Salty Buckeyes

My personal chef, Sugar Baby, made these for us yesterday. They were good, but a little too sweet for most of us. I was surprised to find there was no added salt in the peanut butter mixture (only what already came in the peanut butter). So, to add some saltiness, I sprinkled sea salt on the finished product. That's more like it!


Sugar Baby got the recipe from allrecipes (just want to give credit where credit is due!)... Here it is:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons shortening

Directions

1. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and confectioners' sugar with hands to form a smooth stiff dough. Shape into balls using 2 teaspoons of dough for each ball. Place on prepared pan, and refrigerate.
3. Melt shortening and chocolate together in a metal bowl over a pan of lightly simmering water. Stir occasionally until smooth, and remove from heat.(Or you can use the microwave to melt this - just be careful not to let it burn!)
   
4. Remove balls from refrigerator. Insert a wooden toothpick into a ball, and dip into melted chocolate. Return to wax paper, chocolate side down, and remove toothpick. Repeat with remaining balls. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to set.

Lastly, and most importantly, sprinkle each one with a little bit of sea salt. Mmmm...

Warning!

You may gain several pounds by viewing the following picture. Proceed with caution.
It's worth it though, right? ?

Mmmm... that's Sugar Baby's Brownies topped with mint chocolate chip ice cream, and then topped with today's recipe: homemade hot fudge sauce.

This recipe, unfortunately, is very easy and fast to whip up. In a matter of minutes, you can add a hundred or so calories to an ordinary bowl of ice cream. Terrible stuff, hot fudge sauce...

Ingredients:
2/3 cup cocoa
3/4 cup margarine or butter
2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla

Combine everything except the vanilla in a medium saucepan and heat until boiling, stirring constantly. Boil for one minute, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Serve hot or cold, but hot is best.

Sugar Baby's Brownies

This is what a brownie should be like. Crusty on the top, dense, sturdy, fudgy, chocolatey, rich and not at all cakey. Sugar Baby (my 12 yr old) made these recently and I quickly tossed aside my old recipe and clung to this one. (Thank you, Sugar Baby, I'm forever indebted to you!) She adapted the recipe from Deep Dish Brownies, which she found on allrecipes. Here's what she did:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions;

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Thoroughly combine all the ingredients.
3. Bake 40-45 minutes or until the brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool before cutting, if you can wait. If not, enjoy them with a spoon and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top to cool them enough so that you don't burn your tongue. ;)

P.S. The recipe doubles easily to fill a 9 x 13" pan.

Mini Bittersweet Chocolate Cheesecakes

Oooh, la la! Fancy and easy!
These soft little cheesecakes definitely have a bittersweet chocolate taste, so if you'd rather have less of the bittersweet taste, use semi-sweet and they will be a touch sweeter. The recipe was adapted from an issue of Fine Cooking.

Ingredients:

1 8oz package of cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbs sugar
4 oz chocolate, chopped, divided and melted (bittersweet or semi-sweet)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 300F. Line 6 muffin tins with liners & spray them lightly with cooking spray. (I used a silicon tart baking pan. Each tart "hole" is about 4" across.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and 3 ounces of the melted chocolate. Add the egg & beat just until blended. Spoon into the muffin or tart tins and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the centers are just barely jiggly when nudged. Cool completely. Refrigerate (up to 3 days) until ready to serve. (Or freeze up to 1 month.) Just before serving, drizzle with the remaining melted chocolate.

Chocolate Pudding

First off... my sincerest apologies if you are a reader of this blog and are allergic to chocolate...

And now, back to the subject: Chocolate Pudding!

Recently, when my kids came down with the flu & had very sore throats, I splurged and bought 3 packages of Jello pudding cups. Within what seemed like seconds, all three packages were gone, and my kids were still looking for more. (Not really, but almost... Anyway, they devoured them in no time.) There went my $4, and we were left with lots of trash to boot.

I thought to myself, "there must be a better way!" And then I remembered that pudding is food. And people make food. Yes! I can make my own!

So, off to allrecipes I went and found this delicious recipe. For about $1.50, I made 10 servings. That's half the cost of the packaged stuff and I was left with no packages to fill up the trashcan and it was all made from pronounceable ingredients. Plus, it soothed sore throats & made my little people happy. You can't get much better than that:)

Oh, and I doubled the recipe to get the 10 half-cup servings.


Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons margarine or butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, stir together sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt. Place over medium heat, and stir in milk. Bring to a boil, and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat, and stir in margarine and vanilla. Let cool briefly, and serve warm, or chill in refrigerator until serving.
   

Fudgy Pie

Mmmm... This pie was so good! I found the recipe at allrecipes (surprise, surprise) and changed it a little (surprise, suprise) and discovered a simple, yet richly delicious dessert!

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Mix sugar and cocoa together. Beat the eggs then add to the cocoa mixture. Beat in the milk, butter and vanilla.
3. Pour mixture into 9 inch unbaked pie shell and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 - 55 minutes or until set. (The middle will be slightly jiggly until it cools & sets.) Let cool before slicing.
   

Tower of Calories

A.K.A. No Bake Chocolate Oat Bars

This is another allrecipes treat. I've made it once and will definitely make it again, but add more peanut butter next time. Personally, I'd love to add coconut as well, but I don't want to incite rebellion or anarchy, so I'll have to wait until I'm an empty nester for that.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter [next time will add a few Tbs more, or even a handful of peanut butter chips, or maybe even butterscotch??]
  

Directions

1. Grease a 9x9 inch square pan.
2. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and vanilla. Mix in the oats. Cook over low heat 2 to 3 minutes, or until ingredients are well blended. Press half of mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Reserve the other half for topping.
3. Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently until smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture over the crust in the pan, and spread evenly with a knife or the back of a spoon.
4. Crumble the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate layer, pressing in gently. Cover, and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours or overnight. Bring to room temperature before cutting into bars.

P.S. I doubled the recipe & used a 9 x 13" pan.

Black Bean Brownies

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't tasted it. These are really good! All six of my kids liked them and asked for seconds. (Of course, I didn't tell them there was anything different about the recipe - not sure if I ever will...)

This easy, moist & fudgy recipe came from allrecipes...

Ingredients:

• 1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder [the original recipe didn't call for this, but I added it anyway]
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee (I used 1 Tbs strong brewed coffee instead)
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (I added a couple of Tbs of sliced almonds, too)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8x8 square baking dish.
2. Combine the black beans, eggs, oil, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract, sugar, and instant coffee in a blender or food processor; blend until smooth; pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the chocolate chips/nuts over the top of the mixture.
   
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the top is dry and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes.
   

Hot Fudge Ice Cream Bar Dessert

A long name for a simply delicious dessert!

We found this recipe on allrecipes recently and it instantly shot up to the top of our favorite desserts list. One of the nice things about this dessert (besides its really good flavor) is that you can make it several days ahead of time.

Ingredients:

2 cups chocolate syrup

3/4 cups peanut butter

19 ice cream sandwiches

1 12oz container cool whip

1 cup salted peanuts, chopped

Heat syrup & peanut butter in a small saucepan, stirring until the peanut butter is melted.

In a 9x13" pan, layer half the sandwiches, half of the cool whip, half of the chocolate mixture, and half of the nuts. Repeat layers. Freeze for about 1 hour. Cut into squares to serve. Makes about 15 servings.

Tasty Cake

Remember Tastycakes? This cake has a taste & texture just like them. If you're looking for a cake that is pretty & tidy, this isn't the one. But if you're looking for a soft, moist & very delicious cake, this is it.

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease two or three 9" baking pans. Combine the dry ingredients. Beat the eggs, milk, oil & vanilla together. Mix with the dry ingredients until smooth. Stir in the boiling water. Pour into pans & bake for about 25 minutes or until springy to touch. Cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing from pans. Cool thoroughly before frosting.

Frosting Ingredients:

1/4 butter, melted

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup cocoa

1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Combine all the ingredients until smooth. Spread a thin layer over cooled cakes.

And... the harsh realities of food blogging:

Not to mention the extra calories I have to consume while staging these shots. (Can't touch the camera with chocolate fingers, you know.)

I am editing this post to say that I didn't mean to imply that this is my own recipe. I got the cake part from allrecipes.com ("One Bowl Chocolate Cake") and the icing recipe was one I found and altered from another source. I combined the two to come up with our version of Tastycakes... Wherever it came from, you can be sure it is very yummy! :)

Chocolate Popcorn

Sooooo good. Good enough to package & give as a gift. Good enough to take to a potluck. Good enough for an extra special snack...

Ingredients:

1 cup popcorn kernels

whatever you normally use to cook & season your popcorn with

6 squares (2oz each) almond bark/candy coating (I used 3 chocolate & 3 white)

Pop your popcorn and season as usual (i.e. salt & butter). Spread half of it onto a large baking sheet. Melt the almond bark in the microwave, stirring frequently. Drizzle half of it onto the popcorn. Top with the remaining popcorn and drizzle that with the remaining almond bark. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes or until the almond bark is hardened and you have wonderful, mouthwatering, chocolatey popcorn clusters. Like so:

Note: You can make this with air popped, but it is sooo much better when done the old-fashioned way on the stovetop with oil & salt.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I love Fall... leaves rustling, candles burning, goodies baking... and pumpkins, lots of pumpkins...

These muffins are so moist & yummy, and even the pumpkin flavor-haters in my family will eat them.

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 cups pumpkin (I used a 15oz can)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine the sugar, butter, pumpkin & eggs. Stir in the dry ingredients. Bake in a greased muffin tin (or use liners) at 400F until springy to the touch. Makes 4 dozen mini-muffins.

Hint: I have found that my kids are far more likely to try new muffins if I make them mini. Of course, chocolate chips help too. :)