Chocolate Dipped Rainier Cherries

If you don’t have one, run out right now and buy yourself a cherry pitter.  It’s one of those tools that you never knew you needed until you have one, and then you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.  Any small fruit with a pit can be dealt with using a cherry pitter, and this includes the jar of green olives that you bought by mistake thinking they were the ones stuffed with pimiento, but I digress.  Practicality aside, there is something so peaceful and down home about pitting cherries.  I put it right up there with shelling peas and stringing beans.  To some it probably seems like a chore, but to me, it’s a satisfying way of celebrating the bounty of summer.

Another satisfying way is to indulge in one of my favorite fruits, those blushing beauties, Rainier cherries, just beginning to come into season.  They are delicious as is, but dip them into dark chocolate and I guess it’s about as close to heaven as you can get.  And, if you don’t over indulge, you have a good-for-you snack that is going to satisfy mind, body, and soul.  High in fiber, cherries are also an important source of potassium, vitamin C, antioxidants, and micronutrients. The best part (aside from the taste), is that one cup of cherries contains only 90 calories!  Yes, the chocolate is going to add a few more, but is well worth it when you consider the cardiovascular benefits.  Quick, easy, healthy, delicious, these have to be the perfect snack food.  Oh, and if you really want to indulge (and dazzle), plop one of these on top of your favorite ice cream sundae.

Chocolate Dipped Rainier Cherries

1 cup Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

1 pound Melissa's Rainier Cherries

Tear off enough parchment to cover a cookie sheet, place parchment on top and set aside.

Place cherries in a colander, rinse thoroughly and allow to dry.  Using your new favorite cherry pitter tool, pit cherries from the side, leaving the stem intact. Set aside.

Pour chocolate chips into the top of a double boiler and place over water that is just simmering.  As they begin to melt, stir chocolate until smooth and then turn heat to the lowest setting. Holding cherries by stems, drag, one at a time, through the melted chocolate.  When they are covered to your liking (you can immerse the entire cherry, or, as I did, leave a bit of the fruit peeking out the top), and place on the parchment paper to set.

This post is linked to:

Foodie Friday

Sweets for a Saturday

Seasonal Sunday

Halfway Cookies

I stumbled upon this delicious cookie on this site where there is a great tutorial on how to make them.  I was looking for a recipe for a simple, but chocolaty cookie, and this one, topped with a brown sugar meringue was most intriguing.  The high winds (for, what is it now, the tenth day in a row?) kept me inside, so I puttered around the kitchen putting these together.  The pictures don’t do them justice.  They are rich, chocolaty, chewy, with a crunchy, flavorful meringue topping.  Neither one of us could wait until they fully cooled so we had our first bite when the chocolate was still partially melted and oozing invitingly from the cookie.  They are a bit more work than the average bar cookie, but then these are far from average.  I’ve included the recipe below for your convenience, but do check out the site mentioned above, and then make these cookies!

Halfway Cookies

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup brown sugar, separated
2 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Cut two pieces of aluminum foil and fold them to match the width of the pan. Press one piece into the pan lengthwise and the other into the pan crosswise with the ends hanging over the side. This makes it easy to lift the bars out of the pan once they're cooled. Spray the foil with nonstick coating.

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside. Cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and just 1/2 cup of the brown sugar until smooth and creamy, roughly 5 minutes at medium high.

Separate the eggs. Mix the yolks into the butter-sugar mixture one at a time until they are completely absorbed, then mix in the water and vanilla. With the mixer at a low speed, add the flour mixture and beat gently until all the flour has been absorbed.  Do not overmix.

Press the cookie dough gently into the pan with your hands, making sure the surface is even.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the cookie dough and use your palms to press them slightly into the dough. This will help keep them from moving when you add the meringue.

Using a stand or hand mixer with a clean bowl and a clean whisk attachment, start whisking the egg whites. Gradually increase your speed to medium-high. When the egg whites are very frothy, slowly add the remaining cup of brown sugar a little at a time. Continue increasing your speed to the highest setting. When all the sugar has been added, continue whipping the meringue until it holds a soft peak.  It should look like glossy, soft-serve ice cream.

Scoop the meringue from the bowl and mound it down the middle of the pan. It will be very sticky! Use an offset spatula to gently spread the meringue from the middle to the edges.

Lightly press a piece of parchment or wax paper on the top of the meringue (this makes an even layer and protects the meringue from scorching). Bake for 20 minutes, remove the parchment, bake for an additional 5-10 minutes more, until the edges look toasted and are pulling away from the sides of the pan.

Wait until the pan is completely cool before lifting out the bars and cutting them into squares.

This post is linked to:

Totally Tasty Tuesdays

What's Cooking Wednesday

Wild Wednesday

Foodie Friday

Sunday's Best Party

Sweets for a Saturday

Themed Baker's Sunday

Spider Web Brownies

Here's a dilemma for you: You're minding your own business, happily puttering away in the kitchen, experimenting with a couple of new recipes for you and your husband to try for dinner.  You look your absolute WORST  -- and I'm talking unsuitably dressed to take out the trash, and your hair looks like a fright wig -- when a visitor shows up at your back door and stays for dinner.  Yikes!  While the thought of this is actually scarier than the way I looked, it happened last week, and had me a gnat's wing away from a stroke.  Sure, I can always add another potato and bag of frozen vegetables to the pot, but what about dessert?

Thank goodness I keep Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix (the best of the boxed mixes in my opinion) just for situations like this.  I followed the package directions, but poured it into a 9" round pan that I'd planned to invert onto a plate so the flat side would be up.  While this was baking I whipped up some orange confectioners' sugar icing with the idea that I'd pipe it on in concentric circles, drag a toothpick through it, and have a wonderful spider web brownie to serve.  Well, it didn't exactly work out that way.  The icing was too thick, and much to my dismay did not move when I dragged my trusty, never-failed-me-before toothpick through.  Okay.  Do.  Not.  Panic.  I dumped the remainder of the orange icing on top, spread it to the edges with an offset spatula, stuck the whole thing in the fridge to set and melted some 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips (also Ghirardelli) in a small mixing bowl sitting a bit cockeyed on a small saucepan over simmering water.  Another trusty icing bottle to the rescue, I filled it with the melted chocolate, made more concentric circles (I was getting dizzy), held my breath and grabbed another toothpick.  This time it worked and I was very pleased with the results.  Not bad for a delicious, seasonal, chocolate-y dessert in a pinch.

 Now to replace that box of brownie mix to divert future disasters.  What are your pantry "must haves"?

This post is linked to:
Friday Potluck
Fun With Food Friday
Foodie Friday
Food on Friday
Friday Favorites
Friday Fat Camp
Fantabulous Friday
I'm Lovin' It Friday
Seasonal Sundays
Sunday's Best

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Born from my love of chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate, this cookie has been filling my cookie jar since the early eighties when I first began to experiment with cookie recipes.  None of them ever had enough chocolate taste to suit me, so I had to come up with something on my own.  This crunchy, chocolaty cookie with just a hint of spice satisfied those chocolate cravings like nothing else ever could.  It has since become one of my family's favorites, so I hope you like it too.  The dough can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to three days, or wrapped in foil and frozen for up to three months.

CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 extra large egg, beaten to blend

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled*

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips*

Cream butter with sugars using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.  Beat in egg and melted chocolate.  Sift flour with baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a medium sized bowl.  With mixer on low speed, slowly add the dry mixture, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Do not over beat!  Stir in remaining cup of chocolate morsels until thoroughly incorporated.  Turn dough out onto board and divide in half.  Form each portion into a ball and then roll ball into a cylinder approximately 2 inches in diameter by 10 inches long.  Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45 minutes to an hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  Cut chilled dough into 1/4" slices.  Arrange on sheets leaving about 2 inches of space between each cookie.  These do not spread, so a bit of crowding is acceptable.  Bake cookies for 15 minutes.  Remove from over and allow to cool on sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.


* In both instances I use the Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chips.  The chips are rather large, so I roughly chop those that are stirred into the dough for ease of slicing.  The richness of flavor is assured by using this brand.

This post is linked to:

Real Food Wednesday

Cast Party Wednesdays

This Chick Cooks

Pain & Suffering Chocolate Cream Pie

Those of you who read my blog with any regularity know that we had a little setback in the form of a tornado plowing its way through our back yard on the evening of Good Friday.  While we suffered "massive damage" according to the insurance company, many people were far worse off than we, some having to leave their homes as the damage rendered them structurally unsound.  A couple of people, however, sustained little or no damage, one of whom has taken it upon himself to file public complaints with the City over the "mess" in the backyards of people whose houses he can see from his pristine-condition back porch.  

Imagine the horror of being him!  Having to look, day after day, at the pain and suffering of others as they toll, physically exhausted and emotionally drained, trying to recover their belongings, arrange for tree removal, carpentry work, demolition and removal of damaged property, and home and roof repair.  How awful to have to witness this day in and day out, interrupting your cocktail hour as you dangle your toes in your pool.  

For this poor soul, who shall remain nameless (though everyone in the neighborhood knows who he is), I created a special pie full of comfort and calories and chocolaty goodness in the hopes that his pain soon subsides and his meaningless suffering comes to an end.

Pain & Suffering Chocolate Cream Pie
 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream, plus 2 cups
3/4 cup sour milk*
3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
Pinch salt
4 egg yolks
3/4 c. Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips, roughly chopped to facilitate melting
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Crust:
25 Oreo cookies (with filling, this adds "tooth")
6 T. melted butter

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Put Oreos into the work bowl of a food processor and process until fine.  Slowly pour melted butter into the feed tube with the processor running and process 30-45 seconds until well combined.  Press into a 9-inch deep dish pie pan.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.

In a medium saucepan combine sugar, 3/4 cup heavy cream, sour milk, cornstarch and pinch of salt, and whisk until smooth. Place over medium-high heat, and bring to a boil, whisking occasionally until the mixture begins to thicken, 3-5 minutes. Continue cooking at a low boil for an additional 5 minutes, whisking constantly.

In a mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly. Pour 1/2 cup of the hot mixture into the egg yolks and whisk thoroughly. Pour the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan and whisk over the heat until thoroughly combined and very thick, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in the chocolate, butter and vanilla. Continue whisking until thoroughly combined and mixture becomes very thick. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap placed directly on the surface and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Place 2 cups heavy cream in a chilled mixing bowl and whip until soft peaks form.  Add the confectioners' sugar; beat until stiff peaks form. Gently fold about 1/2 cup of the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate mixture.  When thoroughly combined, spoon into chocolate crust.  Refrigerate until firm and cool, at least 4 hours (if you're in a rush, place in freezer for an hour). Refrigerate the remaining whipped cream until you are ready to serve the pie.

When ready to serve, top with whipped cream and serve immediately.

*To sour milk, add 1 T. white vinegar to a cup of milk.  Allow to set on the counter at room temperature for 10 minutes before using.

This post is linked to:
Your Recipe...My Kitchen
Tasty Tuesdays
Tuesdays at the Table
Delicious Dishes
Tasty Tuesday
Made From Scratch Tuesday
Tasty Tuesday with Dr. Laura
Tempt Your Tummy Tuesday
Real Food Wednesday
Cast Party Wednesdays
Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits
This Chick Cooks

Ritz Cracker Cookies and Cream & Health Bar Cookies

A good advertising campaign is one that we remember.  It's not the flash and dazzle, the talking dogs, the cute babies, or endearing old people.  It pretty much all boils down to a clever slogan that becomes burned into our brains.  One of the best slogans that I can recall was created back in the late seventies/early eighties and spoken by a trustworthy pitchman in the form of Andy Griffith.  We believed him when he said, "Everything tastes better when it sits on a Ritz."  We not only believed him, we remembered him, at least I did.  This is a slogan that I remember to this day, and do you know what?  It turned out to be true!  And this goes for both sweet and savory.  

After the great success I had with the Thin Mint Clones, I decided to continue to experiment and came up with two other recipes that are as least as good as the Mint Cookies, if not better (my husband swooned over the Cookies and Cream).  They are also ridiculously quick and easy.  I made both at the same time I was making a pot of mushroom soup. 

Cookies and Cream Cookies
 Total Time: 25 minutes
 Yield: 10-12 cookies

1 cup Ghirardelli white chocolate chips

1 teaspoon solid shortening (I used Crisco)

2 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed (I used Oreos)

10-12 Ritz crackers

1/4 cup Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

Melt white chocolate chips and shortening in a heat-resistant bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir in crushed cookies. Drop Ritz crackers, one at a time, into the warm mixture, turning to coat. Place on baking sheet to harden (you can expedite this by putting them into the refrigerator for about 5 minutes). After all crackers have been covered in the mixture and have been allowed to hardening, melt dark chocolate chips in a small bowl in the microwave. Using a small spoon, scoop up melted chocolate and drizzle it over the cookies in a back and forth motion.

I made the Heath cookies first and used the extra chocolate to drizzle over the Cookies & Cream.

Heath Bar Cookies

Total Time: 15 minutes
 Yield: 10-12 cookies

1 cup Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips

10-12 Ritz crackers

1/4 cup Heath brand brickle chips

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

Melt milk chocolate chips in a heat-resistant bowl set over a pan of simmering water. When melted and creamy, drop Ritz crackers, one at a time, into the warm mixture, turning to coat. Place on baking sheet.  While chocolate is still warm, generously sprinkle Heath bits over the tops to cover.  Allow to harden (you can expedite this by putting them into the refrigerator for about 5 minutes). 

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