a chocolate bunny love story...

this is just the cutest thing ever!

Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies

First I made a batch of brownies using my favorite recipe.

Barbie’s Favorite Brownies
Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts(optional)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch square baking pan.

2. Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add eggs; beat well with spoon. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in nuts, if desired. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.

3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

While the brownies were cooling I mixed the filling.

Filling:
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons milk

Spread filling mixture over cooled brownies. Prepare topping.

Topping:
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter

Melt in microwave, stiring at 30 second intervals until completely melted. Spread over the peanut butter mixture. Refrigerate 30 minutes. Cut into squares and serve!

how cute is this....

Chocolate Asparagus for sale in michael chiarello's napa style catalog.

Yum!!!

a coworker brought a bag of these to the office this morning. they are yummy delicious! and if you go to their website below, you can get a $1.00 off a bag coupon!


Food should taste good chocolate tortilla chips.

oh, did i mention that they are gluten free, low soduim, no trans fat and no cholesterol??

Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies

This recipe calls for Cashews but I didn't have any around so I left them out.

This batch turned out a little more crispy than I would like so I think next time I will cut down on the baking time. That being said, they are DELICIOUS!



Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies
Adapted from David Lebovitz’s cookbook
The Great Book of Chocolate

Ingredients:

1/2 pound unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cashews, toasted and chopped
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions: Makes About 24 Cookies
Preheat oven to 325° F. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper or oil them lightly with vegetable oil.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla, and espresso powder. Mix well, stopping once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix into the creamed butter mixture, scraping again. Stir in the cashews and chocolate chips.

Scoop the cookie dough into large (1/4 cup) balls, arranging them at least 2 inches apart, 8 on each baking sheet. Bake until the cookies are just flat, 20 to 25 minutes, turning and rotating the baking sheets as necessary for even baking. Let cool about 10 minutes before transferring from the baking sheet to the cooling rack. Once cool, store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

those bastards at hershey...

it's bad enough that they had to go and buy up scharffen berger, joseph schmidt and dagoba to eliminate the competition, now they are closing the local factories. the story is here.

Amano Chocolate - Review

I was lucky enough to get one of the bars of Amano Chocolate's Jembrana to taste and review in response to a Blake makes giveaway.

This 70% dark chocolate is sourced from Bali. I am not typically a big fan of dark chocolate as I usually find it bitter, but the Jembrana Chocolate is so smooth and creamy as it melts that I completely forgot that it was dark chocolate.

I give this chocolate two very enthusiastic thumbs up!

Oh yeah, I accidentally (?) received two shipments of this bar so I am sharing the second bar with Mrs. L over at Pages, Pucks, and Pantry who has offered to give a review also.

another chocolate review...

Blake from blake makes had a giveaway recently.

This time it was chocolate from Amano Artisan Chocolates.


All of the bars were tasty, but I found that my favorite was the Madagasgar. To me it had the smoothest feel in my mouth as it melted and no bitter after taste. My next favorite was the Cuyauga. I found the Ocumare too bitter for my tastes but I know that some people like that.

All of these bars are made with single source beans and real tahitian vanilla beans.

They were all deliciously wonderful. Many thanks to Blake and Bridget, and the fine folks at Amano Chocolates.

TCHO Chocolate = YUM!

i was one of the lucky ones. i received a sample of TCHO chocolate to try after reading about the giveaway last tuesday on Blake Makes.

the dark chocolate sample was deep, smooth, creamy as it slowly melted in my mouth. i could taste a hint of citrus in the finish. my brain kicked into overdrive asking for more when i finished the last bite.

the coffee i was drinking at the time only enhanced the flavor. yummy! and TCHO is LOCAL!!! they are on pier 17 in san francisco.

this looks interesting....

Pierre Gourmet Chocolate Caviar

chocolate

last night i was wandering around in whole foods. hungry and trying to decied what to get for dinner i passed the gourmet chocolate display in the back of the store near the cheese department. wait, what's that? something caught my eye and i had to stop...

bacon chocolate? i picked it up, drooled over the picture on the front and then turned it over. $7.99 for a 3 oz, bar? that's insane. i put it back down and started to wander away when i saw the mini sized bars. they had all the spicy bars but no mini bacons. that will have to wait until i have more money on me. the last thing i saw was the mini barcelona bar. hickory smoaked almonds, grey sea salt, and deep milk chocolate (41% cacao) .5 oz. for $2.49

i tossed one in my basket. this morning when i got to work i tried it. the chocolate is smooth and creamy, the almonds have just the right amount of hickory smoking. the only thing is that the taste of the sea salt is WAY strong. i love gret sea salt but damn....

i just might need to buy these...

hockey candy molds