Better Than T.J.’s Snacky Clusters

 

This is yet another case of the “salty loves sweet, sweet loves salty“ thing that I talked about here. Not too long ago I had been made aware of Trader Joe’s Snacky Clusters. Joe’s are rather small, and, in my opinion anyway, a bit pricey for what you get. Thinking that nothing could be easier than to make these at home, I did. The real bonus here is that you can use those broken chips at the bottom of bags to make this delicious treat. I used essentially the same ingredients as Trader Joe’s, namely, corn chips, potato chips, and pretzel bits, but I decided to go one better and also add some bits of brickle. That took these chocolaty clusters of salty deliciousness right over the top. These are easy to put together, so much so that the kids can do it. In fact, I think they would love, smashing melted chocolate, their favorite salty snack.

Better Than T.J.’s Snacky Clusters

2 c. milk chocolate chip

½ c. broken Fritos 

½ c. pretzel bites 

½ c. broken rippled potato chips 

½ c. Heath Bits of Brickle    

 Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or a Silpat).

Place milk chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl, and microwave in intervals, stirring after each 30 seconds. I found it took me one minute and 30 seconds to melt them into smooth chocolate.

When chocolate has melted, stir in Fritos, potato chips, pretzel bites, and bits of  Heath Bits of Brickle. Drop onto your parchment paper, and allow a couple of hours to firm. If you’re in a rush, you can place them in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.

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Guinness Brownies from Llywelyn's Pub

 

If you ever find yourself in the St. Louis metro area, you owe it to yourself to visit neighboring city, Saint Charles, the historical district in particular, and dine at a delightful Celtic pub called Llywelyn's. There are two locations in the area, but the most unique is the one located at 100 North Main Street in St. Charles, MO. Once a bank, though now quite obviously an eatery, vaults and other banking aspects remain, adding to the already abundance of charm and atmosphere.

 

A former bank vault, the door is open and ready for guests.This vault was occupied by a table of enthusiastic diners who were “locked in” behind the barred door. 

I chose the pub curry for my lunch and was not disappointed. A pub tradition, it is yellow curry with a choice of chicken or shrimp, sautéed with onions, carrots, cabbage, and sweet peas served on a bed of basmati rice or fries.  I chose the shrimp...and the rice.

When it came to dessert there were two choices, the Guinness Brownies and the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake.  Both are known to be deliciously decadent, but I went for the brownie. Heaven!

 As luck would have it the recipe for the brownies is available thanks to Llywelyn's and the St. Louis-Post Dispatch's SPECIAL REQUESTS Cookbook. Here it is so that you can enjoy them too.

Guinness Brownies from Llywelyn's Pub

 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, cut into chunks

¾ c. (1-1/2 sticks) butter

2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 t. vanilla

1 c. Guinness stout

¾ c. flour

Llywelyn's Guinness Fudge Sauce (recipe below)

Ice cream or whipped cream

 Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9” x 13” baking pan with Baker’s Joy.

 Gradually melt chocolate and butter together in the top of a double-boiler, stir to blend, remove from heat; stir in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and Guinness. Stir in flour. Batter will be thin.

 Pour into baking pan; bake until almost set, about 35 minutes. Do not overbake.

Let cool, then slice into 16 bars. Serve with Guinness Fudge Sauce and ice cream or whipped cream.

 Llywelyn's Guinness Fudge Sauce

1 (12-oz.) jar hot fudge sauce

8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 1½ c.)

1/3 c. Guinness stout

Heat hot fudge sauce in a double-boiler until pourable. In a pot over very low heat, heat chocolate chips and Guinness together until chocolate has melted, then stir into hot fudge sauce. Mix well. Pour into a serving dish.

 Refrigerate leftovers; reheat before servings.

Yield: About 2¼ cups

 Treat yourself to this dark deliciousness on this Friday the 13th.

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S’mores Clusters

 

S’mores were one of my favorite things as a kid. All I have to do is think of them, and I can hear a crackling fire, smell the wood smoke, and taste the singed marshmallows. I was thinking about them the other day, and wondering if I couldn’t treat them in a different type of way, making them easier and less messy, without compromising the taste. These simple clusters did the trick. There’s nothing to putting them together, the kids will certainly enjoy helping, and you can have that wonderful taste of summer at any time of the year.S’mores Clusters

1½ c. semisweet chocolate chips
½ c. white chocolate chips
½ c. broken graham crackers
2/3 c. miniature marshmallows*

Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or a Silpat). 

Place both kinds of chips into a microwave safe bowl, and microwave in intervals, stirring after each 30 seconds. I found it took me one minute and 30 seconds to melt them into smooth chocolate.

When chocolate has melted, stir in graham crackers and marshmallows.  Drop onto your parchment paper, and allow a couple of hours to firm. If you’re in a rush, you can place them in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.  

 * If you’re feeling ambitious, you can spread the marshmallows out onto a foil-lined cookie sheet, and singe them with a kitchen torch in the same way in which you would caramelize sugar on top of crème brûlée. This would make them more authentic, but it’s also more work.

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Bakery Style Double Chocolate Chip Muffin

  

Do you ever have one of those days when you’re really in the mood for chocolate cake, but you don’t want to trouble yourself to make chocolate cake? Yesterday that was me. Chocolate cake seemed like so much trouble because chocolate cake always begs for chocolate frosting, more specifically chocolate buttercream frosting, and I had neither the time nor inclination. As a consequence, I pulled out my file of chocolate recipes (Doesn’t everyone have a file of chocolate recipes?) and came upon this one. It sounded easy enough, it didn’t call for any special equipment, most importantly, I didn’t have to trouble myself to get out a stand or hand mixer.  I altered the recipe a tiny bit — in my opinion all chocolate recipes require espresso powder to really amp up that deep chocolate taste. I also like the slightly larger dark chocolate chips because, well, who doesn’t want more chocolate?

These are delicious! Be sure to make them using the tulip baking cups because that allows you to use a 12-well muffin tin, but get larger muffins. They’ll turn out perfectly, and look how pretty they are.

Bakery Style Double Chocolate Chip Muffin

Adapted from momlovesbaking.com

2 c. flour

1 c. sugar

½ t. salt

½ c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 t. baking soda

1 t. espresso powder

1¼ c. Nestle’s 53% cacao dark chocolate chips

2 large eggs, room temperature

¾ c. sour cream

½ c. vegetable oil

1 c. milk

1 t. pure vanilla extract

 Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a 12-count muffin pan with tulip style cupcake liners; set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, salt, cocoa powder, baking soda, and espresso powder until thoroughly combined. Stir in 1 cup of the chocolate chips; set aside.

 In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil, milk and vanilla until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently stir until combined. Do not overmix.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan. Use the remaining ¼ cup of chocolate chips to add a few on top of each muffin before baking. Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F; reduce oven temperature to 350°F and continue to bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 minutes. Muffins taste best served fresh on the same day, but you can store them at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

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No Churn Chocolate Malted Oreo Ice Cream

 

Malt powder is not used nearly often enough. When I was a little girl, I used to be able to get little frozen malt cups from the local dairy, the school cafeteria, or the grocery store. They came with their own little wooden spoon attached, and I don’t know what I miss more, the taste of that malt cup, or the taste of that wooden spoon. I have since gotten some of those wooden spoons in order to wax nostalgic, but, until last weekend, had yet to make my own version of the ice cream used in those malt cups. I stumbled upon this recipe on the Half Baked Harvest website and decided to give it a try with my own adjustments. This is the adult version of malted ice cream and it is, in a word, magnificent! If you plan to share it with the kids, don’t add the Kahlúa, add more vanilla. Either way, you must try this.

No Churn Chocolate Malted Oreo Ice Cream

Adapted from Half Baked Harvest

2½ c. heavy cream

½ c. unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ c. vanilla malted milk powder

2 t. espresso powder

1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 t. vanilla extract

1 T. Kahlua

1 t. Fleur de Sel

16-20 Oreo cookies, crushed

Using an electric mixer, whip the cream, cocoa powder, malted milk powder, and instant espresso in a large bowl until soft peaks form, 1-2 minutes. Add the condensed milk, vanilla, Kahlua, and fleur de sel. Whip to gently combine.

 Fold in the crushed Oreo cookies.

Transfer to a 9”×5” loaf pan; cover and freeze until firm, at least 6 hours. Let the ice cream sit at room temperature 5–7 minutes, then scoop and enjoy!

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Hot Fudge Sauce

The other day I had a powerful, and I am talking POWERFUL, hankering for a hot fudge sundae. This is rather unusual for me because I’m not a great lover of ice cream. Still, I became obsessed with wanting one. I rummaged around in the freezer (my climate-controlled version of the downstairs, unfinished storage area, affectionately known as “the belly of the beast”), and found a carton of vanilla ice cream way in the back. When I took the lid off and peered inside, I found a rather gummy, crystallized hunk of ice cream. I’m not proud to say that my plans were to eat it. In looking for fudge to top my ice cream I came to the realization that I was out. I say “out,” but what I really mean is I generally don’t keep this on hand. Naturally, I took to the Internet to find a recipe so that I could make my own to satisfy my culinary craving, and settled on this one. I changed it up because chocolate absolutely needs coffee to intensify the flavor. It was amazing how good that old hunk of desiccated ice cream turned out to be.

Hot Fudge Sauce

Adapted from The View from Great Island

 1 heaping c. semi sweet chocolate chips

½ c. unsalted butter

1/8 t. salt

½ t. espresso powder

2 c. confectioner's sugar

1 12-oz. can evaporated milk

1 T. vanilla extract

 Melt the butter, chocolate, salt, and espresso powder in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan over low heat. Add sugar and milk, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook for about 6 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

 Pour into jars and store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

 When ready to use, microwave the sauce VERY briefly to heat it up. You can either heat up individual portions, or heat the whole jar.

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Chocolate Mint Oreo Trifles

 

My initial plan was to make this as a dessert for St. Patrick’s Day, because it’s green. As usual, holidays just fly by, generally with me chasing after them, so it had come and gone before I even purchased a package of mint Oreos. But, because it’s spring, and everything is starting to turn green, I decided to make it and share it with my number one son and his family. I made a bit of a mistake by doing this. This serves four, and no more. I stretched this out to serve five, and that completely threw off the pudding-to-whipped-cream ratio. Don’t be tempted to do that; learn from my mistakes. This can be made up to 24 hours ahead of serving it, thanks to the stabilized whipped cream. If you prefer not to stabilize the whipped cream, as I have done here, you’re going to want to serve it fairly quickly.Chocolate Mint Oreo Trifles

Adapted from The Slow Roasted Italian

12 Oreo Mint Cookies, chopped

1 3.9-oz. pkg. Instant JELL-O Chocolate Pudding

2 c. whole milk

2 c. heavy whipping cream

2 t. unflavored gelatin (Knox recommended)

½ c. powdered sugar

1½ t. peppermint extract

6-8 drops green food coloring

20 Andes Mints, chopped

In a medium mixing bowl with an electric mixer, beat  pudding mix and milk for 2 minutes until thickened. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Into a small bowl or ramekin, place 8 teaspoons of cold water. Sprinkle gelatin on top, and let it set on the counter until firm. Meanwhile whip heavy cream with an electric mixer. Start the mixer on low while you put the ramekin with the water and gel mixture into the microwave for 10 seconds to melt. As the cream is whipping, slowly add the melted gel mixture. Add powdered sugar, food coloring, and peppermint extract. Increase speed to high and whip cream until stiff peaks form. You have just stabilized your rib cream, so that it won’t collapse on itself while your trifles are in the refrigerator waiting to be served.

 To assemble: Add 1/4 of the Oreos to the bottom of each of the four individual trifle dishes. Spoon 1/4 of pudding directly on top of Oreos. Reserve a tablespoon of chopped mints. Add ¼ of remaining mints to trifle, directly on top of pudding. Top with whipped cream. Sprinkle with reserved mints. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Garnish with an Andes mint, if desired.

Serves 4.

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Ina’s Outrageous Brownies

I am not a fan of brownies, per se. Despite my past intense love of chocolate cake, brownies never really did it for me. I do like Katharine Hepburn's brownies, and as I recently discovered, I like these. I don’t know what got into me the other day, but I had an intense urge to bake. I had heard nothing but good things about Ina’s brownies, and having laid in a large supply of semisweet and bittersweet chocolate, decided to give them a try. I cut this recipe in half and baked it in a 9“ x 13“ pan to avoid being inundated with them.  These are quite possibly the best brownies that I have ever eaten. They are deeply chocolate, thanks to both semisweet and bittersweet varieties, but also because of the coffee granules. Coffee always makes chocolate taste deeper and richer. I added walnut halves rather than pieces because I love nuts, and I wasn’t sorry. If you have a chocolate craving and urge to bake, these are your answer.

Ina’s Outrageous Brownies

 1 lb. unsalted butter

1 lb. semi sweet chocolate chips, plus 12 oz.

6 oz. bittersweet chocolate

6 extra-large eggs

3 T. instant coffee granules

2 T. pure vanilla extract

2¼ c. sugar

1¼ c. flour

1 T. baking powder

1 t. salt

3 c. chopped walnuts

 Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 12” x 18” x 2” baking sheet; set aside.

 Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow the chocolate mixture to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

 In another medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the cooled chocolate mixture.

Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter.

 Pour everything into the baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Do not over bake! Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into 20 large squares.

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