Dark Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons

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American macaroons, chocolate, coconut, dark chocolate, decadent, dessert, dessert recipe, dessert table, egg whites, gourmet, macaroon, postaday2011, recipe, snack, sweets, sweets table

MIA: My internet has been horrible this past week, unable to access it for more than 10 minutes a session. Arrrg!!!

Coconut and dark chocolate have long been two ingredients I love together. So of course on Mother’s Day, I made a batch of tasty coconut macaroons (as well as some jumbo chocolate covered strawberries).

Dark Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients:
3-4 large egg whites, 1/2 c. sugar, 1 Tbs. almond extract, 1 pk. shredded coconut, dark chocolate

Directions:
Preheat oven 300°F. Grease baking sheet and set aside. In food processor, briefly chop 1/2 of the coconut so it breaks into smaller pieces. Whip together egg whites, sugar and extract. Mix in coconut and stir. I sprinkled in some flour and rolled mixture out like dough, using a cookie cutter to shape. You can simply dollop on baking tray or use an icing bag to decoratively shape macaroons. Bake for about 15 minutes, tops should become golden brown. If they’re not browning and you’re afraid of over drying macaroons, remove from oven and use a baker’s torch to brown tops. Remove macaroons from tray and place on cooling rack. Dip into dark chocolate and cool to harden.

For Cinco de Mayo, I made these with lime zest and rum extract. Mmm… 

What was your Mother’s Day treat???

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Versatile Choux – Cream Puffs, Profiteroles or Mini Eclairs

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brunch, choux, cream puffs, dessert, desserts, eclairs, French baking, French cooking, French pastry, gourmet, gourmet brunch, mini food, postaday2011, profiteroles, sweets, sweets table, treats

Nanny’s Cream Puffs
Hubster loves sweets, I enjoy them too. We don’t always agree on the same treats though, except for this one. I decided to whip up a batch and everyone could choose their own filling. This recipe comes from a yellowed recipe card in my grandmother’s rusty recipe box, but I’m not sure of the original origins. I’ve made a few minor modifications, but not enough to call it my own.

Cream Puffs

Choux Ingredients:
6 Tbsp. butter softened, 1 c. warm water, 3/4 c. flour, 1/4 c. 10x sugar, 3 eggs, 1/2 tsp. almond extract, pinch of fresh ground sea salt (omit if using salted butter), 5 oz. finely grated dark chocolate

Choux Directions:
Preheat oven 400°F. Grease and flour two baking sheets. Sift flour and set aside. Beat eggs and set aside. In a small saucepan bring butter and water to a boil. Add flour, extract, sugar and salt to saucepan and beat until mixture pulled away from the sides. Remove from heat allow to cool a bit (you don’t want scrambled eggs in your choux)  and beat in half the eggs, slowly add in remaining eggs until dough becomes smooth (you might not need all the eggs). Drop by the tablespoonful on trays (next time I might roll them into balls). Bake for 30 minutes or until the are golden and puffed. Use a bamboo skewer to prick each puff and place bake in the oven for about 10 more minutes. Cool puffs on wire rack. Use an icing press to fill with pudding or whipped cream, cut a slit  and use a melon-baller to fill with ice cream. Melt chocolate in double boiler and dip the tops of puff. Keep refrigerated or frozen.

For Profiteroles: Fill with ice-cream

For Eclair Puffs: Fill with vanilla pudding

For Cream Puffs: Fill with fresh whipped cream (try adding a pinch of nutmeg to cram before filling

Mine taste great, but the don’t look perfect, but I don’t think they turned out badly for a first attempt.

Do you prefer profiteroles, eclairs or cream puffs?

(Hot) Dark Chocolate Pudding

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almond, baked goods, baked pudding, cake, chocolate, chocolate almond, chocolate lava cake, chocolate pudding, chocolate recipe, dark chocolate, dark chocolate pudding, dessert, dessert recipes, dessert table, hot pudding, pudding, recipe, romantic dessert, self-saucing pudding, sweets, sweets table

I’ve been looking for a good chocolate pudding recipe. Not the North American idea of pudding, I mean a proper baked pudding that’s more like a chocolate lava cake. I found a recipe last December and gave it a try, but it just wasn’t what I was expected.

I gave in to today’s chocolate cravings and to finally vamp up the recipe to fulfill my chocolate and baking desires…

Dark Chocolate Pudding

Chocolate Pudding Ingredients:
1 c. flour, 3/4 c. sugar, 2 Tbsp. Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder, 2 Tbsp. baking powder, 1/8 tsp. salt, 1 Tbsp. almond extract, 1/2 c. milk, 2 Tbsp. melted butter (or vegetable oil)

Chocolate Sauce Ingredients:
1 3/4 c. hot water, 3/4 c. light brown sugar (packed), 2 Tbs. dark brown sugar (packed), 3 Tbsp. Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder,  2 tsp. flavoring of your choice

*I used raspberry flavoring, but think mint, orange, vanilla, strawberry…

Chocolate Pudding Directions:
Preheat Oven to 350°F. Spray 4 glass ramekins with cooking spray  and set on a baking sheet. Mix together dry ingredients. Add extract, milk and melted butter and stir well (it so be the consistency of brownie batter). Divide mixture into ramekins.

Chocolate Sauce Directions:
Dissolve sugar in hot water. Add cocoa powder and stir well. Pour sauce over each ramekin. Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool before eating, serve warm.

*Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar, crème fraîche, raspberry/blackberry drizzle, a few berries, or any combination!

WARNING!: You will burn your tongue and mouth if you cannot resist the urge to dig into these right out of the oven!

Refrigerate any uneaten pudding ramekin, microwave when ready to enjoy!

Mmmm… Tall glass of milk anyone???

What’s your favorite chocolate dessert?

Sugar Cookie Recipe

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cookie recipe, dessert, dessert recipe, dessert table, sugar recipe, sweets table

I don’t normally post more than once per day, but I had a few email requests for my sugar cookie recipe to use as a base for the Fruit Pizza. Sugar cookies are a tasty classic that can be fun to decorate.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:
3 c. flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1 3/4 c. sugar,  1/4 c. light brown sugar, 1 tsp. almond extract, 1 Tbsp. lemon zest, 1 Tbsp. lemon juice, 1 c. butter (softened), 2 eggs

Directions:
Preheat oven 350ºF. Mix together flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, use a mixer to cream together butter, sugar, almond extract, lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix in eggs. Slowly add flour mixture. Place spoonfuls on greased baking sheet . Flatten cookies slightly and dust with sanding sugar or sprinkles. Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*Sanding sugar, sprinkles and icing optional for decorating.

What is your favorite way to decorate a sugar cookie?

Red Velvet Baby Bundt

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bundt, bundt cake, chocolate ganache, cupcakes, dessert, dessert table, ganache, mini bundt, red velvet cake, sweets, sweets table

Hubster is almost done finals (the past two weeks here have been crazy), so I’ve been the stressed one and needed some therapeutic baking. I decided to celebrate my blogiversary and him finishing this semester with a cake. Red Velvet Cake. I have this idea in my head that it is a southern recipe/tradition, but there’s no fact backing it. Maybe it’s due to Steel Magnolias or Jessica Simpson. Anyway red velvet cake can be so delicious.

Usually red velvet cake is layers and uses butter cream frosting or cream cheese frosting, but last night I decided to drizzle it with chocolate ganache. I used my baby bundt pans (so fun!). My recipe isn’t quite yet perfected, but it’s quite tasty. I think two more batches and I’ll have it down. Hint: Use dark baking cocoa…

Red Velvet Cake

Look at that color!

Peanut-butter Frosting

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cake, cupcakes, dessert, dessert recipe, dessert table, frosting, icing, peanut-butter, peanut-butter frosting, peanut-butter icing, sweets table

As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, I lost my peanut-butter icing recipe. A friend gave me her husband’s recipe, which I though was too sweet. I was able to recreate my frosting recipe last weekend, and had a few requests to share it with you.

Peanut-butter Frosted Cupcake

Ingredients:
2 c. peanut-butter, 2/3 c. butter, 1 c. confectioner’s sugar, 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract, 1 c. milk

Directions:
Allow butter to soften. Microwave peanut-butter for about 30 seconds to loosen. Using an electric blender, mix all ingredients together until well combined. Frost cake and keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Cutesy Cupcakes for a Blushing Bride

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Baking, bridal shower, cupcake tree, cupcakes, dessert, dessert table, shower, sweets, sweets table, work party, work shower

One of our sweet new teachers is getting married next month (yay! a new young wifey) and yesterday we surprised her with a bridal shower.

Usually we order a cake from a bakery or have someone local and talented make a nice cake. Our school’s social committee has an unspoken rule, chocolate peanut-butter cakes for every baby or bridal shower. Of course if you deviate from the tradition, they’ll tell you about it. Our cake plan fell through, so I offered to take over. I love any excuse to use my cupcake tree and cupcake carriers, so I asked the committee if cupcakes would suffice. Now, I’m not a fan of the chocolate peanut-butter combinations (except, Reese’s Pieces or GS Peanut-butter Patties), so I used this opportunity to my advantage (plus with all the peanut allergies!). I made half of the cupcakes chocolate peanut-butter and make the other half yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I added chocolate curls and chocolate shavings to the top of the peanut-butter frosting.

Cutesy Cupcakes

I didn’t have time to make the cupcakes from scratch, so I doctored up the cake mix with pudding mix and other add-ins. I made the cupcakes the day before and enjoyed using my icing press to decorate the tops. I lost my peanut-butter icing recipe, so a friend gave me her husband’s creation. I started to whip up a batch and quickly changed several things. I’ll post the recipe later…

Cupcake Tree

During my planning time, I had to have another teacher hold open a side door, so I could sneak them in and hide them from the bride-to-be. We set up her shower in the school library, where we thought she was attending an after-school meeting. We pulled off the surprise! And everyone enjoyed the cupcakes (only two more peanut-butter one were eaten than chocolate). I always get just as many comments on my cupcake stand and carriers!