It's a-s'mores-ay!

pparently I've reached new dork heights (or is it depths?) with that post title, I'll give you that. But this recipe? This amazing blend of flavors? It can take any amount of dork teasing you dish out. And I'm sharing, just in time for Valentine's. OK, technically I'm late if you're going to make it for THIS Valentine's day, but it's so good and easy, you could still make it in time, really.

It has been a long time since I've been so gushy about a sweets recipe... at least a month or two anyway; I'm sure there was something at Christmastime that I was ga-ga over... but that's so last year. This recipe is very now. Very yummy indeed.

I'm a one-s'mores kind of girl, around the campfire. Give me one, and I'm done. They are usually too sickeningly sweet, too much chocolate to the bite (reminder: chocolate is not the first sweet thing I go for, go figure). But this recipe, with its soft, graham cracker-ish top and bottom... well, it is quite sweet, there's no denying that, but it's also very more-ish. As in, one bite leads to another bite, and then just one more. Get it? And warm from the oven? Just all the more more-ish!

I did a few online searches to arrive at this recipe, and I am so glad this is where I landed! It may be called s'mores pie, and I did indeed make my Valentine guys a pie just tonight, but I've also made it in little individual cups, and a massive pan of bars, and a small pan of squares, too. Seth happened to take a bar or two to school and shared, resulting in a big request for more, and before I knew it I was whipping up enough for his English class. So whatever iteration is your pleasure, it will work. It doubles, triples and even quadruples quite well.

I know traditional Valentine's treats center around red, with hearts. While this recipe lacks both, it does have that one critical Valentine's ingredient: chocolate. I think it makes a thoroughly enjoyable sweet, Valentine's or not!

S'mores pie
adapted from Hershey’s
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup salted butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla 
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp. baking powder
6 regular-sized Hershey Bars, broken into pieces 
1 7oz container of marshmallow creme
Wax paper

Preheat oven to 350°.

Spray a 9-inch pie pan with baking spray. Beat butter and sugar together, either in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, until combined. Add egg and vanilla, beat well. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, graham cracker crumbs and baking powder. Add to the wet mixture and combine well. Divide the dough in half. Press half the dough in the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pie pan.

Evenly spread the marshmallow creme over the bottom crust. Spread the broken chocolate pieces on top of the marshmallow creme.

Form the remaining dough into a ball and place on a piece of wax paper. Top with another piece of wax paper and flatten into a 9″ circle. I used a rolling pin to gently get the dough to the right size and thickness. If you just haul away on your rolling pin, the wax paper will break. Trust me.

Carefully peel the top piece of wax paper off. Flip the crust onto the top of the pie and peel the other piece of wax paper off.

Pinch the dough together to form the crust. Bake 20-25 minutes until lightly browned.

I guarantee a happy Valentine with this treat!

I think that funny little pinch job I did around the one edge looks like a smile, don't you?

Betcha can't eat just one: Flourless chocolate bites

hese little flourless chocolate morsels have come out of my oven more than any other sweet thing, ever. I feel pretty confident saying that, as one year (2003, I believe) I made 2,000+ of them for a local winery during the winter barrel tasting weekend.

I remember the first time I made the recipe at home (which I found at epicurious). In 2000, epicurious was pretty much the best online source for recipes. I made it as a full-size cake for a dinner party, which was what the recipe called for--a 10-inch springform pan. It was good, but I found it a little dry at the outside, and a little wet at the center, and decided the recipe would work much better, and spend much less time in the oven, as smaller cakes.

Since then, I've never made a full-size flourless chocolate cake again. I've made them mostly in mini muffin tins and popped them out as "bites," or as individual desserts in a larger muffin pan (about 1.5 x a regular muffin size). They don't puff up like a muffin, thankfully, so they have a really pretty look. (Key: don't fill the tins too full. An ample half-fill is about the right amount.)

This year I decided that a) I finally need to post the recipe, and b) I was ready to try a couple of variations.

First, the recipe:

Flourless chocolate cake bites
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cut into pieces
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder
6 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Stir butter and chocolate in heavy large saucepan over low heat until melted. Mix sugar and cocoa in large bowl. Add eggs; whisk until well blended. Pour in the butter-chocolate mixture and stir until well combined.

At this point, you're ready to bake. You can follow the directions at epicurious and bake in a 10-inch springform pan, or you can deviate as I do and make many smaller cakes.

This recipe multiplies well. In fact, I don't think I've ever made a single recipe--I've made as many as 10x the recipe, and just recently made it 5x. So my stab at how many a recipe makes... is around 72 little bites, which is three of the mini muffin tins.

A couple of my tips: Let the batter sit for a bit and cool before putting into the well-sprayed (baking spray) muffin tins. In fact, you can refrigerate the batter for a few hours or overnight and scoop it into the tins with a spoon. (At that point, you'll have to let it sit out for a bit to actually warm to the point of scooping.)  I have always found that a little easier than trying to pour it in as a runny batter. I haven't frozen the batter, but I have definitely frozen the baked cake bites, and they thaw and even reheat quite beautifully. The larger size that I've made can almost resemble a molten chocolate cake once it's been reheated in the oven for a few minutes.

Variations: This year I decided I would make them with a hazelnut twist and an Almond Joy twist. Oddly, I'm not sure I would again; both of them felt like they needed to be baked in little baking cups to accommodate the extra ingredients, and so it added a cumbersome aspect to the process. (I know that sounds lazy, but when one is making 500 or so, being able to be efficient gets kind of important...) The Almond Joy variation turned out messier in both the making and the eating than I like, but very yummy. The hazelnut version (see the picture above) was also quite delicious, and less messy than the almond variation. To accomplish the hazelnut, I baked the bites for about 7 minutes (filling the tins with a little less batter than usual), pulled them from the oven, piped Nutella into the middle of the bite, topped it with a roasted hazelnut and popped them back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes. Worked well, but not sure it's that big of an improvement over the original...

Finally! The flourless chocolate bites have been shared. They are a really easy little sweet nibble to master, but be sure to spray whatever you bake them in very well. The batter loves to stick, and I have thumped many a muffin tin on a countertop to try and separate cake from tin... At this point my muffin tins are quite well seasoned and the baked cakes fairly leap from the pan. But be warned: PAM!

Bake up a couple of batches of these and you'll be set for those drop-in guests throughout the holidays! Enjoy.

Chocolate cake in a mug

ot really a "chocolate person," per se, I have learned to pay attention when the chocolate craving strikes. I like chocolate well enough, but given the choice most days, I'll pick a custard dessert over just about anything else. Sometimes fruity wins, sometimes nutty... but usually, it's custardy.

However, when a chocolate craving strikes, only chocolate will do. Yesterday was one of those days, and as I pondered what form my chocolate would take, I remembered a recipe I've seen floating around online and thought I'd give it a try.

Having (most) all the ingredients on hand, it was then just a matter of whipping it up. Five minutes later, my mug was spinning around in the microwave and 1.5 minutes later it was warm and in my hand. Ta-da.

If you have a chocolate craving, I highly recommend taking this out for a spin.

(Microwave) Chocolate cake in a mug
Serves one
4 tablespoons flour (cake flour; I didn't have, so I just sifted regular flour and it worked fine)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking powder (a pinch!)
1/8 teaspoon salt (a pinch!!)
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
2 -3 drops vanilla (optional)

In a small bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, tiny pinch baking powder and tiny pinch salt. (This can also be mixed directly into a large mug). Add egg and mix into dry mixture. Add oil and milk and mix well. Spray with non-stick cooking spray a tall, large mug, and pour in this mixture, scraping out with a spatula.

Place in microwave on high for 2.5 to 3 minutes. (Best slightly undercooked, so be careful).

I know our microwave to run fast, so I thought I'd start with 1.5 minutes, and next time around, I think I'll even start with just one minute and add seconds along as they seem needed. Remember that microwaved food continues to cook after you pull it out, and this cake could end up quite spongy/rubbery if you overdo it.

I doubled the recipe and divided between two mugs and husband gave his seal of approval as well!But, a bit part of the appeal of this method is that it's single serving. No big cake to think about leftovers to eat up... Leftovers are nice in theory, but if you're not aiming to eat dessert every night of the week, just seeing that cake sitting there, begging you to have another slice... you get my drift.

Oh, and I added a scoop of ice cream to the warm cake. And a few strawberry slices. It was quite divine.

Duo of chocolate cakes, in time for Valentine's Day

hese cakes were requested by the birthday girl a few weeks back when my good friend Megan turned 40. In planning her party, the two must-haves that rose to the top of the list were chocolate cheesecake and chocolate cake (well, and karaoke, but that's a whole 'nother story...).

I have made a birthday chocolate cheesecake for Megan a number of times over the years; her husband has picked up that tradition in recent years--what a great guy, eh?! The chocolate cake I chose (with Megan's approval) to make is an old favorite from Gale Gand, dessert queen extraordinaire. I first made it for a friend's birthday maybe almost a decade ago... but I have made it many times in the intervening years, always to "Yum!'s" and "Tasty!'s."

Either one (or both) would make a fabulous Valentine's Day treat for a dear one (or for yourself!).

Chocolate cake
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
3 cups light brown sugar, packed
4 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/3 cups sour cream
1 1/2 cups hot coffee

Frosting
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
16 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature
8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/2 cup cooled coffee
4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
6 cups confectioners' sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 3 (9-inch) cake pans. Cut 3 circles of waxed paper or parchment paper to fit the bottoms of the pans, then press them in.

In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or using a hand mixer), cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and eggs and mix until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla, cocoa, baking soda and salt and mix. Add 1/2 of the flour, then 1/2 of the sour cream and mix. Repeat with the remaining flour and sour cream. Drizzle in the hot coffee and mix until smooth. The batter will be thin. Pour into the prepared pans and bake until the tops are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (a few crumbs are okay), about 35 minutes. Halfway through the baking, quickly rotate the pans in the oven to ensure even baking, but otherwise try not to open the oven. Let cool in the pan 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks and let cool completely before frosting.

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Drizzle in the melted chocolate and mix. Add the coffee and vanilla and mix. Add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Mix until well blended and fluffy. To frost the cake, use a spatula to cover 2 of the cake layers with frosting. Stack them together. Flip the third cake layer over and rest it on the top to create a very flat top for the cake. Frost on the sides and top. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Chocolate cheesecake
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon orange-flavored liqueur, such as Grand Marnier
4 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 pounds cream cheese, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Lightly butter an 8-inch round springform pan that is at least 2 inches deep.

In a heavy pot, melt the chocolate with the water and liqueur. When melted, remove from the heat and let stand until cool.

In a large mixing bowl, using a handheld elecric mixer at medium speed, beat the eggs with the sugar until well combined, 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually beat in the cream cheese, 1/4 pound at a time, until the mixture is very smooth, 5 minutes. Beat in the cooled chocolate and the vanilla. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven until the top edges of the cheesecake are puffed and golden brown, about 1 hour. Let the cake cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the inside of the pan to release the cheesecake from the sides (if they haven't already pulled away during the cooling process). Remove the sides of the springform, cover the cake with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. Bring to room temperature before serving, unless it is a very hot day, in which case, take it out of the fridge at the last minute and enjoy it cold.

For some reason, the cheesecake recipe above doesn't include a crust. That didn't make much sense to me, so I added one. I don't really think it's cheesecake without the crust!

Crust
2 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Pulse the graham crackers in a food processor until finely crushed. Mix in a bowl with the sugar and melted butter until well combined. Pour into the sprayed or buttered springform pan and bake for 10 minutes at 350. Bring out, cool and proceed with the cheesecake.

Another change I made was adding a chocolate topping. I saw another cheesecake recipe that featured a topping, and it seemed like a way to "fancy it up" a bit.

Topping
3/4 cup whipping cream
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar

Stir cream, chocolate and sugar in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until smooth. Cool slightly. Pour over center of cheesecake, spreading to within 1/2 inch of edge and filling any cracks. Chill until topping is set, about 1 hour.

I liked the effect of the topping, though it made cutting the cheesecake a tad more messy... but it's messing cutting a cheesecake anyway, so I say go for it and just keep your knife blade hot under running water and that makes all the difference!

If you are a chocolate fan, I say why wait for Valentine's or any other day? Make a cake today!

(And did you like how I used that oh-so-cheffy word "duo?" I learned that from Top Chef. Don't say watching TV isn't educational.)

Chocolate + bread + custard = delightful chocolate bread pudding

nce again, here is an old favorite. I've been pulling the standbys out a bit more often lately... this one I made for our family visit a couple of weeks ago, especially for my dad.

A real regular from back in the catering/personal cheffing days, I would whip this one up frequently for my weekly meal deliveries--occasionally I'd mix it up and make it with white chocolate and berries, other times with Nutella mixed in with the chocolate. The standard custard proportions are quite forgiving if you want to experiment a bit.

A few years ago I made it as stated below for my dad--straight up chocolate--and it is now his favorite dessert of mine. In fact, I think he's asked for this dish for his last meal ever, so if we can be fortunate to know exactly when that is (35 or 40 years from now, of course!), I will be sure to whip him up a batch.

And, like many recipes from my catering days, this one is from epicurious. One of 10 listed on the site, and in my humble opinion, the best. The ratio of custard to bread to chocolate is just right for me... as long as you don't overcook it. Make sure there's still a wee bit of jiggle in the middle when you pull it out of the oven; that way it will be soft and delicious when dished warm with a bit of ice cream. Heaven!

Chocolate Bread Pudding
Serves 6-8
6 cups 1-inch cubes crustless French bread (from about 3/4 of a 1-pound loaf of French bread)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 3/4 cups whole milk
1 cup whipping cream
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks

Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream (optional)

Butter an 8x8x2-inch glass baking dish. Place bread cubes in large bowl; drizzle with butter and toss to coat. Transfer bread to prepared dish. Bring milk and cream just to simmer in heavy large saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate; whisk until melted and smooth. Whisk sugar and yolks in medium bowl to blend. Whisk chocolate mixture into sugar mixture. Pour custard over bread. Cover with plastic and let stand 1 hour (some custard will not be absorbed). (Can be prepared up to 2 hours ahead. Refrigerate.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake pudding until just set but center moves slightly when dish is shaken, about 35 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream, if desired.

This one is not husband's favorite (something about bread is good as bread, pudding is good as pudding, but together not so much), so I need visitors to cook this for... so come on back, Pa!

Nanaimo bars!

elebrating the close of the Olympics at work (and in Canada too, I suppose), we had a Canadian-themed lunch yesterday. Figuring out what to make for lunch took a little figuring, given the multicultural breadth of the country. Would Asian-fusion work best? Or Eastern European (my love for all things pierogi is well documented)? Maybe a little Indian food? Well, after a rousing discussion with my very Canadian parents over the holidays (yes, I do occasionally think about food months in advance. Not that there's anything wrong with that.), we decided that a straightforward burgers and fries lunch (fries a la poutine, post to come tomorrow) with all the fixings, followed by Nanaimo bars, would suffice. I added in a few other dessert options--maple leaf sugar cookies, maple cream sandwich cookies (from Costco, thanks husband!) and "Timbits" from a local bakery, and we were good to go.

Amazingly, I've never made Nanaimo bars before. I've never even been in the room when Nanaimo bars were being made. That's not very raised-in-Canada of me, is it? But I conned the recipe from my Canadian friend, Ginger, and was immediately struck by how simple it really is. The whole thing came together quite quickly, and I made WAY too many. With this dessert, a little goes a long way. These are rich babies. But yummy rich babies.

Nanaimo bars
Bottom layer
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 Tbsp. cocoa
1 beaten egg
1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup coconut
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Middle layer
1/2 cup butter
3 Tbsp. milk
2 Tbsp. vanilla custard powder
2 cup icing powder

Top layer
2/3 cup or 4 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 Tbsp. butter

Bottom layer: Melt first three ingredients. Add beaten egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, coconut and nuts. Press firmly into an ungreased 9x9 pan.

Middle layer: Cream ingredients together. Beat until light and spread. (Quick tip: Chill the pan now. Get the buttery layer good and frozen-ish before you spread the chocolate topping. That way it will not melt. And move quickly. That helps too.)

Top layer: Melt chocolate and butter. Cool and spread.

Chill and use sharp knife to cut into squares.

Of course I forgot to take a picture at home, so this is a quickly snapped iPhone shot at the lunch itself. You can see the remnants of the Timbits and sugar cookies scattered around. Those doughnut holes were my downfall yesterday... but in all the best ways.

The theory is that the buttery center can be customized and flavored...  mint, coffee, peanut butter... Next time I make Nanaimo bars, I won't be able to help myself but to experiment... and the flavor I think I want to fiddle around with is peanut butter... just a thought. A happy thought. If you could pick any flavor of Nanaimo bars, which would you pick?

Turtles: Hawaiian, coastal and otherwise

My mother-in-law loves turtles. She especially enjoys a variety she found on the Oregon Coast that have cashews as the nuts, not pecans. I decided I wanted to make some for her for a Christmas treat. Having cashews around our house (or nuts of any kind, really), they can disappear rather quickly (!), so I ended up with much more caramel than nuts, so I rummaged up some peanuts and some macadamia nuts I hadn't already used for Christmas baking, and thus, some unusual and tasty turtles were born!

These sweet treats were made on the night that Bad Dog Ruby temporarily disappeared. (I have been told that maybe she wouldn't hike off if I called her Good Dog Ruby, but I'm not so sure.) For some reason, she decided that one of her little bunkers under the junipers would make a good overnight camp, much to our distress. When she reappeared at the back door at 7 a.m. the next morning, I was much too happy to be angry. We had a hugging/warming session and all was well.

All that is to say that the caramel came off the stove just as I discovered Ruby was AWOL. So it sat for more than an hour cooling, and I thought maybe it would be a wash and I'd be starting over the next day. But when I finally decided I'd searched high and low and wasn't going to find Ruby that night, I came back in and distracted myself with putting the turtles together. The caramel actually worked quite well still after all that cooling, and was actually more manageable than I imagine it would be with the 5 minutes* recommended cooling in the recipe I was (sort of) following.

Caramel on the stove, bubbling away.

Peanuty turtles...

Aloha! This will be the closest I'll get to Hawaii this year...

Turtles
(adapted from the Boston Herald)

Caramel requires about 60 to 70 minutes from start to finish. Remember never to touch the boiling sugar mixture. (Have you ever had a caramel burn? It's unlike any other. Really.)

3/4 pound roasted cashews (Coastal!)
3/4 pound raw macadamias (Hawaiian!)
3/4 pound roasted peanuts (otherwise...)
2 2/3 cups sweetened condensed milk
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups light corn syrup
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut up
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 pounds semisweet and milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

In a medium heavy-based saucepan, combine the milk, granulated and brown sugars, and corn syrup. Set the pan over medium heat. Stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve the sugars. Wash down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in hot water. When the sugar mixture begins to bubble, turn the heat to medium-low. Stir every 3 to 5 minutes until it turns dark amber and a candy thermometer reads 236 degrees. This will take about 1 hour and time will vary with each pot. (If you do not have a candy thermometer, remove a sample of the caramel with a spoon and drop it in a glass of cold water. If it forms into a soft ball, the caramel is done.)

Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla. Let the mixture cool without stirring for about 5 minutes.*

Spoon a dollop of caramel over a small group of nuts. Spoon another dollop of caramel over another group of nuts, so the two rounds do not touch. Repeat until every group of nuts has a hood of caramel on top. Leave to cool.

You can do the grown up thing and melt your chocolate over a simmering water bath, but if you're a shortcutter like me, the microwave works just fine. I have learned my lesson (repeatedly, sadly) and follow the general rule of 1 minute of microwave time, followed by 30 second intervals with stirring at each stop, until a soft and dippable consistency is reached.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Separate the turtles and transfer to the parchment.

Spoon melted chocolate over the turtle clumps, thoroughly, and chill.