Homemade Fudge

I think this is the last of the Christmas cookies my friends and I made that I'll be blogging about. We needed something chocolate, and homemade fudge certainly fit the bill. The recipe originally came from allrecipes.com and was called "Aunt Teen's Creamy Chocolate Fudge."

Homemade Fudge

Ingredients:
7 oz. marshmallow creme
1-1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon vanilla

The original directions called for an 8x8 pan, but we found a 9x9 pan actually worked better. Line your pan with aluminum foil.

In a large saucepan, combine the marshmallow creme, sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt. Bring to a full boil over medium heat and cook for five minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and pour in both kinds of chocolate chips. Stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in nuts and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan. Chill in refrigerator for two hours or until firm. Cut into bite-size pieces.

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

On New Year's Eve, I wanted to make a small batch of cookies to take to a party. I started with a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe that said it made 30 cookies. Because I didn't really want leftovers, I cut the recipe in half. I figured if I did a half recipe with a small cookie scooper, I'd still get a decent number of cookies but not the 30 large cookies that the original recipe said I'd get.

So I made the necessary changes to the recipe and then started scooping the cookies with my small cookie scooper. Sixty-four cookies later, I was done! That's right. Sixty-four cookies. So much for not having leftovers.
  

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1-1/4 cups oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup pecan chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a large mixer bowl, beat butter until creamy. Beat in both sugars. Then beat in egg and vanilla. Add as much flour mixture as possible. You made need to use a wooden spoon to finish the combining.

Stir in the chocolate and pecan chips.


With a small cookie scooper, drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes until edges are light brown. Cool one minute before removing to cooling rack.

Yields: about 60 small cookies

Brownie Bites

I used this recipe while making the Olympic cupcakes. They were pretty tasty, but I'd recommend eating them pretty quickly as they tend to dry out after a few days.

Brownie Bites

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place packing cups in mini cupcake pans. Melt butter in large bowl in microwave-safe bowl. Stir in cocoa until smooth. Add sugar and brown sugar. Mix well.

 
Beat eggs with a fork in a small dish. Add beaten eggs and vanilla to chocolate mixture. Blend well. Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full.

Bake 15-18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.

Yields: about 50 mini brownie bites

Chocolate Butterscotch Chewies

You can substitute caramel topping for the butterscotch topping in these cookies.

Chocolate Butterscotch Chewies

 

Ingredients:
1-3/4 cup oats
1-3/4 cup flour, divided
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons butter, melted
1-1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
3/4 cup pecans, chopped (or pecan chips)
1 cup butterscotch topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 13 x 9 pan with cooking spray.

In large bowl, combine oats, 1-1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Melt butter and stir into oat mixture.

Reserve one cup of oat mixture. Press remaining mixture in bottom of pan. Bake 12-15 minutes.

Sprinkle with chips and pecans. Mix butterscotch topping with remaining 1/2 cup flour. Drizzle over chips. Sprinkle with reserved oat mixture. Bake 18-22 minutes.

Cool in pan on wire rack. Refrigerate until firm.

Mom's Date-Nut-Chocolate Chip Dessert

My mom has made this recipe for years. She received it from my aunt, but I have no idea where she got it from. A cross between a cake and a brownie, this moist dessert goes really well with Cool Whip (which of course I forgot when I made this for some friends!).

Mom's
Date-Nut-Chocolate Chip
Dessert

Ingredients:
1 cup dates, chopped
1 tsp baking soda
1-1/2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs. slightly beaten
1-1/2 cups flour, plus 3 tablespoons
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup nuts, chopped (I used walnuts)
1/2 cup sugar

Mix dates, (1 teaspoon) baking soda, and boiling water in a small bowl. Cover and set aside.

Cream margarine and sugar. Add eggs.

Sift flour, salt, and (3/4 teaspoon) baking soda. Add to creamed mixture. Then stir in date mixture. Pour batter in greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips, nuts, and sugar over batter.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.

Serves 15-20.

Chocolate Candy Cane Cake

I adapted this recipe from the Kraft website. The original version had candy canes in the cake itself. I was worried about the cake ending up crunchy. They also suggested using cool whip for the icing. I used buttercream icing with peppermint extract.

The cake was made to celebrate a special occasion at work, so I didn't add the crushed candy cane decorations until it was time to serve it. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so the only photo I have is one of the last piece that was left and I was able to take home. (Update: a co-worker has sent me a photo she took with her phone--I've added it to the end.)

Chocolate Candy Cane Cake

Ingredients for cake:
1 Devil's Food cake mix
1 instant chocolate pudding packet
8 oz. sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Ingredients for icing and decorating:
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening (e.g. Crisco)
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 tablespoons water
4 cups powdered sugar
about eight small candy canes, crushed

To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray cake pans with cooking spray. In a mixer, beat the first six ingredients until thoroughly blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour into prepared cake pans and bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto wire racks.

Once cake has cooled completely, make the icing by beating together the vegetable shortening, margarine, vanilla, peppermint extract, and water. Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

To decorate the cake, I first iced the bottom layer and sprinkled a few crushed candy canes on top. Then I placed the second layer on top and iced the entire cake. The final candy cane decorations were not added until just before serving because I didn't want them to bleed into the icing.

Mudslide Cookies

A friend gave me a recipe box called Chocolate Bliss (Music Cooks) as a gift. Inside are ten recipe cards and a music CD to play while you are making or enjoying the recipes.

I made only one minor change to this recipe. I used milk chocolate chips instead of the semisweet ones in the original recipe. If you are a huge chocolate fan, you will love these cookies because they are what the name implies: a whole mudslide full of chocolate.

P.S. If you want more recipes like this, you can buy the Chocolate Bliss recipe box online at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

Mudslide Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter, the unsweetened chocolate, and the bittersweet chocolate. It is best to cut the chocolate into smaller pieces (I cut the 1-ounce squares in half) and then melt them on high for 30 seconds. Stir and melt again for another 30 seconds. Stir again. If they are still some unmelted chocolate pieces, continue cooking and stirring every 30 seconds.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and the sugar on high for 3 minutes. The mixture should become pale and somewhat fluffy. Add the chocolate mixture and the vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute. Gradually add flour mixture and beat until just blended. Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips.

Use a small cookie scooper to drop batter onto prepared cookie sheet. The batter will be rather runny so don't expect perfectly rounded scoops of dough.

Bake for 12-14 minutes. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.

Yields: about 36 cookies.

Butterscotch Bliss Cookies

This week's cookies are a re-vamping of my very first entry. This time I used butterscotch chips in place of peanut butter chips.

The best part about these cookies is how soft and chewy they are, even days after baking them.

Butterscotch Bliss Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup melted butter (2 sticks)
1 ½ cups white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs (beaten)
2 ½ cups flour
¾ cups chocolate chips
¾ cups butterscotch chips
2 cups coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter in a large microwave-safe bowl.

Then mix in the white sugar and the brown sugar. Add the salt, baking soda, and vanilla. Mix well.

In a small bowl, beat the two eggs. Add the beaten eggs to the mixture in the large bowl and stir thoroughly.

Add about half of the flour and incorporate it into the dough. Then add the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and coconut. Stir until the chips are evenly distributed.

Finally add the remainder of the flour and mix well. Drops by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. To make sure your cookies remain moist, remove them before they start to really brown.

Cool cookies for two minutes before transferring from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

Yields about 5 dozen cookies.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Squared Cookies

These cookies have twice the chocolate and twice the peanut butter, so some friends and I decided we should call them Chocolate Peanut Butter² Cookies. (I couldn't get the number 2 in superscript in the title.)

This recipe is adapted from the September issue of the King Arthur's Flour catalog. I added a bit more water than they called for, and substituted both peanut butter chips and chocolate chip for the mini peanut butter cups in the original recipe. I also used salted butter instead of unsalted.

Chocolate Peanut Butter² Cookies

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2-1/2 tablespoons water
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 375. Grease cookie sheets.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

In a mixer bowl, beat together the sugars, butter and peanut butter. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and water. At a slow speed, gradually add in the dry ingredients until thoroughly incorporated. Stir in both kinds of chips.

Scoop onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 7-8 minutes. You should be able to smell the chocolate. Cool for one minute before removing to wire racks.

Yields: about 50 cookies

Cookies and Cream Brownies

I made these for work before the school year ended. Now, several weeks later, I'm finally posting this super easy way to dress up some plain brownies.

Cookies and Cream Brownies

Ingredients:
1 batch of brownies for a 9 x 13 pan
1 can of cream cheese frosting
10-15 Oreos
about 1/2 cup of Wilton chocolate candy melts or semisweet chocolate chips

Make the batch of brownies. When they cool, frost them with the cream cheese icing. Place the Oreos in a sealed plastic bag and crush them with a few passes with a rolling pin. Sprinkle the crushed cookies on the brownies.

In a disposable decorating bag, melt the chocolate candy melts or chocolate chips in the microwave. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the brownies. Keep refrigerated.

Date, Walnut & Chocolate Cookies

My mom makes a dessert that she calls "Date & Walnut Dessert," or something like that. It's basically a 9 x 13 chocolate cake with lots of yummy goodies like dates, chocolate chips, walnuts, and extra sugar on top. I decided to try to make a similar sort of cookie, so here's what I developed:

Date, Walnut & Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped dates

Cream the butter with both types of sugar. Beat in eggs, milk, and vanilla.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly blend flour mixture into butter-sugar mixture.

Stir in oats. Then add chocolate chips, walnuts, and dates. Refrigerate dough for an hour.

Then preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. Scoop dough onto cookie sheets. Baking 8-10 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on sheets for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks.

These cookies are great warm!

Yields: about 3 dozen cookies

Chocolate Cranberry Walnut Cookies

These cookies were kind of a "what do I have at home that might make a good cookie" type of recipe. Enjoy!

Chocolate Cranberry Walnut Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 small package (3.9 oz.) chocolate or chocolate fudge instant pudding
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup Craisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer. Add pudding and beat again. Add eggs, baking soda, salt and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour.

Stir in Craisins, walnuts, and chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets covered with parchment paper. Bake 10-12 minutes.

Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire rack.

Yields: about four dozen cookies

Peanut Butter Chip and Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are rather crisp but have a chewy center. Although I made them with peanut butter chips and chocolate chips, you could really substitute any chip and/or nut combination you like. I've also made them with white chocolate chips and chopped hazelnuts.

Peanut Butter Chip and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg yolk
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla
2/3 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter.

In a larger mixer bowl, beat the melted butter with the brown sugar and white sugar. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Beat again.

Slowly add the flour mixture and mix on low. Then stir in the chocolate chips and peanut butter chips by hand.

Using a small cookie scooper, drop the dough onto the parchment paper. Bake 13-15 minutes. Let cool 2 minutes before removing to cooling rack.

Yields: about 3 dozen cookies.

Chocolate Banana Cream Pie

What do you do when your pie shell cracks? Toss it away? No way!

When I had a pie shell crack on me recently, I decided to use it for a cream pie, something that wouldn't soak through a crack in my crust. I knew pudding mixes could be used to make pies, so I checked out what was in my cabinet and whipped up this little treat.

Chocolate Banana Cream Pie

Ingredients:
1 small box of chocolate fudge pudding
1 small box of banana cream pudding
3 1/2 cups cold milk, divided
1 baked pie shell
a few chocolate chips (optional)

In a small bowl, combine a small box of chocolate fudge pudding with 1 3/4 cups cold milk. Whisk for five minutes, then pour into baked pie crust. Refrigerate for an hour.



In another small bowl, combined the small box of banana cream pudding with the other 1 3/4 cups cold milk. Again, whisk for five minutes. Pour on top of chilled chocolate pudding and smooth evenly. Refrigerate for at least another hour or two.

When it's time to serve, sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top for decoration.

Chocolate Mint Brownies

This dessert is all butter and sugar. Prepare yourself for something extra sweet. I recommend cutting it into tiny bite-size pieces and sharing with many people.

In other words, I recommend not cutting into large pieces like you see below. I think I gave a sugar-high to the round of guinea pigs who tried the slices in the photo. :)

Chocolate Mint Brownies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) plus 6 tablespoons butter or margarine, divided
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
3/4 cup cocoa
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon mint extract
green food coloring
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13 x 9 inch pan. Microwave 2 sticks of butter (1 cup) in large bowl until melted (about 2 minutes). Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs and beat well. Stir in cocoa, flour, and baking powder. When well blended, pour into greased pan.

Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.

Once bottom layer has cooled, you can make the mint layer. Combine powdered sugar, 1 stick butter, water, and mint extract. Beat until smooth. Add about 4 drops of green food coloring and blend. Spread over top of brownies. Cover and refrigerate for an hour or two.

To make chocolate glaze, microwave 6 tablespoons butter and chocolate chips in small bowl for one minute. Stir until mixture is smooth. Allow to cool slightly. Then pour over mint layer. cover and return to refrigerate. Chill at least 1 hour before serving.

Caramel Brownies

The students at one of my previous schools liked to call these “Speech Contest Brownies,” as I always brought them to the final round of the spring speech contest so that the finalists would have something to look forward to after they performed.

The recipe came from a guy who was in a class I was taking years ago. He brought these several times, and people begged him for the recipe. Here it is with a few of my personal hints for optimal enjoyment.

Caramel Brownies

Ingredients:
1 ½ sticks margarine, melted
1 German chocolate cake mix with pudding
1 small can of evaporated milk
1 package of caramels (like the Kraft kind pictured below)
1 12-oz. package of chocolate chips

Unwrap all the caramels and put them in a small microwave-safe bowl. Then preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the margarine in a microwave-safe bowl. Then add the cake mix and 1/3 cup evaporated milk (that’s about half of the small can). Spread ½ mixture in bottom of an ungreased 9 x 13 pan. You will have a very thin layer of batter, and you may want to use a buttered spatula to help spread it out.

Bake at 350 degrees for six minutes. Meanwhile, melt caramels and 1/3 cup evaporated milk (the other half of the small can).

After the six minutes are up, take the pan out of the oven and spread the chocolate chips over the cake. Then drizzle the melted caramel mixture on tops of this. Finally, drop the rest of the cake mixture by teaspoonfuls on top.

Bake another 15-18 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool completely before attempting to cut them. I find it helpful to refrigerate them or even throw them in the freezer for 15 minutes before cutting them. That way the caramel mixture has a chance to solidify and they won’t be quite as messy to cut.

Chocolate Ganache

I needed some frosting for some cupcakes, and I decided to try something new. There are many recipes for chocolate ganache on the internet, so I combined a few ideas and came up with a recipe I think worked really well.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup heavy whipping cream
1 ½ teaspoons dark rum (optional)

Put the chocolate chips into a medium-sized bowl.

In a small saucepan, heat the cream just until it starts to boil. Don’t let it boil away. Then pour the cream over the chocolate chips, and whisk them together until the chips have melted.

If you want, you can stir in the rum after the chips have all melted and you have a nice smooth consistency.

For the cupcakes, I just dipped the tops of them into the ganache. For a cake, you can pour it over the top and let it drip down the sides.

Black Forest Cookies

I love the combination of chocolate and cherry. However, I have to admit that these cookies might be a bit too rich even for me. I chose to make them without the nuts and I used semisweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate, and those two changes may have been a mistake. If I were to make them again, I would put in the nuts, be sure to use milk chocolate chips, and perhaps even increase the amount of cherry-flavored Craisins.

Actually, I'm thinking of trying my own concoction of Black Forest Cookies. I'll let you know if I do. In the meantime, this recipe comes straight from the back of the cherry-flavored Craisins package. You can find them in the raisin aisle. They're basically dried cranberries that come in a variety of flavors.

Black Forest Cookies

Ingredients:
1 11.5-ounce package of milk chocolate chips, divided
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 6-ounce package of cherry-flavored dried cranberries (Craisins)
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour 3/4 cup of chocolate chips into microwave-safe bowl. Set the remaining chips aside. Microwave for about two minutes. Stir until the chocolate is smooth.

Stir in brown sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Add flour and baking powder. Mix until thoroughly combined. Stir in remaining chocolate chips, Craisins, and nuts.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Baking for 12 minutes. Cookies should be puffed yet firm to touch. Cool on cookie sheet for two minutes. Then remove to wire rack.

Yields about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Bliss Cookies

Thanks to my friend Tom for coming up with the name for these cookies! I hope you find them blissful, too!

Bliss Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup melted butter (2 sticks)
1 ½ cups white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs (beaten)
2 ½ cups flour
¾ cups chocolate chips
¾ cups peanut butter chips
2 cups coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter in a large microwave-safe bowl.

Then mix in the white sugar and the brown sugar. Add the salt, baking soda, and vanilla. Mix well.

In a small bowl, beat the two eggs. (I like beating the eggs in a separate bowl just in case any eggshell pieces fall in.)

Add the beaten eggs to the mixture in the large bowl and stir thoroughly.

Add about half of the flour and incorporate it into the dough. Then add the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and coconut. Stir until the chips are evenly distributed.

Finally add the remainder of the flour and mix well.

Drops by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. (I like to use a cookie scooper. It’s like an ice cream scooper but much smaller.) If the dough is too sticky to handle, refrigerate it for a while first.

Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. To make sure your cookies remain moist, remove them before they start to really brown.

Cool cookies for two minutes before transferring from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

Yields about 5 dozen cookies.