Homemade Chocolate Syrup

While I was so sick last year when I was pregnant with my daughter, my husband was doing the grocery shopping.  He pretty much did most of the grocery shopping for the majority of my pregnancy.  And he didn't always stick to the lists I would give him.  A certain popular brand of chocolate syrup became a staple in our refrigerator and on my husband's shopping list.  Kevin has always loved chocolate syrup and he introduced our son to it last year... and got him on a kick where he'd only drink chocolate milk.  I didn't have the energy to fight them on it and figured it could be worse... at least he was putting the chocolate syrup into raw cow's milk.  ;-P 

Once I started feeling a little better and started cooking again, one of the first things I did was to look up a recipe for homemade chocolate syrup.  Ok, so I know this is totally not paleo, nor is it nourishing... but it is a pretty yummy treat that is better for you to make yourself than to buy at the store.  The store-bought versions are laden with high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors.  This homemade version is made from ingredients most people always have on hand.  And guess what?  It tastes exactly the same as the store-bought kind... only I feel way better using this for an ice cream topping or to make chocolate milk.  I wish I could remember where I found this recipe.  I tried another recipe first and wasn't too crazy about it, then tried this one and it has stuck.  I have finally transitioned both my husband and son out of the "need" to only drink chocolate milk.  So this isn't a staple in our refrigerator anymore, but I do still make it for treats here and there.  It is very easy and quick to make and will last in your refrigerator for quite awhile. 

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

1 1/2 cups sucanat (or cane sugar)

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder or carob powder (I tend to do 1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1/4 cup carob powder)

1 cup water

dash of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla, preferably homemade

In a small saucepan, add sucanat, cocoa/carob, and salt.  Whisk together gently.  Add water.  Bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat and cook 1 minute.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Cool.  Store in the refrigerator. 

Marbled Brownies

We visited some friends for dinner last night.  I was responsible for dessert.  I debated about what to bring, from fancy, complicated desserts to very simple, yet tasty.  I decided to go for the latter since I knew we'd end up being a little pressed for time yesterday.  I decided to just make some marbled brownies.  I used the chocolate chip brownie recipe from Heavenly Homemakers as my base and then just added some cream cheese batter to swirl through.  I haven't made marbled brownies in a long time, but I used to make them quite regularly, so I just went off memory for the cream cheese mixture... and I used my own homemade soft cheese in place of the store-bought cream cheese brick.  I did modify Laura's recipe slightly by adding in about 1/2 cup of milk and an extra egg since the mixture just seemed too thick for brownies (I like fudgy brownies :).  I also doubled the recipe for a larger pan.  I've posted the recipe adjusted for the larger pan and with the extra egg and milk below. 

I think they turned out pretty well and they seemed to go over quite well with everyone.  My parents had one today and even they liked them (they normally aren't too crazy about made-from-scratch goodies that use whole wheat flour).  They were quite thick and dense, not necessarily fudgy, but definitely not dry like I feel like they would have been without the extra egg and milk.

These were also super easy to throw together.  They were just as easy as throwing together a boxed brownie mix... only these are much better for you, made with good, quality ingredients.  And I almost always have all the ingredients on hand.  I'll definitely make these again sometime. 

Marbled Brownies

Chocolate brownie mixture:
2 sticks butter, melted
2 cups rapadura/sucanat
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Cream cheese mixture:
1 cup/8 oz cream cheese, softened (either use a brick from the store, or homemade)
1 egg
1/4 cup sucanat/rapadura
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large bowl, stir together butter, rapadura/sucanat, and cocoa. Mix in eggs, milk, and vanilla. Stir in flour and mix until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together softened cream cheese, egg, sucanat/rapadura, and vanilla.  Stir until combined.  Set aside. 

Grease a 9x13 baking pan with coconut oil.  Spread about 3/4 of the chocolate mixture on the bottom of the pan.  Spoon the cream cheese mixture on top of the chocolate batter in dollups.  Then spoon the remaining chocolate batter in dollups between the cream cheese dollups.  Cut through the mixtures with a knife to create the marble design. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.


This post is linked to Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist and Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

One of the Christmas treats I made this year are Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles from Heavenly Homemakers.  These were so easy to make and I love that there are so few ingredients.  Not only are they easy to make, but they taste awesome, too!  If you love chocolate and peanut butter, you will love these!  This is definitely a keeper recipe!  I made the recipe as written, though I'd like to make them again sometime with some changes.  I'd like to try them with half carob chips and half chocolate chips and I'd like to try them with homemade sucanat powdered sugar (which I have actually made, but didn't have any when I made these, plus I had some organic unbleached powdered sugar that I needed to use up). 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

2 cups milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream (I used raw cream)
2 Tablespoons butter (I used homemade cultured butter)
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I used homemade peanut butter)
1/4 cup organic, unbleached powdered sugar

In a saucepan stir together chocolate chips, cream and butter over medium heat.  About the time the chocolate chips are almost melted, add peanut butter and stir until smooth.

Spread mixture into a pie pan and chill for about two hours.

Roll mixture into 1 inch balls.  I used my 1-inch cookie scoop and I actually only filled it half-way since the full scoop was too rich for me.  Then I just dropped them right into the powdered sugar to cover and placed on a serving plate.  Then chill them until they're set. 

Chocolate Sourdough Cake

I've mentioned before that I'm taking the GNOWFGLINS Sourdough E-Course, but I haven't posted anything yet that I've made as a result of the e-course. I made this chocolate sourdough cake before we left for vacation. The recipes for the e-course that week included this chocolate cake and also a spice cake. I'm planning to make the spice cake very soon and I think this will be my go-to chocolate cake recipe from now on. This is SO good! Its so moist and flavorful and just delicious! I ended up making the cream/yogurt cheese frosting rather than the chocolate coconut cream frosting because I was having trouble finding coconut butter. I'll have to order some and try it again with the chocolate frosting. But it was very tasty with the cream/yogurt cheese frosting!

Zucchini Brownies

I tried out the recipe for zucchini brownies from Heavenly Homemakers the other morning, as well. I made a couple changes... substituted carob powder for the cocoa and added some chocolate chips that I needed to use up in my pantry. These were so easy to throw together, they literally took less than 15 minutes... from the start of getting all the ingredients out, shredding the zucchini, stirring up the brownies, and getting them in the oven. I love quick recipes like this! They also taste really good! We all really liked them a lot. My mother-in-law also got to taste them when I sent one with Carson for a snack and she thought they were awesome (and has asked for the recipe). Definitely a hit! I have the same thoughts I had when making the bread... wishing I had a grain mill so I could use sprouted flour, or wondering if I could modify this to be soaked in the future. Maybe I'll have to do some experimenting.

I'll update soon with a picture.

Zucchini Brownies

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sucanat or rapadura (I used sucanat)
1/3 cup cocoa (I used carob)
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 egg
2 cups whole wheat flour
(I also added a few handfuls of chocolate chips... milk chocolate and white chocolate... that I had in my pantry)

Mix butter, sucanat and cocoa. Stir in zucchini and egg. Gradually mix in flour until well combined. Pour batter into a 9×13 inch pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Pumpkin White Chocolate Scones

Another catch-up post. I've made these twice now - the first time a few weeks ago and most recently on Saturday morning. This recipe is another delicious sampling of the recipes found on Two Peas and Their Pod. These scones are absolutely delicious -super moist and flavorful with just the perfect extra sweetness from the white chocolate chips! They are very easy to make, too, and come together very quickly. Carson and I love them. Kevin would if he'd try them (and get over his dislike for pumpkin). I have never made the glaze to go with them since I think they're just perfect without it, but I'm sure they get even better when you add the glaze. For me, though, I'd rather save the extra calories and sugar, I think.

Pumpkin White Chocolate Scones

Scone Dough:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup) light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup canned pure pumpkin
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cream
Turbinado sugar for sprinkling the tops of the scones

Spice Glaze:
1c. powdered sugar
1/2t. cinnamon
1/8t. cloves
Sprinkle of nutmeg
Milk

Add as much milk until desired consistency. Drizzle or spread over scones.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place rack in middle of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. I use my hands! The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the white chocolate.

In a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin puree and vanilla and then add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix the dough.
Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm) round and about 11/2 inches (3.75 cm) thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into 3 pie-shaped wedges (triangles). Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the cream and sprinkle a little Turbinado sugar on top.

Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and drizzle scones with the glaze.

Oreo Truffles

I got this recipe from my friend, Melissa. She mentioned them in passing one day and they sounded so delicious and I knew I wanted to make them at some point. I'd hoped to make them for Thanksgiving, but never got around to it. So Carson and I made up a batch of them yesterday afternoon. These are time consuming to make, but they're easy and fun. And they taste absolutely delicious! I used all-natural chocolate sandwich cookies that I found at Whole Foods - made with wheat flour and no HFCS!

Oreo Truffles

1 box Oreos, or other chocolate sandwich cookie
1 brick cream cheese
4 bars Ghiradelli chocolate (I used 2 milk choc. and 2 semisweet choc. and melted them together)

Crush up the Oreos in a large zippered plastic bag. I used my rolling pin. Pour the crushed Oreos into the bowl of your stand mixer. Drop in the brick of cream cheese. Mix on low speed until incorporated. Use a small cookie scoop to drop rounded balls of the cookie/cream cheese mixture onto a baking sheet. If you let your cream cheese come to room temp. first to soften, you'll want to put the balls in the fridge to cool down so they stay together better.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate in a glass bowl fitted over a pan with boiling water on the stovetop. Drop balls of cookie/cream cheese into the melted chocolate. Remove and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let cool completely until chocolate has hardened. Enjoy!

Raw Macaroons

Last night, Carson and I made some raw chocolate macaroons. My friend, Lina, had brought these in to work a while back and I thought they were so yummy, so I asked her for the recipe. The recipe comes from the book Raw Food, Real World. Lina let me borrow her cookbook and I copied down several recipes that I hope to try. These cookies are super easy to throw together and then the dehydrator does all the work while you sleep. We woke up to a house smelling like cocoa. :) These really taste great, too. They're very rich. Carson loves them... he kept sneaking tastes of the batter last night while we were making them and I let him have a bite of one as a treat after he ate his eggs and toast this morning. He immediately wanted more, but we'll have to wait till later in the day to indulge again.

Raw Chocolate Macaroons

3 cups dried, unsweetened coconut flakes (organic)
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder (organic, free trade certified)
1 cup pure maple syrup (local, organic)
1/3 cup coconut butter (extra virgin, organic)
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract (organic)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir well. You can also use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment.

Using a small cookie scoop, your hands, or a big tablespoon, spoon rounds of the dough onto dehydrator screens. If you are using your hands, you may want to chill the dough a bit first.

Dehydrate at 115 degrees for 12-24 hours, or until crisp on the outside and nice and chewy on the inside.

For blonde macaroons, replace the cocoa powder with an equal amount of almond flour.

Hot Fudge

I made up a batch of homemade hot fudge this morning to go with our Cookie Monster desserts tonight. I got the recipe from my SIL, Mary. I've had it before and know its a very good hot fudge recipe. I'm excited to have it tonight!

Hot Fudge

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
2 Tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup boiling water
1 Tablespoon butter
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Blend sugar, cocoa, flour and salt in sauce pan. Turn on heat and add boiling water. Bring to a boil. Cook, stirring constantly, until thick, about 10-12 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla. Store in refrigerator.

Makes about one pint.