Tag Archives: cocoa

Tiramisu

I found it kinda funny how on Friday morning my husband reminded my son that it was Valentines Day! Our son was all over it. He was making dinner, she made dessert they had a plan. This is our 31st Valentines day together and I wouldn’t say he has ever forgotten it but let’s just say some years have been better than others.

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My husband was more prepared than I was this year – hey it happens! I bought flowers for the table at the beginning of the week. I knew what I was making for dinner; seared scallops over a bed of risotto and some swiss chard. But until my son mentioned dessert the thought never crossed my mind. So after work I braved the local grocery store. Probably the first time I have seen the store so full of men. I did check out what they were buying because I’m nosy that way. Most had covered the bases with the flowers, chocolates and cards in hand. A few went above and beyond the holiday staples and were picking out some seafood for dinner, quite a few were looking over the steaks.
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Back to why I went to the store. I decided to pick up one of my husbands favorite desserts tiramisu, which of course they didn’t have. Now what? I walked around the bakery section and was not impressed; or at least nothing I wanted. Went to the frozen section and still nothing.  So that’s when I decided to just make my own.  I have made it a couple of times and thought I can do this! I picked up lady fingers, which they didn’t have so I substituted with Stella D’oro Margherite cookies. grabbed some heavy cream and some mascarpone cheese. I have everything else at home. BTW since I didn’t get him a card I was going to pick one out, I did look but the ones left were lame so I passed.

I got home and he had a chocolate martini ready – he’s a keeper!

Tiramisu
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Ingredients
  1. 6 egg yolks
  2. ¾ cup white sugar
  3. 2/3 cup milk
  4. 1¼ cups heavy cream
  5. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  6. 2 16 ounce containers mascarpone cheese
  7. ½ cup strong brewed coffee, room temperature
  8. 2 tablespoons rum
  9. 2 packages ladyfinger cookies or Margherite cookies
  10. 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder – use a strainer to help distribute cocoa evenly
Instructions
  1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well blended.
  2. Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Don't walk away or you may end up with scrambled eggs. Boil gently for 1 minute, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
  3. Cover tightly and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour
  4. In a medium bowl, beat cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form
  5. whisk mascarpone into yolk mixture until smooth.
  6. In a small bowl, combine coffee and rum.
  7. Split ladyfingers in half lengthwise and drizzle with coffee mixture. Once they get wet it is hard to move them, so if you want to place them in their spot and then drizzle it will work out better for you.
  8. Arrange half of soaked ladyfingers in bottom of 10x10" (don't worry about the size, use what you have) dish.
  9. Spread half of mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers
  10. then half of whipped cream over that
  11. Repeat layers and sprinkle with cocoa.
  12. Cover and refrigerate 4-6 hours, until set
Cooking at Clark Towers https://cookingatclarktowers.com/
all of these pictures were from several years ago – I didn’t take any of the one I made the other night

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Stay on top of this, you don’t want to make scrambled eggs.

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I think I should have soaked them more with the coffee and rum


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Fudge Topped Brownies

Chocolate calls my husbands name; at least that is what he says A LOT! I cannot tell you how many times I have found a lonely chocolate chip on the pantry floor while he was grabbing a handful to shove into his mouth when he couldn’t find anything else.

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I just took a pan of these out of the oven and the first words out of his mouth are “can I have one of those; or are they for someone else”? He has seen many a baked good leave the house without getting to have any of them. Fortunately for him I was planning on splitting the tray and only take half of them to work for my co-worker’s birthday.

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I know most people find it easier to use a box mix for brownies and I was definitely one of them. They taste good, they are simple and I have had many homemade brownies that just did nothing for me; until now. If you ever want to try a delicious and easy to make brownie you need to check these out I promise you won’t be disappointed.

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He is still bugging me for one; since I have to bring some of them to work, we have to wait for them to completely cool so they don’t crumble into pieces. We have had a lot of experience with cutting uncooled brownies; I am sure by now you know who I am talking about.

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You probably also noticed I made my brownies half with nuts and half without. I am sure this would never solve a nut allergy but it solves the fact the my son does not like nuts so I try to accommodate this by making sure when I bake I either split the pan or make 2 loaves be it banana or pear bread.

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1 cup of butter – 2 sticks melted
2 cups of sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
⅔ cup Hershey cocoa
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
½ cup milk
3 teaspoon vanilla – divided 1 ½ teaspoon each

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350’

Bake for 40 minutes

put first 7 ingredients along with 1½ teaspoon of the vanilla in a large bowl beat well. If you are adding nuts either add all now or do as I did and after adding batter to 9×13 pan stir into half of the pan.

In a pan or bowl heat or microwave the chips and condensed milk and the other 1½ teaspoon vanilla just till melted and pour over the brownies when they are hot out of the oven.

Let them cool before cutting and enjoy with a big glass of milk or some vanilla ice cream!

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Recipe shared by Julie Cordatos

Tiramisu

The Killington Wine Festival was this weekend; very happy that our good friends that live close to the mountain invite us up for a wonderful event it’s always a good time.  We start with a light lunch then we all head to the mountain and try lots and lots of wine. Thankfully we stay on the mountain and have a “well-planned” BBQ. This year’s dinner was excellent. After a few failed attempts over the last few years at varied menus, you have great aspirations before the wine tasting but sometimes execution doesn’t quite come out as planned.this year we came up with a winning menu. We marinated steak tips, prepped hasselback potatoes (I will write about these soon the ones who have had them have asked me to) and I was in charge of bringing dessert; well it didn’t all turn out all as planned, somebody forgot to bring the asparagus. but that’s OK. My brilliant husband came up with me making Tiramisu. If you have been following my blog at all you will see a pattern with him. He loves coming up with delicious yet pretty involved things for me to make. As you will probably also be able to tell; I am enabler since I usually make what he comes up with.They do say the first step is to admit it.

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I had totally intended to make this Friday night so I didn’t have to rush around in the morning.  Sometimes things don’t always work out according to my plans. It was getting late and I was completely exhausted so I decided to break the recipe up and then finish it up in the morning. Sometimes it actually works out even better when time is tight to make parts of recipes and assemble the final product when you have time.

Tiramisu

6 egg yolks

¾ cup white sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pound mascarpone cheese

½ cup strong brewed coffee, room temperature

2 tablespoons rum

2 (3 ounce) packages ladyfinger cookies

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder – use a strainer to help distribute cocoa evenly

In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well blended.  Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils.  Boil gently for 1 minute, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Cover tightly and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

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In a medium bowl, beat cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form, whisk mascarpone into yolk mixture until smooth.

In a small bowl, combine coffee and rum. Split ladyfingers in half lengthwise and drizzle with coffee mixture. Once they get wet it is hard to move them, so if you want to place them in their spot and then drizzle it will work out better for you. 

Arrange half of soaked ladyfingers in bottom of 10×10″ (don’t worry about the size, use what you have) dish. Spread half of mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers, then half of whipped cream over that. Repeat layers and sprinkle with cocoa.  Cover and refrigerate 4-6 hours, until set.  My husband actually thinks it tasted better today Sunday than it did last night; I am not going to listen too much to this since it was after lots and lots of wine – his judgment might have been a little impaired. 

I made the coffee and the egg yolk sugar portion Friday night. Saturday morning I whipped the cream and assembled much easier I think.

Crazy Chocolate Cake

I have been making this particular chocolate cake for as long as I can remember; at least since I was in middle school.

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I am not entirely sure where it came from but I believe it has been around for many many years.  If you are looking for a great recipe to teach a child try this one. It mixes easy in one bowl and is pretty forgiving.  The frosting is pretty simple as well.  The benefit is no box is necessary.

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If your house is anything like mine, any given night an impromptu dinner party can happen.  I am pretty sure the majority of people out there like a little something sweet to have after dinner. I believe it is always a good idea to have a few recipes in your back pocket for such an event.  It also helps if the recipe has everyday ingredients you probably already have on hand. It doesn’t take long to put together or bake.  I think the longest part of the process is waiting for it to cool. I know be impatient; I  have even served it slightly warm.

You know when you go to someones house for dinner and you are asked to bring the dessert.  Even though you are full everyone still wants to at least sample it. The host insists you bring the leftovers home.  Well I have not been asked to bring this one home.

This delicious cake meets all of the requirements I listed above; plus it travels well.

 

Crazy Chocolate Cake

Bake at 350’ for about 25-30 minutes – Cool completely before frosting

You can leave in the pan or remove and plate

1½ cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

3 Tbs cocoa

½ cup vegetable oil

1 Tbs vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup milk

Add all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Spray a 9×9 pan or similar.  This makes one small cake I tried doubling it but I didn’t care for the way it came out.  It is so easy to throw together if you want to make a layer cake just add ingredients to the same bowl.

 

Buttercream frosting

1 stick of softened butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

If too thick to spread add a dash or two of milk

In a mixing bowl add all the ingredients turn on the mixer on medium until all combined about 3 minutes.  You may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Snacks from the past- Poop Cookies

I am pretty sure afterschool snacks have evolved over the years and some are far healthier that what I used to eat.  When I was growing up, for a spell, we had a housekeeper that also made the most delicious homemade cookies & sugar cinnamon doughnuts for when we got off the bus.  It was for a very short period in our lives, but it was very memorable.  After she was no longer with us we had to fend for ourselves and made due with whatever was in the house; which at times was not much.  I recall eating sardines on saltines, buttered bread cut up in a bowl with maple syrup. I do not have fond memories of either of those but when you go from rags to riches back to rags you figure some things out.

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I do have some fond memories of a couple of afterschool snacks and have shared them with my kids & others.  I really have no idea where my favorite snack came from.  I can’t imagine that I came up with it; but who knows I have always been pretty creative; or at least I want to believe that I was/am.

My favorite afterschool snack was a peanut butter and fluff grilled sandwich.  Don’t knock it unless you try it.  While I know this is not a healthy snack and it shouldn’t be an everyday snack.  If you like peanut butter and fluff I encourage you to try it at least once.  It is made exactly like a grilled cheese just different fillings.  My daughter doesn’t like fluff and my husband is not a fan of peanut butter but my son loves them and makes them on occasion. I recall sitting around one night surrounded by family not sure how they came up but they are so easy to whip up; I made several of them; sliced them up and handed them out. They were a hit!

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The other is a cold bean sandwich; simply buttered bread, beans done!  I am pretty sure this one came from my parents. I remember my dad putting thinly sliced raw onions on his, he loved cold bean sandwiches. Again might not be for everyone one but it is pretty darn good.  I posted that I was eating a cold bean sandwich on FB a few years ago and it definitely stirred up a response.  Some people loved them others not so much.  Same goes in my house the kids and I like them my husband does not, but his brother does.  He was one of the ones that commented on my FB post.

After reading this I hope you reminisce a little about snacks from your childhood.  If they were noteworthy share them!   I also wanted to share a recipe that I made as a child and still make to this day and it is pretty easy for kids to make if you allow them to use the stove top.

Poop Cookies (not sure why my family called them this but we always have)

2 cups sugar

½ cup butter or margarine

½ cup milk

3 TBS cocoa

3 cups oatmeal

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup peanut butter

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, butter, milk and cocoa.  Bring to a full boil over medium heat, boil for 3 minutes (do not skip this step) remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients.  Drop by spoonful onto waxed paper.  Let them set until firm.  If you skip the boiling step they will not set up.  Trust me I’ve done it, my son has done it.  Just be patient and let the mixture boil for a bit.

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