Dessert 7-Layer Dip Sweetens Up Your Super Bowl Party

Devising a dessert 7-layer dip is no easy feat. Earlier this week in the midst of all the chicken wing and pulled pork sandwich recipes, I wondered out loud on Twitter, “Why have I seen no 7-layer dip with chocolate pudding, caramel, cool whip and M&M's (ok, you figure out the other 3).” Rebekah at…

ByMichelleFebruary 2, 20137Comments

Cookie Time: German Chocolate Cookies aka Chocowalnos

Every Christmas, I find myself making the same cookies. For every other holiday, it's ok to add new dishes, but at Christmas, there’s something comforting about tradition, about knowing that there will be snickerdoodles and chocolate crinkles and that my mom will probably send me a batch of candy cane cookies. But if tradition is just something you’ve done more than once, these chocolaty, coconutty, walnut-studded "brownie meets German chocolate cake" cookies are going to be a new holiday tradition.

ByMichelleOctober 23, 20122Comments

Dessert Recipes

Zoku Popsicle Maker: Fudgesicles with a Cayenne Kicker

Inspiration comes at the oddest moments. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do, still laying in bed, is a scroll-through of email, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to see what happened over night. Sunrise is at 5 something now, alarm goes off at 6, and there is zero chance I'm getting out of bed before that. On one of those scroll-throughs, Chronicle Books was doing a Twitter contest to win a signed copy of the Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream Bookand a bag of bacon peanut brittle. All you had to do to enter was come up with a dream Humphry Slocombe flavor. My idea: Chocolate y Churros -- a cayenne-kicked Mexican chocolate ice cream with churro chunks (I didn't win)...but it led to these cayenne-kicked fudgesicles for the Zoku.

ByMichelleMay 30, 20120Comments

Baking Dessert Recipes

Ovaltine Nutella Cookies

World Nutella Day coincided with the SuperBowl this year and they basically cancelled each other out on the food front for me. I did make guacamole. You can't have the Superbowl without guacamole. Anyway, I've been playing a little catch up, so instead of just going the Nutella route, I did one better and came up with these Ovaltine Nutella cookies, because, well, just because.

ByMichelleFebruary 9, 20121Comment

Photo One-offs

Photo One-Off: Bendicks BitterGingers

Who knew candy could be a "lifestyle accessory?" Discovered these Bendicks BitterGingers at Central Market (in Washington) over the holidays. Like a peppermint patty but with dark chocolate and ginger. About $6.00 for a tube of 8 disks.

ByMichelleJanuary 2, 20120Comments

Baking Recipes

Baked Chocolate Cake Doughnuts

After seeing all these amazing baked doughnuts on various blogs, I finally caved and bought a doughnut pan. I've made 3 batches now -- caramel apple (minus the caramel topping), and 2 chocolate ones with different cocoa. But I'm just not sold. They're more like doughnut shaped muffins. Somehow I thought this pan was going to magically make doughnut shop-like doughnuts. I can just hear Alton Brown saying, "That pan's a unitasker. You know better. A real doughnut is fried at 365 degrees for 1 minute per side." And if he said that, he would be right. But that's not where this story ends.

ByMichelleNovember 9, 20111Comment

Baking Recipes

Guinness Brownies — Not Cakey, Not Fudgy

I'm a planner, but I just can't get behind Christmas decorations in August, not even Halloween in mid-September. I'm holding onto our short summer for dear life, even if Mother Nature has other plans (um, 85F on Sunday, high 60s and cloudy the rest of this week!). So you'll understand why I made Guinness brownies this weekend. St. Patty's is so far out, I can't even imagine it, so it's the perfect time to mix beer and chocolate.

ByMichelleSeptember 13, 20116Comments

Baking Book Reviews Recipes

Chewy Chocolate Macaroons

If you like coconut, there's almost no better use for it than macaroons. It's such a pure coconut experience, colored only by maybe a little almond extract or in my case, a good dose of lemon zest. But after spying this chewy chocolate macaroon recipe in Terry Walters' Clean Start, those pure thoughts went by the wayside. There seemed no reason not to go full bore, mixing in a good bit of chocolate, rather than just doing a dip.

ByMichelleAugust 22, 20112Comments

Recipes

Peanut Butter Pie for Mikey

Jennifer Perillo, you and your family are in our thoughts and our hearts today. In celebration and remembrance of your husband Mikey, and because sometimes words just seem inadequate, here's a peanut butter pie partially (filling & ganache) based on Rose Levy Beranbaum's Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Tart.

ByMichelleAugust 12, 20111Comment

Baking Recipes

Tacofino’s Chocolate Diablo Cookies

I love chocolate, but sometimes it feels a little bit like a default. If I look at a dessert menu, I will almost never choose a molten chocolate cake or a chocolate mousse. It feels a little too...common. Like it can be on the menu every night of the year without fail. But somehow, when…

ByMichelleJuly 17, 20111Comment