Sweet Tooth Series

Ever since I became pregnant, I'm not only sprouting a baby but I've also sprouted a sweet tooth! I constantly want pie, cake, shakes, cookies, etc. One of the treats I've made was a "gender reveal puppy chow". Gender reveal cakes and cupcakes are pretty popular now but I wanted to do something a little more simple so I came up with this puppy chow recipe.


Chocolate and Mint Puppy Chow 
13 oz box of Chex Mix cereal
1/4 cup of butter
6 oz chocolate chips
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/8 tsp vanilla
6 oz candy melts (In the color that's appropriate for the gender reveal. I had to buy at a craft store.)
1/8 tsp peppermint extract (Optional, or you can use another extract)
Powder sugar
Yogurt covered peanuts (Optional)

• Melt butter, chocolate, peanut butter, and vanilla over low heat on the stove.
• Put 1/2 of the cereal in a large mixing bowl and pour chocolate mix on top.
• Mix well, being careful not to crush the cereal.
• Put a few cups of powder sugar in a clean paper grocery bag.
• Put cereal mix in the grocery bag and shake. Set aside this mix in another container.
• Put the remaining cereal in the large mixing bowl (either clean the bowl first or get a new one)
• Melt the candy melts and peppermint extract over low heat on the stove.
• Pour mixture over the cereal and mix well.
• Put cereal mix in the grocery bag and shake - add more powder sugar if needed.
• Combine colored cereal, chocolate cereal, and the peanuts.

This turned out really great! You couldn't really taste the peppermint flavor when you were eating the mix, but it did leave your breath minty fresh :) The only problem I had with this recipe was that once I covered the blue cereal with the powder sugar it seemed to have a little bit of a green tint (which fit with the peppermint flavor, but took away from the "it's a boy" look).

Martha generally gets it right

For our family's Easter gathering I was in charge of bringing a dessert. I had a hard time finding something to make because it needed to be able to be made ahead and travel well.

After a lot of searching I found this recipe on MarthaStewart.com for chocolate babka. I guess it's a traditional European Easter bread - and my family is German. There are different versions of babka, and this is a dessert version.

**Don't be scared by the number of steps below, it's not as bad as it looks :-)

Chocolate Babka

Marthastweart.com

Makes 3 loaves of bread

1 1/2 cups warm milk, 110 degrees

2 packets of active, dry yeast (1/4 oz each)

1 3/4 cups of sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature + 2 large egg yokes, room temperature (5 eggs total)

6 cups all purposes flour

1 tsp salt

1 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1" pieces, room temperature

2 1/4 lbs semisweet chocolate, very finely chopped

2 1/2 Tbs ground cinnamon

1 tbs heavy cream - I used half & half

Streusel topping (see directions below)

• Pour warm milk into a small bowl
• Sprinkle yeast and a pinch of sugar over the milk
• Let stand until foamy, about 5 min
• In a bowl, whisk 3/4 cup sugar, 2 whole eggs, and all egg yokes
• Add egg mixture to yeast mixture. Whisk to combine
• Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine flour and salt
• Add egg mixture and beat on low until almost all of the flour is incorporated - about 30 seconds
• Using a dough hook, in the same bowl, add two sticks of butter and beat until butter is completely incorporated and smooth, about 10 min - dough should be slightly sticky
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface
• Kneed a couple times until smooth
• Butter a large bowl and place dough in the bowl
• Turn and coat
• Cover tightly with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to rise until it about doubles in size, about 1 hour
• Place chocolate, remaining sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl
• Stir to combine
• Cut in remaining 1.5 sticks of butter until well combined - set a side
• Generously butter three (3) 9x5x2 3/4" loaf pans
• Line each pan with parchment
• Beat remaining egg with 1 Tbs cream
• Punch back the dough and transfer to a clean surface
• Let rest for 5 min
• Cut into 3 equal pieces, keep 2 pieces covered in plastic wrap
• On a generously floured surface, roll dough out into a 16" square, about 1/8" thick
• brush edges with egg wash
• Crumble, 1/3 of chocolate filling evenly over the dough, leave 1/4" boarder
• Roll dough up tightly
• Pinch ends together to seal
• Twist 5 - 6 turns
• Brush top with egg wash
• Crumble 2 Tbs of filling over the left half of the roll
• Fold the right half over the filling
• Fold the ends under and pinch to seal

• Twist the roll 2 more times and lift into prepared pan

• Repeat the last 11 steps with the remaining rolls - to make 2 more identical loafs
• **If you are making this ahead of time, stop now and cover the loaves in plastic wrap and place in the freezer. You can also make the streusel ahead of time. On the day you want to eat the bread, dethaw the loaves before continuing.
• Preheat oven to 350
• Brush top of each loaf with egg wash
• Crumble 1/3 of streusel over each loaf - This seemed like too much for me. I probably used about 1/3 total for all three loafs
• Loosely cover each loaf with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place for 20-30 min
• Bake until golden, about 55 min. Be sure to rotate pan halfway through
• Lower temp to 325 and bake until a deep golden color, about 15-20 min
• Remove from oven and transfer to wire racks to cool

Streusel topping  

1 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

• In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, and butter.
• Using a fork, stir until fully combined with clumps ranging in size from crumbs to 1 inch.

This bread was a huge hit. It turned out like a high-class cinnabon bread.

It's Martini Time

For a really long time I was never a fan of chocolate martinis. They always sound so good, but I've never ordered one that actually tasted good. A very big let down.

However, over the past few years my friends and I have been able to create a few pretty terrific chocolate martinis at home and we are ready to share them with you :-)

Martini One

Layer Ice, Fudge, and Vodka in a blender.
Blend. Enjoy.

To be a little more specific, we used gourmet ice cubes, homemade fudge, and 3 Olives brand vodka.

Martini Two

Put ice and two shots of the following in a martini shaker: vodka, Irish cream liquor, and creme de cocoa.
Shake. Enjoy.

Iron Chef! Part 3

My work had a pot luck lunch a few weeks ago and we decided on an Iron chef theme. We had three categories and each category had a theme ingredient. Appetizer: Cheese, Main course: Booze, and Dessert: Fruit. It turned out really well! There was a ton of food and it was all so good. I took pictures of most of the dishes, but only got the recipes from the winning dishes.

I'm going to finally share with you the last course, the dessert. The winning dish was a bit of a surprise, but a winner none-the-less. :-)

See the previous post for the winning appetizer and main dish recipes.

Chocolate Cake

• Use Betty Crocker Supreme boxed brownie mix with Hershey's chocolate (prepare as directed on box)
• Cook in 9" round pan, 350 degrees for 40 minutes (this makes it more like a cake than a brownie)
• Dust with powdered sugar
• Top and garnish with fresh raspberries

Life's little let downs

Now a rarity, I was watching Dinner Impossible on the Food Network (back when they took a brief break from Mr. Irvine) and the challenge was to take boardwalk food and turn it into a gourmet meal. One item in particular caught my attention, chocolate covered bacon. It sounded gross, yet amazing. I new I had to try it, but where in the world would I find this.

Nearly a year later, my wait was over. In the Wisconsin State Fair's quest to have the world's largest selection of food on a stick, this year they've added chocolate covered bacon on a stick.

(by the way, it was really hard trying to get an appetizing shot of this thing)

There was quite the line outside of the Machine Shed tent to order this treat, but it moved very quickly. So quickly, I hardly had time to know what was going on. I can't even tell you how much I paid. But who cares?! How did it taste?

The verdict is..... meh. It wasn't really anything special. There was no harmony, no mmmmm, nothing. It just didn't work for me. Separate the two and they were good. The bacon was crispy and the chocolate was good too. But don't let my picky taste buds deter you from trying. There are some quality fair days left, so go ahead and try it. I Dare You!

p.s. Even though the State Fair's website says you can get kettle corn on a stick, you can't. The kettle corn guy said they weren't able to make it this year, but will try next year.