Elements » chocolate chips

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Earth Balls

Sheila — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 04:40:35 +0000

One of my Dad’s favorite sweet treats has always been peanut butter and syrup and/or peanut butter and honey, and ever since I was a little girl, it’s been one of my favorite sweet treats as well.

Sometimes we’d mix in a little butter but sometimes not.

Sometimes we’d just eat it from the spoon while other times we’d spread it on bread or crackers.

As sweet treats go, peanut butter and honey is pretty darned healthy, is very satisfying, and tastes like a million bucks!

Anyway, when I came across the recipe for these Earth balls which combine two of my favorite ingredients…peanut butter and honey…with chocolate, dried fruit, sesame seeds, and nuts…well…I knew I had to indulge myself…just like I do when I have peanut butter and honey as as snack.

Anyway, I’m so glad I made them because they’re knock-your-socks-off delectable!!

This is wonderful dessert to make with your kids. If you chop the walnuts, they can measure and mix all the ingredients, as well as make and roll the little balls. They’ll feel a sense of pride in making them…not to mention have a lot of fun.

I made just a small batch, but if you want to make a lot more, just click on Whole Foods Market recipe in the link below so you can see how much you need to make a larger batch.

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Earth Balls

Recipe Source: Whole Foods Market

Apple-Peanut Buter-Granola-Chocolate Chip Sandwiches

Sheila — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:38:57 +0000

There are some days when we like to keep it simple and just have a sandwich for our meal. Last night we had prosciutto-mozzarella-cream cheese panini sandwiches with tomatoes and fresh basil for dinner. They’re easy to make, and you don’t need a panini maker. Just make them in a pan with butter like you would a grilled cheese sandwich. By the time we ate at 1 a.m. last night, I was so hungry I didn’t bother to take any pictures.

But here’s a picture of my breakfast sandwich that I had this morning.

While making a batch of homemade granola, this morning, I got so hungry from smelling the toasted oats, almonds, and pumpkin seeds, and I decided that an apple sandwich would make a perfect meal.

So Kemal sliced an apple for me and then cut out the cores in the center. We don’t have an apple corer or a small round cookie cutter, so he took the lid to a bottle of rum and used the lid to cut out the cores in the center of my apple slices.

Then I smothered two apple slices with peanut butter and topped it with granola and chocolate chips. Add another apple slice and presto…a sandwich is born! Here are my twins. LOL!

These are the best sandwiches ever, and even though the chocolate chips may sound unhealthy, I don’t think a handful of them is all that bad. All I know is I enjoyed every single bite, and when you wash it down with a cold glass of milk…well…there ain’t nothin’ better.

Apple-Peanut Butter-Granola-Chocolate Chip Sandwiches

Recipe Source: Whole Foods Market

Naked Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Sheila — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 05:36:29 +0000

These cupcakes are naked because they’re sweet enough that they don’t need frosting.

You could add a peanut butter frosting, a chocolate ganache, or even a cream cheese icing, but they truly don’t need it.

They have a beautiful flavor, and the bananas and chocolate chips compliment each other perfectly. The cupcakes are very moist, and while I wouldn’t call them “airy,” they’re not dense by any means. Actually, there’s nothing about the flavor, texture, or sweetness of these cupcakes that I would change. For me, they’re perfect.

They make the best banana cupcakes I’ve ever tried. They make look like a muffin, but trust me, they’re 100% cupcake…just naked.

Don’t be scared of this sweet little cupcake’s nudity. It make not look as cute and as pretty as the ones that are decorated and iced, but it’s what’s on the inside that counts, right!? Give it a try. There’s nothing missing in this naked cupcake.

Naked Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Recipe Slightly Adapted From: Nibb’lous: Recipes for Sharing

Sheila’s Five-Minute Peanut Butter Banana Bites

Sheila — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:01:21 +0000

There are times when life gets crazy and we just don’t have time to make an elaborate dessert. There are times in the summer when we just can’t bear the thought of turning on our oven but still want something other than fruit or ice cream for dessert. There are times we’re making a heavy meal and want a light dessert. And there are times that we really want to satisfy our sweet tooth without feeling guilty.

For those times, these five-minute peanut butter banana bites will do the trick.

They take about 5 minutes to make, and they make a wonderful “no-bake” dessert that both grown-ups and kids alike will love!

They’re light on your stomach if you’ve eaten a rich dinner but still want something sweet.

And you can indulge without feeling guilty because they’re so tiny and more nutritious than let’s say brownies or cookies. Click here for the nutritional information on the shells by the way.

Another neat thing about these peanut butter bites is that you can freeze them in a plastic container and enjoy them icy cold too without having to thaw them out. The filling freezes with the consistency of ice cream, and the pastry is soft to bite into as well. It’s nice when you can make a dessert ahead of time and have something ready when company comes over.

The best thing is these little bites taste great!!! They’re smooth and creamy, packed with flavor, and cool and freshing going down. And the chocolate chip on the top…well…that’s definitely the icing on the cake!

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Sheila’s Five-Minute Peanut Butter Banana Bites

Ingredients:

1 frozen banana
1/3 cup all-natural creamy peanut butter
1 pkg. Athens Mini Fillo Shells (contains 15 pre-baked shells)
1 tbsp. raw honey
2 tbsp. plain yogurt
2 tbsp. dry vanilla pudding mix (I used the cook and serve kind and not the instant kind)
15 semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

Freeze a banana overnight. (If you’re like me, this step isn’t necessary because I always have frozen bananas in my freezer.)
Place the banana in the microwave for about 10 seconds, and then remove the banana peel with a knife. If it’s still too frozen to peel it, microwave it for another 5 seconds.
Remove the Athens Mini Fillo Shells from the freezer.
Slice the banana into quarters and then place the banana slices in a blender (or food processor).
Add the yogurt, honey, and peanut butter, put the lid on your blender, and then press the “food processor” button on your blender for about 10 seconds.
Turn the blender off, remove the lid, and stir.
Repeat the same step until the banana and peanut butter have mixed together well.
At this point, the mixture will be a little too thin so add the dry vanilla pudding mix, blending it in for a few seconds.
Take a spoon and fill up each of the mini pastry shells with the peanut butter banana mixture.
Place a chocolate chip on top of each one.
Serve chilled or you can freeze them in a plastic container.

Kasato Torta (Basically a No-Bake Brownie)

Sheila — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:02:23 +0000

This torta is unlike any other cake I’ve ever tried. It’s popular in the Balkans, and there are numerous ways to make it. It’s usually always filled with candy, dried fruit, nuts, and ground cookies. When my friend, Vesna, was telling me about this cake last fall and showed me the picture of the one she made, I’ve been wanting to make this cake ever since. I decided to make this cake for a really nice young lady I work with who’s having a birthday. Of course, I’ve saved several pieces for me and Kemal to nibble on. Here’s a close-up picture where you can see the candy and walnuts:

It’s very dense and sweet…almost like an iced brownie but with a twist.

Vesna makes this cake with melted chocolate chips on the top, but since I didn’t have enough chocolate chips, I decided to change the recipe a little and drizzle the top of the cake with melted butterscotch instead of chocolate.

It’s a really easy cake to make, and one that’s good to make in warm weather when you don’t feel like heating up the oven. It’s also a cake that goes a long way. Because the cake is very sweet and rich, you only need to eat a little of it to feel satisfied. It’s also a cake you can make ahead and freeze so if you have unexpected guests, just pull it out of the freezer, and 30 minutes later you can serve a lovely homemade dessert with your coffee.

Kasato Torta (Basically a No-Bake Brownie)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 sticks butter
3/4 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 cups crushed honey graham crackers
3/4 cups ground walnuts
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cups fruit gels (any flavor), diced
3/4 cups raisins
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips
2 cups butterscotch chips
4 1/2 tsp. Ener-G-Egg Replacer
6 tsp. Wilton Meringue Powder
12 tbsp. water
oil

Note: My friend makes this cake with raw eggs instead of the egg replacer and meringue powder. While I personally don’t have a problem eating raw eggs, I didn’t use them because I made this cake for a co-worker who was having a birthday.

Instructions:

Place the butter on the counter top to soften.
Grind 3/4 cups of walnuts, and then chop 1/3 cup of walnuts.
Dice the fruit gels.
Crush the graham crackers by placing them in a plastic bag and crushing them with a rolling pin.
After the butter has softened, beat it with an electric mixer.
Add 1/2 cup of confectioner’s sugar to the butter and mix until blended.
Mix the Ener-G-Egg Replacer with 6 tbsp. water, and then add it to the sugar and butter.
Melt the chocolate chips on low heat, and add it to the sugar, butter, and egg replacer. Mix well.
Then add the crushed and chopped walnuts, the graham crackers, raisins, and diced fruit gels to the sugar/butter/chocolate/egg replacer, mixing with a spoon.
Set the sweet mixture aside.
Mix the meringue powder with 6 tbsp. of water, and then beat it with an electric mixer until it gets fluffy.
Add 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar to the meringue powder, beating until it’s well combined.
Now add the meringue powder/confectioner’s sugar mixture to the sweet chocolaty mixture you just made, blending well.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish. I used a square Springform pan, but you can really use any kind of baking pan you like.
Put 2 cups butterscotch chips into a small sauce pan, and then add enough oil to the pan until the butterscotch chips are covered by the oil.
Melt on low heat.
When the butterscotch chips are melted, pour it over the cake, spreading it evenly with a knife or spatula.
Refrigerate.
Serve cold. You can freeze any leftovers.

Banana Rum Brownies

Sheila — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:35:21 +0000

Last night Kemal was in the mood for some kind of dessert made with bananas. We were looking at various recipes, but we were both really tired and wanted to make something simple. Kemal suggested that I try making some banana brownies. I’ve never heard of that before, but it sounded good…even better when we decided to put rum in the mix. They turned out incredibly moist and rich in flavor. The banana taste was surprisingly subtle…just the way I had hoped. If you have some extra bananas that are getting ripe, give this recipe a try. I think you’ll be quite pleased.

Banana Rum Brownies

Adapted from myhomecooking.net

Rokada Cake (Flourless Layer Cake)

Sheila — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:58:22 +0000

My friend, Vesna, makes a beautiful and incredibly delicious layer cake that she likes to make for birthdays and other occasions. What’s interesting is that this cake is made without flour. It’s filled with lots of butter, walnuts, sugar, and vanilla. Yummmmmmmm!!!!

I decided to make her cake tonight for a co-worker who got a promotion and who’s leaving our restaurant in a few days. I intended to write “Congratulations” on the top of the cake, but the ready-to-use icing tube that I thought I had was nowhere to be found, so I decided to decorate the top of the cake instead. I put maraschino cherries and walnuts on top of the chocolate layer. I also used my dessert decorator gun that Kemal got for me the other day to make the little whipped cream stars. That was lots of fun!

Okay, here’s Vesna’s recipe. Hope you have as much fun making it as I did!

Rokada Cake

Ingredients for the Pastry Layer:

4 egg whites
4 egg yolks
4 tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp. butter

Ingredients for the Walnut Cream Layer:

1/2 lb. ground walnuts
10 1/2 tbsp. milk, warm
2 sticks butter
10 1/2 tbsp. powdered sugar

Ingredients for the Chocolate Layer:

1 cup sweet chocolate chips
vegetable oil

Ingredients for the Vanilla Cream Layer:

5 pkgs. Dream Whip
1 1/2 cups milk
10 tsp. vanilla

Ingredients for Decorating the Top of the Cake:

Some of the Whipped Cream that you made with the Dream Whip
Walnuts, whole
maraschino cherries
Optional: ready-to-use icing tubes

Instructions for making the pastry layer:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease an 8-inch Springform pan with the 2 tbsp. butter.
Separate the eggs, putting the whites in a large bowl and the yolks in a smaller bowl.
Beat the 4 egg whites with the 4 spoons of sugar. Don’t add all the sugar at once. Just add one spoon at a time.
Beat the egg whites and sugar until the sugar and egg whites are thoroughly mixed.
Beat the egg yolks and set aside.
Melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips. (Don’t add oil.)
When the chocolate is melted, add it and the egg yolks to the egg white mixture.
Mix well.
Pour the pastry mixture into the greased pan.
Bake about 20 minutes. You’ll know the cake is done if you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.
Cool the cake.

Note: The cake will rise up quite a bit while you’re baking it, but once you cool the cake it will collapse some, which is what you want it to do.

Instructions for making the Walnut Cream Layer:

Set the butter on your counter top so it can get to room temperature and soften.
Grind the walnuts in your blender on puree.
Warm the milk in a small sauce pan.
Mix the walnuts into the milk and cool in the refrigerator.
Cream the butter and powdered sugar with a beater until it’s well blended and creamy.
Add the creamed butter and sugar to the milk and walnuts when the milk and walnuts have cooled.
Mix well and set aside.

Instructions for Making the Vanilla Cream Layer:

Mix together in a large bowl the 5 packages of Dream Whip, 10 tsp. vanilla, and 1 1/2 cups milk.
Beat with an electric beater until the whipped cream is thick and fluffy.
Refrigerate until you’re ready to assemble the cake.

Note: Keep in mind that the vanilla cream will not be white. It’ll be an off-white color because of all the vanilla that’s in it.

Instructions for Assembling and Decorating the Rokada Cake:

Once the cake is cool, spread the walnut cream layer on top it.
Now you want to spread a thin layer of chocolate on top of the walnut cream layer.

Instructions for Making the Chocolate Layer:

Melt 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips in a small sauce pan.
Pour enough oil over the chips to cover them. If you don’t use enough oil, the chocolate layer will not be smooth.
Stir until the chocolate is melted and mixed with the oil.

Continued Instructions for Assembling and Decorating the Rokada Cake:

After you’ve spread the warm chocolate on top of the walnut cream layer, you want to refrigerate the cake so the chocolate can harden.
After the chocolate is hard, then take the cake out of the refrigerator.
Take a knife around the the edge of the cake and then open the Springform pan, removing the ring.
Now spread the vanilla cream topping around the sides of the cake.

Note: The way you finish decorating the cake is up to you. You can put whipped cream entirely on the sides and top of the cake, or you can decorate it the way I did by spreading whipped cream around the sides and then some on the top. I use a stainless steel dessert decorator with a star tip to decorate part of the top of the cake. Then I added maraschino cherries and walnuts.

You can also cover the entire cake (the sides and top) with the vanilla cream.

Another way to decorate the cake is to spread the vanilla cream around the sides only so the top of the cake is chocolate. Then if you want, you can use one of those ready-to-use icing tubes to decorate the top of the cake by writing, “Happy Birthday, Congratulations,” etc.

Chocolate Walnut Rum Balls (Kuglice od Oraha)

Sheila — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:15:48 +0000

The place where we service our car every three months has an awesome manager and a great group of guys who not only are quite accommodating, but who are also very generous. On about three different occasions this year we’ve taken our car in for minor repairs, and they fixed them for us at no charge. We wanted to pay them but they refused to take our money. Of course we thanked them many times, but to show our appreciation, we bring them baked goods. So when we took our car in to get the oil changed to today, we brought them something we thought they’d all really enjoy…some chocolate walnut rum balls.

When we told the mechanic who helped us today what we brought for them, we saw his eyes light up and that made us feel great.

My friend, Vesna, gave me this recipe a few months ago, and I’ve been looking forward to making it. It takes very little time to make them, but best of all, they’re absolutely scrumptious!! I did make a few changes to Vesna’s recipe. Her recipe calls for one egg, but I used an egg replacer instead. Now I personally have no problem eating raw eggs (I buy organic, free-range eggs) despite the risk of salmonella poisoning. I’ve eaten a lot of raw cookie dough and cake batter my whole life and never had a problem, and if I was making this just for me and Kemal, I would have just used an egg. However, since I was making this for others who might not wish to consume raw egg, I wanted to use an egg substitute. The other change I made to Vesna’s recipe was that I used more walnuts because the dough seemed a little too thin. That might have been because I used an egg substitute instead of a real egg.

We purchased the egg replacer at Whole Foods. I believe I’ve also seen it at Kroger. It wasn’t expensive, and it’s nice to have an egg substitute on-hand for those times that you need eggs and find that you’re out.

I absolutely love these rum balls! They don’t take long to prepare, they make a great gift, and they also freeze well. Sometimes it’s nice to have something sweet already prepared in and in the freezer so if you have unexpected guests you have something homemade you can serve. They take no time to thaw out. Also, if you’re doing a lot of cooking for the holidays, this is something you can make ahead and freeze so you have less to cook at one time.

Anyway here’s the recipe. Keep in mind that you can feel and taste the rum, but it’s mild. If you prefer a stronger rum taste, you can always add more. I think I will next time.

Chocolate Walnut Rum Balls (Kuglice od Oraha)

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups ground walnuts
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1 shot rum (I used Bacardi Gold)
1 1/2 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer
2 tbsp. water

Instructions:

Grind the walnuts in your blender about 1/2 cup at a time. I use the puree setting, and when every 1/2 cup of walnuts is ground, transfer it to a bowl and then grind some more.
After all the walnuts have been ground up, set aside 1 cup of walnuts in a small bowl. You will use those walnuts to roll the balls in.
In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate chips on medium heat, stirring frequently.
In a coffee cup, mix together the Ener-G Egg Replacer and water.
In a medium sized bowl, mix together 1 1/4 cups ground walnuts, the powdered sugar, the melted chocolate chips, the rum, and the egg replacer that you mixed with water.
Stir until blended.
Make a small ball with the dough.
Roll the ball in the cup of walnuts that you set aside.
Continue making balls and rolling them in walnuts, placing them on a plate.
Refrigerate when they’re done.
After they’ve chilled about 20 minutes, they’re ready to be served. How you serve them is up to you. You can present them on a serving dish if you like, or if you’re giving them as gifts, you can put them in a holiday tin. I put my little walnut rum balls in mini paper cupcake liners. Here’s a picture of the ones we kept for ourselves:

Kemal mentioned they would also be good rolled in coconut, and that sounds totally awesome! We will definitely try that, but when we do, I will use Parrot Bay Coconut Rum to enhance the coconut flavor even more. I’m looking forward to trying it like that!

Banana Nut Bread

Sheila — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:38:45 +0000

I always enjoyed banana bread, but the recipes I tried were always a little disappointing because the bread was never moist enough to my liking. About 7 months ago, however, I found the absolute best banana bread recipe ever!! It’s very moist, has the perfect sweetness, and also combines bananas with one of my favorite foods…chocolate chips!

Every time I’ve made this bread and taken it in to work, my co-workers just rave over it. I’ve had several people ask me if I would make them an entire loaf, and I’ve had a couple of people tell me they’d pay me to make them a loaf. It definitely makes a great gift. Believe me, the recipients are quite appreciative.

Sometimes I’ll make a loaf for me and Kemal and then make a mini cake-sized one as a gift for someone at work. Here’s what the small cake-sized one looks like:

The other thing that’s great about this bread is that that you can slice it up and freeze each slice individually so you have something sweet on hand for those days when you just don’t have time to bake. It doesn’t take long at all to thaw out.

Okay, here’s the banana bread recipe I found and that I want to share with you. I make my bread almost exactly the same way except for few minor things. After greasing the loaf pan with butter, I sprinkle course sugar on top of the butter. That extra bit of sugar makes the bread extra yummy!!! I also use almonds instead of walnuts, and I just mix everything in one bowl.

Banana Nut Bread (Recipe Source: modified from: www.familyfriendlyfood.com)