Mocha Fudge Sauce

My mother's favorite dessert was always pie, mine, not so much. This never posed a problem for me when I was a kid, but as I got older and started having her and dad for dinner on special occasions, she would always ask that I make her pie. Lacking culinary skills in that department (long since remedied, I am happy to say) I would look for easy pie recipes of the pudding or ice cream variety. I well remember making an ice cream pie of some sort for her birthday one year. It was fairly easy to assemble with its graham cracker crust base topped with a layer of coffee ice cream, a layer of caramel, another of coffee ice cream, and then topped with a decadent mocha fudge sauce. The pie was forgettable, but that sauce stuck with me. Forget buying fudge sauce at the market and make this one. It is so good that people have been known to eat it right from the jar. Okay, it was me! But, I couldn't help myself, it is really that good.

Mocha Fudge Sauce

2 tablespoons boiling water

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup light corn syrup

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Stir the 2 tablespoons boiling water and coffee powder together in a small bowl until the powder is completely dissolved; set aside. Whisk the sugar and cocoa together in a heavy medium saucepan until thoroughly blended. Whisk in the cream, corn syrup, and coffee mixture. Add chocolate and butter. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Cool 30 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Store in a covered container in the fridge until ready to use.

This post is linked to:

Friday Finds

Show and Tell Friday 

Friday Unfolded
Fridays Flash Blog
Simple and Sweet Fridays

Foodie Friday & Everything Else

What To Do Weekend 
The Weekend re-Treat

The Weekend Blog Hop

Mocha Shortbread Cookies

It has been one heck of a month.  Thank you for sticking with me.  Between the jaunt between two houses (painting and decorating one, cleaning and de-cluttering the other), getting the mister out of cardiac rehab (can you say Cranky?), and my brand new LG washer exploding with a bang (trapping clothes inside the drum), I haven’t had a lot of time to bake.  But let's face it, when a girl needs a cookie, a girl needs a cookie and this combination of mocha and chocolate (not to mention one bowl/one pan ease), I swear, is the only thing keeping me sane.  It’s a Martha Stewart recipe straight out of her Cookies book and she gets a big thumbs up on this one.  These cookies are delicious and can be tossed together in a flash.  Baking them in a cake pan makes for a nicely shaped shortbread, easily removed without a bit of trouble.  The taste is densely chocolaty with a nice touch of mocha.  These cookies very well may keep me out of therapy.

Mocha Shortbread Wedges

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

2 teaspoons espresso powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for sprinkling
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line an 8″ round cake or spring form pan with parchment paper. (Who has time for parchment?  I used Pam.) Sift together flour, cocoa powder, and salt.  Stir in espresso.

With an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed until pale and creamy.  Add confectioners’ sugar and beat well.  Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until well combined.

Pat dough evenly into pan.  Bake 20 minutes, or until puffed at the edges.  Remove from oven, and let sit 5 minutes, then cut into 8 wedges.  Let cool completely on a rack.

  Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.

Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature to up to 1 week.

Cooling in the pan.

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

Mocha-Chip Meringues

Amazingly easy and intensely good, this Martha Stewart recipe yields 48 light-as-air cookies that won't last so feel free to gobble them up with reckless abandon.

I seriously have a category in my giant, weighs a ton, three-ring-binder of a cookbook that is called "Quick, Easy, Chocolate." No kidding.  I like to get right to the heart of the matter.  When I want chocolate, I want it now!  And I don't want to have to dig for obscure ingredients, or fuss with utensils.  I want to be able to open one (maybe two) cabinet doors, get the job done, and be able to pop one into my mouth as soon as the coffee has finished brewing.  Okay these do take a little bit longer than that, but I used my time wisely -- while they were baking I made another cookie dough that will make an appearance here later in the week -- but they are well worth it.  Imagine a chocolate cloud and you pretty much get the idea as to what you can expect from this cookie.  Try them, you will not be disappointed.

MOCHA-CHIP MERINGUES

3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 large egg whites, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder*
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch; set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt on medium speed until frothy. Beating constantly, add sugar mixture 1 tablespoon at a time; beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, 6 to 8 minutes total (scrape down the bowl halfway through). Add espresso powder and cocoa; beat until well blended. With a rubber spatula, fold in chocolate chips.

Drop batter by level tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake until crisp, about 40 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Cool completely on sheets, about 20 minutes.

*I used Medaglia d'Oro and make it a habit to always keep a small jar on hand.

Thanks, Martha!

Mocha Fudge Sauce

This, my friends, is a recipe that you should keep close at hand during the holidays because it can be your saving grace.  Have a special dessert go horribly wrong?  Pull this sauce out of the fridge, warm it up briefly in the microwave and drizzle it over ice cream (peppermint ice cream is particularly good this time of the year), over pound cake, over toasted waffles topped with sliced almonds and bananas and top with a spritz of cream, pour it on top of a cheesecake that has split down the middle, or spoon it into coffee and top with whipped cream.

Looking for a little something to appease the kids or grandchildren?  Call this chocolate fondue and serve it with vanilla wafers, sliced bananas, apple wedges, or graham crackers for dipping.

Finally, and do not scoff at this, stir a tablespoon into a pot of chili or stew.  The chocolate and mocha combination will add a decided richness to both dishes, and no one will ever know your secret.

It is simple to make, lasts a long time in the fridge (not that I really know this first hand since, honestly, I could eat it by the spoonful and sometimes do -- shhhhhh, tell no one!), or can be poured into a pretty container, tied with a ribbon and used as a last minute gift (if the recipient can successfully pry it out of your grasping hands).

Try it.  It is seriously good!

Mocha Fudge Sauce

(Printable Recipe)

 2 tablespoons boiling water

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup light corn syrup

2 ounces semi sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat two tablespoons of water in the microwave until boiling and stir in coffee powder until dissolved.  Stir together sugar and cocoa in a heavy medium saucepan. Whisk in 1 cup cream, corn syrup, and coffee mixture. Add chocolate and butter. Bring to boil over high heat, stirring constantly, and boil for 1-2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Cool 30 minutes. Stir in vanilla. If, after the sauce has cooled, the thickness isn't to your liking, bring it to a full boil once again and boil for another minute.

This is linked to Tasty Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table and Hearth and Soul.