Chocolate Pots

These were SO easy to make. Nigella made them on her show in like 5 minutes (minus cooking time) so I figured it wouldn't be too tough to do the same. I halved her recipe though because it was just me and my mother :)

She called them "ChocoHotoPots" because that's what her son called them, but I think that's kind of silly so I think I'm going to stick to the title "Chocolate Pots"

They were pretty delicious but next time I think I'll use semi sweet chocolate (the recipe called for dark) because they were almost too rich. They were still quite yummy though.


Recipe (makes 4 - 6 servings)

Ingredients:
Butter for ramekins
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
2 large eggs
3/4 cup superfine sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Place baking sheet in an oven preheated to 400°F/200°C. Butter four 2/3-cup ramekins and set aside. I actually find these so decadently sweet, that I use ½ cup ramekins and make 6.

2. Using a microwave oven or double boiler, melt together the semisweet chocolate and the butter. Set aside to cool.

3. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, sugar and flour. Add cooled chocolate mixture, and mix until blended. Fold in chocolate chips.

4. Divide mixture evenly among ramekins and place on baking sheet. Bake until tops are shiny and cracked and chocolate beneath is hot and gooey, about 20 minutes. Place each ramekin on a small plate with a teaspoon and serve, reminding children that ramekins and chocolate are hot.

Brown Sugar Buttersnap cookies with Dulce De Leche filling

Never Bashful With Butter is probably one of my favorite food blogs, hands down. I've fawned over the recipes on that site for so long and I just finally decided to take it upon myself to make something I've seen. Let's just say I'm so glad I did.

I've never made Dulce de leche before and I'm much too unlucky to try the in can method, so I just used a double boiler for the condensed milk. It took about an hour and a half, and I'm not sure that it got dark enough, but it certainly tasted wonderful. Honestly though, I didn't like it much on it's own. The cookie caramel chocolate combo was the real knockout.

I was so excited about this recipe that I put together one cookie, took a picture, and then took a few bites. They were really that good. They definitely called for a glass of milk though. Like I'm not even kidding, I'd feed one to my family member and they'd make yummy food noises and attempt to pantomime drinking in order to get me to pour them some milk. They were rather delicious with or without it though :)

Honestly as soon as I made the dough I knew these were going to be amazing. The butter flavoring seemed strange to me at first because I'd never thought of even using butter flavoring before, but it really did make the difference. The cookies would have been a hit on their own but nothing tops the sandwich version.

Recipe from Never Bashful With Butter

Cookies n' Cream Cupcakes

These babies have oreo's baked right into them then sprinkled all over top. I only made a half batch but they all got eaten in no time.

Overall they were really good, but a bit denser than I'd expected. I think the next time I want to make Cookie's and Cream cupcakes I'll probably just add cookies to an already tried and true yellow cupcake recipe, but they were definitely still very good :)

RECIPE
for the cupcakes:
» 1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened
» 1 cup superfine sugar
» 2 cups self-rising flour
» 1 tsp. baking powder
» 4 eggs
» 1 tsp. vanilla extract
» 10 crushed cream-filled chocolate cookies (I used Oreos)

for the frosting:
» 3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
» 1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened
» pinch of salt
» 10 crushed cream-filled chocolate cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius). Place 18 foil or paper baking cups in muffin pans. Combine all the cupcake ingredients except the cookies in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and pale - about 2-3 minutes. Stir in crushed cookies.

Spoon the batter into the cups and bake for 20 minutes. Remove pans from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a wire rack.

To make the frosting, beat the confectioners' sugar, butter, and salt using an electric mixer. Spread the frosting onto the cupcakes and sprinkle the crushed cookies on top.

Store unfrosted in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Makes about 1 and a half dozen.

Peanut Butter Brownies

I honestly can't think of anything that can top the love I consistently feel for the flavor combination of peanut butter and chocolate. I'm not sure that I've ever been more sure of that until today though. When I saw this recipe I figures I'd give it a shot, but little did I know how outstanding it was.

Now I'm new to the world of baking and I have quite a reputation for ruining recipes. Mostly I just don't read as closely or thoroughly as I should. Well I managed to mess up on the first batch of these as well, tood thing I know myself well enough to buy extra ingredients, otherwise these brownies wouldn't currently exist. I wasted 10 oz of chocolate by adding a tablespoon and a half of vanilla extract instead of a teaspoon and a half. I know, I'm amazing.

my only complaints were that they ended up slightly on the fudgey side, and that I added a bit to much nutmeg. Other than that they were perfect. I've never made brownies from scratch in my life and I don't think I'll ever use a box again.

I also got to use this as an opportunity to work on my food photography. It was very interesting just to see how the slightest change in angle or position of the flash would dramatically alter an image. I really learned a lot from it and that totally made it twice as worth it.

If you want to see more you can always go to my Flickr. Unfortunately I need to get a pro account to have more sets which I didn't know until just now :( Oh well, here's to delicious looking brownies!

The recipe is one I found on here on Epicurious