Carmelitas

Ever find a dessert that you can't stop making? That is what keeps happening with these carmelitas. Last week at the gym of all places, a friend asked if I had ever had carmelitas. I told her no and she said that she made some this weekend and they were amazing. I was very intrigued to say the least.

I went home and looked it up online and there were tons of recipes and they all looked delicious. I decided to try this one. It makes an 8x8 pan and I luckily I had everything I needed in my pantry (even though the caramels were from 2 Halloweens ago). 

I had one bite.

I turned around and made another batch. 

Then two days later made another batch and I am probably making them for the Superbowl on Sunday. They are that amazing.

 

Carmelitas 

adapted slightly from Lulu the Baker

*The recipe says to cool completely before cutting which is great when you want bars but we wanted some and couldn't wait and scooped it in to a bowl and ate it with vanilla ice cream. It was amazing.

32 caramel squares, unwrapped
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats (old fashioned or quick)
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Combine caramels and cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until completely smooth; set aside. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, and baking soda. Pat half of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of an 8x8" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Pour caramel mixture over chocolate chips. Crumble remaining oatmeal mixture over caramel. Return to oven and bake an additional 15-20 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.

**To make a 9x13" version, simply double the amounts.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread and it's healthy.

I love this time of year. Being able to walk in to my backyard and get fresh vegetables for dinner but I have an abundance of zucchini. I missed one the other day and when I found it it was huge so the only thing to do is make zucchini bread. My favorite bread but it's always very oily so I wanted to find a recipe less oily and healthier and I think I found it at Skinnytaste,com. It's a great website with lots of good, healthy recipes.

I made this for Sam's birthday and it was so good I made a second loaf the same night so if you have an abundance of zucchini try this out and let me know.

Lowfat Chocolate Zucchini Bread

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour (regular whole wheat flour would work)
1/2 cup brown sugar (not packed)
1-1/8 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 large egg, beaten
2 tbsp melted butter
1 cup apple sauce
1-1/2 cups shredded zucchini (not packed)


Preheat oven to 325°.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well.

Add chocolate chips and gently mix to combine.

In a medium bowl, mix egg, vanilla, melted butter, apple sauce and zucchini. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just blended.  

Pour batter into a large 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Bake at 325° for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for about 10 minutes. Remove loaf from pan and let it cool before slicing. 

Triple Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I've seen a couple of these recipes floating around the blogosphere and a few days ago I was on a CRAZY peanut butter chocolate kick. My waist was not happy with me after but my tummy was. These cookies are not overly sweet so you could eat a dozen in one day... not that any sane person would do that... moving on. For me it is the perfect balance of PB & Chocolate but if you like more peanut butter-iness throw in more or less whatever you like.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever!!

I have been using this cookie recipe for about 8 years. I have tried lots of other but I always come back to this one. It's soft and chewy middle and just a tad crisp on the outside. These cookies never fail me and I don't have to let the butter come to room temperature so I don't have to wait. The trick with the soft and chewy is using the cold ingredients and keeping the dough cold. Since they are all butter it takes longer for the cookies to flatten and don't get as crispy. Enjoy!!

Peanut Butter Filled Dark Chocolate Cupcakes... seriously!

I found a new blog the other day. How Sweet Eats. She used to be a personal trainer so she is very fit and active and the best thing is she loves food. I've had a hard time balancing between being fit and eating all the yumminess I make. I guess that is one reason I am teaching 5 Zumba classes a week. Some people work out because they enjoy it. I do enjoy it but mostly I enjoy food and so to justify eating the following recipe I Zumba as if my life depends on it. A couple of things I like about this recipe. Dark chocolate. Peanut butter. It's easy.

I love Reese's but sometimes you have no idea how old they are. I know how old my cupcakes are. They never live past two days. Seriously try these.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
makes 12 cupcakes
1 1/8 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 cup homemade fudge sauce (recipe below)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, whisk egg and sugar until smooth and no lumps remain. Add milk, cream, butter and vanilla, and mix until combined. Stir in sour cream. Sift dry ingredients together and add to wet mixture. Mix until batter is smooth, then swirl in fudge sauce. Line a muffin tin with liners and using a 1/4 cup measure, add batter to each cup. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Let cool before frosting.


Peanut Butter Buttercream
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup peanut butter
3-4 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons of milk
pinch of salt
Cream butter and peanut butter together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add powdered sugar with mixer on low speed and gradually add milk and vanilla extract. Mix until frosting is smooth. If too thick, add more milk; if too thin, add more sugar. Frost cupcakes as desired.


Dark Chocolate Fudge Sauce
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark cocoa powder
2 tablespoons flour
pinch of salt
1 cup boiling water or scalding milk
1 tablespoon of butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Combine sugar, cocoa, salt, and flour in a bowl or pot over a double boiler. Bring water or milk to a boil. Gradually add hot liquid to sugar mixture. Stir constantly until mixture thickens.
Once it has reached the desired thickness, remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Drizzle over cupcakes and store the rest of the sauce in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.


* The only thing I did different was substitute applesauce for sour cream. I didn't have any sour cream and didn't want to run to the store. :)

Dark Chocolate Cake.

OH MY GOODNESS!! I don't say this very often but you have to make this cake right now. I mean stop what you are doing and make this cake!! I made it with Special dark cocoa powder and it was AMAZING!! but our family loves dark chocolate! If yours does not the original recipe called for unsweetened coca powder so you can use that just as easily.

I have tried Pioneer Woman's sheet cake and it was yummy but it doesn't work as well with dark cocoa. I've also made this frosting on Tasty Kitchen and have struggled with it each time so when I saw this frosting and this cake and Mel's Kitchen Cafe (one of my fav cooking blogs!!)

It caused one slight problem in the house... her name is Wesli. The night I made the cake I went to the gym and Sam was watching the kiddos. It was Kellen's bedtime and Sam took him in to get him changed and ready. Wesli was alone for less than two minutes and she drug the chair over to the counter and took a bite out of Kellen's unfrosted cake!! I was so sad but instead of making another one I just frosted over it and it turned out ok. When asked why she did it Wesli said, "It smelled so DELICIOUS!" I asked her if it was and she said, "Yes."

Make this cake...Now!



Dark Chocolate Cake
Kellen's Birthday Cake

*When I made this I used regular cake pans but it is a lot of better and it over flowed a little bit. I went out to Joann's and bought the taller cake pans. Or you could make cupcakes instead or a sheet cake but if you use normal cake pans either watch it or don't use all the batter.

3/4 special dark cocoa powder
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and flour your cake pans. Sift all your dry ingredients in to a large bowl. Add all the wet ingredients and mix on low speed for 3 minutes til smooth. Pour batter in to pan of your choice. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove from iron and cool on wire racks for 15 minutes. Turnout cake out onto cooling racks and let cool.

*Remember I made 2- 8 in cakes so the baking time is for those. If you are doing cupcakes or a sheet cake you need to watch it and test with a toothpick until it come out clean. I suspect if you overbake it it will be quite dry.

Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Chocolate Marshmallow Cookie

Back home in Vancouver there used to be a great little cookie store in our mall called "Cookie Cutter". They were a family owned, small business place. They had these amazing chocolate marshmallow cookies, I'm talking AMAZING!! I got one every time I went to the mall and these things were ginormous. Then another bigger and more corporate funded store came in and took enough business away from "Cookie Cutter" that they closed shop. I have been craving these cookies for the passed decade. Every so often I would do a Google search and see if I could find a recipe but all the recipes I could find were made from a cake mix, a marshmallow, and canned frosting... not exactly what I was looking for. Then a few months ago I found this blog and this recipe and I knew I needed to try it. Thankfully it cooled down yesterday which gave me the ability to have the oven on and we have friends coming over for dinner and I figured these would make a perfect dessert.

Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies

1 egg, beaten

1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup shortening (I used butter)

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and slightly cooled

1 2/3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

Beat egg and sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla, shortening and melted chocolate. Blend well. Combine all dry ingredients into small bowl. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk to chocolate mixture.  Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet. I flattened mine out a little bit so they spread more.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes. When the cookies are almost done cooking, remove from oven and place 1/2 of a large marshmallow on top of each cookie (I used a full marshmallow and it was great but next time I might get marshmallow creme so it's really gooey!!). Return to oven for about 1 minute or just until marshmallow puffs. Remove from oven, flatten marshmallow with the back of a wooden spoon or spatula. I greased mine so the marshmallow wouldn't stick to it. Cool completely. Frost with chocolate frosting. 

 

Chocolate frosting:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 cups powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup milk ( I used skim)

Beat softened butter in bowl. Add vanilla. Slowly beat in cocoa, powdered sugar, and milk. If needed, add more milk, a little at a time. 

Adapted from A Bountiful Kitchen