Tag Archives: chocolate

Fifty Shades of Homemade Popsicles

June 12, 2012 By in Dessert, Good Reads, Recipes Tags: , , , , , , , , 7 Comments

It hasn’t been that warm of a start to the summer yet, but Fifty Shades of Grey is really heating up the beach, the T, and lunch breaks all over New England. Thanks to E.L James and her overly worded descriptions using the same adjectives; heady, delicious, and running fingers through hair, I decided I had had enough ‘pursed hard line lips‘ and over analyzer ‘Ana’ for one afternoon. Thanks for this blog’s inspirational E.L…

I’m going to go with irony that popsicles were on my mind when I headed to the grocery store… Out the door to Whole Foods as I look down at my list, “frozen yogurt/ice cream”. Great! Sounds like a good way to cool down… from the first 90 degree day of the season, not Fifty Shades people!  Upon browsing the frozen treats section, to my dismay a 6 pack of Organic-amazing-for-your-body- your-kids-teeth-the rain-forest- and-humanity, fudgcicles were $7.99. Holy F! Absolutely not. My eyes kept strolling the frozen over windows… Ben and Jerry’s assorted flavors $5.99, soy-delicious bars, $6.49, HaagenDaaz- on special still $5.99, Crap! I guess I forgot how pricey these things can be. LIGHT BULB! My Inner goddess told me to go home and make your own.

Pinterest is amazing for this very reason. I scan and sort future recipe ideas. Genius! Now, go sign up and follow me. wink.  Pulling up the Pinterest app on my phone I look at my board of recipes I’ve saved. Ah yes, a frozen fudgecicle recipe I’d virtually stowed. This recipe, adapted from the dailywaffle.com is really easy. Get ready… it’s 2 ingredients, milk and Nutella. Crazy I know. However I wanted to really mix it up and add another flavor element; sea salt. (From my former post on sea salt macarons you could conclude that I have a salty chocolate problem as of late, whoops).  I should mention that a few weeks ago I sampled a Chocolate Sea Salt popsicle from the Kingof Pops cart in Charleston, SC and it rocked my world, so a little 50 Shades, a 90 degree day and a hankering for Nutella led to this beautiful creation.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cup chocolate milk
  • 1/2 cup Nutella
  • a few dashes of vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tbsp course sea salt, dissolved in 2 tbsp of hot water
  • 1 tsp, course sea salt into mixture once ready to pour (optional)

Whisk together in a large bowl until all ingredients are smoothly mixed together. Pour into Popsicle mold slots, or whatever vessel you choose and chill in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

Sweet and salty, much like Christian Grey…  Enjoy!

French Chocolate Macarons

May 24, 2012 By in Baking, Cookies, Dessert, Holidays, Recipes Tags: , , , 7 Comments

I have wanted to make french macarons since I began culinary school. It just seems cliché, perfect, a responsibility of sorts for being in french cooking school.  But did we learn how to in Baking and Pastry?  Nope.  

It was time to take matters into my own hands.  I’ve got 5 weeks left of school and I have to work my remaining class time in Technique, the schools restaurant. So, I approached one of the chef’s about my macaron dilemma and he suggested I find a good recipe and test it out. Free rein and all the products at my finger tips?  OK!

Thank you David Lebovitz, this recipe is pretty darn amazing! (adapted with my own minor tweak from The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz)

Macaron Batter
1 cup powdered sugar
½ cup almond flour, needs to be really fine
3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
5 tablespoons,  granulated sugar

Chocolate Filling
½ cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces

**Special ingredient, optional. Get Ready….  Fleur de sel.  SEA SALT MACARONS.. I know, crazy. AND TDF (to die for)

Macaron Cookies

Preheat oven to 350*F

Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats.

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients;  powdered sugar, almond flour, and unsweetened cocoa powder, set aside. *If mix is clumpy, pulse in a food processor to get a smooth flour like mixture.

Whip egg whites in a mixer until white peaks begin to form, add granulated sugar and whip until peaks are firm.

Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you’re alone).

Pipe the batter on the parchment-lined/silpat baking sheets in 1-inch (3 cm) circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.

Bake for 9-11 minutes.  *Oven temps will vary so please test out a cookie or two before you bake.  The book recipe calls for 15-18 minutes, but I found in my commercial oven that 11 minutes dried them out completely, 10 minutes was ok, and 9 minutes was perfect for a crunchy outside and chewy inside.  It all depends on what texture you are looking for.

Dark Chocolate Ganache Filling

Heat the cream in a small saucepan with the corn syrup. When the cream just begins to boil at the edges, remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate. Let sit one minute, then stir until smooth. Stir in the pieces of butter. Let cool completely before using. The chocolate will turn into a spreadable paste, but should not be runny.

Spread or pipe a bit of ganache on the inside of the macarons, sprinkle a pinch of coarse Fleur de sel, then sandwich them together. Let them stand at least one day before serving, to meld the flavors.

Since we perfected the recipe to our liking, I decided to make little drizzle cookies for my other classmates to try. All agreed David Lebovitz is the man.

Thanks for reading and have fun making these delicate treats! xo-G

Did I mention, I’ll be in PARIS IN THREE WEEKS!! Ever been? Please comment with suggestions to do/see/eat!!

Lent: Cheese, Chocolate, or Wine?

February 22, 2012 By in Cheese, Dessert, Wine Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments

Today is the start of Lent, and it begins a 40 day and 40 night period of “the faithful commitment to fasting or giving up certain types of luxury as a form of penitence”. And no, I am not talking about the terribly awful yet completely entertaining Josh Hartnett movie. Those who believe and follow in the Christian faith do this to commemorate the 40 days Jesus Christ spent in the desert. Poor guy, 40 days in a desert? Brutal. Then to top it off, during the last week of his mission he dies and comes back to life! OK, I can surely give up something for his efforts.

I imagine food in that day in age was scarce, scary, and nourishment out of necessity not gluttony. Man, times have changed. 2012 and we have dip-n-dots. Pretty sure Jesus would have d-i-e-d to get his hands on some of those in the desert. Whoops! sorry, bad choice of words. He would have been excited.

Moving on..

This period of Lent, leading up to Easter Sunday, is our way of continuing his memory and reflecting upon the struggles he went through in order to give us our freedom and faith today. (Hey! Mom, I learned something in CCD). I have been a bad Lent goer for the past 28 years and I don’t think I’ve ever actually given up anything for 40 whole days. My vices are cheese, chocolate, wine, shopping, sleeping, oh right… I’m a GIRL.

I considered giving up cheese, but honestly that thought lasted 3 seconds. It’s physically impossible.

Giving up wine? Yeah right. 13 hour days… absolutely not in the cards.

40 days of no shopping? Sorta do-able but not a big enough vice to satisfy the big man (and I need something new from time to time to make me feel good).

Ok people, Chocolate it is. Doh!

It’s the winner, or loser, rather. Positives; it will help trim my waist-line, get me ready for beach season, fulfill my 40 day penance, make me appreciate fruit more I suppose, and it will teach me what it’s really like to eliminate something from my diet. I’ve never eliminated anything… ever. Downside; everything else.

I figured I had to write this down to hold myself accountable, I mean, pledge to my audience, followers, friends, and family, that I am off the chocolate sauce (and all other forms) until Easter. Then its ON Easter Bunny, do not bring me jelly beans, you KNOW what I will want.

*Please consider this is meant to be a satirical post, it is not meant to be offensive. If you are a holy roller and take serious offense, I am sorry. Go eat some chocolate and hate me*

‘Tis the season, Mexican Hot Chocolate

December 15, 2011 By in Recipes Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

I have a problem; it’s called Flour Bakery.    It is one of the most delicious, bountiful, buzzing, fresh, decadent, and modern decor-ed bakeries in the city of Boston. It is also owned by a favorite chef of mine, Joanna Chang.  Her motto is “Life is sweet, eat dessert first” and I literally take her world for it all too often.  I can hear the Eat this, Not that guy David Zinczenko whispering in my ear “too many American’s drink their calories” as I order a spicy hot chocolate this morning.  I resist the pastry counter and start salivating over the smells of bacon sizzling and croissants baking. Ohhh this place good.  Did I mention that the entrance to Flour is no more that 10 feet from the front door to my office?  Yeah, it’s a problem. 

Anyway, this spicy hot chocolate inspired me to find a recipe.  I’ll be in the mountains of Park City, UT in a few days for Christmas with my family and I think this hot drink will be a perfect après ski concoction. I did a bit of poking around on the world-wide-web to come up with what I think was in my cup!

  • 2 cups non fat dry milk powder
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • 1 ½ cups cocoa powder
  • ¾ cup white chocolate chips
  • ¾ cup semi sweet chocolate chips
  • ¼ tbsp salt
  • ½ tbsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tbsp cayenne pepper

In a large bowl, mix ingredients.

In batches, pulse mixture in a food processor until smooth and well combined.

Store in a sealed container in a dry  place.

To make hot chocolate, put 1/3 cup of mixture into a mug and mix with hot water or milk.

Top with marshmallows and a sprinkle of cinnamon if desired.

Give it a try! Thanks for reading, xo-G

Enjoy this Park City, UT time lapse video by my brother, Bo Torrey.

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