Category Archives: Sweet

Breakfast / Brunch / Dairy-Free / Drinks / Fall / Gluten-Free / Sweet / Vegan / Vegetarian

At-Home Stovetop Mochas

October 23, 2013

IMG_1633Y’all know I have an intense love for coffee.  (If you don’t — hi, I’m Chelsea, it’s nice to meet you.)  While I normally just opt for straight brewed coffee, sometimes it’s nice to liven things up a bit (y’know, like with sugar.  And chocolate.)

I, honestly, love a mocha.  I mean coffee + chocolate?  What’s not to like?  However, I find that ordering a mocha at many coffeehouses tends to be like OMGCHOCOLATE&SUGAR!! + coffee.  I mean, I love a hot chocolate on occasion; but if I want a mocha, I want it to be a nice balance of chocolate and coffee (with an emphasis on the coffee).  Because of this, I like to make mochas at home.  Stovetop mochas = you control the coffee/chocolate ratio.  That’s right my friend, you are the master of this combination.  You can even require that people refer to you as “your Excellency” when you make these.  (*Note: I mean, you can require it… but whether that actually happens…)

So with that, Mocha Masters, let’s get started.

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First — a little note about the coffee in these: I like to use espresso in my mochas, because it’s both traditional and delicious.  While I do own a Nespresso, I like to use my Bialetti stovetop espresso maker ↑ for these.  If you don’t own an espresso maker, you can always make your own double-strength coffee and just use that.  (I would use 4 tbsp. fresh, finely ground coffee — ideally an espresso roast — per 1 cup of water.  You’ll only need about 1 cup for these.)

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Stovetop Mochas

serves 2

  • finely ground espresso (about 4 tbsp)
  • chocolate of your choice (about 4 tbsp) — I use semi-sweet chocolate chips, usually
  • tiny pinch of salt
  • 1-2 tsp. sugar
  • 3-4 cups milk (again, your choice — I did a 50/50 mix of nonfat and half and half)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  1. Prepare your espresso by filling the bottom of your espresso maker with fresh, cold water up to the bolt.  Place grounds into the basket until full, then lightly tamp down.  Screw the top on the espresso maker tightly, then set over high heat and let it come to a boil.
  2. Place chocolate, salt, sugar and about 1/4 of the milk into a small pot over medium heat.  Heat until small bubbles start to appear on the sides of the milk, then stir or whisk constantly until milk is heated and chocolate is fully melted and dissolved (about 2 min).  Add remaining milk and heat until just warmed through (about 3 min).  Turn off heat and whisk in vanilla extract.
  3. When espresso is done (all the water has boiled through the top of your espresso maker), pour the espresso into the milk mixture and stir to combine.
  4. Pour into cups and top with whipped cream if you’re feeling fancy.

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This recipe is really easy to customize, so play around with it until you get the flavors the way you like them.  Some people will like more or less chocolate, more or less sugar, different milk (to make it dairy-free use soy, hemp, almond, or rice milk), etc.  You can also play around with the extracts — adding about 1/4 tsp. of peppermint extract would be fun for the holidays.  Or maybe serve it with a cinnamon stick to make it more of a Mexican chocolate mocha.  You could even add a dash of cayenne if you wanted to get real crazy.  Do what you want — you are the mocha master!

Dessert / Sweet / Vegetarian

S'mores Cookies

October 16, 2013

smores cookiesThis cookie recipe is from an old Everyday Food magazine.  I love s’mores, so the idea of a s’mores cookie sounded delicious.  I decided to make these years ago (what a good decision that was), and have been making them fairly regularly ever since.  They’re pretty simple (although they do use both the food processor and the mixer), and are a nice change from the usual chocolate chip cookie scene.

S’mores Cookies

from Everyday Food/Martha Stewart

  • 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 7-8 oz chocolate, cut into about 30 squares (I like to buy the fair trade organic 72% dark Belgian chocolate at TJs for this — 2 bars, cut into 16 pieces each)
  • about 15 large marshmallows, cut in half
  1. Preheat oven to 350°
  2. In a food processor, pulse oats until finely ground.  Add flours, cinnamon,, baking soda and salt, then pulse to combine.
  3. Using an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl, then beat in egg.  With mixer on low, add in flour mixture and mix just until combined.
  4. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop dough onto baking sheets, and top each with a square of chocolate.
  5. Bake until just lightly golden (about 11-13 minutes), then remove sheets from oven.
  6. Heat broiler.
  7. Top each cookie with half a marshmallow (sticky side down), then place cookies under broiler until marshmallows are just browned (about 1 minute).
  8. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.
  9. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Budget-Friendly Weekend Fun / Date Night at Home / Dessert / Favorite Things / Gluten-Free / Sweet / Vegetarian

Date Night at Home Ideas: Dessert

March 26, 2013

Since you’ll be making dinner for date night, and maybe even cocktails, the simpler the dessert is, the better.  For date nights, I like to have something store-bought or easily assembled for dessert (since, by the time dinner is over, I’m generally not ready and raring to be measuring out cups of flour in the kitchen.  Or sober.  Y’know.)

Part 3: Dessert

It tastes even better when you’re not the one who made it.

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One of my most favorite things to order for dessert when we’re out is an affogato — which is vanilla ice cream covered in espresso.  It’s basically like having your dessert and after-dinner coffee all in one.  Also, because it’s a whopping two ingredients, it would be easy to make at home.  Use either an espresso machine (here‘s the one I have) or a stove top espresso maker (I have one similar to this) to brew espresso, then pour over a scoop of good vanilla ice cream (I love Three Twins).

date night 3I love French macarons, but I highly doubt I’d ever have the patience to make them.  (Much less make an assortment of them.)  I would love for my husband to come home with a bright assortment of these cookies for a date night to have for dessert — they’re almost prettier than flowers, don’t you think?  Miette and La Boulange make good ones.

Sorry, there aren’t too many ideas for dessert on here — but I’m sure you can come up with some good ideas of what to tell your love to pick up on his way home for date night.  These are just two of my favorite things.  (Hint hint, Kace!) 🙂

Budget-Friendly Weekend Fun / Cocktails / Date Night at Home / Drinks / Gluten-Free / Happy Hour / Sweet / Vegan / Vegetarian

Date Night at Home Ideas: Cocktails

March 21, 2013

Now that I’m sure y’all are gung-ho to have your very own date nights at home, I thought I’d post some recipes and/or links to a few ideas for the various parts of the evening.

Part 1: Cocktails

Let’s get liquored up.

  1. Mixed Citrus Margaritasmarg
  2. Skinny Mojitos: in a highball glass, muddle together the juice of 1/2 a lime + 1 tsp sugar + a few mint leaves.  Add 1 shot vodka (or gin, or rum) and ice.  Top with sparkling water.IMG_2162
  3. The Cuke: in a pitcher, combine and muddle 1 English cucumber, sliced + 3 limes, sliced + juice of 2 limes + 1/2 cup sugar + big bunch of mint.  Add 2 cups gin, then let sit for at least 30 minutes.  When ready to serve, pour over ice and top with sparkling water.IMG_2134
  4. Blended Strawberry Lemonade Margaritas: in a blender, combine 1 3/4 cups lemonade + 1/2 bag frozen strawberries + 1 cup tequila (silver recommended) + juice of 1 lime + small bunch of mint + squeeze of agave (optional).  Blend and serve.IMG_2045
  5. Vodka Lemon Sparkler: to make sparkling lemonade, combine 1 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice + 1/4 cup sugar + 5 cups sparkling water.  Add 1 shot vodka to a glass with ice, top with lemonade and serve.IMG_1678

Dessert / Sweet / Vegetarian

Sweets for Your Sweet

February 14, 2013

Chocolate Heart Sandwich Cookie

In the event that any of you forgot that it’s Valentine’s Day, I’ve got a recipe that may just get you out of the dog house.  (By the way, I totally just typed “god house” instead of “dog house.”  That’s a totally different thing.)  Anyhoo, I’m assuming that none of you are on the outs with your sweet, given that you’ve still got roughly 14 hours to get business in order for V-day; so perhaps the recipe below can be a little Valentine’s treat to yourself for being such an awesome partner.  Or you can hand them out to friends and neighbors just like those “I choo-choo choose you” cards in elementary school.

Chocolate Heart Sandwich Cookie Dough

Homemade Heart-Shaped Oreos

adapted slightly from Martha Stewart Living

  • 1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp. salt (I used sea salt)
  • 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
  • 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • cream filling (recipe below)
  1. Whisk or sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together melted butter and sugar, then whisk in egg.  Slowly add dry ingredients to wet, using a spatula to combine until a dough forms.
  3. Place dough between 2 sheets of lightly floured parchment, then roll out until 1/8 inch thick.  (You may want to divide dough in half to make it easier to roll out.)
  4. Place dough in fridge until firm, about 30 min.
  5. Remove dough from fridge.  Peel parchment from both sides of dough (so it doesn’t stick when you cut out your cookie shapes).  Use a cookie cutter of your choice to cut out an even number of cookies, re-rolling scraps once.
  6. Transfer cookies to a parchment-lined baking sheet, then place in freezer until very firm, about 15 min.
  7. Preheat oven to 350°, placing racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.
  8. Bake until firm and fragrant (I used medium-sized heart cookie cutter, and baked the cookies about 9 min), rotating once halfway through.  Let cool on baking sheets.
  9. When completely cool, spread every other cookie with cream filling (recipe below) and top with another cookie.

Chocolate Heart Sandwich CookiesCream Filling*

  • 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar (I’d use superfine if you have it)
  • 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4  tsp salt**
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract***
  • 1-2 tbsp. whole milk or half and half, if needed
  1. Combine butter and granulated sugar in a bowl.  Using a hand mixer, mix on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (2-3 min).  Slowly add in powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla, mixing until fully combined.  The mixture should be thick, but spreadable; if it’s too thick, add in milk or half and half, one tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached (I used 1 tbsp. half and half in mine).

Notes:

* I found that using a butter knife to spread the filling was the easiest option, but if your filling is less thick, you could pipe it on with a pastry bag as well.

**The original recipe does not call for salt in the cream filling, but I found the filling to be sickly-sweet without it.  I mixed in a couple pinches until I felt the flavor was right, which I judged to be about 1/4 tsp.  As an alternate option, you could top half the cookies with some coarse salt before baking (so the top cookie of the sandwich is salted), which I think would also be delicious.  (And so fancy to tell people that you made Salted Homemade Oreos.)

***Replacing 1/2 – 1 tsp. of the vanilla extract with peppermint extract would be delicious in these — and would make a great treat for the holidays as well!

I hope your Valentine’s day is full of lovey feelings and more sweets than you could ever consume.  XOXO