.5-3" cookies

Ingredients for cookie batter:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. maple extract
4 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Ingredients for chocolate frosting:
1/2 cup chocolate chips, semi-sweet
6 Tbls. milk
2 Tbls. butter
2 cups powdered sugar

Cookie Directions:
1. Combine brown sugar and softened butter in a mixing bowl. Beat until light and fluffy.
2. Add vanilla extract, maple extract, and eggs. Beat well.
3. Add flour, baking soda, and salt; mix well.
4. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour to make it easier to handle. (I've skipped this step quite often ... impatient, I guess ... but no ill effects)
5. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Drop by cookie scoop (we prefer the large cookie scoop - 2 Tbls. size) onto the cookie sheet. Press lightly. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until slightly browned at the edges. *NOTE: if you decrease the cookie size, you'll need to decrease the baking time.
7. Immediately remove the cookies and allow them to cool on a rack.

Frosting Directions:
1. Place chocolate chips, milk and butter in a small saucepan and melt chips over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the powdered sugar. Add more if needed for spreading consistency.
2. Frost the cooled cookies**. Allow frosting to set before storing them. The cookies do freeze well.

** A quick way to frost is to hold the cookie upside down and dip it in the frosting. There is plenty of frosting for 2 dozen large cookies when frosting in this manner.

Chocolate Chip Scones

Family Review: ***** Absolutely yummy!*****

Chocolate Chip Scones
Yield: 32 scones


Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbls. baking powder
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into slices
1 cup mini-chocolate chips
2 large eggs
2 tsps. vanilla
1/2 to 2/3 cup whole milk


Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
4 Tbls. water or enough for a thin glaze
1 tsp. vanilla


Directions:
1. Whisk together all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut in the butter; it's okay to leave some larger pieces of butter. Stir in the chocolate chips.


2. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla and milk together. Add liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until moistened. Add additional milk if the mix won't hold together.


3. On a well-floured surface, roll the dough into an 8" x 8" square. Cut the dough into 2" squares, for a total of 16 squares. Cut each square diagonally to form 32 small triangles.


4. Transfer to a parchment lined (or well greased) cooking sheet. They can be close together.


5. While the oven is preheating to 425 degrees F, place the pan of scones in the freezer, uncovered.


6. Bake the scones for 19 minutes and allow scones to cool on the pan.


7. Prepare the glaze. I transferred the glaze to a sandwich baggie, snipped a corner, and drizzled the glaze over the scones while on the parchment (less mess). You could also spread the glaze over each with a spatula.


** Sorry no pictures. Take my word for it, though, these are incredibly easy to make and taste great! I think I may try substituting blueberries for chocolate chips. I like the texture of this scone. They are not dense like some recipes, and neither are they too much like quick bread.

Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

This is the yummy cake I made in the Mini-Cooking Session #2. This cake can be frozen whole or in pieces; whichever better suits your needs. I prefer to freeze it in pieces (that way I can go sneak one from the freezer without the kids knowing!). My husband's favorite flavor combination is chocolate and peanut butter, so he won't turn down any offer of this dessert and gives it a 5 star rating.

If you are experimenting with your main course, this dessert is a great "complaint preventer' because you can announce 'this dessert' will be served to whoever finishes up their main course without complaint. Most kids (especially mine) and husbands find that main courses taste better with this cake as the dessert. Yes, I am speaking from experience.

For fun, you can top it with a half (or a whole) mini peanut butter cup. Of course, if it's after supper you may want to forgo the extra sugar for the kids - my kids don't like to sleep after eating peanut butter cups, they'd rather run around the race-track they've made on our home's main floor. I also think shaved chocolate would look and taste great on top.

Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
Yield: Approximately 16 servings

Chocolate Cake:
1 box Chocolate Cake Mix
1 ½ Tablespoon Unsweetened Cocoa powder
1 1/3 cup Milk
½ cup Vegetable Oil
3 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Frosting:
1 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
½ cup Butter, softened
2 cups Powdered Sugar
¼ cup Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all the cake ingredients and beat together until smooth. Spray a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray and pour in the cake batter. Bake for 40 minutes. Cake is done when center springs back at the touch and sides are just starting to pull away from the pan edge. Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting: Blend the peanut butter and butter. Add milk and vanilla; mix together. Add the powdered sugar and beat until frosting is fluffy. If the frosting seems too thick for your taste, add a bit more milk. Spread the frosting on thickly.

For Freezing: To freeze without cutting, flash freeze to set the frosting. Then, cover with plastic wrap and foil. Label and freeze the cake. Thaw completely to serve. To freeze in pieces, set the frosting in the frig. When set, cut into pieces (the size is your choice) and place in a covered container.

TIP: Some cakes, and especially brownies, are more easily cut with a plastic knife. I save a plastic knife in my baking drawer just for these occasions.