Dark Chocolate Cherry Muffins

These Dark Chocolate Cherry Muffins would be the perfect way to start your Saturday morning this Valentine's Day weekend!! My goal for the day will be to have chocolate as part of my every meal. Who else will be eating chocolate all day long on Valentine's Day?? Since it's dark chocolate paired with some fruit I can pretend they are at least a little bit healthy haha ;) 

Ingredients;
4 cups flour
2 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Eggs
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Honey
1 Stick I Can't Believe it's not Butter - Melted
2 1/2 Cup Low Fat Sour Cream
4 Tsp Vanilla
2 Cups Frozen Cherries - Thawed & Halved
1 1/2 Cup Dark Chocolate Chips

Makes about 22 large muffins

Adapted from: http://littlesweetbaker.com/

Preheat oven to 425 F. Spray the muffin pans with Pam or put cupcake liners in the pan and set aside.   In a  medium sized bowl whisk together all of the wet ingredients (sour cream, honey, eggs and vanilla). Melt the butter in the microwave for about 2 min on a low level and pour the melted butter into the bowl with all the other wet ingredients, whisk everything together. 

In a medium bowl whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar, baking powder). Add the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry. Whisk it all together until it has just combined to make the batter.

If you are using fresh cherries make sure you have taken all the pits and steams out before you cut them up. If you are using frozen cherries like I did make sure they are completely thawed and cut in half. To prevent your batter from immediately turning purple dry the thawed cherries with some paper towels before adding them to your batter. Gently fold in the cherries and chocolate chips. 

Scoop the batter into the muffin tins and bake at 425 for 5 minutes. Than turn the heat down and bake the muffins at 350 F for 20 minutes. The muffins will be slightly golden brown on the top and will spring back when touched. Allow them to cool for a few minutes, take them out of the tins and enjoy them warm if possible.

Enjoy!!

Linked at: http://www.thecountrycook.net/

Strawberry Nutella Braid

Every time I think about Valentine's Day I think of chocolate covered strawberries. When I was in high school I worked in my town's homemade chocolate store. Every year for Valentine's Day the owner would dip the biggest strawberries I have ever seen in warm chocolate. He would then decorate them and sell tons and tons of them for Valentine's Day to last minute husbands and boyfriends hoping to bring the special treat home to their women. This dessert is perfect for Valentine's Day since it's a chocolate covered strawberry wrapped in a warm pastry!!

Ingredients:
1 Package Pillsbury Seamless Dough
1/2 Cup Nutella Hazelnut Spread
10-12 Fresh Strawberries

Preheat the oven to 350. Allow the dough to warm up to room temperature then roll the dough out to be about 1/2 inch thick onto a piece of parchment paper on top of a baking sheet. Spread the nutella in the middle of the dough leaving a boarder of about 2 inches on the ends and about 6 inches on the sides.

Slice all of the strawberries into halves or quarters depending on how large they are. Spread them out into a single layer on top of the nutella. Cut the dough into strips every 2 inches or so on both sides of the filling pulling them away from the center a bit as you cut.

Take each strip of dough and fold it back into the middle covering the filling, alternating left and right so it creates a braid as you go down the dough. Bake for about 15 minutes until the chocolate is slightly bubbly and the dough has become lightly golden brown. Slice and serve immediately while still warm.

Enjoy!!

Linked at: http://www.thecountrycook.net/

Ina Garten's Brownie Pudding

Happy Groundhog Day!!
This has been a family favorite in our house for about 5 years and would be perfect for a Valentine's Day dessert. Whenever I want to get the whole family over I just tell them that I have made Brownie Pudding. I usually have all the ingredients in the house and other than cooking it in the oven for an hour, its very quick to assemble.  It's very rich and very chocolate-y and is much better served warm and never lasts very long in our house.  

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, plus extra for buttering the dish
5 large eggs (or 4 extra large)
2 cups sugar
3/4 cocoa powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly butter a 2 quart baking dish.  Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Sift cocoa powder and flour together and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for 5 to 10 minutes until light yellow color.

Reduce speed to low and add flour/cocoa powder mixture and vanilla extract.  Mix just until combined.

Still on low add the cooled butter and mix again.

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared dish and place it in a larger baking pan.  Add enough hot tap water to the pan to come up halfway on the baking dish and bake exactly for 1 hour.  When done the center will be very undercooked and the edges will come out 3/4 clean when a toothpick is inserted.

This is between a brownie and a pudding so its not very formed except for the top crust.  Serve with vanilla ice cream while still warm.

Enjoy!!




Linked at: http://www.thecountrycook.net/

Valentine Almond Blondies

Happy Valentine's Day!

It has finally stopped snowing here.  I think we have over 17" of snow with more snow on the horizon for tomorrow.  I plan on spending some of my day seeing my two grandchildren and giving them big hugs and kisses. What a lucky Grandma I am!  I have never made blondies before because I love chocolate so brownies are always my first choice but these have a good flavor too.  The recipe is adapted from allrecipes.com.  These are quick enough to make a batch today.  Enjoy your weekend!  

Ingredients:
2/3 cup butter, melted
1-3/4 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup valentine M & M's

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 13" x 9" pan with PAM.  Melt butter and brown sugar in saucepan over medium heat stirring until smooth.

Set aside for 5 minutes so it will cool.  Add eggs one at a time stirring after each addition.  Add almond and vanilla extracts.  Stir in flour, baking powder and baking soda.  Add 1/2 of the chocolate chips and M & M's. Stir until blended.

 Pour into prepared pan.  Sprinkle rest of chocolate chips and M & M's over top.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Cool before cutting into squares.

Enjoy!!



Linked at: thecountrycook.net

Strawberry Bundt Cake

  With Valentine's Day just a week away I wanted to make a fun dessert that was pink and festive to brighten our day since it's been so cold and snowy out. This Strawberry Bundt Cake certainly did the trick. In fact it's frosting alone could brighten anyone's day and reminds me of the strawberry flavored cream cheese I used to spread on my bagel as a kid. I will admit the cake is dense and similar to the consistency of banana bread instead of dessert cake. Mike, the original baker of this recipe mentions reducing the amount of strawberry puree to make it lighter but when I was following his recipe I forgot to do that so I've reduced the amount of strawberry puree in my post which should help make your bundt cake lighter. Nevertheless it is delicious and the perfect dessert for your sweetheart if you're spending the holiday at home with a romantic home cooked meal.

Ingredients for Cake:

1 Cup Strawberry Puree - Buy 2 lbs of Strawberries but only puree 1 1/2 containers

2 3/4 Cups Flour

1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

3/4 Tsp Salt

2 Sticks I Can't Believe it's not Butter - Softened

4 Eggs

Zest of 1 Lemon

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

3/4 Cup Skim Milk

Pam Spray

Ingredients for Frosting:

8 oz Cream Cheese - Softened

1 Stick I Can't Believe it's not Butter - Softened

2 Cups Confectioner's Sugar

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

1/4 Tsp Salt

1/2 Cup Strawberry Puree

Adapted from: http://mikes-table.themulligans.org/

Start by pureeing your strawberries. I bought 2 lbs but I wanted some to garnish the top of the cake and serve on top of each slice so I only pureed a little over 1 lb. Wash, cut off the top and slice each one in half before putting in the food processor. Puree the strawberries and then push them through a strainer using a spatula, this is slightly time consuming but it will make the puree smoother and leave behind some of the seeds.

Now it's time to preheat the oven to 325 F and make the cake batter. In your stand mixer cream the softened butter and sugar until it's smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla and the lemon zest. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking powder). Pour in some of the dry ingredients and then some of the milk followed by about half of the strawberry puree. Mix until completely combined. Add the rest of the ingredients in that order until everything has been mixed into the batter. 

Spray your bundt pan with Pam and pour in your batter. Give it a few good taps on the counter to get out any air bubbles and push the batter down into all of it's crevasses. Bake for about 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for at least 10 minutes before attempting to take it out of the pan. I used a plastic scraper and just loosened the sides a bit before I flipped it over onto my serving dish.

While the cake is baking it's time to make the frosting. I rushed my frosting because it was the end of the day and my sunlight was dwindling quickly so my cream cheese and butter weren't as soft as they should've been which made my frosting a marbled pink instead of a nice pink color. In your stand mixer bowl combine the softened cream cheese, butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and strawberry puree until smooth and creamy. Once the cake is completely cooled decorate with the frosting and strawberries as you see fit depending on the design of your budnt cake. Each slice I served I drizzled with more frosting and topped with extra strawberries. Make sure to keep the frosting and any portion of the cake that has frosting on it in the fridge.

Enjoy!!

Toasted Coconut Shortbread Bars

The Super Bowl is finally over. Since the Super Bowl was in NJ that's all we have heard about for the last month. It's lucky for everyone who had a ticket to the game that today's big snowstorm didn't happen yesterday. I thought it was the best half time show in a long time except for the few minutes the Red Hot Chili Peppers were on stage. First question would be why didn't they have shirts on?  They are past the age of not wearing shirts and still looking good and what song were they shouting/singing?  I was glad they were only up on stage for one song.  I loved Bruno's last song when he was standing in the middle of the stadium and the fireworks were going off all around the top of the stadium.

These bars are adapted from Inside BruCrew Life.  She had a peppermint shortbread bar before Christmas.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup toasted coconut
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup holiday sprinkles

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread coconut on a cookie sheet and heat in oven for 5 minutes until toasted.  Watch the coconut so it does not get too brown.  Set aside.
Beat butter and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl.  Add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add flour and salt and mix until combined.  Stir in toasted coconut.

Line a 9" x 13" baking pan with parchment paper.  Put the dough in the center of the pan.  Spread mixture evenly throughout pan.  This can be done with your fingers also if a spatula or spoon doesn't work well.
Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes.

Pour chocolate chips over mixture and put back in oven for another minute.

Spread the melted chips around with a spatula until all the shortbread is covered with chocolate.
Immediately sprinkle with sprinkles while chocolate is still soft.

Cool before cutting into bars.

Enjoy!!





Linked at: http://www.thecountrycook.net/

Raspberry, Banana, & Nutella Heart Pies

I am patiently waiting for my second grandchild to be born any day now.  We already know its going to be a girl and her name will be Madelyn.  She will be just 10 months younger than my first adorable grandson Owen.  He is more fun than I could ever imagine so I am really looking forward to two. There's nothing better than being a Grandma. While I wait for Madelyn to come I have been busy doing one of my favorite things - baking.  These are very easy and so good my husband said he wanted these as his birthday dessert next December.  I am sure by then he will forget and want something else.  If you don't like nutella then you can substitute a few chocolate chips in its place.        

Ingredients:
One box of two prepared pie crusts (in refrigerated section)
1 banana chopped
1 cup nutella spread
1 pint raspberries chopped
1 egg white
course sugar for sprinkling

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Unroll one pie crust onto clean surface and cutout as many piece as possible with desired shape.  Lay cut out pieces on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Spread nutella on each shape trying not to go to the edge if possible.  Nutella can be messy at times.

Place chopped bananas on top of the nutella spread.

Place chopped raspberries on top of the nutella and bananas.

Take second pie crust and cut same number of desired shapes with it.  Place on top of each one and crimp with a fork to seal in all edges.

Brush with egg white wash and sprinkle course sugar on top of each one.

Bake for 10 minutes until dough has browned nicely.  Serve warm or cold.  Makes 12 but it all depends on the size of the shape you choose.

Enjoy!!



This is linked to asouthernfairytale.com, http://www.thecountrycook.net/, www.sixsistersstuff.com, plus other sites listed under "where we party"