TWD: Bittersweet Brownies

Were going to have a lot of lasts over @ Tuesdays with Dorie... and this is the last brownie. I would be sad but its not possible. If this is the last brownie you ever make tis a good one fo sho.

Now I talk a lot about brownie belly, and for some reason this brownie doesn't do that. Not that I couldn't have gone back for seconds and fourths and inflicted brownie belly on myself by just plain eating too many because they is goo-ood. But somehow, they are truly satisfyingly perfect forcing you to pace your brownie intake over several delicious days instead of just one day of glutenous punishment.

If you want to try some brownie perfection head over to see Leslie... she's got the goods over on her blog Lethally Delicious hmmmmm seriously fitting blog title for this recipe no?

TWD: Salt & Pepper Cocoa Shortbreads

Salt in a cookie sure, but pepper? Very intriguing, like those savory chocolates from Vosges I'm to chicken to try.....

I used Black Onyx cocoa but cut it down to 1/3rd of a cup because I know how this cocoa can just zap the moisture out of anything. This would be a fun recipe to mess around with because they are easy to make. The Fluer de sel is addictive and the texture of the shortbread is melt in your mouth delicious. If you crave salty chocolately goodness these are the perfect PMS food. I should seriously keep these only for the girls at work and hand them out when necessary. Tho the boys do get PMSy too, I don't think chocolate and saltyness has the same ability to thwart a crying bitch fit for them.

I'm gonna go have another cookie :) but you can go make your own by getting the recipe from Buttercream Barbie.

TWD: Classic Brownies

Truth be told I should be making icing for decorated cookies... but always the procrastinator... I would rather write about Brownies for this weeks Tuesday with Dorie recipe. Besides I haven't had the time to join the group lately, be it sweltering temperatures or lack of time keeping me from my duty to bring you tasty treats.

Heck there probably isn't anyone reading this darn blog anymore as it is but its still is fun to write and with some the crap I say its probably best if it is only me reading it anyhow ;)

This recipe is brought you by the letter C for super Chocolately and the number 2 which is how many times Miss Anne Strawberry, who was out picker extraordinaire for the week, has gotten to choose a Tuesdays with Dorie recipe! You can grab the recipe from her here.

BTW, this is 4 points on the WW Richter scale if anyone cares to know, recipe as written, sans nuts.

TWD: Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Cookies

I haven't had a lot of time lately to bake with the TWDers. With special cakes to make and being all Hawaii Five 0 for a for a quick minute... sadly a lot of fantastic recipes have past me by never to be seen again.

This week I really wanted to make the effort and bake along with everyone. The recipe sounded really good but really these cookies were a pain in the arse! They stuck to whatever I tried to bake them on, until finally I gave up.

You see that little plate there with approximately 6 little itty bitty sandwich cookies... that's all I managed to finish.... hmph! whatever sticky cookies from hell.  I shall rewind a few weeks and make a date nut loaf instead just to spite you.....:P

Despite my shady outcome you can always give it a try yourself by going over to Spike Bakes for the recipe... I'm sure they didn't dare stick to a thing in her kitchen.

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

Packed with loads of chocolate, cinnamon and a little oatmeal to take away the guilt. These were like little easy bake brownies.

Thanks to the gals over at Bake with Us for choosing such a simple tasty treat for Valentine's day week. You can find the full recipe here.

TWD: Long Winded Bundt Cake

Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake... that's a bit much for a recipe name. Its so long I had to go pilfer it from our host this week instead of trying to remember what it was called. 

You can visit Jennifer at Cooking Comfort for the full on recipe and be sure to visit the other bakers at Tuesdays with Dorie for a better example of how to get your swirl on.

TWD: Midnight Crackles

So I've been telling everyone at work that my New Years Resolution is to be a slacker.... so getting these cookies done on Wednesday falls right into my evil plan.

I used Black Onyx Cocoa which made them extremely chocolatey. They are a little tedious to make but worth the trouble and truly worthy of the Tuesdays with Dorie's 3 Year Anniversary! Thanks to Laurie of Slush and Julie of Someone's In the Kitchen for picking the recipe and keeping thing running for us all.

TWD: Coffee Break Muffins

This was a super easy recipe to mix up that took me forever to actually bake. Since I didn't want to turn on the oven I baked them in a mini-muffin pan in my trusty toaster oven in like a billion batches... ok it just felt that way but by the second pan I was cursing my laziness!

I think this is a recipe best the next day, they mellowed out in flavor and the texture is much nicer.

You can grab the full recipe from our host this week Rhiani over at Chocoholic Anonymous.

When I was arranging the muffins for their glamor shot I picked up a muffin that had me rolling with laughter....

Why so serious?

TWD: Espresso Chocolate Shortbread

The weather has smiled upon us and the temperature plummeted to a tolerable level over the weekend. Can I get wOOt wOOt!

With the ability to willfully turn my oven on, I made the Espresso Chocolate Shortbread (chosen by Donna over at Life's to Short ) on Sunday night. They are ... uhhh how do you say....not good. This totally makes me sad because they smelled delicious when they were baking. Like dreadfully addictive good kind of smell but they are just blah. This is probably not due to the recipe, but the ingredients I used. The chocolate was very dark and the shortbread recipe doesn't call for much sugar so they are just bland old bittery hunks of nothingness. Eh... whats a cookie monster to do! I guess god can bless you with good weather so you can bake.... and then he thoughtfully puts you on a cookie diet so you can still wedge your butt into your office chair. Thanks for looking out G!

TWD: Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream

I always wonder why I never make ice cream after I make some. It's fairly simple straightforward and easy to do every single time. Maybe its because there is patience involved and you know how I feel 'bout that....waiting is not my strong suite.

It came out a little grainy, probably because of the chocolate that I used but otherwise it was pretty delicious. I mixed in some mini dehydrated marshmallows because I'm stuck with a gigantic bag of them. Never underestimate the power of dehydration because a pound of mini dehydrated marshmallows is shockingly bigger than one would imagine. At least to me it was...... A fresh baked sugar cookie cup and a little squeezy chocolate out of the fridge finished it up quite nicely.

Great choice this week from Katrina at Baking and Boys! you can find the full recipe on her blog here.

TWD: brrr...ownies

Go grab a big glass of cold milk kiddies cuz your gonna need it this week! Dark rich chocolate brownies wrapped around chunks of peppermint patty that turned oozy & gooey in the oven. A sinfully delicious way to have chocolate...

You can find the recipe for the brrr...ownies over at Crazy Blessed Life.

TWD: Apricot Jam Chocolate Cake

My Dressy Chocolate Loaf cake turned into an Apricot Jam Chocolate Cake. I only made 1/2 the recipe and baked it at 325 in my toaster oven using a 5x3 round cake pan. It came out perfectly filling the whole house with an enticing chocolate odor.
When it finally cooled, I sliced it into 4 layers. Adding apricot jam to two of them and a 1/2 recipe of this super shiny gooey glaze for the third layer and finally topping. Interestingly enough, for the glaze I subbed in agave syrup because I was out of corn syrup. I may do this every time, it was far less sticky with a different kind of sweetness that went nicely with the super moist cake.

TWD: Un-White Chocolate Brownies

Marthe of Culinary Delights chose White Chocolate Brownies this week for Tuesdays w/Dorie. Since I don't particularly care for White Chocolate, I switched it out for dark chocolate. I also was worried about all the super gooey reports, so I added about 1/4 cup more flour to the mix because gooey brownies are not my thing either. The whole thing came out so un-brownie like that they can't even really be called that anymore. They were light and fluffy and moist and yummy and nothing like a dense brownie at all.

Chocolate Cheesecake

When I was in culinary school they had us make cheesecake in a regular cake pan. This was a little scary at first because sheesh I've used a spring form pan most my whole life, how the hell are we going to get a cheesecake out of a regular pan!

Here's what you do...line the bottom of a regular cake pan with parchment just like making a cake. Par-bake your crust, and bake your cheesecake like usual. Let the cheesecake chill out overnight in the pan in the fridge. The next day, take your pan put it directly over your burner on a high flame, and spin it around for a few seconds to slightly warm the crust, run a knife carefully around the sides then invert (yes really) the cheesecake onto a cardboard or plate, it will plop right out. Turn it right side up on your serving plate. Voila! Easy cheesy! You will never have to buy an uber-expensive spring form pan or try and keep your water bath from seeping into it or find a place to store the blasted thing.....

This was the Low & Lush Chocolate Cheesecake from Baking from My Home to yours page 243. The crust is a combo of sugar cookies, almonds and turbanado sugar. The sugar stays crunchy because there isn't much to dissolve the granules when you make a press in crust. This was great to add a little crunch to the creamy texture of the filling. The top was a dark chocolate 50/50 ganache poured on after it was cooled down a bit.

TWD: Quick Classic Berry Tart

A super simple berry tart was chosen by Cooking with Cristine this week for Tuesdays with Dorie.
I was this close to skipping it...... see the hubs doesn't like berries, because they are too seedy. His distaste for strawberries is almost cause for divorce but I came to realize that it really just means more strawberries for moi! So I made this tart anyway. With a dastardly plan to keep his slice berry free. To please his pallet I made chocolate pastry cream instead of vanilla by tossing in 2 oz. of chocolate into a 1/2 recipe. And I lined the tart with a slather of white chocolate before filling it with the cream which gave the crust an extra snappy texture. So everyone is a wiener!

TWD: Mocha-Pistachio Bundt Cake

Today was a gloomy chilly Sunday. A perfect day for filling the house with the warmth of the oven and the sweet smells of baking. A sweeping contrast to our 90 degree temps of last week which deemed it too hot to bake.
I couldn't pass up last weeks recipe without trying it. I have to say that the chocolate portion is my favorite part. I swapped out the walnuts for some pistachios that I already had ground-up from another project and slathered the exterior in a gooey chocolate glaze. You can find the recipe over at When in Doubt....Leave it at 350. And since there is never enough chocolate... the recipe for the glaze is below.

Super Shiny Gooey Glaze

• 4oz. Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 oz. Un-salted Butter
• 1 tbsp.  Coco-Powder
• 1 tbsp. Vanilla (or get your booze on)
• 2 oz. Corn Syrup

Melt the chocolate and butter over a baine marie. Measure corn syrup and vanilla/booze in a glass measuring cup. Once the chocolate has melted remove it from the heat and warm the corn syrup and vanilla/booze by placing the glass measuring cup directly into the hot water bath. Sift coco-powder into the warmed syrup and stir to combine. Pour that whole mix into the melted chocolate and stir until its shiny. Spread onto bundt cake immediately as this sets up pretty quickly.

TWD: Mini Bundts

Or bundent cake as my honey would say... well we ain't got no mini bundts and we ain't got no milk chocolate either... but what I did have turned into some tasty little cakes regardless.

I replaced the milk chocolate with 1/2 white 1/2 dark (70%), scooped the batter into a cupcake pan and loaded them all up with a nugget of dark chocolate ganache before tossing them in the oven to bake. I was surprised that the ganache just sat there eying me the whole time the cakes were baking..... I was truly expecting them to bubble over into a chocolatey mess. I plated up the warm cakes with a dollop of whipped cream (or whoopcream as the honey would say) and a drizzle of chocolate caramel (he doesn't have any snazzy saying for that tho).

You can grab the recipe from the Queen herself... The Queen of Quite a Lot that is... over at I'm Right About Everything.

TWD: Cocoa-Nana Bread

I had such high hopes for this weeks choice of Cocoa-Nana bread because I always have some old bananas laying around. It smelled delicious baking and looks delicious but this came out dry and not very good in my opinion (but the hubster likes it) maybe sitting overnight will help distribute the moisture a bit? Maybe I'm just stuck in my ways because my last few attempted banana recipes just couldn't cut it either. Black & White Banana Loaf, the combo of nutmeg, lemon & rum didn't agree with me, I couldn't even keep it in the house long enough for anyone else to try it. Banana Butterscotch Muffins, the butterscotch chips overpowered the faint banana flavor. Reining banana leftover champion still remains Banana Bread from an old Betty Crocker's cookbook.

You can find this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie recipe over at Obsessed with Baking by Steph.

TWD: Cherry Fudge Brownies

In my opinion the imperfectly flaky top and the chewy cherry interior didn't need the topping that transforms this simple brownie into a delicious torte. It's a good thing too because I didn't have all the ingredients for the Tuesdays with Dorie recipe chosen by April from Short + Rose.

Sure I coulda just ran out and got them, but its been a weird few months... and being frugal is the name of the game. I skipped the cherry directions entirely... folding in some chopped dark chocolate covered cherries that I happened to have in the cupboard already. It turned out pretty good too. In fact I don't think my honey simply fell asleep last night... oh no he fell into a deep chocolate coma after consuming two slices of this baby!

TWD: Split Level Pudding

There's nothing quite so un-photogenic as pudding or any custard for that matter...pair that will my horrifying photography skills (the one thing I didn't inherit from my dad) and you get this... yu...mm.. ok no not so much. It tasted way better than this looks and well pudding is for eating not for photographs so :P

The recipe was quick and easy. I did muck up the ganache part, it was a little grainy. I probably didn't heat the cream enough to melt the chocolate properly, no matter we will definitely polish off the 4 that are left in the fridge.

You can head over to Garret's site The Flavor of Vanilla for the easy peasy recipe, or turn to page 384~385 in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.