Tag: Dark Chocolate

BERRIES & CREAM PIE with HOT FUDGE

Cool dessert are the best in the summer time so this pie really hit the spot at our last family dinner! It’s super fast to make and it was such a huge hit! It’s not overly sweet so topping it with hot fudge really adds a nice touch.

This started out as a healthier berries and cream pie dessert but it just begged for chocolate on top, so I indulged. Half of my guests had it without the hot fudge and still loved it!

Berries & Cream Pie with Hot Fudge
Adapted from both this Strawberries & Cream Pie recipe and this frozen desert recipe

1 8-oz block of cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 6-oz cup of vanilla yogurt
1 tub of Cool Whip
1 tsp vanilla
fresh blueberries & strawberries {you’ll need about 1.5 cups of each}
graham cracker pie crust
hot fudge sauce for topping {optional but soooo good!}
dark chocolate bar, for shavings on top

Blend the softened cream cheese and sugar together until well incorporated. Add in yogurt and vanilla, mixing well. Fold in about 1/2 a tub of Cool Whip. Gently stir in 1 cup blueberries and 1 cup chopped strawberries.

Pour mixture into graham cracker pie crust and freeze for several hours, until firm.

Remove from freezer. Spread remaining Cool Whip on top and then arrange another cup of fresh berries on top of the Cool Whip. I opted to shave a 1 oz square of dark chocolate on top of the pie. That little bit of added chocolate was heaven!

Refrigerate until serving. Serve with a drizzle of hot fudge on top, if desired!

After freezing, I had my pie sitting out on the counter top for an hour, then refrigerated for another 2 hours prior to serving. It ended up being partially frozen, which was perfect. It was easy to cut, but still held together well to be served cleanly. It was also hot outside so a really cold dessert was perfect!

THE BEST CHOCOLATE GANACHE… EVER!

I use chocolate ganache in place of frosting all the time for cakes and other desserts. There’s something about the smooth richness of a good ganache that I adore. I’ve tried many recipes over the years and I keep coming back to this one. It’s easily the BEST I’ve ever tried. I have a feeling it might be the cube of butter that takes this recipe from great to ah-maz-ing!

You can use ganache to top cakes, brownies, or even drizzle it on cookies. As it cools it hardens up enough so that you can stack goodies or even create double layers of chocolate dripping goodness like the cake I made in the photo above.

The BEST Chocolate Ganache EVER
Adapted from Ganache II here

16 oz chocolate {roughly 2 2/3 cup}**
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup butter

**Let’s talk chocolate for a moment here. I recommend using different types of chocolate to suit your needs. If you’re serving the dessert to a bunch of adults who love dark chocolate, you can create a more bitter tasting ganache by using a higher amount of darker chocolate. {The % on chocolate refers to the amount of cocoa, which is not sweet.} the bitterness is okay because often you’re using the ganache to cover something very sweet, so the two balance each other out. For my ganache I used 10 oz of 60% cocoa chocolate and the remaining 6 oz- which is 1 cup- of regular semi-sweet chocolate chips. Semi-sweet has a 35-50% cocoa ratio. Taste the ganache once it’s done and if you deem it too bitter, you can add in 1/4 cup powdered sugar or 1-2 tablespoons of corn syrup. Note that these additions will change the consistency slightly though, so try to get the sweetness right using the chocolate instead! If you’re new to making gananche, I’d stick with all semi-sweet chocolate.

Instructions:

1. Pour chocolate in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.

2. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add in cream when butter is just about melted.

3. Increase heat slightly and using a whisk, stir constantly, but gently. Heat until mixture just barely comes to a boil.

4. Pour over chocolate in bowl. Begin stirring gently, combining the chocolate with the butter-cream mixture. At first your concoction looks like this:

But after just a minute or two of stirring, all the chocolate is melted and you’ve got a smooth chocolate gananche!

5. Let the mixture sit from 5-15 minutes, depending on how “drippy” you want the chocolate. If you’re putting the ganache on brownies, it can be pretty cool and still spread well. For cakes, you’ll want it to be warmer so that it will run and cover the cake. Feel free to gently pick up your baked goods and tilt them slowly in one direction or another to spread the ganache.

I didn’t want my cake covered completely. I let some drips go to the bottom, whereas other parts I left barely covering the top layer of cake. I let it sit a few more minutes, then I ran more chocolate over, to get a double- layered chocolate look.

For this cake, I just used a box cake mix (altering the recipe to make it taste better, as per instructions here) with a Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting with chopped black cherries mixed in. I topped it with dollops of cream and more cherries on top. Yum.

CARAMEL, PEANUT BUTTER KRISPY BARS TOPPED WITH THE BEST CHOCOLATE GLAZE!!!!

CARAMEL PEANUT BUTTER RICE KRISPY BARS
TOPPED WITH A THICK, CHOCOLATE GLAZE. I AM SURE YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW
DELICIOUS THESE ARE AND YOU’D BE RIGHT!!!

Ingredients

For the Krispy layer:
1 3/4 cups Rice Krispies cereal
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
3 tablespoons melted butter

For the milk chocolate peanut butter layer:

5 ounces Hershey’s milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup creamy peanut butter

For the dark chocolate top layer:
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
4 tablespoons butter

Instructions

Line 8 x 8 inch pan with non-stick foil.
Pour
the water into a small pot and carefully add the sugar and corn syrup
into the center of the pan. Stir with a spoon until it reaches
235º on a candy thermometer.
Remove
from heat, stir in the melted butter and pour the mixture over the
cereal in a bowl. Stir to coat and press into the pan using a silicone
spatula. Stick in the freezer to cool.
For
the chocolate peanut butter layer: In a microwave safe bowl, melt the
peanut butter and chocolate. Stir to combine and pour over the crust.
Stick back in the freezer until firm.
Make
the dark chocolate glaze: In a microwave safe bowl, heat
the chocolate, corn syrup and butter till melted. Stir and spread over the peanut butter layer. Chill again!
Cut into squares. Keep squares chilled.

Adapted from That Skinny Chick Can Bake who adapted from Baked Explorations