Pots de Creme – Chocolate of Course!

One of the perks of hosting Easter dinner is enjoying the amazing left-overs!

Which we did. All last week.

When I finally got to the bottom of the refrigerator, I discovered a surprise – two containers of egg yolks. One from the dozen egg whites I used to make our traditional homemade angel food cake.

The second was from the other dozen egg whites I used in my attempt to make a gluten free angel food cake to honor one of our guests. (And you know – it was surprisingly tasty- even if it did fall in the middle!)

So – what does one do with 2 dozen egg yolks? I hid them in scrambled eggs and used them in pancakes but I still had a dozen waiting in the fridge.

It was time to call in the heavy guns – chocolate pots de creme.

The real stuff – thickened with egg yolks. Six eggs yolks.

Super easy. Super rich.

So good – it makes me want to make another angel food cake.

Chocolate Pots de Creme

1/2 cup heavy cream (ideal – but I used whole milk and it worked)
5-8 ounces of chocolate chips (you can use whatever kind of chocolate you have – we used dark – but milk or semi-sweet would work 0r any combination of them. I’ve even been known to melt left-over candy bars – but don’t tell my children!)
6 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place the chocolate and cream in the top of a double boiler over boiling water. Stir until melted and blended.

In separate bowl beat the egg yolks slightly. Add about 1/2 cup of the chocolate mixture to the eggs and mix well. (This will bring the eggs to the temperature of the chocolate so they don’t turn to scrambled eggs when added. It’s called tempering.)

Then slowly add the egg mixture into the chocolate and milk mixture, whisking as you pour.

Continue to stir until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Pour into 4 pretty serving cups.(It’s the prefect time to use those pretty stemmed dessert glasses!)

Refrigerate until set and serve with whipped cream.

I told you it was easy!

And so yummy!

Enjoy!

Valentine Goodies

This is one of my favorite weeks all year!

Call me a hopeless romantic – but I’ve always loved Valentine’s Day, with all the pink and red and hearts and, of course, chocolate!

We’ll be celebrating with our traditional lasagna meal with cream puffs for dessert.

But we’ve also enjoyed –

Chocolate sugar cookies, cut in the shape of a heart and drizzled with white chocolate. If I had been a little more energetic – I would have frosted them beautifully – but they still tasted great!

And covered pretzels. We used white almond bark and then sprinkled them with pink colored sugar. Super fast to make -and a family favorite!

And later this week –

I’ll be working with our Youth Group to make and serve several of these strawberry ice cream cakes at our church Valentine’s Banquet.

Even though the layers do take some time to freeze between, it’s worth it!

Seriously – who wouldn’t love Valentine’s week with all this good food to enjoy!

So – how are you celebrating?

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

We did it!

The children performed our Christmas Program to a packed house last night – and did a great job!

With a quick rehearsal after church on Sunday morning, and the excitement of the performance – it was a busy day!

By the time we had taken down the set, eaten the last cookie and drove home, it was half-past too late.

Needless to say , we’re not moving very fast around here. I’m sitting around in my jammies watching the lights blink on the Christmas tree while listening to Christmas music.

I really should think about getting dressed – but I might need a mug of hot chocolate first. With whipped cream and sprinkles, of course.

But just in case you have energy today – here’s our newest favorite Christmas cookie recipe!

Can you believe I’ve lived this long without knowing that a chocolate sugar cookie exists? Oh – what I have missed! These are really yummy!

The dough was a little sticky to work with – so keep it cold. But the finished product held it’s shape beautifully and looked fabulous sprinkled with powdered sugar on a cookie tray!

Chocolate Sugar Cookies
recipe from Annie’s Eats

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
¾ cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and salt. set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add in the egg and vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated and no streaks remain. Form the dough into a disc, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325? F. Grease a baking sheet or line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

On a work surface dusted with cocoa powder, roll the dough out to about ¼-inch thickness. Cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters and place cut outs on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes, just until set. Let cool on the baking sheet about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

You can decorate these all fancy – or you can just sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

I used mini cookie cutters and cut the baking time to about 8 minutes.

The dough doesn’t make very much – you may need to double or triple depending on many samples you eat!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Bavarian Cupcakes

My sister-in-law introduced me to the wonders of Bavarian Cream recently when she brought some Chocolate Bavarian Cupcakes to a family gathering.

I must admit that I wasn’t too excited at first. After all, I’m really not a cupcake person.

But one bite of my husband’s cupcake and I was hooked.

I finished it for him.

So he went to get another one. I finished that one, too.

I’m so glad he loves me. 🙂

Of course I got the recipe! I made a batch – shared them with the family – then hid the rest in the freezer where it’s easy to grab one for Jan’s lunch (I owe him a few!) or when I need a treat.

Come for tea and I just might share!

The best thing – you use a cake mix. It doesn’t have to be a fancy one – the cake is just the socially acceptable way to get that amazing cream in your mouth.

My sister-in-law actually used a gluten-free cake mix and they tasted great.

Chocolate Bavarian Cupcakes

1 devils food cake mix
whatever eggs and oil or butter is needed to make the cake mix
1 – 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1 pint whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
Hershey’s chocolate bar (for shavings – you won’t need the whole thing – so plan to eat the rest!)

Make the cake mix as directed for cupcakes and bake.

Remove from the cupcake tins and let cool completely.

Mix the cream cheese, brown sugar, vanilla and a pinch of salt together until creamy. Set aside.

Whip the cream with the sugar to make whipped cream. You can add a touch of vanilla if you wish.

Slowly fold the cream cheese mixture into the whipped cream.

Then cut each cupcake into thirds, put a layer of Bavarian cream on each layer, and sprinkle with shaved chocolate.

Refrigerate.

If you’d rather have a full-size torte – just make the cake mix as directed for 2 round cake pans.

When the cakes have cooled, cut each one in half and spread the Bavarian cream and chocolate sprinkles on each layer while assembling.

Enjoy!

Captain Crunch Bars

Can I admit here and now that I am not a sugared cereal person.

Buddy- however – loves it.

So twice a year when we go camping I let him pick out one box to bring along.

This year’s choice for the our July 4th Family Camp-Out was Captain Crunch.

And it came home unopened.

Oh dear – now what to do. An entire box of sugared cereal that only Buddy likes.

I know! I’ll feed it to the youth group! They’ll eat anything!

A quick google search and I had several recipes for Captain Crunch Bars. I picked one.

Dagmar (who shares my disdain for sugared cereal) took one look at the recipe and said, “Gross”.

But she made them anyway – and hasn’t stopped eating them since.

They are really yummy!

Suddenly – sharing them with the youth group no longer seemed like such a good idea. 🙂

Captain Crunch Bars

1/2 cup melted butter
1 box yellow cake mix
3-1/2 cup mini marshmallows
8 ounces chocolate chips
3-1/2 cup Captain Crunch cereal
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Pout the melted butter over the bottom of a jelly roll pan.

Sprinkle the dry cake mix on top, followed by the marshmallows, chocolate chips, and Captain Crunch cereal.

Pour the can of sweetened condensed milk over the whole thing and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Run a knife around the edge as soon as you remove it from the oven.

It will set up as it cools. If you can wait that long.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Fudgecicle Dessert

I was looking for something cold to beat the heat – when I stumbled across this gem in an old cookbook on my shelf.

It was obviously written back when people eat things made with raw eggs and never worried about salmonella.

I had no qualms making it – since I could use our own farm fresh eggs that I knew were handled properly.

But then I still eat raw cookie dough and make my homemade ice cream with a raw base. 🙂

If you are brave enough to try it – you are in for a treat! The creamy chocolate base is reminiscent of a fudgecicle. Cold creamy and wonderful!

Chocolate Fudgecicle Dessert

2 cups graham cracker crust
1/4 butter, melted
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1 quart vanilla ice cream

Mix the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Press into a 8 x 8 pan.

Cream the powdered sugar with the 1/2 cup butter. Add the melted chocolate, vanilla and egg yolks. Mix well.

Stiffly beat the eggs whites. Fold carefully into the chocolate mixture. Spread on crumb crust and chill.

When filling is firm, spread softened ice cream over it. Sprinkle with chopped nuts if you desire. I just swirled the top with Hershey’s chocolate syrup.

Freeze and enjoy!

Iced Mocha

So what does a coffee addict do when the temperatures hit the 90’s, the humidity is soaring – and they need their coffee fix?

They head to Pinterest and find a recipe for Iced Mocha!

That’s just what Dagmar – our resident coffee aficionado – did.

She made it – fell in love with it – and the girls have been indulging ever since!

(Please note that I said the girls – that does not include me! I have never tasted this recipe – nor do I plan to – ever! You all know my thoughts on that stuff! And to think – they actually wasted good chocolate in it! I shudder.)

But anyway –

It starts with frozen coffee ice cubes, so now they keep an ice cube tray of coffee in the freezer just in case a craving hits.

Which it does. Daily.

Iced Mocha

2 cups cold coffee (try different flavors for a twist)
1 tray of coffee ice cubes
1/2 whole milk (or coffee creamer – especially flavored!)
1 ounce chocolate syrup

Throw everything in the blender and whiz.

Pour it into a fancy glass and top with whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate syrup!

This can serve up to four – if you share.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

We’re going simple today – back to basics if you will – back to the classic Chocolate Chip Cookie.

I must confess here and now that I have always struggled with this particular cookie.

Mine usually end up all spread out on the pan – thin as a dime and flat as pancakes.

My sisters don’t have this problem. Nope. Just me. After years of failures, I all but gave up on making the elusive chocolate chip cookie.

But not my girls. Dagmar found this recipe and – believe it or not – it worked! Still not able to believe the fact that we had actually produced a soft and wonderful chocolate chip cookie – I had Angel Girl make them.

Wonder of wonders! It worked for her, too!

The chocolate chip cookie famine is officially over and there was great rejoicing in all the land. Well – at least in my house!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Cream the butters and sugars. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix in the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop into 1 inch balls using a cookie scoop. Drop on greased cookie sheets.

Bake 8-10 minutes. No longer than 10 minutes. The tops won’t brown.

Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Remove from the cookie sheet to wire racks and let cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen unless you sample too much dough!