Tag: Chocolate Chips

Breads · Breakfast · Daily Thoughts · Starches · Uncategorized

Baked Oatmeal

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A friend of mine yesterday remarked how much she loved oatmeal for breakfast. During our conversation (yes, most of my conversations are centered around food) I ask her if she had ever had baked oatmeal and she replied that she had never heard of it.

When we lived in California I had the blessing of being a mentor mom to a group of gals in the MOPS (moms of preschoolers) study at our church. One of their favorite things to bring for snacks were these baked oatmeal bars. I’m not a huge oatmeal person, but these were really good. So I promised Marilyn that I would post the recipe today. Try it…you might be surprised how good they are!

 

2 cups old fashioned oatmeal

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tables granulated sugar

1 1/2 teas baking powder

1/2 teas salt

1/2 teas ground cinnamon (I will add a little more than that as I like more cinnamon flavor)

1 cup whole milk

2 eggs

2 tables canola oil

1 teas vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8″ square pan.

Combine oats, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together in a bowl.

Whisk the milk, eggs, oil and vanilla together in a separate bowl. and stir until eggs and mixture are well combined. Set aside until flavors blend about 20 minutes. Add to oatmeal mixture and stir until thoroughly blended. Spread in prepared pan and bake about 30 minutes or until golden brown on top. Cool and cut into squares.

I might add about 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips before baking.

A great breakfast on the go meal!

*Taken from Allrecipes.com

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The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie

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Since we have been on the road since feb 5th I have not cooked!  We have been exploring some of our most fav restaurants in each city that we land in!  Today my hubby surprised me and took me to Lubys Cafeteria where we partook of their great turkey and dressing.   I know it sounds like we are turning old, eatting turkey/dressing at a cafeteria but as soon as we finished there we headed over to Sonic for a cherry coke which makes is hip, not old!  We have 2 more fav joints in Dallas before we can honestly say that we have indulged in all of the places we complained about missing while living away the last 3 yrs!  Will update you when we get our bigger clothes bought which wil allow us to complete our restaurant mission. Tomorrow night my sister-in-law has told me to just “make myself at home” cooking whatever I want for dinner.   I personally feel that she is tired of her house smeeling like all the hamburger places we have been bringing home!  But until then I wanted to share something that I just read!

i read that refridgerating your chocolate chip cookie dough for 48 hours results in a much softer center cookie with the edges slightly crisp!  The lady blogged this says she even rolls her dough out and uses cookie cutters adding chocolate chips to the top of the cookie before baking! Will be trying these as soon as we get to Florida this next week.  Our son-in-law, Tim makes a great CC cookie tester! 

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Sizzling Cupcakes

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Still in Arizona and when we get a minute to relax, after the 3 kids are given a half bottle each of Benydryl, (we just knew that they were going to get a runny nose so we were prepared, so we loaded up on it at CVS) and are sleeping ever so soundly, we turn our attention to The Voice and to leafing through magazines. This recipe caught my eye. I have been hearing all about maple and bacon flavored cupcakes, but until I saw this, never thought they sounded like something I would like. Am going to try these when I get back home.

Heat oven to 350; line 18 cupcake liners in cupcake pan. Whisk together 1 3/4 cup flour, 3/4 cup cocoa powder (Hershey’s), 2 1/4 teas baking powder and 1/4 teas salt. Beat 2 sticks softened unsalted butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar in a large bowl; beat in 3 eggs and 1 teas maple extract. Beat in flour mixture; alternating with 3/4 cup milk. Fold in 2/3 cup (10 slices) chopped bacon, cooked until crispy.

Divide batter among liners and bake at 350 for 21-22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of cupcake comes out clean.

Frosting:

Melt 1 cup milk chocolate chips in microwave and cool slightly. Beat 1 box (16 oz) powdered sugar, 2 sticks softened unsalted butter and 1/4 cup milk until smooth. Beat in 1 teas maple extract and melted chocolate chips.

Spread frosting over cupcakes. Garnish with additional chopped bacon.

Chocolate · Cookies · Desserts

Brownie Tassies

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Just made a batch of these to take to a meeting. They are perfect to just pick up with your fingers and pop them in your mouth. They resemble the brownie bites you buy at the store but these, of course, have the buttery flavor and a soft gooey middle. You can actually change the flavor from vanilla extract to almond, or cherry or what ever tickles your fancy

3/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup cocoa

1/3 cup cold butter

2-3 tables water (it took all 3 today)

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, 1/3 cup sugar, cocoa and salt. Cut in the 1/3 cup cold butter with pastry blended or 2 forks until mixture resembles crumbs. Sprinkle water, a tables at a time and stir dough into a ball. Divide the ball into 24 balls. Place one in each of the lightly greased mini-muffin tins (unless you are using the Teflon coated, then you will not need to grease). Pressing with your finger (this is easier if you dip your finger each time in flour so dough doesn’t stick to your finger), make a well in the balls, pushing some of the dough up the sides of the tin also. Set aside when you have done all 24.

Filling: 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tables butter

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teas vanilla (or cherry or almond)

1/2 teas cinnamon

Melt chocolate chips and butter together in microwave bowl, on high for 30 second intervals.  Stir until chips are completely melted. Stir in sugar, egg and vanilla.

Divide the filling between the 24 cups.

Place tins in a 325 preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. (Mine today took 18 but I used just the thin metal pans, the dark Teflon ones will probably take longer)

Cool for 10 minutes and then loosen around edges with a knife or fork. Set on wire racks to cool. These can also be made ahead and frozen.

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Paula Deen’s Frozen Chocolate Mousse Pie

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When I received my Food Network magazine with a whole section of chocolate deserts, I knew I would be spending a lot of time in the kitchen, trying each one. This one came up a real winner. Thank you Paula for showing us another new recipe that will add to our collection of desserts that we will have in our recipe boxes and our hearts for years to come. 

1 sheet refrigerated pie crust dough *(I like to use the oreo crumb pie crust shell)

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, plus more for topping

1/2 cup whole milk

1 tables chocolate cream liqueur (or use 2 teas almond extract or vanilla extract)*(if you use the extract instead of the liqueur, you don’t have to add the 1 teas vanilla that is called for in her recipe, but if you use the liqueur, add 1 teas vanilla)

3 cups powdered sugar

1 quart heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 if using regular pie dough crust. (If you use the cookie crumb prepared Oreo crust, you can skip this step). Line a 9″ pie plate with the pie crust dough; crimp the edges as desired. Prick holes in the bottom of the pie shell. Bake in oven 11 min or until golden brown; let cool.

Combine chocolate chips, milk and chocolate liqueur in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring until smooth, about 1 min. (If using extract instead of liqueur, do not add yet, as extract should be added in after cooking the chocolate and milk. Mix in extracts and let the chocolate sauce cool.

Combine the powdered sugar and heavy cream in a mixing bowl that is free of any grease. Whip with a mixer to make the whipped cream. Gently fold about 1 cup of the whipping cream into the cooled chocolate sauce. Gently fold the remaining whipping cream in two to three batches. Pour the mousse mixture into the pie shell. Add chocolate chips to the top of the pie. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze a few hours or overnight. 

Chocolate · Desserts

Nutella Brownies

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Can you think of any greater combination than Nutella and brownies? All last week in Chicago, everywhere we went to eat, they had crepes with bananas, Nutella and whipping cream. I did actually resist getting that for dessert. Actually I didn’t resist, Randy doesn’t like Nutella (can you believe that) and since I didn’t want to gain so much weight  where I wouldn’t fit in the airplane seat, I shared a dessert with him instead. When we get home, there is my new Southern Lady magazine just waiting for me. Last night, sitting by the fireplace and leafing through the new magazine, lo and behold, I turn the page to find this amazing little wonder of a recipe. Am going to make some tonight.

1 cup butter

5 (1 oz) squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 cups sugar

5 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teas salt

1 teas vanilla

1 (13 oz) jar Nutella

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup nuts

Preheat oven to 350. LIne a 13×9″ baking pan with heavy duty foil.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt butter and chocolate in microwave oven on high in 30 sec intervals, stirring between each, until melted. (This should take about a minute and a half)

In a large bowl, combine chocolate mixture and sugar. Beat at medium speed with mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time (sometime I am going to be a rebel and add them all at once to see what happens, after all, how do the eggs know they are being mixed one at a time?), beating well, after each addition. Add flour, salt and vanilla, beating until just combined. Add Nutella and chocolate chips mixing until combined. Spread batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle top of batter with nuts.

Bake for 30-40 min or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out still slightly stickily. Be careful not to over bake. I would start checking at 28 min and check every 3 minutes. Let cool completely in pan and cut into squares. Drizzle a little caramel on plates before placing brownie and top with ice cream or whipping cream.