Sunday Afternoon Biscotti

It was a beautiful day today, relatively speaking...sun was shining, and it was not minus 40.  Seriously though  it was lovely and we even got to take the puppy for a long walk (she's so tired, she's still sleeping!).  So my daughter and I, who crave chocolate on the best of days, wanted biscotti.  Not just any biscotti...we wanted good chocolaty biscotti.   So, we did what anybody would do...we made some!  And it was surprisingly easy!  She found a recipe from Allrecipes.com for double chocolate biscotti...who could resist that?

The finished product...dressed up with icing sugar
just to make it look sexy!

Here's what we did (which is of course slightly different than the actual recipe!)

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup sugar (we used 1/3 white sugar and 1/3 brown sugar)

~cream together butter and sugar, then add:

1/4 cup cocoa powder 

2 teaspoons baking powder

~beat 2 minutes, then add:

2 eggs, one at a time (preferably no shell!)

Now...get that wooden spoon out, and use it to mix the rest:

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Four 1-oz squares of white chocolate, chopped (did not have this, so left it out, plus that sounds like too much work)

So mix the flour and chocolate chips and let the dough cool in the fridge for 10 minutes...then shape like this and put on a cookie sheet:

Here's the biscotti right before putting it in the oven to bake....

Bake 20 minutes on 375 convection (or 25 minutes on regular bake, depending on how hot your oven is.  Once done, take out, and cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet and cut in strips like this:

Soooo goooood......

Turn and bake cut-side-down for about 10 more minutes and voila!  You have home-made biscotti.  The original recipe says you have to cool on a wire rack for an hour...I have no wire rack, and I don't have an hour to wait for my treat...so I just waited 10 minutes, and cut with a long non-serrated knife, and it worked beautifully!  

And my house smells......ahhh......like chocolate!  Cheers!  Time for tea!

Late Night Baking, etc...

So those of you who have read some of my posts know that I can be a bit...much.  I go overboard with baking and cooking, and sometimes, I do this at the most inopportune time.  Tonight, it was after 10 pm when I decided to bake not just my easy breezy brownies, but also make some pizza rolls for the kids to take for lunch (which also doubles as a great after school snack).  Cue the hubby rolling his eyes at my late night baking antics, and off I went to cook and bake, with my iPad  tuned to my fave soap (yes, I still enjoy the occasional episode of GH....and its REALLY good right now!).

I started after 10 pm and  finished before 11:30:

Pizza buns...yummmm.....

•  Made the dough, and while it was rising, I whipped up my easy brownies.
• While they were baking, it was time to roll out the dough in a rectangle shape, slap on the pizza sauce, shredded mozza and black forest ham.  
• After that was all topped up, time to roll it up like a log, pinch the seam and ends shut, cut into sandwich sized pieces and bake for 20 minutes on 350.  They heat up great in the microwave at school, and the kids really like them!  
• And of course they can be stored in your deep freeze for a quick snack/lunch/whatever!  When do I make anything I can't freeze??

The brownies of course turned out, and will make a yummy treat in the kids lunches tomorrow.

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup flour
3 tsp baking powder
3 TBSP cocoa
Mix all the wet together, throw in the dry stuff, mix well, and bake for 18 minutes at 350!

That was...

Chocolate Energy Balls

Yesterday I tried yet again an amazing (and healthy) chocolatey treat.   Of course I had to have the recipe from a series of cookbooks that I have not heard of (which surprised me!).  The cookbook series is called "Whitewater Cooks" written by Shelley Adams.

I found different variations of these energy balls on-line.  The recipe itself is so versatile and looks like it would accept different ingredient substitutions.  One thing is for sure...Shelley Adams has created something amazing, simple and delicious and nutritious.  I even had one for breakfast.

Whitewater Energy Balls

1 cup toasted sunflower seeds

1 cup toasted sesame seeds

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup dried cranberries (1 used 1/2 cran, 1/2 raisins)

1/2 cup cocoa

2 cups peanut butter (out of necessity, I used 1 cup organic peanut butter, 1 cup of "Wow" peanut-free peanut butter)

1/2 cup of honey

1 1/2 cups toasted coconut for the coating. (I didn't have coconut so used cocoa powder to coat mine)

Put everything in a bowl except the coconut.  Mix ingredients well.  More honey may be needed to hold everything together.  I had to put mine in the fridge overnight to firm it up a bit.  Roll into them into timbit sized balls, and then roll in toasted coconut (or in my case, more cocoa powder).  From what I read, you can store these in the refrigerator for a week, or in the freezer for up to one month.

Healthy, nutritious and sinfully delicious!   Thanks Whitewatercooks!   I will definitely be buying this series of cookbooks and trying some new recipes!

http://whitewatercooks.com/index.html

11:35pm Brownies!

Yes, it is 11:35 pm, and I am baking.  Am I crazy?  A little.  But, as usual, I have run out of time.  The day today was crazy busy, between end-of-the-year school activities, meetings, a lovely impromptu dinner date with the husband and add that we were determined to finish watching The Descendants (which we LOVED).  By the time this was all done, it was 11:30, and I really wanted to bake something for my daughter's field trip tomorrow.   I am usually THAT mom that bakes, but lately, the kids have gotten Oreo's for their treats (not that there's anything wrong with Oreo's!).  So I was determined to bake the easiest brownies in the world (no, not a mix).

Thought I'd share the recipe...its not the best recipe (will share that later), but in a pinch, if you need to bake something for school the next day, and need to do it quickly, efficiently AND peanut free, here's the recipe:

1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 egg
3 TBSP cocoa
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup flour

Melt the butter, and mix in brown sugar, eggs, cocoa and baking powder and vanilla.  Stir well.  Then add the flour, and mix til blended.  Bake in a greased 8 x 8 dish on 350 for 20 - 25 min.  PRESTO!  I usually double the recipe and bake it in a 9 x 13 pan.

And the result (shortly before midnight!)...

Baked, blogged and tweeted all in span of 25 minutes.
Hurray!  Brownies for everyone!

Bliss Balls

Need I say more?   It's a chocolate ball of bliss.  A friend of mine introduced me to these...and now I can't get enough bliss from the ball!   If you are a chocoholic read on, but be warned you will crave chocolate!  If you are not a chocoholic, then I can't help you at all.  

So where can you find your own ball of bliss?  I bought these at Planet Organic, and honestly, once you start buying them, you won't be able to stop.  You will think of excuses as to why you just happen to be passing by.  Well, we're passing by, we might as well stop and get a few essentials, you'll tell yourself.  But thankfully, these balls are good for you!  The ingredient list is amazingly simple and there is nothing in there that you can't pronounce (always a good sign).   They are covered in chocolate and inside the ball,  the uniform consistency is a bit chewy, but not so chewy that it sticks to your teeth.  Ingredients are:  cashews, chocolate, dates, almonds, brown rice syrup and cocoa powder.  Just to let you know, it does have traces of milk, peanuts, other nuts and sesame seeds.   Each one has 110 calories, and while this may seem like a lot, these balls have benefits!   They also contain 4 grams of fibre, 3 grams of protein and a bit of iron as well!  

I don't know about you but I have a craving!  Even if all you have in your cupboard are chocolate chips or...sigh...crushed Oreo cookie crumbs (which my friends know I have eaten before to satisfy a craving..but that was a LONG time ago!), I suggest you listen to what your body is telling you.  Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go to the pantry!