Chocolate pudding

Mmmmm, pudding.

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 2/3 cups milk
4 beaten egg yolks
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

In a heavy saucepan combine sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch. Add milk. Cook and stir over medium heat til mixture is thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Gradually stir about 1 cup of the hot mixture into the beaten eggs. Return all of the egg mixture to the pan and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla. Pour pudding into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Do not stir! Chill.

Mint chocolate chip cookies

What an excellent way to use up mint! And the mint taste in these is pleasantly subtle.

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup mint leaves
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups coarsely chopped dark chocolate

In the bowl of a mini food processor, combine mint and sugar. Process until mint is finely chopped. Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, mint sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate pieces. Drop by two to three tablespoon-sized balls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for nine to 11 minutes or until golden brown.

Cranberry brownies

Merry Christmas, everyone!

It's a white Christmas here in Boston. I'm getting a live stream of photos from my husband's Christmas in Missouri, and I really wish I were there right now.

Instead, I'm comforting myself with a warm batch of cranberry brownies. Rich, chocolatey, moist, with a pop of fun tart cranberry flavor. Delicious.

From Coconut & Lime:

3/4 cup butter
12 oz bittersweet chocolate chunks
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour

Heat oven to 350. Grease a 8x8 baking pan very thoroughly. In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter. Add 3/4 cup chocolate chunks. Cook mixture over low heat, stirring constantly. Chocolate should be thoroughly melted. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla until well mixed. Stir in flour and remaining chocolate chunks and stir until the flour is incorporated. Fold in the cranberries. Bake about 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or with just one or two sticky crumbs. Cool on wire rack before slicing and serving.

Fudge popsicles

2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups whole milk
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 tablespoon butter

In the bottom of a medium saucepan over very low heat, gently melt the chocolate chips, stirring constantly till smooth. Stir in sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, milk and salt, and raise heat to medium. Cook mixture, stirring frequently until it thickens (5-10 minutes). Remove from heat, add vanilla and butter, and stir till combined.

Set aside to cool slightly, then pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

Chocolate chip sour cream cake

You can substitute nuts, raisins or dried cranberries for the chocolate chips if you want.

5 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon each baking powder and baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Add the melted butter to a mixing bowl and mix in the sugar, vanilla, salt, sour cream and egg. Add the baking powder and baking soda. Stir the flour in until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips, and pour into a greased and floured (or lined with parchment paper) loaf pan.

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. Let cool in the pan 10 minutes.

No-bake cookies

This was a childhood favorite. Technically, this is supposed to be poured into a dish, and let cool before cutting it into squares and eating it. But I don't ever remember the cookies making it that far--we always ate it hot, with a spoon, right out of the mixing bowl. In fact, we were usually prancing around the mixing bowl with spoons at the ready, just waiting for the stuff to be poured in so we could descend on it like vultures.

You know what? I think it tastes better hot. But you decide for yourself.

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cocoa
2 sticks of butter
2 cups sugar (but you can cut this back to 1 1/2 cups if you want)

Melt together in a saucepan, and boil for 2 minutes.

Pour this over 3 cups of quick oats and 1 cup of peanut butter. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Eat with a spoon.

Mint-chocolate chip ice cream (with fresh mint!)

I harvested my very first mint the other day!

So I made mint-chocolate chip ice cream, courtesy of David Lebovitz: (reprinted below)

For the mint ice cream:

1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
2 cups (500 ml) heavy cream
pinch of salt
2 cups packed (80 gr) fresh mint leaves
5 large egg yolks

For the chocolate chips:
5 ounces (140 gr) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1. In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream, salt, and mint.

2. Once the mixture is hot and steaming, remove from heat, cover, and let stand for an hour to infuse the mint flavor.

3. Remove the mint with a strainer, then press down with a spatula firmly to extract as much mint flavor and color as possible. (You can also use well-washed hands to do it as well, making sure the mixture isn’t too hot to safely handle.) Once the flavor is squeezed out, discard the mint.

4. Pour the remaining heavy cream into a large bowl and set the strainer over the top.

5. Rewarm the infused milk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, then slowly pour some of the warm mint mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.

6. Cook the custard, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. If using an instant read thermometer, it should read around 170ºF (77ºC).

7. Immediately strain the mixture into the cream, then stir the mixture over an ice bath until cool.

8. Refrigerate the mixture thoroughly, preferably overnight, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

While the mixture is freezing, melt the chocolate in a small bowl over a pot of simmering water, or in a microwave oven on low power, stirring until smooth. Place a storage container in the freezer.

9. When the ice cream in the machine is ready, scribble some of the chocolate into the container, then add a layer of the just-churned ice cream to the container. Scribble melted chocolate over the top of the ice cream, then quickly stir it in, breaking up the chocolate into irregular pieces. Continue layering the ice cream, scribbling more chocolate and stirring as you go.

When finished, cover and freeze until firm.

Notes: I skipped the chocolate melting stage and just dropped in chocolate chips. It's better to melt the chocolate. Also, this ice cream is MINTY. Store-bought mint ice cream is much subtler in its mintiness. This is not a bad thing, it's just, you know, MINTY.

Chocolate ice cream

I don't like chocolate ice cream.

There, I said it.

I never have. Even as a kid. And I felt the pain of being the only kid who didn't like chocolate ice cream acutely, believe me.

It's the combination of dairy and chocolate that gets me. I don't like chocolate milk, either. Or milk chocolate (and especially not white chocolate). I like my chocolate the darker, the better, and unadulterated by gross dairy products.

So I decided to make chocolate ice cream only as a concession to the houseful of kids I had this past weekend--my stepson is visiting for spring break, and we invited the neighbors and their three boys over for pizza and games.

The pizza was excellent, and I made a batch of vanilla ice cream, as well. So pizza and two kinds of ice cream: every kid's dream meal, right?

Only I discovered that I LIKED my own chocolate ice cream.

It actually tastes like chocolate, and not like the nasty chocolate-milk-chemicals store version I always hated.

It even tastes like GOOD chocolate.

Adapted from Salty Sweets:

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used a little less than 2 bars of Ghirardelli 60%), broken up
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Heat the cream and milk together until bubbling around the edges but not boiling. Pour the hot milk mixture over the chocolate (in a heat-proof bowl) and let stand for five minutes or so to melt the chocolate. Whisk together, with sugar and salt, until smooth. Refrigerate until completely cooled. Make in your ice cream maker.

Fudge ripple ice cream

This recipe is courtesy of David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. (There's a new version coming out soon; check out my review of the old version here.) Warning: you will eat this all in one sitting.

Vanilla ice cream:

1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
6 large egg yolks
Splash of vanilla extract

Warm the milk, 1 cup of the cream, sugar and salt in medium saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the mixture, and add the rest of the bean. Cover, remove from the heat, and let steep for 30 minutes.

Pour the remaining 1 cup of cream into a large bowl, and set a mesh strainer on top. Whisk the egg yolks together; slowly pour the warm mixture into the yolks and whisk together, then pour everything back into the saucepan and stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture thickens. Pour it through the strainer, put the vanilla bean back in, and add the vanilla extract.

Cover and let chill thoroughly in the fridge. Then put it in your ice cream maker, and follow the manufacturer's instructions.

Fudge ripple:

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk everything except the vanilla together over medium heat, whisking constantly until it begins to bubble. Continue until it reaches a low boil, and cook for one minute. Remove from heat, add vanilla, and let chill thoroughly in the fridge before using.

Don't mix the two together in the ice cream machine. Wait until the vanilla ice cream is complete, then in the container you're going to put the ice cream into, add a layer of fudge ripple. Then a layer of ice cream. Then a layer of fudge ripple. And so on, in the Tupperware (or whatever). Put it in the freezer to set.

Like I said, you will eat this all in one setting, and it will taste so much more vanilla-y and fudge-y than the stuff you get in the store.

Taza Chocolate

Taza Chocolate may be the greatest chocolate in the world.

And it's made right near me, in Somerville, MA!

I discovered this stuff last night. Why is it so great, you ask? Well, it's 100% organic and stone-ground. Not that I care so much about the "100% organic" tag, but in this case, it means the chocolate is made from the best ingredients. The best cacao beans, the best cane sugar (real sugar and not beet sugar or corn syrup), real vanilla and cinnamon (most of what we think of as "cinnamon" is in fact cascia, but that's another post).

They use authentic Oaxacan stone mills to grind the beans, instead of steel refiners. It's minimally processed, and they don't conch. "Conching" is a process that gives chocolate its characteristic velvety mouthfeel. Taza Chocolate, because it's stone-ground, has a unique texture--almost sandy, because larger particles of chocolate and sugar remain. That's actually good, because the larger particles pop in your mouth, making the flavor much more explosive.

They also light-roast the beans. Most chocolate, like most coffee, is dark-roasted, to disguise poor-quality beans. That bitter, heavily-roasted aftertaste you get from Starbucks? That's from crappy coffee beans. It's like cooking a poor-quality steak to well-done, to disguise the poor-quality meat. (Which is why you should never order a well-done steak in a restaurant, but that's another post, too.) Most dark chocolate tastes sort of, you know, dark. It's faintly bitter, which is why a lot of people don't like dark chocolate. That's because of the dark roast. Taza's light roast allows the true flavor of the cacao to shine through. In its un-messed-with state, it's almost fruity.

So, to sum up: this chocolate tastes like (and is) real chocolate, and not like a Hershey's milk-and-sugar bomb.

Basically, this is really, really good chocolate. It uses the best ingredients, and they don't process the hell out of it. This is chocolate the Aztecs would have recognized. Go buy some and eat it.

Beacon Hill Chocolates

Another fun Boston find. Beacon Hill Chocolates imports chocolates from all over the world, and I picked out a fairly interesting selection, all dark chocolate. There was one with balsamic vinegar; one with ginger, kaffir lime, and coconut; olive oil and sea salt; Grey Goose; chili and lemon; salt caramel; and blood orange.

They were all delicious.

Here's the thing, though: there was only about 5% taste difference between them. The balsamic vinegar tasted about 5% different from the chili lemon one. The Grey Goose one was slightly more liquid than the others, but I'll be damned if I could pick out any vodka flavor in it (much less Grey Goose specifically). Like I said, they were all delicious. But why put Grey Goose, or vinegar, or blood orange, or whatever in a chocolate if you can't obviously identify the non-chocolate ingredient?

This is why I was driven to create bacon chocolate. Not enough bacon.

Bacon chocolate is back!

(And it's bad!)

Or rather, freakishly good. Note the Etsy badge off to the side there. Now you too can order the infamous bacon chocolate for your very own, only $14.99 per pound, shipped priority right to your door. Please disregard the crappiness of the picture, I know I gotta take a new one.

Now I just gotta figure out a way to market and ship my barbecue sauce...

Chocolate chip-Nutella pastries

The name says it all. Who can resist?

1 sheet of thawed puff pastry
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 to 1/3 cup Nutella (or more, as you like)
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
slivered almonds

Mix the chips and the Nutella together. Cut the puff pastry into squares. Make an egg wash of the egg and the water, mixing them well, and apply the egg wash to the edges of each square. Place a spoonful of chip mix into each square and fold them diagonally, sealing the edges well. Put a little more egg wash on top of each one, and sprinkle some slivered almonds on them. Place on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet and bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

There might be a little chocolate-chip-Nutella mixture left over. But what happens in the kitchen, stays in the kitchen.

Chocolate chip cookies

1 cup soft butter
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 pkg. semisweet chocolate chips

Beat butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Add dry ingredients, mix. Add chips. Drop 2 inches apart on ungreased sheet, bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

I also like to add 1 cup chocolate chips with 1 cup dried cranberries and 1 cup walnuts or pecans.

No-bake cookies

Yet another family classic. Technically this is supposed to cool in the refrigerator, and then be cut into squares. I can't remember a batch ever making it that far--usually we all huddled over the saucepan with spoons, eating the hot mixture until it disappeared. This is another one of those things that can be made entirely with pantry ingredients.

2 sticks butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
1 cup peanut butter
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal (not quick oats)

Place first four ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil for two minutes. Pour into a 9x13 inch pan into which the peanut butter and oatmeal have already been added. Stir as you pour the hot mixture over the peanut butter and oatmeal. Let cool, cut into squares. Or just huddle over the hot pan with a spoon.

Bacon chocolate

On Friday, I bought a bacon chocolate bar. I was pretty excited about it; but it turned out to be somewhat disappointing. First, and most damningly, it wasn't very bacon-y. Despite a very large and prominent picture of a slice of bacon on the bar, the bacon flavor was incredibly subtle. It was more a salty chocolate bar than a bacon-y chocolate bar. And it was milk chocolate--only 45% cocoa. Dark chocolate would have served the concept much better.

So I decided to make my own, the way I wanted it. I took some very dark chocolate (Lindt's 85% cocoa, although you could also substitute two bars of unsweetened baking chocolate with 1/2 - 1 bar of semi-sweet) and melted it in a double boiler. While that was melting, I chopped some smoked bacon and cooked it until it was very crispy and let it cool. When the chocolate was melted, I spread it on a cookie sheet that had been covered in parchment paper, and sprinkled all the many bacon pieces over it. I pressed those in with my rubber spatula, and then added a lot of applewood-smoked salt. I let it sit for a few hours, then broke it apart and ate it.

Wow. REALLY good. I could have put even more bacon and salt in there, but the final product made me much, much happier than the store-bought bar.

Bacon makes everything better.

Genius, pure genius

A bacon chocolate bar.

I will definitely be experimenting with this concept this weekend.

Chocolate mousse

Mmmm...chocolate mousse. For my money, a much more satisfying (and crowd-pleasing) dessert than cookies and brownies. Two can share a ramekin, this stuff is rich.

3 oz best-quality bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
3 large eggs, separated
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons confectionary sugar, sifted

Combine chocolate and water in large heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. When the chocolate is melted, whisk it until smooth, then add the butter, continuing to whisk until the mixture is a silky cream with no lumps. Remove from the heat and whisk in egg yolks one at a time. Whisk the egg whites with the salt until they are white and foamy and hold soft peaks. Continuing to whisk vigorously, sprinkle in confectionary sugar until the whites hold stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, and turn into a bowl or individual ramekins. Refrigerate at least two hours.

Cost: depends on the quality of the chocolate, the other ingredients will set you back less than a dollar. I recommend splurging for Scharffen Berger. Just think: for a few dollars, you can have 6-8 ramekins of restaurant-quality chocolate mousse. Mmmm...chocolate mousse...

Brownies

12 oz (1 bag) semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup butter cut in pieces
3 eggs
1 ¼ cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon baking soda

Melt 1 cup chocolate chips and butter in pan over lowest heat until smooth (this will take a few minutes). Remove from heat, add eggs. Stir in dry ingredients and vanilla slowly. Add remaining chips, spread into greased 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Don't be fooled into making brownies from a $1.99 box of brownie mix. Those are usually dry and taste like chemicals. Homemade brownies will be moist, super-chocolately, and best of all, will actually taste like chocolate. For an added bonus, try substituting bourbon for the vanilla--the brownies won't taste like bourbon, but the bourbon will highlight the chocolate and make them taste even more chocolatey.

Make your own hot chocolate mix

Packets of Swiss Miss just don't cut it when you can make your own.

1/3 c dry milk
1 t dry cocoa
1 t sugar
1 cup hot water

That's it. Feel free to use the really good cocoa powder. If you buy the powdered milk and cocoa powder in bulk, you're looking at a few cents per cup of hot chocolate. For that, you can afford to throw in some peppermint schnapps and real whipped cream.