Cocoa Crinkle Cookies

I found this at "Behind The Skillet" and they are divine!

We hosted a dinner party last night & I made these for our guests and ohmygod they went fast!

They're simple, elegant, moist and petty.
who could ask for more?

Ingreidents:

3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup good quality unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1stick)
1 1/4 cup sugar, plus another 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Step 1: In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and sal. While you're doing this, Melt the butter in a saucepan. Once the butter is totally melted, set it aside and allow it to cool for a few minutes.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, mix the 1 1/4 cup of sugar, eggs and butter. Whisk well until it has a smooth, creamy cconsistency and then add the vanilla. Whisk until well blended.

Step 3: Stir the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir well until combined.

Step 4: Wrap and chill in your refridgerator for at least 2 hours or overnight

Step 5: Preheat oven to 350, and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Shape dough into small balls and roll ina bowl with 1/2 a cup of white sugar. Place balls on the parchment paper and flatten slightly with a spoon.

bake for 12 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

The Picky Hubby wanted something different for breakfast.
but he wasn't sure what kind of different.
he was just sure that he was tired of corn muffins and banana muffins.

So, I came up with this little recipe and it was a big hit.
He likes the texture & density of the muffins, they fill him up
and most importantly
they go well with his morning coffee.

The Little One loves these as well, so I usually end up making 2 batches of this so there's enough for everybody.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup milk
1 stick of butter melted and cooled (1/2 cup)
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup of chocolate chips (more or less to taste)



Preheat oven to 400 and line muffin tin with muffin cups. In a large bowl mix together flour, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl stir together eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla until well blended. Make a small well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture. Stir until well combined and then add the chocolate chips

Spoon mixture into the muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 mins until ligthly brown on top. Allow to cool before eating or storing.



the original recipe calls for an entire 11 oz package of chocolate chips to be added, but personally, that's a bit much for breakfast. And my husband really loves the dough the best in this muffin. the chips are just secondary.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

simple, really.

i had a massive craving for chocolate. and decided to make the peanut butter cups.

the problem, however, was that my need for chocolate was immediate.

the chocolate was melting

my husband was eating mini pretzels.

you do the math.

i left them to cool on waxed paper & then kept in the fridge over night.

they were mighty good.
mighty good.

and i'll bet they'd be even better with some popcorn.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

On Mothers Day I attempted to make White Chocolate dipped strawberries & failed miserably. I'd never worked with white chocolate before & quickly discovered that it doesn't behave the same way that regular chocolate does.

When I make the peanutbutter cups, I melt the chocolate & then take it to the dining room table where I fill the cups. This cannot be done with white chocolate apparently. The minute I took it off of the burner, it solidified & would not melt again. I tried to microwave it & it still wouldn't melt again. It just burned & filled the house with a disgusting smell.

So in order to salvage the project, I just dipped them into regular chocolate & then melted a new batch of white chocolate & drizzled it over the berries. And that worked out just fine.


However, I was undaunted & wanted to try the white chocolate dipped experiment again. So this weekend, I did it.

Here's what I learned:

Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler.
While the white chocolate is still on the stove, dip the strawberries in & give them a good twist or two to make sure they're totally coated.
Once they're coated, place on wax paper & put them in the fridge.
Once they've cooled & completely solidified, drizzle melted chocolate over the top.

Like the peanutbutter cups, they're pretty easy & make a good impression. And my mom loved them!

Spiced Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

I was so excited when I found this recipe here at Foodess, that I absolutely HAD to make it THIS weekend. It simply couldn't wait another week. Finances be damned! We MUST have Guinness Cupcakes!

I've been eyeballing a lot of variations on chocolate Guinness baked goods, but this one seemed to be the most simple & straightforward recipe that didn't require me to purchase new kitchen equiment.

And unlike just about every other recipe I make, I didn't alter this one little bit.

Ok, well, not the cupcake part anyway. I did use my own butter cream frosting though.

So here it is:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cups cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup soy milk (alright, so i altered that one little thing. the original calls for regular milk)
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup Guinness beer

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees and line two muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and spices.

2. In a separate bowl, blend together eggs, soy milk, melted butter*, beer, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and beat on medium speed of electric beaters for 2 minutes. Fill cupcake liners to three quarters full. Bake for 25 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

*be sure to use beer that is at room temperature. I would recommend leaving a bottle out overnight in fact. I had left a bottle out for about an hour before making this, but it was still cold. Which meant that when I added it to the melted butter, it immediately solidified the butter. Somehow, I don't think this was the desired effect. But it worked out anyway.

I used the same frosting from the Vanilla Rum Spice Cookie recipe.

Personally? I think these ROCK! It's a perfect blend of Guinness & chocolate without one overpowering the other. I will totally make these again. And again and again..

But, that is just me. If you're not a Guinness fan, then these probably wouldn't do it for you. I, however AM a fan & these DO work for me very well!

I'm so glad I didn't wait to make these! Yum!

Peanut Buttercups

By total accident, I happened to run across "How To Make Homemade Peanutbutter Cups" at The Hungry Mouse.

And i couldn't resist. She made it look so simple and wonderful and I had to go out to the store that very minute and get the ingredients to make this.

There are four. yes FOUR ingredients to this amazing creation.

They are:

Chocolate Chips (2 medium sized bags)
Peanutbutter ( 1 cup )
Powdered Sugar (1/2 a cup)
Vanilla. (1 tsp)

(Plus cupcake liners.)

That's it! I swear!

For the filling:
mix the peanut butter & sugar well. Add the vanilla & set aside.

For the chocolate shell, melt the chips in a double boiler, mircowave, or like me, go all ghetto & put one small pot with the chocolate in it , resting on top of a slightly larger pot with boiling water inside.

I don't have a double boiler, and this was the first time I've worked with chocolate. But hey, it worked! I set the water in the larger pot on high & once it got to a good rolling boil, I placed the smaller pan of chocolate chips on top & turned down the heat a little. I stirred it constantly until it was totally melted

Once the chocolate has melted, spoon a little bit into each cupcake liner. Then, spead the chocolate up the sides of the liner & leaving a healthy dolop of chocolate in the bottom of the liner. It should look like this:

Once all the liners are totally coated, place the muffin tin in the refridgerator for about an hour until the chocolate has become solid again.

Then remove the shell-filled muffin tin from the fridge & fill each shell at least half way full of the peanutbutter mix. More or less depending upon how you like your peanutbutter to chocolate ratio.
Then start the water boiling again & put the chocolate back on to get it warm and soft again. And at this point, if you're like me, you'll need to add more chips so you'll have enough chocolate for the covering.

Then spoon the warm chocolate over the peanutbutter in each shell. Be sure the peanutbutter it totally covered & that the chocolate completely touches the edges of the cupcake liner so that a seal is formed over the peanutbutter.

Then put the muffin tin back in the fridge so that it all becomes solid.

Technically, I suppose you should probably wait at least a good 2 hours for it to totally solidify. But i just couldn't wait that long. I waited for about 45 minutes & just couldn't stand to wait one more minute.

They were mostly solid. Solid enough.

And this is what it looked like when I took a bite.


Now, please note, these are NOT for diabetics. In fact, about half way through, I thought was going to go into a sugar coma. Even my daughter couldn't finish a whole one. My teeth hurt. But, dang!! It was worth it! And yes, ohhh yes, I will be making these again!