Chocolate Caramel Crunch Cake

Do you like gooey, crunchy, chocolate cakes? If so, this one's for you! When I first saw this recipe last summer at One Perfect Bite, I bookmarked it. Recently, while turning all of my bookmarks into Pinterest pins, I revisited this recipe.

Not sure if the creators of this recipe (originally from Taste of Home) were going for low fat or not but seems that's the theme of this recipe. Low fat, maybe so but oh so delicious. This is one of those recipe where I can think of lots of variations, vanilla or lemon cake? mint cookies or another candy bar for the butterfingers. A quick and easy dessert that looks pretty enough to serve to dinner guests!




Chocolate Caramel Crunch Cake
Courtesy One Perfect Bite from Taste of Home Magazine

Ingredients:
1 package (18-1/4 ounces) devil's food cake mix
1-1/3 cups water
5 egg whites
1 can (14 ounces) fat-free sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fat-free caramel ice cream topping
5 fun-size Butterfinger candy bars, crushed
1 carton (8 ounces) frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
2) Combine cake mix, water and egg whites in a largebowl and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pan.
3) Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
4) With a meat fork or wooden skewer, poke holes about 2 in. apart into cake. Slowly pour condensed milk and caramel topping over cake; sprinkle with two-thirds of the crushed candy bars. Spread with whipped topping; sprinkle with remaining candy bars. Refrigerate until serving. Yield: 18 servings.

I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday, Miz Helen's Full Plate Thursday, Foodie Friday and Sweet Tooth Friday.

Spicy Chocolate Pots De Creme - Chocolate With Francois

Here I am again, at the last minute, baking Chocolate With Francois. We've been in our house 6 weeks, so I can't play the moving card. We did just return from spending Thanksgiving in Los Angeles with my son Justin, so I am going to say I am baking at the last minute because of traveling. Really I am baking at the last minute because I procrastinated before we left for LA.

I love all things chocolate which must be why I chose to start Chocolate With Francois. One of my favorite chocolate desserts is a simple Pots De Creme. When I saw this recipe for Spicy Chocolate Pots De Creme, I was intrigued and chose it for this months recipe.

I halved the recipe and ended up with four 5 ounce ramekins. A little hesitant about using too much pepper, I used a scant 1/4 teaspoon. I think I would increase the amount slightly next time. I loved these silky, chocolate desserts. This recipe is a keeper, so many possibilities for adding different flavors to the base recipe.


Spicy Chocolate Pots De Creme
3 1/3 cups heavy cream
7 ounces 72% chocolate (I used dark chocolate)
1/2 teaspoon pimete d'espelette* (I used red pepper flakes, finely ground)
1 large egg
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons of sugar

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 300.

Combine the cream and chocolate in a large saucepan over medium low heat and heat, stirring frequently, until the chocolate has melted. Stir in the piment d'espelette.

Whisk together the egg, egg yolks and sugar until well combined. Whisk the mixture into the chocolate cream. Strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve into a pitcher or a bowl.

Pour the liquid into six 6 ounce ramekins. Place the dishes on a rimmed baking sheet and pout about 1/2 inch of hot water into the bottom. Cover the dishes with a large sheet of aluminum foil and bake for about 1 hour, until the custards are very lightly set.

Remove from the oven and let cool, without removing the foil. Once cool, transfer the dishes to the refrigerator and chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

These can be made ahead and kept, covered and refrigerated, for up to 2 days.

*Piment d'espelette is a type of pepper used in Basque cuisine. Payard says it has a distinct, yet delicate, heat which is perfect for dessert. You can substitute finely ground red pepper flakes.

I am linking this to Full Plate Thursday and Foodie Friday.

Chocolate Ginger Angel Food Cake - CWF

I spent all day yesterday unpacking the last of the moving boxes. The moving boxes that really needed to be unpacked, that is! The good news is I did it! The bad news is that didn't leave me a lot of time to bake for Chocolate With Francois. It's a proven fact if I wait till last minute to bake for one of my baking groups, the recipe won't turn out quite right. Once again, that's the case. I baked this cake after work tonight, yes the last minute! I am not sure if I didn't let it bake long enough or what but it didn't come out of the pan quite right. The texture is unlike any angel food cake, I've ever had before. The cake is very heavy and dense, not light and airy like I think of when I hear angel food cake. I omitted the candied ginger because I didn't have any and it wasn't in the cards to make some tonight. The flavor of the cake itself is good but I can't get past the texture!



You can check out the other CWF baker's cakes here. You'll find their cakes look much better than mine did. The recipe should be up over at Leslie of Lethally Delicious' blog sometime soon. If not and despite my not so great review, you want the recipe, just send me an email! Next up for CWF is Spicy Chocolate Pots De Creme!

Chocolate Mint Thumbprint Cookies - Club Baked

What do you think of when you hear Thumbprint Cookies? For me it's those peanut butter ones with the Hershey's kisses in the middle or the ones that are filled with jam. I am always intrigued when I see a new flavor for an old favorite. These thumbprints combine two delicious flavors, chocolate and mint, Andes Mints. I am reminded of standing at the cash register in a restaurant with my Dad, who always bought everyone present for the meal an Andes Mint.

This recipe goes together quickly and easily. The dark chocolate sticky dough, as with most thumbprints, is chilled before rolling them into balls. After chilling this dough for most of the afternoon, it was way too hard. I let it sit on the counter for about 10 minutes, way too soft. I put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes and rolled quickly. Trying to create the look of Andes Mints, I rolled a few of them in green sanding sugar. I did cheat, just a little on this recipe. I used Hershey's white chocolate kisses for the centers!




You can find the recipe for these little gems over at Jamie of Random Acts of Food. Check out the other Club: Baked member's thumbprints here!

Next up in two weeks, Sunday Night Cake, hosted by ME!

My Favorite Flourless Chocolate Cake - Chocolate With Francois

I think my first experience with flourless chocolate cake was twenty or so years ago when I worked with a girl who had gluten allergies. Unlike today, when it seems everyone has some sort of food allergy, no one had ever heard of someone being allergic to flour.

As I was preparing to make this recipe, I realized I didn't have the bottom for my 9" springform pan. I think I left it at my mother in laws when I made her a cheesecake for her birthday. I did some research on using an 8" for a 9" recipe. 10 cups for an 9" and 8 cups for an 8". Perfect, I can put the extra in my mini cheesecake pans and save the balance to serve for dessert when friends come over next weekend. When I poured the 8 cups into the cheesecake pan, I didn't feel like there was enough batter in the pan, so I added one more cup. In the end, I think I could have used it all since these cakes don't rise.

Watch your cooking time very closely, flourless cakes can be dry. I tasted the mini one on the day I made it. It was just okay, a little sticky and not as rich in chocolate as I would have liked. I froze the larger one for about a week. This resulted in the perfect flourless chocolate cake, moist and fudgy, like a decadent chocolate brownie. This recipe is a keeper. It's easy and can be made in advance, the perfect dessert to serve at a dinner party.


Joanne at Apple Crumbles is our host this month. You can find the recipe on her blog.

Charlie's Afternoon Pudding Cake - CWF

If you've read my CWF posts over the past year or so, you know they've contained more failures than successes. This month's recipe, however, was actually what I would call EASY! This cake didn't have any unusual ingredients, take forever to make or require several days to assemble. I read the recipe a couple of times to make sure I hadn't missed anything.

I cut the recipe in half and used an oval pan I had purchased when I took my cake decorating classes. It was the perfect size for a half recipe and the oval shape is great for the Easter season!!!




The next time you're looking for a chocolate cake recipe, give this one a try. It's so decadent and did I mention easy to make? The cake has a dense, fudgey texture and is very chocolately. I think I may have baked mine a little too long, although it doesn't taste overbaked. What a perfect dessert for entertaining!

You'll find the recipe on Peggy's blog, Pantry Revisited. Thanks, Peggy for choosing such a fabulous recipe. This could be my favorite CWF recipe so far!!! If you'd like to see what the other CWF baker's did with this recipe you can find the links to their blogs here!

Chocolate Pudding - Sweet Melissa Sunday's

Does chocolate pudding remind you of your childhood? It's one of my earliest kitchen memories. My mom would make Jello Chocolate Pudding for dessert. I remember when I was maybe seven? she let help me stir the pudding on the stove. I don't remember it seeming to take as long to cook as it does today!

I love dessert! It's my favorite food group! I make a lot of desserts from scratch. Pudding, however, I don't think I have ever made from scratch. When I saw this weeks SMS recipe was Chocolate Pudding, I knew I wanted to participate. I also realized pudding is on my Top 50 list, so apparently this isn't the first time it occurred to me I'd never made pudding from scratch.

I made 1/4 recipe and ended up with 2 five ounce ramekins. The recipe called for checking pudding after 45 minutes. To be safe, I checked after 40. Was it done? It didn't appear soupy but didn't really look done. Melissa suggests using an instant read thermometer and if it reads between 150 - 155, it's done. Okay, 152! Interesting though the top of my pudding doesn't appear smooth like I would expect it to look. I wonder if I cooked it too long.

The pudding is denser and thicker than I expect a pudding to be. The flavor is nice, with just the right amount of chocolate. I liked it but I didn't love it!



Thanks to Leslie of Lethally Delicious for choosing this week's recipe. You can find the recipe on her blog. If you want to see the other SMS baker's pudding, you can find the links to their blogs here!

I'm hosting SMS in two weeks, Irish Soda Bread!!

Rum Truffles - Sweet Melissa Sunday's

Coming back from vacation is always hard. It takes me a week or so to get back in the swing of things!!! I read through this week's SMS recipe earlier in the week and had planned to make them yesterday. Yesterday came and went and no truffles! I just couldn't get motivated to make them. Today after reading everyone's reviews on how delicious these were, I was motivated. Now to find the time. Finally at about 6:30, I made them! Truffles need to chill at least two hours before they can be formed, so I didn't quite make Sweet Melissa Sunday's. More like Sweet Melissa Monday's.

All of the truffle recipes I am familiar with contain cream. Melissa's recipe calls for egg yolks. Egg yolks, seriously? Concerned that if I left the egg yolk out, the truffles wouldn't turn out properly, I decided to go for it. I quartered the recipe and ended up with seven truffles. These have a rich chocolate flavor with just a hint of rum. The egg yolk? I couldn't tell it was in the truffles. If you like truffles, give these a try. They're easy to make and are a beautiful treat! You can find the recipe at Nina's Cupcakes. Thanks for a great pick this week, Nina! Check out the other SMS bakers truffles here!

Chocolate Nut Loaf - Chocolate With Francois

Most of the recipes we've made so far from Chocolate With Francois have been shall we say a little challenging. I was thrilled when I read this month's recipe. The recipe read like a basic quick bread recipe and except for the almond paste, I had all of the ingredients on hand.

I decided to make my own almond paste, of sorts. I combined the "dust" from the almonds I had chopped for the bread, with a teaspoon of almond extract and a little powdered sugar. As well, I substituted macadamia nuts for the hazelnuts. The baking time for this recipe is 50 - 60 minutes. When I checked my bread at 45 minutes, the butter was bubbling around the sides of the pan and had run over in the oven. Fortunately, I use an oven liner. If you don't have one, I strongly recommend buying one!!! After the bread cooled, most of the butter seemed to absorb back into the bread. It did create an interesting crisp edge around the bread. I decided to skip glazing the bread. The bread was moist and the combination of nuts were delicious.


Thanks to Leslie of Lethally Delicious for hosting this month. You can find the recipe on her blog. The links to the other Chocolate With Francois Bakers can be found here!

Chocolate Pecan Tart - Chocolate With Francois

Am I the only one who's on sweet overload? All of these holiday treats, it's no wonder everyone's New Year's resoltution is to lose weight! This month's CWF recipe, Chocolate Pecan Tart was chosen by the talented baker and blogger, Susan of Baking with Susan! You can find the recipe on her site.

Pecan is Tim's favorite pie. Knowing we didn't need an entire tart, I decided to make 1/4 of the recipe and ended up with one mini tart. Many of the recipes we've made from Payard's book have been really difficult. This is one of the first recipes we've made that I would consider a "normal" recipe. A novice baker could make this recipe. By the standards set in Payard's book, this recipe was almost "easy". Even though I made the tart for Tim, I had to at least try it so I could write about it. This tart is so DELICIOUS, a perfect balance of chocolate and pecans. I will be making this recipe again.

You can find the links to the other CWF bakers tarts here.

Coconut Rochers - Chocolate With Francois

Many of the recipes in Francois Payard's recipes aren't for the faint of heart. The require multiple bowls, baking over multiple days and complicated processes. Fortunately, this month's recipe wasn't one of the complicated ones!

This month's recipe, Chocolate Coconut Rochers was chosen by Joanne at Apple Crumbles. These would make an interesting holiday cookie. Check out the recipe over at Joanne's site. I was curious. What's a rocher? Rocher means boulder in French. You can find the other CWF bakers rochers here.

As the egg whites were whipping, I went to the pantry to grab the mini chips. Guess what? Yes, you guessed it, no mini chips. I ended up using dark chocolate regular size chips. Payard suggests using a small ice cream scoop to shape the cookies. I used a regular size cookie scoop. The recipe says to take them out when the outsides are crisp. Mine never did get what I would call crisp. If you like coconut and chocolate and want an easy yet delicious cookie, give these a try.





I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday's, Tuesdays at the Table and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

Brrr-ownies

Brownies are like chocolate chip cookies, there are a zillion recipes out there. Do you have a favorite recipe you always make? Or are you like me and you keep trying new recipes? I first saw this recipe on my friend Susan's blog. I bookmarked it and bought the mints immediately. Then what do I do? I forget about them. I was looking for toffee chips and burried in the basket were the mints. These are my favorite kind of brownie, gooey, chocolately with the addition of the flavor of mint.

The gooeyness of these made it hard to cut them into nice squares. I wonder if chilling them would have helped? Regardless they were delicious. This recipe goes in the make again soon file!!

Brrr-ownies (found on page 103 of Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan).
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 5 pieces
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 cup (6 ozs) York Peppermint Pattie Bites (or equal weight of patties) chopped into bits
Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8 inch square baking pan with foil. Butter the foil and place the pan on a baking sheet.
Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Put the butter in the bowl, top with chopped chocolates and stir occasionally until the ingredients are just melted - you don't want then to get so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the pan of water.
With a whisk, stir in the sugar. Don't be concerned when your smooth mixture turns grainy. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla and whisk vigorously to bring the batter together and give it a shine before gently stirring in the salt and flour; stir only until incorporated. Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in the peppermint pieces. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with the rubber spatula.
Bake the brownies for 30 to 33 minutes, or until the top is dull and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out almost clean. (The tip of the knife may be a touch streaky) Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature.
When they are completely cool, turn out onto a rack, peel away the foil and invert onto a cutting board. Cut into 16 2 inch squares.

I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday's, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday's and Tuesday's at the Table.

Chocolate Honey Madeleines - Chocolate With Francois

With all of the pumpkin, squash and apple recipes on blogsphere, I am ready for a chocolate recipe. How about you? We've been baking along with the book, Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard for a year. It was my turn to choose the recipe for October. Since many of the recipes have been more than a little challenging, I decided to choose one that was easier to put together. This is my second time baking madeleines. The first time was this Sweet Melissa Sunday's recipe. When I first read the SMS recipe, I wasn't sure what to do because I didn't have a madeleine pan. Naturally, I'd passed up at least one or two at Goodwill BEFORE I knew we were baking madeleines. Now I'd like to find one, there's none to be found. A mini muffin tin, although not as pretty, makes a good substitution.

This recipe goes together quickly and most likely uses ingredients you have on hand. This batter was much thicker than the Chestnut Honey Madeleine's. It reminded me of a sponge cake batter. Unfortunately, I overbaked them. Seems like I say that quite often? I was pretty sure I set the timer for 8 minutes, went to hang laundry and came back to the kitchen, time had expired. Did I forget to set the timer? Francois says these are best eaten the day they are made. Seriously, why are all of these recipes better eaten the day they are made? He's right. These have a much different texture, almost tough the next day. I was hoping these would have a nice deep honey flavor. The orange zest, while a delicious flavor, overpowered they honey. These are wonderful served with a cup of tea.




Chocolate-Honey Madeleines
4 large eggs
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
Grated zest of 1 or 1 1/2 oranges, to taste
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon honey
Softened butter and flour, for the molds
Batter
Combine the eggs, sugars and orange zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium speed for 15 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy.
While the eggs are in the mixer, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt over a bowl of piece of wax paper.
Combine the butter and honey in a medium saucepan over medium high heat and let the butter melt. Stir so the honey is well combined. Remove the heat and once the egg mixture is ready, stir about one tenth of it into the butter, to lighten the butter.
With a silicone spatula, gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture in two or three increments. Fold the butter mixture into the batter until well combined. Cover and refrigerate the batter overnight or for up to 3 days.
Bake
Place a rack in the upper and bottom thids of the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Brush the tins of two large madeleine molds (my note...or mini muffin tins) with butter and dust with flour. Line a baking sheet with wax paper.
With a silicone spatula, gently stir the batter to remove the excess air. Spoon the batter into a pastry bag, or resealable plastic bag, and cut a 1/2 inch opening in the tip or corner of the bag. Pipe the batter almost to the top of each tin.
Bake for about 8 minutes, without opening the oven, and immediately unmold them by tapping the molds against the prepared baking sheet. The madeleines should fall from the tins onto the baking sheet. Serve immediately or cool to room temperature.

You can find the links to the other CWF baker's here! Next up for CWF is Chocolate Coconut Rochers chosen by Joanne at Apple Crumbles . We'd love to have a few more baker's join us for Chocolate With Francois. We bake once a month and post on the last day of the month. Interested? Send me an email!

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Torte - SMS

Our friends Karen and Larry are visiting this weekend. When I read this week's SMS recipe, I knew it would be the perfect dessert for Saturday night's dinner. Chocolate and Raspberries...YUM!!

This recipe is fairly simple to prepare. It doesn't have a lot of ingredients or a long preparation time. I had a hard time deciding when my eggs had reached soft peaks. I think I stopped before they had reached that point. As I folded in the first half, they seemed really runny. At that point, I decided to continue. As I combined the eggs with the chocolate mixture, the texture was strange. Almost lumpy but not actually lumps. Did some of my eggs cook when combining with the chocolate? I had one of those "Oh No" momemts where I thought this was going to be a flop. I used a 9" pan, which was too big. My torte was thin with raspberries poking throught. As well I think I should have cooked it for a shorter time. The texture was almost crumbly. Despite the texture and how thin it was, the dessert was delicious. I would have liked it with a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

Thanks to Jennifer of The Rookie Baker for choosing this week's recipe. You can find the links to take a look at all of the other SMS baker's torte's here.

TWD Chocolate Souffle

I am excited to be participating in a wonderful baking group, Tuesday's With Dorie (TWD). Each week TWD features a recipe from the book, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. This weeks recipe was chosen by Susan of She's Becoming Doughmesstic.

It is only fitting that my first TWD post would be a recipe with chocolate as the main ingredient. Chocolate is one of my major weaknesses! Chocolate Souffle is a dessert that, to me, says special occasion. The last time I remember ordering one was on the cruise we took to celebrate my 50th Birthday! Now that was truly a special occasion.

Since it's just the two us and a souffle needs to be eaten immediately, a recipe reduction was in order. Several members of TWD posted cutting the recipe in half or even one quarter. I decided to cut the recipe in half. I never have whole milk in the house, I took a chance and used skim milk. I was surprised the souffles didn't fall as quickly as I had anticipated, giving us plenty of time to take photos! Even though the souffle didn't raise as much as I would have liked, it was delicious!

Foods We Can't Live Without #2

I should have made this Foods We Can't Live Without #1 because Chocolate is the number one food I could NOT live without.

My very best friends, Karen and Larry, came to visit us last weekend. We went to the Durham Heritage Museum to see the Chocolate The Exhibition. This exhibtion was created by Chicago's Field Museum. After closing at the Field Museum this exhibit began a 10 city tour .

Did you know chocolate originated 2000 years ago on trees that only grew in Central and South America? Today the Ivory Coast region exports the most chocolate and the Netherlands imports the most. The first chocolate bar was produced in 1847.

In the 1600 and 1700's, long before Starbucks, there were Chocolate Houses. The first Chocolate House was in London in 1657. Many admitted only men. Others admitted anyone who could afford the entrance fee.

If this exhibition comes to a city near you, take the time to go see it, chances are you will learn some things about chocolate, besides how delicious it is.

Nana's Quick Chocolate Cake

The quick chocolate cake we often enjoy is a recipe passed down from my best friends mother and my son's grandmother. Cancer took Nana from us too soon, as it sometimes does with our loved ones. This is one of those recipes you pass on and everyone loves. It's easy to make...hence the title...and oh so delicious.



Nana's Quick Chocolate Cake

4.6 oz box cook and serve chocolate pudding - cook as directed
1 box chocolate cake mix (any kind, do not make as directed)

After pudding comes to a boil, add box of cake mixture. Mix well, it will be a little lumpy.
Spread into 9 x 13 pan (grease and flour pan first) - sprinkle with 10 oz bag chocolate chips(nuts optional)

Bake according to time and temperature on cake mix box.