Tag Archives: chocolate

September 28, 2015 · 8:00 am

Peanut Butter Rice Krsipie Roll

A coworker requested peanut butter krispie treats. With chocolate. I played with the idea before when I made these, but I wanted to do it in a fun different way.

I followed the recipe on the cereal box (1/4 cup butter, 1 bag mini mallows, 6 cups cereal), and added 1 cup of creamy peanut butter to the pot with the butter and mallows.

Once it was all melted I poured it on top of the cereal and stirred it all up. It was actually easier to stir than normal because of all that peanut butter.

I pressed it into a sheet pan with greased up hands, then topped it with chocolate chips.
I put the pan under the broiler for maaaybe like a minute or 2. Just enough to soften the chocolate.

Then I spread the chocolate with a spreader…

Definitely doesn’t need to be perfect here.

Cuz then I rolled it up into a log!

Carter likes to watch in the kitchen from atop his kitchen stool my dad built him.

Once I had it all rolled up I wrapped it in wax paper so that it would stay together, and let it cool/harden overnight.

The next morning I sliced it up!

Gorgeousness golden peanut buttery krispies with a perfect chocolate swirl.

I brought these to work with me and they were a hit!

These are seriously so good. Personally it was a tad to much chocolate for me, but everyone else disagreed and said they were perfect!

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Filed under Misc

Tagged as chocolate, peanut butter, rice krispy treats

April 9, 2015 · 10:30 am

Drumstick Inspired Cupcakes

First and foremost, today is my blog’s 4th birthday! Funny story – last year I thought it was the 4th birthday. Posted it and everything. Realized later but I just figured I would correct it this time. Haha!

To celebrate my bloggy birthday I made some special cupcakes. These cupcakes were actually inspired by drumstick ice cream cones.

The cupcake is a vanilla bean cake, there is a gooey chocolate center, and the perfect chocolate frosting on top!

Originally I was going to bake these in ice cream cones, but I didn’t have enough. I had some of these adorable cupcake cups left over from a wedding last year so I thought they would be perfect.

I used boxed white cake and added the caviar from one vanilla bean to the batter. It reminded me perfectly of vanilla bean ice cream. The little flecks are so pretty! I need to add it to things more often!

Once they cupcakes were baked and cooled, I used a small corer to cut a hole in the top of each cupcake. (A small knife would work fine too.) Then I filled each hole with chocolate pudding. I didn’t have any on hand so I made my own! (Recipe below.)

I topped each with this smooth creamy chocolate frosting. It’s so perfect, I am definitely going to be coming back to this recipe again!

Homemade Chocolate Pudding (Hershey’s recipe, found here)

Ingredients:

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

3 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

2 1/4 cup milk

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. In a medium pot, mix together the sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt. Slowly add milk. (It looked so weird at this point so I took pictures so you don’t freak out when it looks weird to you too.)

2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. It will sloooowly stir together well then start to thicken up. Once it starts to boil, let it boil for 1 minute then remove from the heat. (It took so long! Okay maybe just 10-15 minutes, but it feels like forever when you’re stirring constantly.)

3. Stir in butter and vanilla.

4. Cover surface with plastic wrap to prevent a “skin” from forming on the top, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

*I didn’t have 2 hours to wait, so I put a little of the pudding into a piping bag, cut the tip, and squeezed a bit into each cupcake white it was still warm.

Perfect Chocolate Frosting (recipe by My Frugal Adventures, found here)

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups powdered sugar

6 tbsp cocoa powder

5 tbsp milk

6 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Whisk together powdered sugar and cocoa, set aside.

2. Cream butter with mixer until creamy. Slowly add powdered sugar mixture, alternating with milk.

3. Scrape sides of bowl and add vanilla, the mix again to incorporate.

As you may know, I’m not the biggest chocolate fan, but I did try these and they were so yummy! The gooey center is a fun addition to the cupcake, and the frosting isn’t too over-the-top rich. Perfect combo. 🙂

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Filed under Cakes

Tagged as buttercream, chocolate, chocolate frosting, pudding, vanilla

November 6, 2014 · 8:00 am

Oreo Wedding Cupcakes

I made cupcakes for a friend for her wedding. The theme of the wedding was “Til Death Do Us Part.” Quite perfect since it was the weekend before Halloween! All decor and attire was black and white. Very stunning! It was fun to get to make them and be there to enjoy their special day too!

The cupcake liners I purchased from The Tomkat Studio Store and from Fancy Flours.

I made white cupcakes with Golden Oreos in the bottoms and Golden Oreo frosting.

The other half were chocolate cupcakes with regular Oreos in the bottoms and in the frosting.

Me being a non-chocolate gal, I of course picked a Golden Oreo cupcake at the wedding. YUM.

I used 8 packages of Oreos. I made my husband buy them for me because that’s pretty embarrassing. Oh, and I only use Double Stuft, cuz duh.

Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

Made these cupcakes for my mommy for her birthday. I surprised her and brought them to her in the morning so she could take them to work with her to share with her coworkers!

I started with fresh farm-stand strawberries. Pureed them…

…then used the pureed strawberries in place of water in a box white cake mix. I also added a good amount of red food color because the batter was actually purple-ish after adding the strawberries and I wanted them to be bright and vibrant.

I wanted to dunk my face in that bowl. My whole kitchen smelled amazing!

They baked up beautifully!

I topped these cupcakes with Nestle Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting.

It’s a very yummy frosting, but I personally think it was a little too rich and took away from the special flavor of these cupcakes. Next time I will try something else that’s more subtle.

My mommy and all her coworkers loved them!

2 Comments

Filed under Cakes

Tagged as buttercream, chocolate, strawberry

April 22, 2014 · 8:00 am

Chocolate White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie Dough Truffles

What a mouthful!!

You’ll forgive the ridiculous name once you try these. I promise.

I’ve made Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles, Funfetti Cookie Dough Truffles, and M&M Cookie Dough Truffles.

These are a twist on the common white chocolate macadamia nut cookies… Which happen to be my husband’s favorite cookie of all time. His birthday was a couple weeks ago so I made these for him. They’re lumpy and not the prettiest, but OH SO GOOD.

Chocolate White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie Dough Truffles

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 sticks butter (1 cup)
6 tbsp milk (or milk substitute)
2 tbsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts, divided
Candy coating (I used CandiQuik)

Directions:
1. Beat butter and sugars. Add vanilla and milk.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add to wet mixture.
3. Stir in chips and nuts by hand.
4. Let dough chill for at least 2 hours.
5. Scoop into small balls on a waxed lined baking sheet and place in freezer to harden up. I did this the night before.
6. Melt the candy coating and dip each ball, tapping off the excess with a fork. Quickly top with chopped nuts.
7. Store in the fridge.

Even though I made these for my husband, I actually took most of them to work. We don’t need THAT much sweets around the house! There was a good portion of cookie dough left that hadn’t been dipped so I let him finish that off. 🙂

My coworkers LOVED these. One even proclaimed that if he could have any dessert ever in the world that he would choose these. Maybe it was because he was currently holding one, I don’t know… 🙂

I liked them because they weren’t overly chocolatey.. you know, because I don’t like chocolate all that much. But they were still chocolatey enough for the major chocolate lovers too!

3 Comments

Filed under Candy, Misc

Tagged as chocolate, cookie dough, macadamia nuts, truffles, white chocolate

February 14, 2014 · 10:00 am

Everything But The Kitchen Sink Cookies

My little brother is across the country doin’ his thang in the navy. But it’s almost his birthday, and I needed to bake him something, so I had to mail it!

I have sent him brownies in the past, but I figured cookies share better and can be transported more easily, so I wanted to bake him up some cookies this time.

I thought about it for WEEKS trying to come up with something fun and awesome for him, and I couldn’t decide what to make that would be both new and awesome and woo his heart over. (Although as long as it has sugar it’s really not all that hard to do.)

In the end I decided since I couldn’t decide on a flavor, I would just do as many as I could. I made him Everything But The Kitchen Sink Cookies.

Never heard of them? Well, as the name suggests, there are a lot of different flavors and textures mixed into these!

Everything But The Kitchen Sink Cookies – adapted from my Perfect M&M Cookies recipe

Ingredients:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter

2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup each: chocolate chips, oats, coarsely chopped pretzels, broken up potato chips

(You can really add anything you want here. Mix up the salty and sweet!)

Directions:

1. Beat together sugars and butter. Add eggs and vanilla, scraping the sides of the bowl down halfway through.

2. Add salt, baking soda, and baking powder, then slowly add the flour.

3. Now it’s time to choose what you want to mix into these cookies! I chose chocolate chips, oats, pretzels, and potato chips. If I had nuts then I would’ve added those too. Other fun ideas – cheese crackers, cranberries, candy bits, yogurt raisins…

4. Mix the fix-ins in by hand. I did the potato chips last because I didn’t want to over-crush them.

5. Refridgerate the dough overnight. This part suuuuucks. But seriously, it melds the flavors together so much better. Do it. Plus, cold dough is easier to work with.

6. Make tablespoon sized balls of dough, then squash them flat with the bottom of a drinking glass.

7. Bake for 10 minutes at 350*. When they come out they will look all puffy…

8. …then once they cool (let them cool on the pan) they will flatten out and set up.

My brother loved them! And didn’t even know they had potato chips in them until I told him. Haha…

2 Comments

Filed under Cookies

Tagged as chips, chocolate, easy cookies, oats, pretzel

December 25, 2013 · 3:37 am

Christmas Pizookies

I was designated dessert for our family Christmas Eve dinner. Sugar cookies weren’t going to work, and my mom was “cheesecaked out,” which vetoed my first idea.

After scouring one of my beloved Pinterest dessert boards, my husband and I came up with the idea for these Christmas Pizookies. (If you don’t know what a pizookie is, here is my original pizookie post.) They are a chocolate cookie base with peppermint and white chocolate chips, topped with peppermint ice cream.

Christmas
Pizookies – recipe adapted from foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 sticks butter (1 cup)
2 eggs
2 tbsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup peppermint chips (like these)

Directions:
1. Beat butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add to wet mixture.
3. Stir in chips by hand.
4. Let dough chill for at least 2 hours.
5. Press dough into ramekins or shallow dishes.
6. Bake at 325* for 20-30 minutes, checking every couple minutes for doneness. You want them to be dry looking but not necessarily all the way baked through.
7. Top with a scoop of peppermint ice cream while still warm.

I ended up being crazy busy when it came time to put these together, so my husband got everything ready per me calling out directions and measurements. He did a great job!

Hope you love these as much as we did. 🙂

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Filed under Misc

Tagged as chocolate, peppermint

November 5, 2013 · 8:00 am

Milky Way Brownies

Halloween for parents = way too much candy in the house.

I have a solution that might help, at least a little bit. These brownies. They are LOADED with Milky Ways.

Yes I’m a parent now, but my little one isn’t exactly trick-or-treating hard core yet. Soo I kind of cheated. I used these cool Milky Way Bites that I found when shopping at my local Kmart. (The store is closing so there were killer deals!)

If you ARE a parent of a hard-core trick-or-treater and find yourself in excess of Halloween candy, just chop up a bunch of fun sized Milky Way bars (or Snickers or 3 Musketeers, whatever is your thing..) and dump them into the brownie batter. No need to buy special little candy bites!

Milky Way Brownies – adapted from this recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2-3 cups chopped up candy bars (I used 2 whole bags of Milky Way Bites)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Line a 13×9 pan in foil, then spray with non-stick cooking spray. (The candy is going to be ooey gooey sticky and you don’t want it to stick to the pan!)

2. Mix together sugar and oil. It should look like slushy snow.

3. Add eggs and vanilla. Don’t overmix.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add to sugar mixture.

5. Mix in candy by hand.

6. Pour into prepared pan. I love how lumpy it looks with all that candy!

7. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes. Check with a toothpick (between candy pieces if possible) to make sure center isn’t too wet/uncooked.

8. Let cool COMPLETELY. Seriuosly. These will be a disaster if you try to cut them while still warm.

If you don’t care about that then by all means – plop some ice cream on top too! I bet that would taste amazing…

The foil lining makes it super easy to just lift the whole brownie sheet out of the pan. Then just peel back the sides and cut away.

These brownies are pretty rich, even without the candy, so cut them into smaller pieces… besides, they share better that way. Unless sharing isn’t your thing. 😉

Look at those gooey chunks… Mmmm…

My poor brother.. he’s going to be so jealous…

P.S.

I know I always say I don’t like chocolate… well I realized I have quite a few brownie recipes on here now, so I added a category “brownies,” which can be seen in the right-hand column of this webpage. Hope this makes it easier to find the brownie recipes you’re looking for!

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Filed under Brownies

Tagged as brownies, chocolate

September 18, 2013 · 8:00 am

Chocolate Caramel Krispies

These are super fast & easy to make and pretty darn tasty…

I started with the basic Rice Krispies Treats recipe (found here) but added 1 cup of chocolate to the melting mixture. Once it was almost completely melted, add 1 packet of Duncan Hines Flavor Creations. For these I used Caramel.

Once the melty mixture was all stirred up with the Krispies, I sprayed my hands with non-stick spray and pressed the mixture into the pan. Then I sprinkled the top with mini chocolate chips and pressed them in gently to make sure they stuck well.

Then just let them cool before you cut and serve!

Other Duncan Hines Flavor Creations would pair well with these chocolate krispies too – Mint Chocolate, Cherry Vanilla, Mocha, Orange Creme, even Strawberry Shortcake!

6 Comments

Filed under Misc

Tagged as caramel, chocolate, rice krispy treats