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Chocolate Desserts to Die For: Beautiful Cookbook with Mouthwatering Recipes and Pictures

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Chocolate Desserts to Die For! Cookbook Recipe
The links in this post are affiliate links, meaning I earn a small amount when you click through and make a purchase. This (of course) costs you nothing extra – it simply allows me to support my cat in the lifestyle they’ve become accustomed to!

As a chocoholic, my cookbook collection includes plenty of cookbooks with one thing in mind – chocolate! A received a new one recently (Chocolate Desserts to Die For!) to review and I’d love to tell you all about it.

Now that Halloween has come and gone, thoughts are turning rapidly to Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m featuring cookbooks (such as this one and Celebrations) on the food blog recently that pull double duty:

  1. They’ll be invaluable to you when you’re cooking your holiday meals.
  2. They make excellent gift ideas for cooks and foodies in your life.

Chocolate Desserts to Die For! actually pulls triple duty as it adds this to its resume: This cookbook is filled with beautiful and delicious gifts you can make for people in your life – after all, gifts don’t get any better than chocolate!

{Review Continued Below the Mini Chocolate Turnover…}

Chocolate Desserts to Die For! Cookbook Recipe

Chocolate Desserts to Die For! (Mini Chocolate Turnovers)

This is not a “Gluten Free” cookbook, obviously, but its recipes are either gluten free in the first place (such as the candies) or can be made gluten free with easy substitutions.

Some of the Recipes Include:

  • Not My Momma’s Rice Pudding with Cranberry Compote (would make a GORGEOUS Christmas dessert!)
  • Chocolate Cranberry Oat Cookies (again, perfect for Christmas)
  • Bev’s Hot Fudge Sauce
  • Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
  • Chocolate Chocolate Chipotle Fudge Milkshake
  • Strawberry Saute’
  • Warm Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake (when I make it, I substitute the chocolate cake with a gluten free cake mix.. can you say easy?!)
  • The Kid in All Adults Marshmallow Truffles
  • Triple-Decker Chocolate Cookies
  • Fudgy Goes Latin Bars
  • And many, many, many more chocolate recipes.

Take a closer look at Chocolate Desserts to Die For! by clicking the link.

Chocolate Desserts to Die For! Cookbook Recipe

Three of the Best Apps for Chocolate Lovers

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Mocha Icing Cake with Hersheys
The following is a contributed post… and since it involves chocolate,  it’s a post after my own heart!

Honestly, is there anything better than chocolate? It’s good for you, alleviates stress, and fills the home with good aromas. If you love cooking and eating dishes with chocolate, you’ll love tinkering with the apps below we have found online.

iChocolate ($0.99)

There’s a huge difference between people who love eating chocolate and those who know their chocolate. If you want to become a true chocolate connoisseur, reading the information this app has to offer is a good start. iChocolate; is more than just a cookbook, as it teaches everything a cook needs to know about chocolate’s quality, texture, appearance, and aroma. Saying that iChocolate is the ultimate guide to baking desserts as it even includes historical facts about the ingredient and masterful techniques used to produce it.

Cookulus: Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie (Free)

Are you a fan of chocolate chip cookies? Impress your friends and family by making the perfect batch with the Cookulus: Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie app. The app teaches cooks how to bake with 4 types of dough to make cookies soft, chewy, crispy, or crumbly. It has over 120 recipes for chocolate chip cookies, which are more than enough to satisfy even the cravings of the most hardcore chocolate lovers.
Chocolate Travel ($2.99) 

If you have the resources, why not go on a sweet adventure? Chocolate Travel is a great guide in helping people find chocolate-related establishments. The app has a curated collection of worldwide festivals, stores, themed events, and even spas. Going to different places where chocolates are being baked, or sold, is a dream come true for all the die-hard chocolate lovers out there.

It is remarkable how today’s apps are developing from being just outlets for gaming to very useful resources for home cooks. It’s not all shocking, really, as everyone is getting a slice of the mobile market because of its huge potential as a business tool, as asserted by the company that runs the recreational site Spin Genie. Mobile is changing the way the world works and proof of that is in the form of these small-sized apps that contain so much useful information.

If you’re using any of the apps mentioned above, share with us your experience in the comments section below!

You may also be interested in: 14 Health Benefits for Chocolate Lovers

See Also: Hershey’s Chocolate Frosting Recipe


Muesli Chocolate Banana Cookies with Vi-Shape Mix

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Muesli Chocolate Banana Cookies

As I mentioned in my Vi-Shape Nutritional Drink Mix Review, I don’t JUST use the delicious mix for smoothies. I throw it into homemade granola bars, cookies, muffins, and more.

With a lot of young people around the house, I try valiantly to have as many healthy snacks and foods available for them as possible.  While my husband and I look at granola bars and wheat muffins with great affection, most of the younger crowd just walk right pass them.

I’ve even seen a few shield their eyes from wheat muffins before!

When trying to think of creative ways to use my beloved Vi-Shape mix in a new way, I came up with a few goals:

  • include a few healthy ingredients, along with the Vi-Shape mix
  • come up with something people of all ages could enjoy
  • see if I could come up with a cookie that could be enjoyed EVEN at Christmas and other holidays
  • incorporate chocolate (always a goal)
  • use mostly simple ingredients
  • keep the process as simple as possible

I came up with the recipe below. A chocolate cookie including Muesli (HEALTY!), self-rising flour (knocking out a few extra ingredients), bananas (healthy), and Vi-Shape drink mix. The recipe, as is, has a strong banana flavor. I’m wild about bananas, so this was right in my wheelhouse. If you aren’t wild about bananas, substitute them with 2/3 cup applesauce or just go with one banana and 1/3 cup applesauce.

Muesli Chocolate Banana Cookies

2 bananas, mashed
2 cups Muesli (I use Bob’s Red Mill Old Country Style Muesli)
1 cup Self Rising Flour
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
3 scoops Vi-Shape Mix
2 tablespoons Natural Cane Turbinado Sugar (this one’s the reason “mostly” is italicized above)
1 egg
1/3 cup cocoa
1/4 cup vegetable oil

  1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Prepare your cookie pan by spraying lightly with oil.
  3. After mashing (or, as I actually call it when not trying to sound professional, smushing) the bananas, simply add all of the other ingredients.
  4. Mix with a wooden spoon.
  5. Place the cookie mix onto the cookie sheet by rounded tablespoons – I use a little scoop I swear by.
  6. Bake for 10 minutes.

Optional: After the cookies cool off, drizzle a little icing on top.  I simply combined 2 scoops of Vi-Shape Mix with enough Heavy Whipping Cream to produce a “drizzling” consistency.  I should have used milk – in keeping with the “healthier” theme, but what can I say? I went rogue.

 Cookie Ingredients

Chocolate and Cream Cheese Brownies

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Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

Spice Islands has just released two new Sea Salts: All-Natural Fine Mediterranean Sea Salt and All-Natural Coarse Mediterranean Sea Salt.  I’m thrilled to see the All-Natural Fine Mediterranean Sea Salt. The problem with sea salt has always been that it’s sometimes temperamental in recipes… too chunky!  The new All-Natural Fine Mediterranean Sea Salt is the answer to baker’s prayers and I can’t wait to stock up on it.  It’s used in the brownies recipe below and my mouth is watering.

I also LOVE that the recipe calls for two of my favorite things in the whole world: Chocolate and Cream Cheese. I even have special categories on my food blog for cream cheese recipes and chocolate recipes. I’ve had a lifelong passion for each, and when they team up, it’s nothing short of culinary magic.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ARGO® baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Spice Islands® All-Natural Fine Mediterranean Sea Salt
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons Spice Islands® Pure Vanilla Extract
3 large eggs
8 oz. cream cheese

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Prepare a 9-inch square baking pan by buttering the bottom and then using two pieces of parchment paper crisscrossed over the bottom and up over the sides.
  3. Chop the semi-sweet chocolate into small chunks. Reserve 1/4 cup to sprinkle over the top of the brownies. In a double boiler, melt the butter and the chocolate over simmering water.
  4. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Use a whisk to combine the dry ingredients well.
  5. When the butter and chocolate are melted, remove them from heat and stir in the sugar.
  6. Lightly beat 2 eggs in a bowl, and then mix them into the bowl along with the vanilla extract.
  7. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients using a rubber spatula or spoon mixing just until incorporated. Do not over mix or use an electric mixer!
  8. To prepare the cream cheese mixture, mix softened cream cheese with 1/3 cup sugar. Add the egg and mix well.
  9. Put dollops of brownie mixture in the pan and follow with spoonfuls of cream cheese mixture. Use a knife, moving it back and forth to swirl the two mixtures.
  10. Sprinkle reserved chocolate pieces on top.
  11. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out with moist crumbs. It should not be dry.
  12. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Use the overhanging parchment paper to remove the brownies and let cool completely before cutting.
  13. Run a large knife under hot water and cut brownies into 16-inch squares

THE Perfect Gift for Mothers who Love Chocolate and Diamonds?

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Azature Black Diamond Chocolates

Consider my little chocolate-loving brain cells officially popped. They say that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but when THIS girl hears or reads the word “diamond,” I think of a baseball diamond and spending the evening with my husband and cat Alexa watching baseball on television.

Now, thanks to Azature Fine Chocolates, the word diamond will also conjure up chocolate perfection: Diamond-shaped chocolate candy! FINE chocolate, even.

If your mother is as big a chocoholic as I am, you simply have to get her diamonds this Mother’s Day… chocolate diamonds, that is.

From AZATURE Chocolates.com:

The origins of AZATURE chocolates developed from the sentiment of gratitude and appreciation. It was from the first box created as a thank you to AZATURE jewelry clients that AZATURE fine chocolates were born. Approaching the gift from the same philosophy of innovation and unique design, AZATURE created the first collection inspired from the precious gems that are featured in his fine AZATURE jewelry collections.

Now available in eight different flavor formulations, the chocolates have much in common with his signature AZATURE black-diamond pieces. Take the “Black Diamond – Wild Treasure Cocoa” for example, like its black diamond counterpart, it is inspired by its exclusivity. The chocolate begins with the rare “Wild Treasure” cocoa bean that grows in the Amazon basin of Bolivia to create a luxurious chocolate base for all of the confections. The infused flavors and delicate recipes are applied with care and creativity to create fresh taste all while applying the signature AZATURE gem design. Like fine jewelry, these pralines are a luxurious indulgence that we hope you will take the time to truly savor. From AZATURE and the chocolatier team, thank you as we are incredibly proud to share these handcrafted confections with you.

Visit Azature Fine Chocolate‘s website and make this Mother’s Day a day she’ll never forget. Trust me, she’ll be bragging about her chocolate diamonds all year long!

Azature Black Diamond Chocolates

Deceadent Dessert with Only 5 Ingredients

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Spice Islands Chocolate Dessert

 

4 oz 61% cocoa bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups organic heavy cream, divided
1/4 cup white blond cane sugar
2 organic egg yolks
1 teaspoon Spice Islands® Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a kettle filled with water on the stove over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
  2. Place the chocolate in a large metal bowl.
  3. Combine 1 1/2 cups of the heavy cream with the sugar in a small saucepan. Place over medium heat on the stove and whisk until the sugar has dissolved.
  4. Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate in a melt bowl and stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
  5. In another bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly temper the eggs by adding a touch of the warm chocolate mixture at a time, about 1/8 cup. Continue to do this until the entire chocolate mixture has been added to the yolks.
  6. Place four 6-oz ramekins in a large baking or casserole dish. Pour the chocolate mixture evenly into the four ramekins.
  7. Using the water from the kettle, fill the baking dish so the water comes halfway up the ramekins.
  8. Carefully place the baking dish into the oven and bake for 30 minutes. When done, the pot de crèmes will slightly jiggle. Using an oven mitt, remove the ramekins from the water bath and let cool on a cooling rack.
  9. After cooling to room temperature, transfer the ramekins to the refrigerator and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. (These can be made a few days ahead of time and just left in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap.)

When ready to serve, whisk the remaining heavy cream and vanilla extract in a small bowl until film peaks form. Place a dollop over each of the pot de crèmes and serve.

Recipe and Photo Courtesy of Spice Islands.

Pecan and Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Make the most amazing Christmas cookies ever this year! Many of these cookies would also make exceptional gifts or additions to Thanksgiving or Holiday gift baskets.

My inner cookie monster recently had cause to celebrate and did so by eating a chocolate chip cookie.  I was sent a gorgeous cookbook called One Sweet Cookie: Celebrated Chefs Share Favorite Recipes (will be available on Amazon on October 4, 2011 – click the link to pre-order!).

This beautiful cookie cookbook features cookie recipes that are probably already some of your favorite types of cookies:

  • Snickerdoodles
  • Orange Cookies
  • Chocolate Chip Cookies
  • Monster Cookies
  • Sandys
  • Peanut Butter Cookies
  • Thumbprint Cookies
  • Sugar Cookies

However, they’re sure to be the BEST recipe you’ve ever tried for each of these cookies.  You see, the cookie recipes in this book are from extraordinary chefs, pastry chefs and bakers – the best the world has to offer. These include Lidia Bastianich, Terrance Brennan, Laurent Tourondel, Jacques Torres, Mario Batali, and others. Cream of the crop!

In addition to cookies you’ve no doubt heard of, there are MANY amazing cookie recipes that will literally blow your mind before you ever even bake them:

  • Pecan and Chocolate Cookies
  • Pink Swirl and Dusted Meringues
  • Wicked Chocolate Biscotti
  • Coconut-Nutella-Almond Macaroons (one look at the picture and I wanted to weep with joy)
  • Petits Fours De Noel
  • City Bakery Oatmeal Raisin Cookied
  • Crazy Cowboy Cookies (from Chef Batali and his son)
  • Raspberry Granola Bars
  • Fig Squares (think Fig Newtons from a Culinary Institute)
  • Cheesecake Brownies
  • Cheesecake Brownies
  • Cheesecake Brownines… Sorry, but the concept of chocolate AND cheesecake teaming up is worth mentioning more than once. Or twice.
  • Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
  • …. and many more, but I’m getting too weak in the knees to go on!

Pecan and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes About 18 Large or 36 Small Cookies

11 ounces 66 percent chocolate (such as Valrhona Caraibe)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 large eggs
1 cup plus 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup 70 percent chocolate chips (such as Valrhona Caraibe) (optional)
1/2 cup pecan pieces (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees.  Line two half-sheet pans with parchment paper.

In the top of a double boiler over low heat, melt the 66 percent chocolate and butter.  Remove the mixture from the heat and set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs and sugar.  Add the chocolate mixture, then the flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix just until combined.

Remove the bowl from the mixer, and fold in the chocolate chips and pecans (if using).

Shape the batter into balls the size of golf balls, and arrange them on the prepared pans.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the size of each cookie.  The edges will feel done, but the centers will feel slightly undone.  Cool completely on wire racks.

Read more about One Sweet Cookie: Celebrated Chefs Share Favorite Recipes by clicking the link. You can either save the page under “favorites” to order on October 4 or, better yet, pre-order and secure your own copy in time for the holidays.  This one is absolutely outstanding.

National Chocolate Ice Cream Day?

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Breyers Chocolate Ice Cream

Now this is my kind of day.  Tuesday, June 7 is officially National Chocolate Ice Cream Day – how delicious is that? I thought I’d celebrate by simply pointing out my favorite chocolate ice cream…. Breyers!  I’m probably the most brand-loyal person in the world, and I’ve been true blue and loyal to all flavors of Breyers for two forevers.  I love every flavor they’ve ever created and I’m pretty sure I’ve tried them all.

What can I say? I’ve got it bad for ice cream.

So how about it? What’s your favorite chocolate ice cream?

Wonka Candy Just in Time For Easter

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Wonka Sweetarts Jellybeans CarrotAs someone with a head full of sweet teeth, I recently hit the mother-load. Wonka Candy sent me a goody bag filled with outrageously delicious candy to review on Get Cooking and I love them dearly for it. The candy had an adorable Easter theme, so for those of you who will soon be filling Easter baskets, pay close attention.

First of all, here’s one you’ll want o pocket – as in, don’t put these in any Easter Baskets, you’ll just take them right back out. Wonka Exceptionals Scrumdiddlyumptious Chocolate Eggs are as delicious to eat as they are fun to eat. Cute candy shouldn’t have such a Heavenly chocolate flavor, right? That intense chocolate goodness should be saved for the high brow bars wrapped in shiny foil. I guess someone forgot to tell Wonka.

Thank goodness.

The Wonka Exceptionals Scrumdiddlyumptious Chocolate Eggs are milk chocolates shaped like Easter eggs. Oh, but get this – Wonka has more up his sleeve. These milk chocolate eggs are teaming with delicious toffee, crispy cookie, and crunchy peanuts. When I first bit into one, I immediately looked down at the remaining egg in my hand – to see what made it so extraordinary. I was expecting a chocolate egg, with nothing but chocolate (which would have been delightful as well), but then I got this amazing surprise of crunchy deliciousness. When I looked down, I saw the culinary culprits – toffee bits, peanuts and cookie crisps.

Are you registering just how delicious these eggs are? If so then you know what I mean when I say don’t let the Easter Bunny put these in any baskets – keep them for your private stash.

Also delicious are the flavorful and adorable Wonka Springy Double Yummy Gummies. The flavors are orange (represented by a duck), yellow (represented by a sheep), and strawberry (you guessed it, a pink bunny). These are stupid good. My youngest daughter is madly in love with them and wants to stockpile them for the entire year. I thought she was kidding until I saw the look of determination in her eye. I think I’d better take her seriously.

These are extremely good and so cute I can’t even describe it. These little guys have the fruity gumminess you’d expect PLUS a little fluffy marshmallow surprise. You can’t have Easter without at least a little marshmallow.

Wonka is just outdoing himself this Easter. Look in the candy aisle of your favorite store for these candies PLUS Wonka Gobstoppers (a personal favorite – I dig out all the reds and grapes… drives everyone crazy, but I just Wonka Sweetarts Jellybeans Easter Candysay, “Beat me to it and they’re your’s” – I’m a loving mother but I take no prisoners when it comes to candy.), and Wonka Sweetarts Jellybeans. The Jellybeans are bright and colorful and more delicious than you remember jelly beans being.

They have some packages of orange jellybeans shaped like giant carrots. I had one sitting in an Easter Basket on the table right in front of an adorably Ty rabbit. It lasted a few days – until one of the suspects (my sources say it was daughter #2) couldn’t resist temptation any more. The rabbit never saw it coming.

The orange jellybeans aren’t just cute when they join forces to make the carrot, they’re actually delicious – with a distinct orange flavor.

When it comes to making Easter and spring cupcakes, cookies, and cakes – you’ll want to grab a few of these bags to have on hand for decorations.  I love to ice sugar cookies and use jellybeans to create a border.  The same approach makes some pretty darn cute cupcakes, too.

Don’t wait for Easter Sunday to enjoy all of these Wonka treats – make the season last as long as possible by enjoying them now. Do like I’ve done and create a big Easter Basket filled with them on your dining room table, complete with bunnies, chicks, and “grass.” You might need to set up a surveillance camera, though.

Especially if you invite anyone in my family over.

Surprising Benefits of Dark Chocolate

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Chocolate Passion
Chocolate Passion
Buy This at Allposters.com

It’s no surprise that I’m a chocoholic – the only real surprise is that I haven’t turned into chocolate yet.   Like all families, we sometimes run out of this (eggs, sugar, milk) and sometimes we run out of that (light bulbs, trash bags, toilet paper) – but there are three things we never, ever run out of:

  • Coffee Beans – No one would want to get near me if I were down to my last bean.
  • Chocolate – How can you run out when there are piles of it on the table and “back-ups” in the pantry?  My name is Joi and I stockpile.
  • Cat Food – Our cats take a daily inventory.  In fact, I think one (Alexa) checks on the supply at the top of each hour. I guess that explains why our little girl is shaped like a raccoon with a thyroid condition.

If you need further proof of my allegiance to chocolate, check this out – this will be my fourth “chocolate-focused” post on the front page of the food blog.  A personal best!

Fellow chocoholics, this is great news for us, so take notes. We all know about the flavanoids in dark chocolate.  These antioxidant-rich little ninjas improve heart health, which is why so many people make sure they eat a little dark chocolate each day.  Well, that, and the fact that dark chocolate tastes amazing.

One of my favorite health newsletters is from South Beach Diet.  This morning, the title of the article jumped right off the computer:  3 More Reasons to Love Dark Chocolate

Below are excerpts from the South Beach Diet Newsletter:

3 More Reasons to Love Dark Chocolate from South Beach Diet

  • Reason 1: Dark chocolate can decrease blood pressure and lower the risk of developing diabetes in healthy individuals. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that eating dark chocolate reduced insulin resistance and significantly lowered blood pressure.
  • Reason 2: Dark chocolate may be an anti-inflammatory. A study in the Journal of Nutrition found that dark chocolate improves health, including heart health. It significantly reduced levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a substance that is an indicator of inflammation in the body, which helps determine the risk for developing coronary disease. Thus, dark chocolate may have “anti-inflammatory” properties.
  • Reason 3: Dark chocolate may keep you feeling fuller, longer.

 

For a lot more articles and tips about healthy eating and living, you’ll definitely want to visit South Beach Diet.  The link will take you directly to their article index – there are countless wonderful tips and ideas.  You’ll also want to sign up for their free newsletter. Great stuff!