Chocolate Tasting

March 26, 2008

Easy & Delicious Chocolate Cake with Fudge Frosting

Filed under: Chocolate Recipes — Tags: , — Tuppy @ 12:52 pm


Creative Commons License photo credit: greggoconnellThis cake is very nice in a rectangle pan, but is truly spectacular baked in rounds and richly frosted. Simple to make, moist, and delicious.

Cake

  • 2 cups Flour
  • 2 cups White Sugar
  • 1/2 cup Shortening
  • 3/4 cup Water
  • 3/4 cup Buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon Baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon Baking powder
  • 2 Eggs
  • 4 oz Unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
  • Fudge frosting (see below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Grease and flour 13 x 9 x 3 pan, or 3 8″ round pans, or 2 9″ round pans.

Toss everything except the frosting ingredients into a large bowl and beat on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Once everything is combined, beat on high speed for 3 minutes, scraping bowl constantly. Pour into pan(s).

Bake for 40-45 minutes (rectangle pan) or 30-35 minutes (round pans), or until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you chose to make rounds, allow them to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pans.

Cool completely, and frost.

Fudge Frosting

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cups shortening
  • 3 oz unsweetened chocolate
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix all ingredients except vanilla in a 2 1/2 quart saucepan.

Heat to a rolling boil, stirring occasionally. Boil 1 minute without stirring.

Place saucepan in a bowl of ice and water. Beat until frosting is smooth and spreadable; then add vanilla.

March 17, 2008

If You Crave Chocolate – Fudge It

Filed under: Chocolate, Chocolate Recipes — Tags: — Tuppy @ 5:42 am


Creative Commons License photo credit: vanlaarIf you love chocolate – and really, who doesn’t? – the holiday season is ripe with opportunities to take a chocolate break. Chocolate is a delicious treat with many faces and forms. Just because it tastes wonderful is no reason for guilt. Remeber, recent studies have confirmed that chocolate is good for your heart, so if anyone tries to make you feel guilty, simply point your finger to that fact. Then, invite your accuser to join you in a healthful treat. Try and avoid clutching your heart, falling to the floor, and writhing. It spoils the treat.

There’s simply nothing like chocolate. Chocolate is good for breakfast, lunch or dinner. A chocolate croissant is the perfect accompaniment to a morning cup of coffee. A brownie is a wonderful ending to lunch. Chocolate truffles are elegant after-dinner treats. And there’s one chocolate treat that seems right at any time of the day, as a pick-me-up, a snack, an evening dessert, or a shared moment in bed – chocolate fudge.

If you google chocolate fudge, you’ll get millions of results, attesting to the popularity of this dessert. Everyone’s got a recipe for this versatile goodie, any of which you may find tempting.

Chocolate fudge brings back memories of family gatherings at Grandma’s house, with a big tin of little squares of fudge just waiting to be popped into your mouth, and savored with a sigh of great enjoyment.

It seems everyone’s Mom or Grandma has the very best fudge recipe. That doesn’t mean there’s not room for experimentation and new discoveries of chocolate heaven.

Among the basic chocolate fudge ingredients are chocolate (duh!), butter, cream and perhaps sugar if you’re using baking chocolate. It’s the add-ons that personalize your fudge, making your chocolate fudge sing in the memory of your appreciative recipients.

Add-ons make your fudge distinctive. Try nuts, such as crushed almonds, pecans or walnuts. Get flamboyant with some marshmallow creme. A bit of quality, high cocoa butter chocolate can make your fudge extraordinary. Just a couple tablespoons of liqueur, such as Kahlua, rum or Orange Marnier mixed in with the batch can produce a mysterious and intriguing chocolate fudge, made all your own with a little experimentation and imagination.

Along with a couverture quality chocolate, heavy cream lends a sensuous, rich texture and flavor to your chocolate fudge. Butter adds calories, it’s true, but the taste overcomes any foolish qualms you may have.

Presentation is the final gilding of the lily. Party stores sell small gold and silver foil cups to hold the treasured treat. Once the chocolate fudge has set, cut it into tiny bite-sized pieces, set in the foil cups and box them up. You’ll have no shortage of customers.

March 8, 2008

Up A Creek With Chocolate Chip Cookies

Filed under: Chocolate, Chocolate Recipes — Tags: — Cora @ 2:07 pm


Creative Commons License photo credit: georgie_grdEach year in the spring my husband takes several canoeing trips. The destinations are usually within six to eight hours from our house so he takes extra days along with a weekend to relax. He has many different buddies that he goes on these trips with. There are some family trips that include his brothers and nephews and then there are trips that include long time kayaking pals.

Regardless of where he is going and who he is with, he always wants me to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies for him to take along. This started the first year we were married because I made a batch of the cookies for him to take along on the water. He likes them so much that I can hardly keep up making them during the spring months.

The chocolate chip cookies that I make are a cross between several recipes that I have seen in cookbooks or have eaten. There are some recipes for cookies that have many ingredients for energy including oatmeal, peanut butter and honey, and then there are the standard chocolate chip cookies recipes. I have combined the two and added a few touches of my own to create a cookie that is very tasty as well as packed with energy producing ingredients.

I started experimenting with the recipes because one of my husband’s friends did not like oatmeal. I wanted to leave the oatmeal in for the nutritional value. I had read that one of the famous chocolate chip cookies that are sold in the shopping malls uses a ground oatmeal. I decided that I would try using the blender. This works very well. I simply put a cup of oat meal at a time into the blender and push the grind button. The result is oatmeal flour that I add in with the wheat flour. The texture of the chocolate chip cookies no longer has that oatmeal feel.

I also do not stop with the basic chocolate chips. I also add toffee chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, anything that I have on hand. The oat flour keeps the cookies moist. I also finely chop walnuts and pecans and add them to the chocolate chip cookies. I drop the dough in big balls that I make with the ice cream scoop.

This year I spent one afternoon making a huge batch of the chocolate chip cookie dough. I multiplied all the ingredient amounts by ten. I had a huge stainless steel bowl as well as my largest mixing bowl full of dough. I rolled the dough in long strips like the ready to bake cookies in the grocery store. Now I can bake them as he needs them without having to make the dough each time

March 3, 2008

Chocolate & Peanut Butter – A Marriage of Ingenious

Filed under: Chocolate, Chocolate Recipes — Tags: — Cora @ 2:07 pm


Creative Commons License photo credit: bonimoIf you want to get a big “Whoopee!” from me, all you have to do is offer me something that is made with chocolate and peanut butter. I don’t know who first thought to put these two ingredients together, but they have my vote for genius of the century. You can find chocolate peanut butter desserts of all sorts almost anywhere you go. Just when you think there’s nothing more you could do with these two ingredients, someone else comes up with something amazing. It’s no wonder I can’t seem to stay on my diet.

Like most people, I first found this combination when I had chocolate peanut butter candy. There are a few different companies that make these types of candies, but no one does it as well as Reeses. There is just something magical about the chocolate peanut butter cups that you just can’t find anywhere else. My husband will often come home from the store with a four pack of these. He puts them in the freezer, and a few hours later we get them out. You don’t need to eat a lot of them, as just a few bites are enough to send you to heaven.

Just recently I tried chocolate peanut butter pie for the first time. I was avoiding it because I knew once I started I would not be able to stop. Thankfully, I had about a half of piece and was able to push it aside. I must admit though, the chocolate peanut butter pie was one of the most luscious desserts I’d ever tried. The one I bought did not cost very much, and I would imagine if I found an expensive version I probably would eat more than I wanted. My husband has strict instructions that he is not allowed to buy me chocolate peanut butter pie unless I specifically ask for it. And even then, he may not want to bring it home.

There are many other chocolate peanut butter desserts out there, and I am trying my best to avoid them. A friend in Australia tells me that the chocolate peanut butter combination is not very popular there, and I told her this might be one reason why I couldn’t live there. She said that American peanut butter is much sweeter than what they have there, and she isn’t sure why the chocolate peanut butter combination has never caught on. I told her that I can’t imagine life without a chocolate peanut butter cup, so she mailed me a box of Tim Tams. I have to say they are wonderful, but I’m wondering when they’re going to come out with a peanut butter version.

February 28, 2008

Chocolate Brownies – A Delicious Timeless Classic

Filed under: Chocolate Recipes — Tags: — Tuppy @ 12:11 pm


Creative Commons License photo credit: WroteWho doesn’t like chocolate brownies? Maybe those deprived during their childhood, but if that’s the case, its time to get with the program. Chocolate brownies are a timeless classic, with many different tasty variations, something for everyone indeed! You obviously love chocolate, and after all, it’s good for you; it’s considered a major food group by adolescents, and women of all ages. You can’t ever go wrong bringing a plate of this delicious desert to any type of gathering. They’ll be gone in no time. Nuts, cherries, raspberries, marshmallows, caramel, peanut butter, white chocolate, and mint flavoring are just some of the ingredients that can be added to a basic brownie recipe. There are also modified versions of the classic recipe including low fat brownies, and recipes that use sugar substitutes like Splenda.

Let’s test your brownie knowledge and see just how much you know about America’s favorite desert.

  • Also known as a Boston brownie, they were named for their color, and sometimes glazed with fudge or other ingredients.
  • Chocolate brownies are known all over the world, but they are most popular in America, just like Mom’s fresh baked apple pie.
  • And of course, the best way to serve a chocolate brownie is fresh and hot with vanilla ice cream; other toppings are optional, like hot fudge or fresh whipped cream. Mmmm.
  • It’s the most common desert item on the menus of country diners as well as fine dining establishments, all with a different twist.

Chocolate in any form is one of the most popular after dinner treats ever; even in very small quantities it is so satisfying! It’s the best self reward for whatever reason; in fact, you don’t need a reason, just go for it. You know you want to!

Adventurous cooks can find recipes for chocolate brownies in most any cookbook as well as online. Being one of the most popular recipes of all time, you won’t have to look hard to find a delicious recipe just waiting for you to try. If you’re not a cook, that’s okay too. There are lots of specialty sites featuring gourmet baked goods, where brownie connoisseurs can choose from twelve flavors using fine Belgian chocolate. Shop now for scrumptious brownies that can be gift boxed and sent anywhere in the world, even to your house! Is your mouth watering yet?

February 26, 2008

Mom’s Chocolate Cake – Recipe For Greatness

Filed under: Chocolate Recipes — Tags: — Tuppy @ 9:15 am

My mom is a very open person, and always willing to share. Not only is she generous with her advice, but she will teach you anything that she knows. She is always willing to explain sewing, cooking, or advanced mathematics. There is one thing, however, that she guards jealously. It is her greatest secret, and one that she has sworn she will carry to the grave. It is her chocolate cake recipe. We have been trying to get it from her for years, and have so far been unsuccessful.

This isn’t some normal chocolate mix cake recipe. This is seriously gourmet. It isn’t an easy chocolate cake recipe, either. Chocolate cake is usually pretty easy to make, but hers takes all day and all night. She is literally in there for 16 hours at a time, slaving away on the perfect chocolate cake. But it is perfect. It is priceless. It is the most delicious thing that I have ever tasted. I would do anything to get that chocolate cake recipe.

The thing is, my mom isn’t all that into chocolate in general. She never makes chocolate brownies. She won’t even order a chocolate brownie when she goes out. But that chocolate cake recipe is her favorite thing in the world. She cooks it every holiday, and every holiday we ask for more. No one ever gets sick of it. Even my cousins, strict vegetarians who will only eat vegan chocolate cake recipes normally, will make an exception for her delicious chocolate cake. It really is that good.

The really sad thing is that, since I first tasted that chocolate cake recipe, I can’t eat any other kind of chocolate desert. Even the best German chocolate cake recipe leaves me flat. Part of it is that my mom baked it. She spends so much time on it, and clearly wants us to like it so much, that it is hard to resist. I don’t know if I would like it quite as much if it weren’t she that made it, but nonetheless I would love it still. She has, after all, won several cooking contests with her chocolate cake recipe. She has only entered a handful of times, but every time she has entered the same recipe, and every time she has won. I have tried sneaking into the kitchen, but it was no use. She simply refused to go on cooking until I left. I hope she will share the recipe with us one day.

Powered by WordPress