Posts Tagged ‘chocolate’

This past Christmas I spent every evening working my way through a Terry’s Dark Chocolate Orange. I love the ritual of it. The initial thwack!, peeling back the shiny foil, and eating a few slices at a time. The flavor and texture of the chocolate is just delicious and got me craving orange and chocolate hardcore.

Since citrus is at its finest right now, I figured I’d flip the orange-to-chocolate ratio and make one of my favorite French treats at home: orangettes. Candied sliced orange peels dipped in chocolate (dark for me) and a great way to sate that sweet tooth without feeling too guilty. Yes, they’re a bit labor intensive and lengthy but in the end you only use one pot and most of the time is unattended cooking, so it balances out!

Read the rest of this entry »

Alright, let’s get back on the chocolate train, shall we? Welcome, #5 on the Christmas cookie list.

I’m a strong supporter of the “Just-add-Nutella-and-everything-gets-better” party, so when I saw this recipe for a classic thumbprint cookie that was rolled in toasted hazelnuts, I knew my beliefs would come in handy. The original recipe had you filling them with jam — the boring traditional way. But the hazelnuts immediately got Nutella on my brain and I knew right away what I’d replace that jam with.

Speaking of hazelnuts – they are, quite frankly, a huge pain in the ass to work with. Roasting and skinning them takes ages since getting their skins off is pretty tricky even if you use the old method of rubbing them between a towel. Thankfully, I found a new method which makes it unbelievably easy, and also lets you roast the nuts after they’ve been skinned, giving them even more flavor. These cookies are toasty and crunchy on the outside with a thick, ooey-gooey rich center of chocolate-hazelnut goodness and my God why haven’t you made them already?? Get to it!

Read the rest of this entry »

My favorite response to these cookies was definitely when a chef friend of mine tried them and simply said, “Your cookie kung-fu is strong.”

The awesomeness of being a baking ninja aside, this batch is definitely the favorite of the holiday cookie bake-a-thon so far.

Originally I wanted to make these cookies using Nestlé’s dark chocolate and mint morsels and of course had my hopes dashed when I learned they aren’t carried within 200 miles of where I live. So I went to the store determined to find suitable replacements and did. Sort of. I ended up combining two different kinds of baking chips to achieve what I imagined the Nestlé morsels would be like – strong semi-sweet chocolate and cooling mint with a fudgey, chewy texture.

These cookies not only taste fantastic, but get bonus points for coming together super easily and freezing incredibly well. I only needed about 2 dozen when I made these, so I froze half the batch on sheet trays and then transferred them to a freezer storage bag. That way whenever I want the second batch I’ll just pop them on a sheet tray and bake. Way better than that refrigerated dough you can buy in the store (if I do say so myself)!

Read the rest of this entry »

Happy Birthday, jonesing for… !

One year ago today I started my blog and it’s been nothing but fun since.  This whole thing began after encouragement from friends since I enjoyed taking pictures of whatever I was cooking, and liked typing up a few words about it as well. I’ve had so much fun sharing my love of cooking and recipes, and nothing makes me happier than hearing my friends and total strangers have been inspired to cook from recipes I post.

And I have something even bigger to celebrate than my blog’s anniversary. I’m so excited to announce I’ve just accepted a position as the new Test Kitchen Assistant for a national food magazine! I’ll be testing recipes, assisting food styling, grocery shopping, and working in the test kitchen for a living – a.k.a. my dream job! Words cannot express how excited and blessed I feel to be able to do what I love for a living as young as I am. Getting out from behind a desk and back into the kitchen means the world to me, so now it’s really time to celebrate!

So to celebrate, I wanted to bake a cake – a very special cake. In a way, this entire post, blog, and really my career, is dedicated to my oldest sister, DeAnna. She honestly is the biggest reason I pursued cooking – admiring her life as a pastry chef when she was younger and always being enchanted with whatever she was baking or making. This bundt cake is one of the earliest food memories I have of being impressed with food, thinking the black and white drizzle was so fancy, the cake shape so odd, the entire thing just being special. So I wanted to go back to my roots with this one.

Unfortunately neither D nor my mom could find the recipe. They both tore their kitchens apart looking for it to no avail, which seemed almost poetic in a way. I got to just create my own version, which is exactly what I like to do here. So I took a simple chocolate bundt cake recipe and oomphed it up, adding coffee and buttermilk, using a chocolate ganache drizzle instead of melted semi-sweet chips, and I had to stay true to the white chocolate drizzle – even though I’m not a huge fan, you can’t get that stunning white color with anything else, and since the cake isn’t overly sweet, it balances out.

So thank you to my readers, family, and friends for a wonderful year! I can’t wait to see what this next year has in store!

Read the rest of this entry »

My last few baking adventures have definitely not been swimsuit-season minded, to say the least. Chocolate cake and lemon bars and snickerdoodles… butter was definitely a theme these past few weeks. Thankfully since my gym is within walking distance of my apartment it hasn’t become an issue… yet. But there’s nothing wrong with nipping things in the bud and making a healthy(er) sweet treat once in awhile.

When I found this recipe I thought “Banana and chocolate… low fat? Sign me up!” yet I was still dubious. So many things claim to be delicious and satisfying yet healthy, and mostly fail. Especially baked sweets. Even as I ate the batter thinking “Wow, this is good…’ I still doubted the outcome. But good God almighty was I proven wrong with these muffins. They’re not only some of the tastiest muffins I’ve ever tried period, they really do only have 165 calories a muffin! I refused to believe it until I did the math myself because they are just. that. good.

The moistness is out of control with the bananas, the sweetness level is just right but not overpowering, and by cleverly using mini morsels and sprinkling them over only the top of the muffins, you get that delicious bit of chocolate, without adding the extra calories. No stand mixer required, too! They really are almost too good to be true…

Read the rest of this entry »