Chocolate chip cheesecake dip

I made this for my daughter's first birthday party this weekend. Yes it's really been a year already! Hard to believe! If you're a cheesecake lover, you must try this recipe. It's incredibly easy and delicious. Her party was the perfect excuse to whip it up.

Chocolate chip cheesecake dip (frome recipezaar)
Makes 12 servings
Ingredients:
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter, softened
1.5 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1.5 cups semisweet mini chocolate chips

Directions:
Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in sugars and vanilla.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Cover and store in refrigerator. Serve with graham crackers, vanilla wafers or graham cracker sticks.

Be mine

I took the suggestion of Brown Eyed Baker and made these moist, fluffy, chocolatey cupcakes. I didn't have any vanilla extract left over for the frosting, but that so didn't matter. They were heaven. And aren't the little white chocolate hearts cute? I just melted some bark and drizzled the shapes on waxed paper and let set. I delivered a plate to my nice new neighbors and we're devouring the rest.

Christmas gifts - Peppermint Oreo truffles

I had heard about these morsels called Oreo balls/truffles from my friend Melanie about a year ago and when racking my brain about what to make for coworkers this year, they popped into my head. Originally I was going to make peppermint bark popcorn, but instead decided to make 2 kinds of oreo truffles. I made plain with chocolate candy coating, drizzled with white almond bark (chocolate) and sprinkled with sea salt. I also made a peppermint version. It turned out absolutely devine. I think the peppermint might be my favorite. The all chocolate version is just soooo rich.Peppermint Oreo Truffles
Makes 3 dozen (depending on ball size)
Ingredients:
1 bag original Oreo cookies
1 8 0z. package of cream cheese, softened (you can nuke it in a bowl for about 30 seconds to achieve this)
4 peppermint candy canes
3/4 package of white almond bark
1/4 tsp peppermint extract

Directions:
Crush candy canes in food processor until small. Place a strainer over a bowl and sift out the dust/finer peppermint pieces. Wipe out food processor and dump oreos in. Process until there are no chunks. Add cream cheese and peppermint extract and process until a nice sticky dough forms.

It's up to you, but I find it a little easier at this point to refrigerate the dough for an hour before rolling out the balls. Roll them in your palms about the size of a quarter and place them back in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Melt almond bark either in the microwave or in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water (double boiler method). Once it is melted all the way, stir in the finer dust of the crushed peppermint.

Working with a spoon and fork, lower an oreo ball into the melted chocolate and coat evenly. Shake off excess and place on waxed paper. Repeat with a few more and sprinkle with the coarser peppermint before the chocolate has set. Allow to set at room temperature or speed up the process in the fridge. Trim away any excess chocolate with a knife once chocolate has hardened. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container (because of the cream cheese).

Molten Lava Crunch Cake

I got my weekly crap bundle of coupons in the mail yesterday and in it is an insert for Domino's. Apparently they've got this dessert now, 2 of them for $3.99. Has anyone tried it? I think It's worth ordering the pizza to try it out. Hmmm easy dinner tonight! I'll report back tomorrow :)

Nestle cookie dough recall

It was bound to happen. The FDA is warning not to eat Nestle Toll House prepackaged cookie dough (cooked or raw) and Nestle is recalling it due to E. Coli. Link here. Turns out our moms were right heh.

"Get Induced" Chocolate Chip Scones

On the morning of Friday, March 13th, I decided to make a recipe for chocolate chip scones that my dear friend Vicky shared with me. This recipe is incredibly easy and sooooo chocolatey and satisfying. I did manage to snap some photos, but somehow those got lost in the shuffle of baby photos. While eating these scones for breakfast, I got the call from my OB/GYN office to come in to discuss some test results. The appointment resulted in them wanting me to be induced and so the epic 3 day saga of my labor began.

It all began with these scones. Enjoy. And big thanks to Vicky for the recipe.

"Get Induced" Chocolate Chip Scones
Makes 8 large scones
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar + 2tsp sugar
2.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2/3 cup milk
1 large egg, separated
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl. Cut in butter until it's small crumbs. Add chocolate chips. Mix egg yolk and milk together then add to dry ingredients. Mix with fork.
Plop whatever size you want onto a baking sheet. Bake until slightly golden about 20 minutes.

Happy Valentine's day from chocolate heaven

After our scrumptious dinner at Magnolia Grill last night (more on that later), I opted for a chocolatey cake at Whole Foods instead of one of the desserts on the menu. I was not disappointed. This was a chocolate cake with layers of strawberry mousse, iced with chocolate ganache, and topped with a lovely chocolate heart and chocolate colored strawberry. This was really a large piece of cake, or what they call a mini-cake. It took hubby and I (okay mostly me) 2 days to eat, but it was absolute heaven and not overly sweet. Whole Foods knows how to do dessert, and despite being a little pricey for a mini-cake, it was a great deal compared to paying some 2 or 3 dollars more for something much smaller in a restaurant!

Chocolate marbled blondies

This was an easy Sunday morning venture! I was craving chocolate cake (go figure!) and I didn't have the components. This recipe was modifed from "The Great American Cookie Cookbook". Sometimes you just have to work with what you have. I would have liked these to have been sweeter and perhaps if I had been able to follow the original recipe, they would have been. The original recipe called for a cup of mini M & Ms. Make sure to swirl the chocolate into the blonde part well or you'll have gobs of dark, slightly bitter chocolate (like I did). Those gobs didn't taste so good.
Chocolate Marbled Blondies
Makes 16 blondies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup chopped walnuts (choc. chips, m&m's or whatever you have on hand)
4 oz softened cream cheese
2 tb granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/4 cup dark chocolate (candy bar or the like, I used some Stam chocolate pieces I received for Xmas)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x9 pan.

Cream together the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda. Blend flour mixture into butter mixture. Stir in nuts. Dough will be stiff like cookie dough.

In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese, granulated sugar and egg yolk until smooth. Stir in cocoa powder and blend well. Place chocolate cheese mixture in nine equal portions on the bottom of the greased pan. Place the blondie dough around the chocolate dough in the pan. Swirl the two together with a fork.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely. Cut into squares.

Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth. Pour into ziploc bag and cut a small hole in the tip. Drizzle over blondies. Allow to cool and devour with a large glass of milk!

Peppermint Bark (Recipe included)

Making peppermint bark was pretty easy as far as candy making goes. The hardest part was cutting/breaking it into pieces. I attempted to do this while it was cold and hard from the fridge and it was very difficult to get through. It also broke unevenly and the white separated from the dark. After about 1/4 of the way through, I decided to wait and allow to warm up a little and that made a big difference.

Peppermint Bark (from Use Real Butter)
Makes 2 pounds
Ingredients:
1 lb dark chocolate (I used 4 World Market Dark Chocolate Bars)
1 lb white chocolate (I used Nestle morsels)
10 peppermint candy canes

Directions:
Melt the dark chocolate. I did this by breaking it up into little pieces, putting into a micro-safe bowl and nuking for 30 seconds at a time and stirring after each interval.
Then, spread on foil on a cookie sheet and let set (in fridge).
Crush the canes in a food processor.
Sift fine (dust) pieces into one bowl, bigger pieces in another.
Melt the white chocolate and mix in the dusty canes with the melted white chocolate.
Carefully spread the white peppermint chocolate over the dark chocolate and then top with the bigger pieces of broken canes. Press down a little with a piece of waxed paper.
I chilled overnight in the fridge, but make sure to allow to come to room temp before cutting. The cutting process is the messiest part!It was really easy, yummy and makes a festive holiday gift. To purchase 2 pounds of peppermint bark would cost around $30-40. Total cost for this was $14!

I set each place setting at our dinner party with one of these sweet little packages and they were a hit. I neglected to photograph any of the cooking or prep for the event. I was too busy entertaining. Dinner was a success though!

Peppermint Bark

Just a quick photo play-by-play to wet your whistles. I have to run and start on the cheese plate and chicken. More details to come later. I can't believe how hard it was to find normal, red and white, peppermint candy canes. The peppermint bark turned out great!

Berger cookies, I'm in HEAVEN

Two weeks ago, Heather had a giveaway on her blog for a box of Berger Cookies. I never win anything, but apparently the planets were aligned and took pity on me and my little chocolate-crazed baby. Last week she announced the winners and behold, I won a box.

We are unpacking this morning and getting settled in to our new workplace and my box of Berger Cookies arrives. I quickly opened one of the two containers and dispersed them to anyone who would take one. I took the last and was quickly on a sugar high. Think fudge meets soft cookie meets ultimate chocolate satisfaction. Thank you so much Heather and thank you Bergers for making a perfect cookie. I was shocked to turn over the package and discover that one of those decadent babies is only 140 calories! It's a perfect treat!

A whole lotta bakin' going on

This weekend I baked cranberry orange muffins (shhhh I cheated, from a Trader Joe's Cranberry Orange bread mix). Unlike a lot of muffin mixes, which are filled with imitation fruit bits, these muffins were filled with big juicy cranberries and they were delicious. I highly recommend this mix and will definitely be buying it again!Saturday I followed this up with a half batch of Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies. I followed the recipe on the bag of chips with the exception of nuts. I substituted 1/4 cup of heath toffee chips instead. I also removed from the oven while still soft and only lightly browned on the edges (a trick I learned from Melanie). This makes a yummy chewy cookie, despite seeming undercooked when first removed from the oven. I was so glad I only made a half batch (about 30 cookies) of these because three days later, my hubby and I have eaten them ALL. The kitchenaid mixer I received last Christmas from my brother made this sooooo easy. I can't wait to make my biscotti this year!!

Taking candy from strangers

We're taught at an early age never to accept candy from strangers. Halloween excluded, I think I've adhered to that.

I have a dilemma folks.

Monday morning when I came into work, there was a large chocolate bar on my keyboard. Throughout the week, I've asked my various coworkers (the ones I know and talk to daily) as to whether or not they had donated this large bar of chocolate to me. Nobody knows where it came from.

I have a large stash of healthy snacks, emergency lunch items, etc. at my desk. This includes a chocolate bar (that I eat one sqaure at a time) and a box of chocolate teddy grahams. I finished off my chocolate bar yesterday. I finished off my teddy grahams today.

So I have this phantom emergency chocolate bar sitting on my desk, which most definitely came from a stranger. When the chocolate craving kicks in, do I:

A. Eat it
B. Eat it
or
C. Not eat it?