Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies

Peppermint dough and mint chocolate swirls or peppermint glaze - or both! - make these pretty peppermint pinwheel cookies. They are perfect for your Christmas table or cookie exchange.
  Food Lust People Love: Peppermint dough and mint chocolate swirls or peppermint glaze - or both! - make these pretty peppermint pinwheel cookies. They are perfect for your Christmas table or cookie exchange.




It wouldn't be Christmas without some cookies, right? And peppermint is an essential Christmas flavoring so I decided to put those two things together!

These peppermint pinwheel cookies are actually quite easy to make, although there is some waiting while the dough firms up, (See note below.) so do plan accordingly. They are the perfect size for popping in your mouth every time you pass the cookie plate but since the recipe makes 5 dozen, that shouldn't create a problem. With mint glaze and melted chocolate drizzled on them, they are sure to be everyone's new favorite Christmas cookie.

Note: Like any cookie dough that needs to be rolled out before cutting, the process will be easier if your dough has time to chill in the refrigerator. Plan on at least an hour of chilling time before rolling it out and four hours in the freezer before baking. Or make the dough a day or two before you plan to bake. It will keep beautifully, well-wrapped in cling film in your freezer.

Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies

These peppermint pinwheel cookies are adapted from this filled cookie recipe on My Recipes.

Ingredients for about 5 dozen + cookies
For the dough:
1/2 cup or 113g butter, softened
1 cup or 200g sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups or 220g flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red food coloring paste for red half (I use Wilton no taste red.)
1/2 teaspoon mint extract for white half

For the peppermint glaze:
1/2 cup or 65g powdered sugar
2 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
Pinch salt

For the mint chocolate drizzle:
1 3/4 oz or 50g mint dark chocolate bar (I used half a Lindt bar.)

Method
Cream the butter and sugar together with your electric mixer, beating until light and fluffy.

Scrape the bowl down with a rubber spatula then add the egg and vanilla, beating until blended, scraping bowl again as needed.



In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating at a low speed until blended.

Set aside half of the dough. (Mine weighed 598g so I took out 299g. Scale users unite!) If you don't have a kitchen scale, eyeball it.

Knead food coloring paste into remaining portion of dough while wearing rubber gloves or, if you are so fortunate, use the K-beater in your stand mixer to combine the two. Cover the dough with cling film and chill for at least one hour.



Knead the mint extract into the other half of the dough, or once again, use your stand mixer to combine the two. Cover the dough with cling film and chill for at least one hour.



Once chilled, roll each half into a 12- x 8-inch or 31x20cm rectangle between two pieces of baking parchment or waxed paper. Check out this great video from Crazy For Crust, to see how to do it. Just stop before you start cutting out cookies.




Once you have them rolled out, trim the rounded edges and neaten up your rectangles with a sharp knife.



Put the parchment or wax paper back on top and use your rolling pin and very little pressure to stick those pieces to the bigger piece again.

Peel one side of the parchment or wax paper off of each rectangle and lay one rectangle of dough on top of the other and press down gently so they stick together. Peel the paper off the top. Save the parchment paper because you can use it again for wrapping the dough and then baking.

Cut the double rectangle in half lengthwise to create two long equal rectangles.



I decided to roll one half up with the peppermint dough on the inside and one with the red dough on the inside, so I flipped one over, but you can make them all one way or the other.

Use a piece of the parchment or some cling wrap to help you roll the two dough rectangles up tightly, from the long end, so you end up with two long skinny tubes.



Wrap these again in parchment or cling film and freeze for several hours.

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a couple of cookie sheets by lining them with baking parchment or silicone mats.

Cut the rough ends off of one log, leaving the other in the freezer, then slice the log into circles. Depending on where you stand on the subject of eating raw egg (and now flour!) you can discard the ends or eat them.



Place them on the prepared cookie sheets with a couple of inches or at least five centimeters between them. As you will see, mine were too close so many of them spread out enough to join together.



Bake for 7-8 minutes or until puffed and set.

Food Lust People Love: Peppermint dough and mint chocolate swirls or peppermint glaze - or both! - make these pretty peppermint pinwheel cookies. They are perfect for your Christmas table or cookie exchange.

Cool cookies on baking sheets for several minutes and then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Repeat with the other dough log until all the cookies are baked and cooled.

Mix up the glaze ingredients and set aside. When you are ready to decorate, put the glaze in a plastic bag and cut off a very small corner so you can pipe the glaze onto the cookies.

Or melt the mint chocolate in a microwaveable vessel, 15-second zaps at a time, stirring well between each zap. Use a piping bag to drizzle on the chocolate. You can use a plastic bag for the chocolate as well but I find the proper piping bags are easier to handle with warm chocolate.

Food Lust People Love: Peppermint dough and mint chocolate swirls or peppermint glaze - or both! - make these pretty peppermint pinwheel cookies. They are perfect for your Christmas table or cookie exchange.


Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Peppermint dough and mint chocolate swirls or peppermint glaze - or both! - make these pretty peppermint pinwheel cookies. They are perfect for your Christmas table or cookie exchange.

This week my Sunday Supper friends are sharing their favorite cookie recipes for Christmas. There are so many I'd like to try! Check out the list below.

Traditional and Tasty Cookies to Share

Fun and Festive Cookie Alternatives


Pin it! 

Food Lust People Love: Peppermint dough and mint chocolate swirls or peppermint glaze - or both! - make these pretty peppermint pinwheel cookies. They are perfect for your Christmas table or cookie exchange.

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Monday, August 28, 2017

Swiss Almond Vanilla Muffins #MuffinMonday

Fluffy rich vanilla muffins are studded with chocolate covered almonds in these Swiss almond vanilla muffins which I created to match the flavors of my husband’s favorite Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Food Lust People Love: Fluffy rich vanilla muffins are studded with chocolate covered almonds in these Swiss almond vanilla muffins which I created to match the flavors of my husband’s favorite Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

From as far back as I can remember, my husband’s favorite ice cream has been Swiss Almond Vanilla, made by Häagen-Dazs, sold in the pint-sized containers. He doesn’t eat a lot of ice cream so the occasional pint was a rare treat. Then it started getting harder and harder to find.

When we moved to Dubai, there was a small Häagen-Dazs outlet in our neighborhood so I stopped in to inquire about his favorite flavor. The guy had never heard of it. He checked online and then delivered the bad news. It was now called “vanilla Swiss almond” and apparently flavors vary by region.  Sadly, vanilla Swiss almond isn’t made in the Middle East.

Not being a person who gives up easily, I figured I had two choices. I could make my own or I could fudge it. I bought a pint of Häagen-Dazs vanilla bean ice cream. I let it soften slightly then I mixed in a package of good quality chocolate-covered almonds. I scooped my newly created Swiss Almond Vanilla back into the Häagen-Dazs tub, perched the lid on top (since it didn’t quite all fit in now) and popped it in the freezer.

As we sat around last week brainstorming muffin ideas, my husband reminded me of that story and said he’d like some Swiss Almond Vanilla Muffins. Which sounded like a splendid idea to me!

Swiss Almond Vanilla Muffins


Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 240ml sour cream
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste (or sub vanilla extract)
1 cup or about 180g chocolate covered almonds, divided

Method
Preheat oven to 375°F or 190°C. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups or line the pan with paper baking cups.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large mixing bowl.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, oil, egg and vanilla paste.


Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just moistened. Set aside 12 of the chocolate-covered almonds for decoration and fold the rest into the batter.


Use a scoop or tablespoon to divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups. Top each with a reserved chocolate-covered almond, pressing the candy gently into the batter.

Food Lust People Love: Fluffy rich vanilla muffins are studded with chocolate covered almonds in these Swiss almond vanilla muffins which I created to match the flavors of my husband’s favorite Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Bake 17-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of muffins comes out clean.

Food Lust People Love: Fluffy rich vanilla muffins are studded with chocolate covered almonds in these Swiss almond vanilla muffins which I created to match the flavors of my husband’s favorite Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Fluffy rich vanilla muffins are studded with chocolate covered almonds in these Swiss almond vanilla muffins which I created to match the flavors of my husband’s favorite Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Can you find Vanilla Swiss Almond Häagen-Dazs ice cream in your neck of the woods? Do let me know. And make sure you check out all the creative muffins my Muffin Monday group have for you today!

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.


Pin it!

Food Lust People Love: Fluffy rich vanilla muffins are studded with chocolate covered almonds in these Swiss almond vanilla muffins which I created to match the flavors of my husband’s favorite Häagen-Dazs ice cream.
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Monday, June 26, 2017

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins #MuffinMonday

These Chocolate Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins are made from rich chocolate batter with lots of extra chocolate chips. But because they are mini sized, they are perfect as a party snack or buffet table dessert.

Food Lust People Love: These Chocolate Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins are made from rich chocolate batter with lots of extra chocolate chips. But because they are mini sized, they are perfect as a party snack or buffet table dessert.

Living overseas as I do and far away from most of my old friends and family, it’s not often that I get a chance to take part in wedding or baby showers. But this past weekend, I was delighted to be invited to a wedding shower for the bride-to-be of my friend Sandra’s son, Matthew. I loved meeting all the young women who attended and getting to know them and our guest of honor.

It was such fun! Sandra outdid herself, planning activities and games and, of course, there was a lot of delicious food to eat. I contributed a couple of dishes to the table, these chocolate chocolate chip mini muffins included. For my money, nothing says party like mini muffins, either sweet or savory. I hope you agree!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

Ingredients - for 36 mini muffins
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1/2 cup or 125g plain, unsweetened yogurt
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 40g cocoa powder
3/4 cup or 150g brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/3 cup or 80ml canola or other light oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup or 150g semisweet chocolate chips

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Prepare three 12-cup mini muffin pans by greasing them or lining them with paper muffin cups.

Add the yogurt to the milk in a measuring cup. Stir and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Food Lust People Love: These Chocolate Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins are made from rich chocolate batter with lots of extra chocolate chips. But because they are mini sized, they are perfect as a party snack or buffet table dessert.


In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil and vanilla, along with the milk/yogurt mixture.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, until just combined.

Food Lust People Love: These Chocolate Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins are made from rich chocolate batter with lots of extra chocolate chips. But because they are mini sized, they are perfect as a party snack or buffet table dessert.

There may still be some flour showing and that’s fine. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Food Lust People Love: These Chocolate Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins are made from rich chocolate batter with lots of extra chocolate chips. But because they are mini sized, they are perfect as a party snack or buffet table dessert.


Use a scoop or large spoon to fill the prepared muffin cups. They are going to be pretty full.



Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. You do not want to over bake these and dry them out.

Put the muffin pans on a wire rack to cool for about five minutes.

Remove the muffins from the pan and continue to cool on the wire rack. You can eat these warm but be prepared to lick melted chocolate chips off of your fingers.

Food Lust People Love: These Chocolate Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins are made from rich chocolate batter with lots of extra chocolate chips. But because they are mini sized, they are perfect as a party snack or buffet table dessert.


Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: These Chocolate Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins are made from rich chocolate batter with lots of extra chocolate chips. But because they are mini sized, they are perfect as a party snack or buffet table dessert.


Check out the other lovely muffin recipes my Muffin Monday bakers are sharing today.


#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

Pin it! 

Food Lust People Love: These Chocolate Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins are made from rich chocolate batter with lots of extra chocolate chips. But because they are mini sized, they are perfect as a party snack or buffet table dessert.
 .


Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Marshmallow Turtle Bars #FoodieExtravaganza

Caramel, chocolate and pecans are the key ingredients of those delicious little candies known as turtles. Add a crust and throw a few mini marshmallows in the mix and what you’ve got is marshmallow turtle bars. They are sticky, gooey and more-ish!



This month my Foodie Extravaganza group is bringing you loads of chocolate recipes, both sweet and savory, in celebration of National Chocolate Day at the end of October. I’m not a big sweet eater but I am fond of chocolate when it is either dark, semi-sweet or paired with caramel. A dark or semi-sweet chocolate caramel combination would be ideal, especially with pecans. Which brings us to my recipe.

These guys are sooooo good.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 63g confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup or 85g unsalted butter, chilled
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 14-ounce or 397g can sweetened condensed milk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup or 115g pecans, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup or 150g semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup or 165g toffee-and-chocolate candy (such as chopped up Heath bars)
1 cup or 50g mini marshmallows

Method
Heat oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 9 x 13 inch or 23 x 33cm pan by greasing it or lining it with baking parchment. Personally, I'm a fan of the parchment.

Cut the chilled butter into cubes and put it in a food processor with the flour, confectioners' sugar, and salt. Pulse until the dough just starts to hang together.


Use your clean hands to press the dough firmly into your prepared pan.



Bake until golden around the edges, about 12-15 minutes.


In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the condensed milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour the filling over the baked crust.

Sprinkle on the marshmallows first, then the chopped pecans, chocolate chips, and toffee pieces putting some of each until you’ve used up all of them.



Bake until the filling is set, the edges are golden brown, and the marshmallows are melted, about 25 minutes.



Cool completely and cut into bars. If you live in a warm climate, you might want to keep these in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

How will you celebrate National Chocolate Day? I’d like to recommend making a few of these. Many thanks to our host this month, Kathleen from Fearlessly Creative Mammas.


Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out here.

Pin it! 

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Monday, April 25, 2016

Peanut Butter Cup Stuffed Chocolate Muffins #MuffinMonday

Chocolatey muffins stuffed with peanut butter cups make a fun surprise for the peanut butter and chocolate lovers in your life.



A couple of weeks ago our weather was poor, by which I mean it was actually raining. It has been so weird here lately and I don't know if it's just a change in the overall world climate or if we have only the cloud seeding that goes on to thank for our abnormally wet weather. Anyway, rain and high winds meant no sailing for us on the weekend so my husband suggested that we venture out to explore a big grocery store that is off our usual route. And before you get all, your husband is the best! yes, he is, but there is also a large hardware store nearby. Alas, unfortunately for him, it is closed on Friday mornings (who knew?) so I guess we'll have to go back.

This particular store advertises that they have the largest stock of imported foods from the United States and the United Kingdom and I don't doubt it. It was just after Easter so I even scored a discounted bag of miniature peanut butter cups, which became the inspiration for these muffins. Because who doesn't like to find a little bit of chocolate covered peanut butter when they bite into a muffin? Nobody, that's who.

Please make sure you scroll on down to see the other lovely muffins that my Muffin Monday bakers have for you today.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups or 220g flour
3/4 cup, firmly packed, or 150g brown sugar
1/4 cup or 20g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup or 125g sour cream
1/3 cup or 80ml canola or another light oil
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup or 150g semisweet chocolate chips
12 miniature peanut butter cups

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it liberally or lining it with paper liners.

Whisk together your flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together your eggs, sour cream, oil, milk and vanilla.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold them together until just combined.


Separate out a small handful of the chocolate chips for popping on top of the muffins and fold the rest into the batter.



Spoon or scoop about two-thirds of the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Unwrap your miniature peanut butter cups and poke one into each cup of the batter.


Top with the remaining batter divided out amongst the cups. Sprinkle on the reserved chocolate chips.



Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Remove them from the pan and cool them further on a wire rack.


Enjoy!




You look like you could use a muffin today. Might I suggest one of these?


#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Chocolate Filled Bundt Bread #BreadBakers


This lovely Bundt loaf boasts loads of dark chocolate in a slightly sweet yeast bread, with a thick chocolate glaze. Perfect for a decadent breakfast or even dessert.

This month my Bread Bakers are pushing out the cacao boat, using cocoa, chocolate or carob in a variety of breads. Many thanks to my fellow Dubai blogger, Shireen from Ruchik Randhap, who is hosting this great event.

I bookmarked this recipe from Just a Pinch more than a year ago, renaming it Chocolate Filled Yeast Bundt Cake so maybe Bread. From a quick read through, it sure sounded more like bread than cake. I ended up adjusting a few ingredients so it's even more bread-like than the original but whatever you call it, it's good and chocolatey.

Ingredients
For the dough:
4 cups or 500g all purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
1/4 cup or 50g sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/3 cup or 315ml warm milk (110°F or 43°C)

Note: If you are using organic or unpasteurized milk, heat it to 180°F or 82°C and then cool down to the right temperature. Read more about how, why and when to scald milk here at Pastry Chef Online.

For the filling:
12 oz or 340g dark chocolate

For the glaze:
6 oz or 170g dark chocolate,
2 tablespoons butter, plus extra for greasing Bundt pan
1 tablespoon golden syrup

Optional: Sprinkles for decorating

Method
Grease a 10-inch  or 25cm Bundt cake pan with butter and sprinkle with flour.

Sift the flour into the bowl of your stand mixer and add salt, yeast, sugar, eggs and warm milk.



Mix with the bread hook until all of the flour has been incorporated into the wet ingredients and you have a sticky dough.



Cover the dough bowl with a kitchen towel and leave it in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough doubles in size.



When the hour is almost up, melt the 12 oz of dark chocolate either in a double boiler or in the microwave with a few short zaps. Set it aside to cool a bit.



Sprinkle your clean work surface with flour and knead the dough for a few minutes.

Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape that is 12 x 16 in or 31x41cm. Spread the cooled chocolate on it.


Roll the up the dough, jelly roll style, starting from the longer side. Pinch the ends together.



Quickly move the roll to your greased Bundt cake pan, trying to make sure the seam side is down. Sprinkle with flour and then cover with a towel for 30 minutes.



Start preheating your oven so it will be at 350°F or 180°C when the 30 minutes are up.

After half an hour


Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Leave plenty of headroom for the bread to rise. Because rise it certainly will!


Leave to cool for about 15-20 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack. I had to trim some off of one side of my bottom to get it to stand up straight.


For the glaze, warm up all ingredients in a double boiler or with a few good zaps in a microwaveable bowl until chocolate is melted. Let it cool a little and pour over the bread.

Decorate with sprinkles, if desired.



Enjoy!




Breads with Cocoa, Cacao or Carob in any form