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A coffee table book is a heavy Barnes and Nobles book filled with vivid photography of either travel, food, architecture, or anything inspiring- the pictures are big and beautiful and it sits on your coffee table for guests to think you’re refined. Chocolate box is my coffee table book and here’s one recipe from it.
Now, fortunately these cookies came out way too plain and boring, so I added Andes on top and I swear they taste just like thin mints girl scout cookies. Yum.
Chocolate Creams
7 oz. semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces
2 tbsp heavy cream
2 cups powdered sugar
Andes mint chocolates, chopped
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Melt 2 oz. of the chocolate in a large, heatproof bowl and set over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Stir in the cream and remove the bowl from the heat.
Sift the powdered sugar into the melted chocolate and then, using a fork, mix well together. Knead to form a firm, smooth, pliable mixture.
Lightly dust a counter with drinking chocolate powder, turn out the mixture, and roll out to ¼ inch, then cut into circles, using a 1-inch round cutter.
Transfer to the prepared cookie sheet and let stand for about 12 hours, or overnight, until set and dry.
When the chocolate creams have set, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Melt the remaining chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Using 2 forks, carefully dip each chocolate cream into the melted chocolate. Lift them quickly, letting any excess chocolate drain against the side of the bowl, and place on the prepared cookie sheet. Sprinkle with Andes. Let set. About 20 cookies.
This video will cause you to go through a phase where you’ll google images of your favorite flowers and save them to your computer- just for references on how to pipe them on cupcakes. Just skip to 1:55 on the video to get to the good stuff.
My grandmother kept a variety of Wilson piping tips in an old cool whip container that I still use to this day. They are probably 30 years old- and still in the same cool whip container. Maybe this explains why my mom keeps cool whip containers.
You’ll get some good use out of practicing to pipe these flowers. You’ll help out with raising funds for your class bake sale and have a lot of fun teaching your friends how to do it for a wonderful girl’s bridal shower. <3
I knew 4 ounces of white chocolate would be really hard to taste so I used eight ounces and it came out wonderful. This cheesecake was dense and perfectly smooth, with no cracks. Even by doubling the chocolate, it has a slight white chocolate flavor that’s accentuated nicely with my raspberry sauce.
Of course, I did not make the brandy sauce. Ew.
This was my first fudge recipe. I’ll be honest and say I made them only once probably about eight years ago but I remember they were really good and my friends wanted the recipe. So there you go. It was not a creamy fudge- they were hard and kept their shape even out of the fridge, but they melted in your mouth. The nuts were a nice touch.
Tip: fudge makes a great gift! Especially in decorated boxes with pretty tissue paper.
Food network needs a show like Everyday Baking. And also one where they teach you how to make wedding cakes. As much as I like Ace of Cakes, they need to market more how-to’s. I'd watch it.
Everyday baking’s three layered apple cake is moist and delicious. It’s not a delicate cake- it’s hardy and filling. Anytime you see applesauce, pumpkin, or grated fruit in cake- you know it’s going to be moist, and have great texture. I didn’t try the brown sugar buttercream but I really need to because the sound of that flavor profile would fit perfectly for this cake. And it won’t be gritty because you cook the egg whites and sugar- so actually, it’s a brown sugar swiss meringue buttercream. Oh I need to try it.
My sister first made this recipe due to her love of coffee. I can affirm this just by looking at our hard copy of the recipe- ingredients splattered on it everywhere. Thankfully for me, it did not taste like coffee, it just gives the chocolate flavor a boost of intensity. The cake is really moist and dense. The pudding is marvelous- perfect chocolate flavor, creamy, and smooth. Both did not taste like they came from a box. These are from scratch and the hard work pays off! Now, the icing was not a favorite. I think the coffee ruined the texture- made it curdle. Just top the cake with more pudding!
Modifications: Trust me, look at the recipe. 4 cups of chips in one 13x9 dessert? Thats alot. It was really sweet. The 3 cups of chocolate chips overpower the 1 cup of peanut butter chips. Not balanced! So take my advice and distribute the chips in even portions: 1 cup of peanut butter chips and 1 cup of chocolate chips (half of it is going to be for the drizzle on top). These adaptations will please everyone- even a sweet tooth. Use only 1/2 teaspoon shortening.
I like how they tell you to melt your butter in the 13x9 pan in the oven as its preheating. No need to even dirty a bowl! These are so easy. Just don’t burn your butter. Oh, and they say to bake 25-30 minutes. What? Mine bake up in 18-20 minutes. And they taste amazing the next day!
Hershey’s also provides a variation to this recipe: just add coconut to make Chippy Chewy Bars. Those are great too.
This was my first peanut butter cheesecake. Of course it came out great because it uses peanut butter chips. And the flavor was not overkill. It doesn’t taste like a peanut butter jelly sandwich or anything. How do you make peanut butter better? Compliment it with chocolate! Take the time to delicately swirl the batter- it makes a great presentation.
After you watch Ina Garten make her coconut cake on the food network about five times, you finally decide its time to print out that recipe. But, you’ve also just discovered the show Everyday Baking and they’ve made a tasty looking coconut cake too. What to do? Try them both!
Ina’s cake came out moist and dense with a very slight coconut flavor if any at all. It was still tasty, but was more like vanilla cake. The coconut flavor only comes through the garnish on top. Next time I'll follow the reviewer's suggestions and replace the milk for coconut milk. The frosting is a cream cheese buttercream which is to die for.
Everyday baking’s coconut cake is a vanilla cake as well (no coconut in the batter at all) and comes out less rich than Ina’s but a little sweeter and definitely lighter. It was more crumbly (airy), but I’d still call it a dense cake. This recipe uses a lemon curd filling which I absolutely love. Both frostings were delicious, so it really just depends on your mood. Seven-minute frosting doesn’t have ANY flavor (try adding vanilla extract) but a wonderful, smooth texture. It’s much lighter and less sweeter than Ina’s cream cheese buttercream.
You’ll first make this recipe in middle school when your brother needs to bring in a homemade dessert to class, so of course he’ll ask you to bake it. You will receive many compliments and some will swear you did not bake that- it had to come from a gourmet bakery. Make things much easier on yourself- use three separate glass measuring cups. Otherwise, you will never want to see melted chocolate again... at least for a while. It’ll be stuck to everything in your kitchen but it will be well worth it. Please use dark chocolate chips- not semi sweet and definitely not milk chocolate. If you’re a dark chocolate lover- you will make this a lot. It is not sickeningly sweet, despite all that chocolate. The bottom layer is intense and fudgy with the top layers being rich and creamy. Your friends will affirm it tastes like something from starbucks- but better.
Blog Installation and Coding by Designs by Linds 2011
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