Chocolate Truffle Pie

One of my coworkers celebrated her birthday last week and me, being the homemaker I am, volunteered something sweet for the occasion. The original plan was a chocolate-vanilla swirled cheesecake, but after hitting up the gym that night, I knew there was no way this girl was gonna whip up a cheesecake and stay awake the 70+ minutes it was supposed to take to bake. Nu-uh. Good call on my part. I know myself so well.

What came about instead was a chocolate truffle pie, recipe courtesy of the same mag the cheesecake was featured in. I think I should have served room temperature instead of chilled, but there were still zero complaints!

Chocolate Truffle Pie
Kraft Magazine Holiday 2007, pg. 25

1 1/4 pkg. (10 squares) Baker's semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/2 c. whipping cream
4 eggs
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. flour
Whipped topping, optional, for garnish

Preheat oven to 325F. Place chocolate in a large microwaveable bowl and add whipping cream. Microwave on high for 2 minutes or until chocolate is mostly melted. Stir until the chocolate completely melts and cool slightly. 

Add eggs, sugar and flour; beat with a wire whisk until well blended. Pour into a 9" pie plate that's been coated with cooking spray. 

Bake 35 minutes or until outer half of pie is puffed but center is still slightly soft; cool. Garnish with whipped cream, if desired, and serve. Makes 10 servings.

I received compliments on this from all coworkers who tried it; poor Buppy didn't get any. Pretty sure he would have loved it. Oh well, there's always next time hun! Enjoy!

White Chip Island Cookies

My brother's birthday is today, and since he's such a great big brother, and since he asked so politely, I made him white chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookies. He's apparently a sucker for Subway's version. Funny story, the first grocery store I stopped at had 2 oz. packages of macadamia nuts for $3.50 or so. Second and third grocery stores didn't even carry 'em. Finally found 'em at Walmart (not a super center, so even though they had limited food in stock, they still luckily had the nuts), 6.5 oz. or so for $5.98. Not the cheapest nuts ever, but at that point I was just happy to have found any at all!

I checked the back of the bag of white chocolate chips, Nestle Toll House brand, and noticed that they had a recipe for White Chip Island Cookies. Since I'm not big into this type of cookie, I called my brother for advice. He'd said the cookies he likes are just like regular chocolate chip cookies, but with white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts instead. Toll House's version seemed similar to what I'd expect, but their "island" addition was coconut. My brother figured that since he likes everything else I make that has coconut in it, why not give it a try? So that's exactly what I did.

White Chip Island Cookies
Ever-so-slightly adapted from the recipe found on the Nestle Toll House bag of Premier White Morsels

1 2/3 c. all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla-nut-butter extract
1 large egg
2 c. (12 oz. package) Nestle Toll House Premier White Morsels
1 c. flaked coconut
3/4 c. chopped macadamia nuts (or walnuts)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, sugars and extract in a separate (larger) bowl until creamy. Add the egg and beat until mixed. Beat the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Stir in morsels, coconut and nuts. Here's where it got tricky for me . . .

My 1st pan, after dropping scoops of dough onto it and baking per instructions, wouldn't level out. The original oven temp called for was 375F, but the outsides were almost burning and the cookies wouldn't flatten, so the insides were still too raw. I decided then to drop my oven temp to 350F. I also decided that, after all my cookies dough blobs were on the cookies sheet, I'd wet my hands, roll them around and flatten slightly for a more even bake. It worked, and my pans became more uniformly done with no burnt edges/raw insides.

I baked each pan for approximately 9 minutes, rotating the pans after 5 minutes.

I never thought of our oven as being hotter than normal, so the temp and time at which to bake your cookies will ultimately be up to you. Only you know your oven and it's quirks. I do advise somehow squishing the cookies slightly though so you don't end up with burnt edges.

I'm not sure I'd make this recipe again. The cookies taste good and I'm sure my brother will appreciate them, but . . . I'm just curious now if I'd have better luck and less hassle with a new recipe. We'll see. Anywho, happy birthday to my wonderful brother! Enjoy!

*This post is linked to Life as Mom’s Ultimate Recipe Swap (URS) for 3/3/11, Freezer Friendly Recipes. Check her blog out for more ideas!

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies

When I call these little square of goodness sweet, it's the understatement of the year. It's like saying bacon is good. Words just can't describe, which is why I was only able to eat 1 bite per day for 4 days to finish off a small square. Buppy, along with the birthday girl and her husband, didn't have that problem. I'm guessing it's because I don't eat sweets very often, so when I do, they tend to overwhelm me.

A good friend of ours requires a gluten free diet, and since her birthday was a few weeks ago, I figured I could find a gluten free dessert recipe to make for her. Unfortunately most required me to purchase several different types of flour (nothing I keep on hand would work) . . . and I got lazy. Work was busy, we had several social outings planned, etc. I cheated.Betty Crocker to the rescue! At one point when I searched for gluten free recipes, her wonderful page popped up, and it turns out that they now make box mixes for both gluten free brownies and cookies. Sweet! They also had some recipe ideas to jazz up said box products, so I followed one of those using what I had on hand. Easy, tasty and very, very appreciated!

The original recipe can be found here, and since the only thing I changed was using butterscotch chips in place of chocolate (for the topping), I'll let you check out their site for details. I'll say this: next time, I would use chocolate chips, not butterscotch. While they were all I had on hand (which is why I subbed them), the butterscotch overwhelmed the brownie and the peanut butter. Not that they weren't still good, I just missed being able to taste the peanut butter filling. Also, I baked the brownies on the short side of the cooking window, and they were very fudgy in the middle. That's how I eat mine, but not everyone feels the same way, so if you'd prefer them baked through, I suggest going with the higher end of the suggested baking timetable. Enjoy!

Chocolate Brittle Surprise

Since Christmas is just around the corner [hey, it is in my book because I’m that girl who listens to Christmas music in July!], I thought I’d post something that has worked out beautifully as part of gift baskets for friends and coworkers during the holiday season in past years. It’s really easy to make, although be careful not to burn yourself with the hot butter/sugar mixture, ‘cause that hurts in a major way [ah, the voice of experience]! And watch it closely --- it’ll burn before ya can yell “what the . . . ”!

I made a few pans of this last year and the year before, broke ‘em up, slid ‘em into cute little holiday food bags and called it a day. And trust me, it’s not like getting fruitcake. People actually enjoy this “surprise”! No, I have no idea why it’s called "surprise" either. Perhaps because it’s made with soda crackers and that’s somewhat surprising? Hmmmmm, wish I could remember where I found the recipe . . .

Chocolate Brittle Surprise

35 unsalted soda crackers
1 c. butter
1 c. packed brown sugar
2 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350F. Cover a cookie sheet with foil and spray foil with nonstick spray. Place crackers on foil in 5x7 rows. Microwave butter on high for 2 minutes; add brown sugar, stir and microwave another 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Pour over crackers and bake 10-15 minutes, checking often starting around the 10-minute mark [to make sure the mixture does not burn]. Remove from the oven and sprinkle chips and nuts over hot crackers; spread after 2 minutes [chips should have melted]. Refrigerate 1 hour; break into pieces. This can be frozen, by the way.

See? Super duper easy! Easy as, well, chocolate brittle surprise! And I bet variations would be just as tasty as the original, like using white or butterscotch chips instead of semisweet. Don't they make peppermint ones around the holidays, too? Now I'm going to have to play around with this --- enjoy!Update: This will be linked up to Life as Mom’s Ultimate Recipe Swap for today, Thursday, 12/2/10. It's for favorite cookie recipes today, and while I realize this isn't technically a cookie, it wouldn't be the holidays around here without some of this fabulous little dessert. Check out her site for more great holiday cookie ideas!

Leftover fondue + fresh strawberries = dessert!

Father's Day was a day of laziness, a movie & a nice dinner at home. We had some leftover chocolate fondue I'd made awhile back in the fridge that needed to be used up, and some fresh strawberries too. Hmmm, what could I possibly make with both? *think*think*think* And the winner is . . . chocolate covered strawberries! Who would have ever thought?

I didn't feel like dragging out the fondue pot [we had enough dirty dishes with the rest of the meal!], so I decided to be a renegade and simply heat the chocolate in the glass dish it was stored in. Viola! Instant [almost] success! It didn't take long to melt in the microwave at all, surprisingly.

I really liked the texture of the chocolate more than regular melted chocolate by itself [the fondue had other things added to it when originally made], which made it seem softer and less brittle and breakable. Smooth and creamy baby!

I topped 3 of the strawberries with sprinkles [Buppy believes that sprinkles = happiness] and 3 with leftover crushed Oreo cookies [because those need to be used up too!]. Then I dipped 3 small graham cracker squares in the chocolate to go along with the berries. Six strawberries total, meaning 2 for each of the kids and 2 for Buppy. If you haven't noticed by now, I'm not really into sweets [eating them, that is], so I passed.

I had an emergency phone call from a family member in the middle of dinner that lasted forever, but the kids and Buppy all said they liked my creations. Hopefully they weren't lying. Then again, who wouldn't love 'em? I still have more chocolate to use up, so now I'm on the hunt to figure out what else I want to dip. Banana? Eh, been there, done that. Kiwi? Melon? Fresh mint leaves? Hmmm, I'll work on that. In the mean time, here are what my berries looked like:

Baker's One Bowl Brownies

While I can't take credit for this fantastic recipe, it's still something worth sharing for those of you who've never tried it. Actually, a lot of my recipes come from other places and aren't my original creations, but who cares? As long as it's tasty (and not too-too difficult), I'll share so you can enjoy too.

This recipe was created by those wonderful folks who make Baker's chocolate. The brownies are, I'm pretty sure, ridiculously unhealthy (I try to eat healthy most of the time, but I'm only human!) but they're easy, fudgy and downright sinful. Buppy agrees. A lot of times I'll send stuff I make into work with him as he works with a pretty great group of guys, but these puppies didn't go anywhere except into our tummies. I'll warn you now though --- they're addicting. One small piece will morph into half the pan before you can say "yum!" So without further ado, here goes...

Baker's One Bowl Brownies

Kraft Recipes

4 squares Baker's unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
2 c. sugar (I told you it wasn't healthy!)
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. flour
1 c. coarsely chopped nuts (I used pecans because my parents live on an orchard so they're free, but I'm sure walnuts or even peanuts would be good too.)

The directions say to preheat the oven 350F, but also make special note to decrease that temp to 325F if you're using a glass baking dish. I don't think I knew this the first time I made them and baked them in a glass dish at 350F; they were great. They also suggest lining a 13"x9" pan with foil so that the foil forms handles by extending over the edge of the pan, then greasing the foil. I didn't and just poured the batter directly into a 13"x9" greased glass baking pan. They still turned out, and I had no trouble getting them out of the pan.

Ok, so now that the pan's ready, melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl in the microwave until the butter is completely melted, around 2 min. on high. Stir the mixture until the chocolate is completely melted too, then stir in the sugar. Once this is all mixed up nicely,add the eggs and vanilla. I believe Baker's suggests mixing in the eggs one at a time, but I threw caution into the wind and mixed in all 3 at the same time. Ah, my rebellious streak shines through! Add the flour and nuts to your batter and mix it all up good. Then? Dump it all into the pan! Throw that puppy into the oven for about 25-30 min. The recipe says 30-35, but trust me, go with 25-30 instead. They're done when a toothpick comes out with fudgy crumbs on it. Viola! You're now the best brownie maker ever (provided you like the fudgy kind of brownies anyway, which I do!) Enjoy!

Update: I'm linking this fabulous recipe to Life as Mom's Ultimate Recipe Swap for today, 2/4. Wouldn't these be great for Superbowl Sunday? I sure think so. Now, off to check out her other great contributors!