Peanuts and chocolate are a gorgeous pair.  They play well with each other.  they are comforting. They hang out well together.  to top all of these compatibility perfections, they are simple to combine.

Both are wonderful on their own.  Aside from those with allergies to nuts, most people enjoy these lovely legumes.  Most people also enjoy chocolate.  Bringing the two together is a match made in culinary and confectionary heaven.  It’s also mind numbingly simple to pull off, which is a plus for someone like me who enjoys instant gratification where food is concerned.

I’m not sure if this is so much a recipe as it is a method, but for the sake of semantics, we’ll say that it’s something worth learning, especially if you would like to get in to playing with chocolate.  I’m sure there are better methods and more advanced recipes for this, and if David Lebovitz can tell me how to keep 60% cacau chocolate from melting the second I touch it, I would be very greatful, as these candies are messy, but so very worth it!

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Summer is here and as much as I love chocolate in all its many incarnations, warm weather calls for treats that are a bit lighter and brighter than my favorite winter fare.  The higher temperatures also mean we’re less likely to gravitate towards large treats, preferring instead to savor smaller bites and brighter flavors.  This dessert fits that bill in all ways and more.

These may be mix based, but I guarantee that you’ll overlook that once you’ve gotten a taste of these little explosions of flavor. There is simply nothing here not to love. Every bite is an immersion in all that is wonderful about lemon.  Tart, sweet and tangy with just a hint of saltiness in the glaze. Eating one of these bars is sort of like drinking lemonade mixed with rocket fuel.  It’s an unforgettable experience.

Simple, wonderful and light.  Perfect for the summer no matter where you are.  Please give this recipe a try.  And if you make something like it, feel free to leave a link in the comments.

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Cheesecake may just be the perfect food.  It is certainly one of the oldest on record.  It is believed that cheesecake was served to the Olympic athletes during the first Olympic games in 776 B.C.  Any food with that kind of staying power just has to have something to it.

Perhaps it’s the ability of cheesecake to be modified in so many ways. Cheesecake is adaptable.  It can be made in any number of different flavors and textures, from light and fluffy with a hint of vanilla to incredibly dense and savory, the cheesecake has been with us since the beginning of Western history and I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be leaving us very soon, especially with flavors like the ones in the cake pictured above.

My guests for Christmas requested only three things.  Turkey, ham and a chocolate cheesecake.  That’s a simple request if I’ve ever heard one and I was happy to oblige.  Initially I was going to make a simple chocolate cheesecake, but the gift of 8 oz. of German milk chocolate and the thought of my favorite coffee drink made me decide to go in a different direction.  It turned out to be a fated decision, as this is by far the best tsting chocolate cheesecake I’ve had to date.

I had picked up Coffee Liqueur and Creme De Cacao with the intention of posting the recipe for my cafe mocha (coming soon) and the smell of the cheesecake batter reminded me of that drink, so a few quick additions to the custard were all it took to turn what I’m sure is a phenomenal recipe into something extraordinary.

Chocolate Cafe Mocha Cheesecake

Ingredients:

For Cheesecake:

• 1 1/2 cups crushed Oreo Cookies (about 20 cookies)
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 24-oz cream cheese (3 packages), softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 8 oz. milk chocolate, melted, slightly cooled
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp. Creme De Cacao
• 1 tbsp. Coffee Liqueur

For Ganache Topping:

• 8 oz. dark chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tbsp. Creme De Cacao
• 1 tbsp. Coffee Liqueur

Method:

Cheesecake:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees if using a silver 9″ springform pan or to 300 degrees if using a dark nonstick 9″ springform pan.  Mix crushed cookies and butter; press firmly onto bottom and sides of pan.  Bake 10 minutes, remove and allow to cool.

Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, Creme De Cacao and Coffee Liqueur with electric or stand mixer on medium speed until well blended.  Add chocolate and mix well.  Add eggs, one-at-a-time, mixing on low speed until just blended.  Pour over crust.

Bake 45-55 minutes or until center is almost set.  Run a sharp knife or metal spatula around rim of pan to loosen cake. Cool to room temperature before removing rim of pan.  Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight before topping.

Ganache icing:

Place chocolate chips in a small heat proof bowl. heat cream in a small saucepan over low heat until just boiling.  Immediately pour cream over chocolate.  Allow to stand for 5 minutes.

Mix well with a wire whisk or silicone spatula.  Add Creme De Cacao and Coffee Liqueur, stir to combine well.  Refrigerate at least 45 minutes or until ganache is stiff but not set.

Assembly:

Remove ganache from refrigerator and allow to stand at room temperature for at least 15 minutes.  Stir to loosen slightly. Remove cheesecake from refrigerator and level the top with a very sharp knife if necessary.

Gently spread ganache icing from center of cheesecake to edges. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.

Share and Enjoy!

What I would have done differently had I thought of it at the time:

I think I managed to overcook this cake a little.  The sides puffed up a good inch higher than the center, which made the icing a necessity once the cake was leveled.  It was a happy accident though.  The ganache icing adds an entirely new dimension to the already rich flavor of this cheesecake that we all enjoyed very much.

You’ll want to be sure to serve this one just slightly chilled or at room temperature.  Straight from the refrigerator the coffee liqueur is a bit overpowering, but it mellows and plays nice with everything else at room temp.

Be warned, this is a very dense cheesecake and it doesn’t slice “pretty”  Just overlook that and go for it anyway.  It’s more than worth it!

Links to other recipes like this:

• Chocolate Cheesecake, from Closet Cooking
• Plum Crazy Chocolate Cheesecake, from InnCuisine
• Chocolate Almond Cheesecake, from Kelly at Sass & Veracity

Popularity: 4% [?]

This mousse was originally made to be a part of a different article, nothing more than a part of a larger recipe, but once it was made I had to put the mousse itself in the place it deserves to be.  Firmly in the spotlight.

Let me start by saying this:  I am not a huge white chocolate fan.  Generally speaking I’d rather be going for dark chocolate, or better, chocolate toffee. This recipe may have changed my mind.

This mousse is light, delicate, fluffy, airy, silky, velvety and other adjectives I just can’t come up with at the moment.  Basically it’s like eating a slightly whipped-cream flavored cloud, but with the flavor intensified by a factor of 100.  I could sit and just spoon down a cup of this mousse without ever trying hard, though a full cup might be a little much for anyone.

The mousse is simplicity in itself to make and could be used for any number of absolutely decadent desserts.  Drop a dollop on a pie the next time you were craving whipped cream, use it as a substitute for butter cream in a cake recipe, the filling for a pie or tart, or as a classic mousse.  My personal favorite way to eat it is drizzled with a bit of fruit compote and a spoon ;-)

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Is there really an more perfectly simple topping or dipping sauce than caramel?  In its purest incarnation caramel is nothing more than sugar that has been heated until deeply browned, but the transformation is enough to bring out deep flavors and subtle overtones that simply can’t be found in any other form of sugar. With the addition of a few simple flavorings this humble mix of melted sugar and water can take on sweet, savory or succulent flavors and it plays with each very well.

In this instance we were looking for a sweet caramel sauce for a few desserts.  My wife found this recipe at Martha Stewart’s website and we both thought it would be a perfect fit to some of the other flavors we were going into the mix, so we gave it a shot.

It’s fabulous.  Really.  I can’t say how fabulous. I’ll admit that I upped the butter content over the version at Martha’s site, but I prefer a very rich caramel. (I may have added a bit more bourbon than listed as well.  OK, A tablespoon more… But this has a tendancy to cause the sauce to thicken a bit overmuch, so I don’t reccomend it.)

If you’re going to take the leap and try just once in your life and attempt to make your own caramel sauce, this is the one you should try!  No really, go make this right now.  I’ll wait….

Good, isn’t it?

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Popularity: 3% [?]

This Month’s Daring Baker’s challenge, hosted by the lovely Morven, of Food Art and Random Thoughts, was one that made me giddy from the get go. Why? Because this time the rules basically said “do what you want”. The challenge was to make our own version of Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake. The only guidelines were that we must use the basic recipe and that it hadda be a layer cake. That’s just fine by me!

The original recipe called for buttercream icing. I’m not strictly a fan of buttercream, so I went with an orange-infused ganache instead. The original said you could use whipped cream if so desired, but that sounded too sweet for me, so I just whipped the ganache to something of a whipped cream consistency. Again, works for me.

The other change… Well, the original recipe was for a lemon based cake… I don’t have anything against lemons, but I have a TON of oranges lying about right now, so I changed out one citrus for another and skipped any type of fruit filling on this round. The cake will probably end up at my wife’s office, and I wanted it to keep well.

How did all these changes turn out, you ask?

Fantastically! The cake is light, spongy, dreamy and jam-packed with orange flavor. I may never look at any other white cake again for the rest of my life. Seriously, those relationships have grown stale in an instant. We’re just not on the same page any longer.

The ganache is almost like a chocolate-orange cloud, and has just passed up any other icing choice I’ve ever had. I’ll just use a white chocolate for it if I need a white frosting in the future. I think I may have over whipped it a bit, which made it difficult to spread, but the flavor… Oh, the flavor…

Pardon me.. I gotta grab another slice, why don’t you just print up the recipes below this and go make some for yerself…

!note: I just read that I wasn’t the only one that substituted orange for my cake. Check out the rest of this recipes’ variations at the daring bakers blogroll!

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Peanut butter cookies may not be a part of every family’s holiday assortment, but they always have been in mine. For as long as I can remember, Christmas time meant the prerequisite sugar cookies, my Aunt Thelma’s tea cookies, chocolate chip cookies, my mother’s famous wrecked fudge and my mother’s famous peanut butter cookies.

This is not my mother’s recipe. It was passed down to my wife by her grandmother, and while they are not exactly the same as the cookies my mother used to make, they are delicious nonetheless. (I’ll post my Mom’s version as soon as I can wrestle it out of my sister.)

These little gems are definitely one of the best recipes for a peanut butter cookie that I’ve ever had, and I haven’t been shying away from the plat of them, either. As a matter of fact, I’m a bit worried that my current trend of losing pounds is about to end, at least for a while. I don’t really think I mind though. These cookies are well worth an extra pound or two. I hope you’ll agree.

Are peanut butter cookies on your holiday must have list? If not, what cookies or confections are always on your Holiday table? I really would love to know.

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I think I’ve died and gone to heaven this time folks. I can’t even begin to do justice to the flavors and textures in this sweet dish. The first thing you are greeted with the crisp phyllo shell, then there is an explosion of espresso and chocolate so strong and rich that it nearly assaults the senses. This is followed by the chewy caramel, which finishes on the tongue with flavors reminiscent of a caramel cappuccino. And all in a bite-sized treat.

The fabulous thing about it is that I came up with the recipe all by my little self! I’ve been wanting to revisit chocolate since I made these little fillo cups in January of this year. Even then I had already decided to go for a bit of mocha flavor, and I’m so very glad I did! Decadent just isn’t a strong enough word for this, and I’m in chocolate-coffee heaven, and will be until all of these little morsels have been eaten. (Which I’m sure won’t take very long.)

These tartelettes are a perfect holiday confection. They travel well (the filo cups come in a convenient plastic carton that can be used to carry them), hold their texture for several days, and are actually better the second day. As a matter of fact, I recommend making them a day before you plan to eat them.

Enough of my blathering, on to the good stuff!

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Popularity: 2% [?]

The Holidays are the time for indulgences, meaning pastries, cookies, cakes, pies and what have you. In that spirit we’ve dusted off our baking gear for the season to bring you a slew of great recipes for you and yours.

So as the dulcet tones of Twisted Sister’s “Twisted Christmas” waft through the house along with the smells of fresh-baked cookies, I bring you the first of twelve cookie recipes for your Holiday gatherings, or just for noshing with family around the TV for the Rudolph marathon.

(I know. I know. I’ve dated myself horribly but in my defense I also listen to the classics, like Bing Crosby with David Bowie doing “Little Drummer Boy”, The Andrews sisters, and one or two Elvis Christmas Albums. Then there’s Manheim Steamroller, TSO and Amy Grant. I just love Christmas!)

This recipe is inspired by Alton Brown’s Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookie recipe, but done the quick and dirty way, minus the peppermint, which I am not a fan of in anything with dough. (In hot cocoa fine, but not in a cookie, please!)

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Popularity: 4% [?]

There’s nothing that takes me back to my childhood faster than a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Just the smell is enough to bring back the sounds of my mother’s laughter, wrapping paper tearing and my sister squealing in happiness at the latest treasure to find its way out from under the tree. There are also memories of frigid January afternoons when the mist in the air carried ice. I’d get to the door from the bus, shivering and sniffling and walk through into the heat of the gas heater and the smell of hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies.

Good memories all.

My mother made her hot chocolate with unsweetened powdered chocolate, sugar and milk, at least until we were older and our grandmother introduced us to packaged coca with marshmallows. At the time it didn’t really matter to me, and the marshmallow kind was sweeter. for my mother it was faster, but I think she missed making it from scratch. There just isn’t as much love in a packet.

Today my tastes are more refined. I prefer dark chocolate to the silkier milk chocolates, and any thought of using a packet has long ago been left at the wayside. It really isn’t any more trouble to make your own hot chocolate, and the taste is like nothing you will ever get from a store shelf. It is truly the perfect beverage for a cold winter’s day.

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