I am in the process of polishing off the last of the Birthday chocolate, which is pretty amazing because my birthday was the end of August and I've made it last clear into October! (Nobody needs to know that I made a haul on chocolate this year, though.) 1 chocolate covered biscotti and 3 dark chocolate truffles to go....

I Can't Believe....

that I didn't eat one bite of Belgian chocolate while I was in Belgium*....but it's OK because I brought lots of it home to savor and (maybe) share. I was too busy eating all the other yummy food, like chocolate croissants and rice pie and tomato crème brûlée and Kate's famous spaghetti and Paul's famous barbeque and fish soup and fresh macarons and shrimp brochette and....well, check out pictures here:
http://laurie-hitandmiss.blogspot.com/

*The sample we were given in one of the chocolate shops doesn't count because it was white chocolate, and that's not the real deal!

I Digress...

Saturday indulgence, 9:30am

 
Sadly, this blog has become nothing more than a confessional for my errant ways. But I know that just around the corner there are some great adventures with chocolate which I’m just going to enjoy. Patience, please!

Chocolate Happens

I haven't had much to write about on this blog for a while because chocolate is what inspires me, and I haven't eaten much of it lately. However, yesterday I went into the lunchroom at work and, lo and behold, there were three boxes of donuts. And milk. So I ate half of a chocolate donut with frosting and drank a glass of milk.

When I went back to my desk Juliana had left me a whole donut with chocolate frosting and cream filling, and a glass of milk. It wasn't very long before it was all gone....

.... nope, I'm not even embarrassed to admit it, and I really don't like donuts all that much!

Oh, Crumb

For the past 3 months I have been diligent about exercising and eating well, to the point that I have hardly eaten any sweets, including, believe it or not, chocolate. I haven't binged once! This weekend I was feeling pretty proud of myself because we have had two events where really, really good food was served and I managed to be quite reasonable about it. Friday night the chocolate cake looked divine. Keven gave me one bite of his and I was completely satisfied. (When he offered me a second bite I only ate it because I didn't want to be rude.) Tonight at an open house there was another marvelous array of food and desserts, including LOTS of chocolate goodies. I was pretty proud of myself because all I had there was a glass of ICE WATER!!!! I was literally giving myself pats on the back and congratulating myself on being so dang good.

While we were gone a friend returned a casserole dish, which she had thoughtfully filled with heart-shaped brownies. I ate two (Keven only knows about the first one). They sure were good. I had to go brush my teeth to keep from eating more, but I'm already thinking I'll have one in the morning before I go running...

Oh, Fudge

Can you believe that I'm not really a big fan of fudge? Too often it is just too sugary and the chocolate flavor is overwhelmed by the competition. However, some of the best fudge ever was made by my oh-so-sweet mother-in-law, and I would guard a gift of her fudge like a mother bear. Spending years perfecting the art, she told me she learned that the best thing to do with a batch of fudge that didn't measure up was to spread it on graham crackers and let the boys have at it. I think they will always be thankful for her generosity! One of my favorite gifts from her was a sauté pan with a batch of her homemade fudge in it. YUM! Is it weird that I still think I can smell the chocolate all these years later when I make an omelet in that pan?

Chocolate Genes

My mother, obviously, has been a great influence in my life. But I think my passion for chocolate is more than influence; I'm quite sure it's genetic. However, I do know that I was greatly impressed about the importance of chocolate when I came home from 1st grade one day to find my mother relaxing on the living room sofa with a magazine and a WHOLE BOX OF CHOCOLATES!!! She was savoring one - I can actually remember seeing the ooey-gooey insides - and she even offered the box to me to choose whichever one I wanted! I was giddy. I was exhilerated. I was conflicted. Do I pick the one that obviously had a nut filling? Or the one with a pink rose on top? Or the dark chocolate with the white chocolate squiggly design? Maybe I could be absolutely careless and pick something randomly. I don't remember what my actual choice was but I do remember biting into it.....and being even more surprised. It was a rubber chocolate, as were all the rest in the box. April Fool's!

This sweet little plate will be sitting on my counter on April Fool's Day just inviting trouble - can you tell which two are edible and which two are not? I also have yummy looking hard candies that are supposed to taste like fish - can't say for sure because I'm not going to try one myself. Oh, and some fake dog mess that will be strategically placed for Keven & Kris' benefit. (Thanks for the inspirations, mom!)

Plane Truth

IF I am given enough notice and IF I am not overwhelmed with essential "stuff to be done now" I make sure my pilot son takes bags of cookies to his crew when he flies through El Paso. OK, it's only happened twice now, but I like to think it's the beginning of a tradition! And IF I get the special bags that are in every front seat pocket of every plane, that is what I use to send the cookies along.
ps - Kelly, you know I'll do the same for you!

This is the basic Nestle's chocolate chip cookie recipe, I just use the chunky chocolate chips and double the quantity of nuts (Keven's requirement), and I only chop the nuts slightly. They are really chunky cookies. I also use the guidelines for higher elevations because even though we have lots of sandy beaches around here we are not at sea level!

The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie

2 ¼ cups unsifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup margarine (2 sticks, softened)
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups chopped pecans
2 cups chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 375.
2. Stir flour with baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl cream together butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed ingredients. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.
4. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly before removing to cooling racks.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

For higher altitudes: Increase flour to 2 ½ cups; decrease sugars to 2/3 cup; add 2 teaspoons water with eggs and vanilla.

It's Almost Heaven in the Avenues

If nobody has brought you a box of premium chocolates lately and you live in the SLC area you have my permission to treat yourself! Get on over to 390 E. 4th Avenue where you will find Hatch Family Chocolates, run by Steve Hatch (a second cousin) and Katie Masterson. It's good stuff, I promise!
Deseret News ran a great story about the couple on February 10th - no doubt they had a few more customers for Valentine's Day orders this year! And "Little Chocolatiers" premiered as a special on TLC in December, with more episodes scheduled for March.

(Oh, and they also sell fabulous ice cream!)

If you need to pull a good prank on someone you can do what another family member I know did (I won't mention names, but he was the cookie monster mentioned in an earlier blog): he bought a nice box of Hatch Family chocolates, took a bite out of each one and put it back in the box. He then did a new shrink-wrap on it, added a nice bow and gave it as a gift. The receiver was more than excited to receive a box of these "Famous all over Utah" chocolates but I'm not sure the giftee is still on speaking terms with the giftor.

Brownie Points

A belated award to Bobbi who gave me this wonderful plate as a gift:



And to Ron and Linda who brought us this gift from their most recent cruise through the Panama Canal:



And look how perfectly they go together!



(You didn't notice how many truffles are missing, did you??!)

Fudgies

What could be better than chocolate?
Duh - a new baby!
Noah David was born yesterday to our cousins Sunny and Derek, and I think he looks just like his big brother Hyrum!
Sunny wowed us big time when she shared her fabulous Fudgies with us. We begged for the recipe, and were thrilled to learn that it isn't tricky at all. She made a double batch at our reunion this summer and somebody (I won't name names) cut into one pan before she even had a chance to serve them. They are addicting and dangerous.
I think I better go whip up a batch in honor of this handsome little guy's birth....

Fudgies
Melt 2 sticks of butter (or margerine)
Pour over:
1 package of crushed graham crackers
1 1/2 cups ( 18 oz jar ) peanut butter
4 cups powdered sugar

Mix all together and press in a 9x13 pan

Melt one tablespoon of Crisco with 1 (12 oz) package of chocolate chips. Spread on top and chill in refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before cutting.

Chocolate ABC's

All I want is chocolate
Bring me chocolate.
Can I have some chocolate?
Do you have any chocolate?
Even a little bit of chocolate?




Feed me chocolate.
Gotta have chocolate.
Hand over the chocolate.
I want chocolate.
Just plain chocolate.
Keep the chocolate coming.


Let's eat some chocolate!
More chocolate, please.
Need chocolate now.



Oh, the chocolate.
Pretty please....chocolate?
¡Quiero chocolate!


Really, I need chocolate.
Send chocolate!
There's never enough chocolate.
"U" got any chocolate?
Vats of chocolate....
Where's my chocolate?



X-cuse me....do you have some chocolate?
"Y" isn't there more chocolate?
Zzzz....I dream of chocolate....

It's Valentine's Day ~ Indulge!

Beware The Cookie Monster

The story the way I heard it was that my sister and my mom were making Oreos for a youth fireside, but they could not keep ahead of my brother-in-law who was eating them as quickly as they put them on the platters. My mom had a great plan to foil him: secretly, she generously spread one of the cookies with toothpaste and made sure it was the next one he took.
He didn't even hesitate after the first bite, and after polishing off the cookie he remarked, "Wow, I like the mint-flavored ones the best!"



2 recipes follow - one is really easy, but the other is so much better it's worth the extra effort! If you have a cookie monster in your house make sure he gets the ones frosted with toothpaste.

Homemade Oreo Cookies
2 Devil’s Food cake mixes
4 eggs
1 cup shortening
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix all ingredients together until well-blended. Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls; place on cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes.
3. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet.
Filling: Cream together 8 ounces cream cheese, 3 cups powdered sugar, and ¼ cup butter (softened).
Frost the backs of the cookies and place together to make sandwiches.


Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla-Cream Filling

Makes 30 sandwich cookies

For the Chocolate Wafers:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room- temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the Vanilla-Cream Filling:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375 degrees.

In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2-3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

Let Him Eat Cake!

In recognition of my sweetie's birthday today I am posting the recipe for his favorite cake. Growing up, his family's birthday cake tradition was a burnt-sugar cake, which is really good. I tried, I really tried, to make one as good as his mom's, but after the carmelizing sugar blew up one time too many (yes, I still have scars), I opted for a new tradition. When I learned he likes German chocolate cake I decided to give it a try. The recipe is straight off the box of the Baker's German chocolate you can buy in the baking aisle. It's a labor of love but he's more than worth the effort (and I always add extra pecans)!

The mess in my kitchen at 3:35pm today:



Success - 3 unbroken cake rounds



Final results: One Happy Birthday Boy!



German Chocolate Cake

1 pkg. (4 oz.) German chocolate
1/2 cup water
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
eggs, separated
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cover bottoms of 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with wax paper; grease sides of pans. Microwave chocolate and water in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 to 2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after 1 min. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
2. Mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in melted chocolate and the vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beating until well blended after each addition.
3. Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently stir into batter. Pour evenly into prepared pans.
4. Bake 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Immediately run small metal spatula around cake layers in pans. Cool in pans 15 min.; remove layers from pans to wire racks. Remove and discard wax paper. Cool cake layers completely. Spread Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting between cake layers and onto top of cake.
5. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cover bottoms of 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with wax paper; grease sides of pans. Microwave chocolate and water in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 to 2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after 1 min. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
6. Mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in melted chocolate and the vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beating until well blended after each addition.
7. Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently stir into batter. Pour evenly into prepared pans.
8. Bake 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Immediately run small metal spatula around cake layers in pans. Cool in pans 15 min.; remove layers from pans to wire racks. Remove and discard wax paper. Cool cake layers completely. Spread Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting between cake layers and onto top of cake.

Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting

4 egg yolks
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
(don’t be cheap – use real
butter!)
1 pkg. (7 oz.) flaked coconut
(about 2-2/3 cups)
1-1/2 cups chopped pecans

1. Beat egg yolks, milk and vanilla in large saucepan with wire whisk until well blended. Add sugar and butter; cook on medium heat 12 min. or until thickened and golden brown, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
2. Add coconut and pecans; mix well. Cool to room temperature and of desired spreading consistency.