I have seen any number of posts around the blogosphere recently touting the perfect chocolate chip cookie. While some of them are repeats of recipes that I’ve seen before, many of them are subtle variations made in an effort to achieve perfection. Which, of course, leads to the question: How does one define the perfect chocolate chip cookie?
I remember growing up there were three quick breads my mother made quite regularly; banana bread, pumpkin bread and zucchini bread. Of the three, zucchini bread was far and away my favorite, I loved the moist slightly dense texture, the flavor with its hint of spice, but most of all I loved the crisp melt in your mouth top crust. I would eat each slice from the bottom up saving the top crust for last then eating it in tiny nibbles to make it last as long as possible.
Later, probably late middle school through high school years, I was baking as frequently as my mother would allow and I loved to make the zucchini bread almost as much as I enjoyed eating it. In fact, I made it so frequently I actually had my mother’s recipe memorized. Then I moved from where zucchini grows the size of a hefty club to where zucchini is not only pathetically stunted but frighteningly expensive. Starting out on my own, first as a college student, then at my first real job and in my own apartment, I couldn’t afford the luxury of zucchini to be turned into bread and so the details of the recipe blurred and faded from memory.
Two things have recently come to my attention:
1) I haven’t actually shared a recipe with you in about a month
2) My last few posts haven’t had very much (if anything) chocolate in them
I simply cannot permit this situation to continue. This recipe not only rectifies both issues but it satisfies every craving for sweet, gooey, chocolaty goodness that I’ve had lately. Not to be completely immodest, but these little bars are positively to die for. And I’m not the only one to hold this belief – they vanished in under a day at the office and every single person gave them a rave review.
I won’t keep you in suspense any longer, grab the recipe here and let’s get baking…
Oct17
Wedding Cake: Chocolate Fudge Cake
Posted by C. A. - Categoriezed under: Cakes, Recipes, Wedding CakeWe have a winner!
After the disappointment of the Deep Dark Rich Chocolate Fudge cake, we had to scramble to try out new recipes. Would you believe we got lucky with the very first one we tried? This recipe is adapted from one that I found on Epicurious. I was a little hesitant to try it because the user reviews were a mixed bag ranging from people claiming it was a dry crumbly disaster to people claiming it was the best chocolate cake they had ever made or tasted.
I decided it probably fell somewhere in the middle and hoped that it fell closer to the positve side of that bell curve. I chose to give it a whirl, after all, what is the worst that could happen? But, I did take the Epicurious reader comments to heart and adjusted the recipe accordingly.
Oct13
Wedding Cake: Deep Dark Rich Chocolate Fudge Cake
Posted by C. A. - Categoriezed under: Cakes, Recipes, Wedding CakeIf you remember, in my first post I said I would be sharing my trials and tribulations as well as my successes on this blog. Despite the absolutely divine sounding name of this cake, it unfortunately does fall into the “trials and tribulations” category.
First, I’d like give you all a little bit of background on why I was attempting this cake. In just under two weeks “Prince Charming” and I are getting married. I’m sure you’re wondering now what that has to do with attempting a new cake recipe. Well, back when “Prince Charming” proposed, I asked my mother if we could make my wedding cake as a mother-daughter project and she agreed (Thank you mom!). My mother is absolutely amazing in the kitchen and she has done some wedding and anniversary cakes in the past (including my little brother’s wedding cake) that have been just phenomenal.
Since my entire wedding is Fairy Tale themed, you can imagine that the cake I designed isn’t exactly simple or straight forward…
I know what you’re thinking: “No chocolate? And it isn’t even dessert??” What is the world coming to? The fact of the matter is that no matter how much I wish otherwise I cannot live on dessert alone (don’t think I haven’t tried!). And if I can’t live on dessert alone, there is simply no hope of “Prince Charming” being sustained by sweets.
Over the weekend I usually try to make something in a large enough quantity that “Prince Charming” has easily accessible and readily re-heatable options for lunch during the week. These ribs fit the bill perfectly because they are quick and easy to prepare and I can quite literally forget them in the pot until we are ready for dinner.
Here’s your recipe; let’s dive right in.
Oct03
Caramel Apple Muffins with Pecan Streusel Topping
Posted by C. A. - Categoriezed under: Quick Breads, RecipesI posted the full recipe for these muffins in anticipation of getting this post up, however, my day job then became my day and night job, neatly preventing me from doing much of anything else (as I’m sure “Prince Charming” would unhappily attest to if you asked him). I’ve decided not to let that happen anymore (well, I can’t avoid the working late and crazy hours at the moment, but I can decide I’m still going to do the things I enjoy – sleep is optional, right?) so on to the real reason you’re here reading this…
This recipe was inspired by the need to use up some pre-sliced apples that were starting to brown a bit; there weren’t very many of them so many of my normal apple based recipes just weren’t an option. So I decided to get creative and come up with something new. Unfortunately, my creativity used most of my mixing bowls and challenged my limited counter space. But don’t let that stop you from following along – I assure you these are worth all the bowls it took to make them. Grab the recipe and let’s go!
Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts and it is also one of my favorite recipes to play with. I have made cheesecakes with apples, blueberries, chocolate, caramel, peanut butter, white chocolate, butterscotch, toffee…and the list goes on. However, until today, I had not made a cheesecake with coffee.
As a general rule I’m not particularly fond of coffee – at least as a beverage. When I do drink coffee it has so much cream, sugar and flavored syrup in it that I’m really not sure you could even call it coffee anymore. That being said, it probably isn’t that strange that I love coffee ice cream, mocha ice cream, a little bit of coffee in my hot chocolate or even mocha flavored candy. While I was growing up it wasn’t unusual for me to choose coffee milk even over chocolate milk as my beverage of choice.
So I got to thinking…why not a mocha cheesecake? I can’t claim it is a completely original idea, but this recipe is my version so follow along and I’ll introduce you to my interpretation of mocha cheesecake…
I originally created these brownies as a crust for my Triple Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake. I wanted something that would add to the mocha flavor and, while I positively adore a good graham cracker crust I am not quite as fond of the chocolate cookie crumb crusts. I have used a number of brownie recipes as crusts for various cheesecakes in the past but none of them seemed quite right for a mocha cheesecake. So, after rummaging through my recipe boxes and books and then taking a quick surf around the internet I pieced together this recipe. As it turns out, these stand quite well on their own – they have a deep chocolate flavor with a hint of coffee and a nice fudgy texture.
Are you ready to give them a try? Click here for the full recipe and click “Read more” below to follow along!