Almost Molten Lava Cake

Happy Mother's Day! Today Ryan's brother and wife hosted both families at their house for a Mother's Day cookout. Kevin and Stephanie just got married in March so this was the first holiday we spent at their house. I am sure there will be many more to come! They were fabulous hosts and their newly remodeled house and yard looked awesome. Though it is Mother's Day and I could go ON and ON about all the wonderful mother's in my life, I will instead write about food!

I volunteered to bring dessert but decided not to try anything new. Instead, I worked on presentation of a new found favorite -- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies. These brownies are always a mess to server with the gooey chocolate icing. So, I decided to make them like cupcakes so there would be individual servings. This is how I did it...

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Place paper liners in muffin tins.
• Prepare the brownies and cookie dough as directed.
• Spoon brownie mix into muffin tin, no more than 1/3 full.
• Drop one spoonful of cookie dough.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick stuck in the brownie part comes out fairly clean (I like a little gooey-ness)
• Prepare Chocolate Icing as directed.
• When mostly cool, remove paper liners from cupcakes and turn over on a pan.
• Spoon a tablespoon (not the measuring kind, the kind you eat cereal with) of icing on top, letting it drip down the sides. Use more or less to your liking.
• Enjoy!

I say these are almost lava cakes because they look like a lava cake but there is no gooey goodness inside. You still get the surpise of the chocolate chip cookie inside but it's not quite a lava cake!

No Butter! Chocolate Tom Thumb Bars???

Last night I finally got to leave work early. After 2-3 weeks of long days, I snuck away at 4:00. With a storm moving in, threatening to turn Houston's already horrible rush hour traffic into a nightmare, I really wanted to get ahead of the game. Of course, others had the same idea and it still took me 1.5 hours to get home. But, I got home at 5:30 and was done eating dinner by 7 (which is earlier than I even get home some nights). I work from home on Monday's and Friday's so Thursday nights are always a little more laid back and we tend to stay up a little later than normal.

I really had the urge to BAKE. I had not used my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer in a couple of weeks and was starting to have withdrawals from it. I knew I had some chocolate chips so I thought I would whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookies using the recipe on the bag. Then it hit me...

I HAD NO BUTTER!

Thats right, I had no stick butter or even any margarine. What kind of southern girl allows herself to have a refrigerator without any BUTTER in it. Paula Deen and her "Everything's Better With Butter" self would definitely be disappointed in me.

I started searching the internet for cookie recipes that didn't require butter but didn't have much luck. I posted a message on the local Houston Nest message board for help. One of the "Nesties" (thanks Kris) found this recipe for me -- Chocolate Tom Thumb Bars. I had all the necessary ingredients so heck... why not. I was slightly worried about the "meringue" part as I have never made meringue but it sounded easy enough.

Things started off alright. I got all the dry ingredients mixed together using my KA Mixer.

The dough wasn't as "doughy" as I expected and it didn't taste as good as normal chocolate chip cookie dough (which, in my opinion, is a little gift from Heaven) but it was okay so I pressed on.

I got the dough pressed out into a 9x13 inch pan.

Then I started on the meringue. The recipe instructed to beat the egg whites until they started to have peaks. This went well and after a bit I was getting decent peaks. Then I added the brown sugar as instructed and started beating the egg-sugar mixture. After what felt like forever (I didn't time it, I am impatient so it could have been 2 minutes, could have been 10) I was getting no peaks, no stiffness, nothing. I finally gave up on getting peaks and just spread it over the top of the dough and put it in the oven.

As you can see, the meringue does not look like meringue at all but I was tired of waiting and Ryan was asking for his dessert he had been promised.

After 20 minutes of baking, the meringue had risen a little and was turning brown so I pulled the pan out of the oven and let it sit for a few minutes.

Then I cut in and found a oooey gooey mess. The inside of the cookie part was not cooked, at all. So I put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

At this point, Ryan was whining for dessert (in a really cute and sweet way) and was just as skeptical as me about the outcome of my baking project. So, I made him a Chocolate Covered Strawberry Milk Shake.

And that was a success!

Back to the oven... I could see it had cooked a little more but was skeptical at this point. I pulled it out of the oven again. I scooped out a piece for Ryan and one for me.

It was still pretty gooey in the middle and the flavor was just ... blah. That's all I can say. I think with BUTTER and not shortening, this would have been better. And maybe cooking the cake some before putting the meringue on top? Or maybe if the meringue had gotten stiff and peaky it would have been better?

I ended up thrown the whole 9x13 pan of it down the disposal. What a shame!

I have learned that I should always keep some butter in the freezer so that I don't run into situations like these in the future.

Chocolate Dips

Chocolate is one of my favorite things. M&M's and Chocolate Ice Cream top the list.

In recent years, Chocolate Fountains have become a common site at weddings and other parties. A variety of snacks such as strawberries, marshmellows, pretzels and other fruits are available to be doused in warm, flowing chocolate. Being that I love chocolate so much, these are always a highlight of the wedding to me, especially when the cake isnt good!

As our first anniversary approached, we made a trip to Jackson for a friend's wedding. Mom had the top of our cake in her freezer so we decided to take it home on the plane. It was several weeks before the wedding so started to worry about what this year old cake would taste like. When we go home I divided the cake as we were taking a delayed anniversary trip several weekends after our anniversary. I put both pieces back in the freezer. When our anniversary finally arrived, I was so scared it would be horrible, I decided I would make something else to have for dessert as backup. I was walking through the grocery and saw some great looking strawberries so I picked them up. Then on the baking aisle, I found these little tubs of Bakers Dark Chocolate for dipping. It looked really easy so I picked on up. It turned out to be very easy to dip the strawberries. They served as a delicious, but unnecessary addition to our first anniversary dinner that we had at home. The cake was just as good 1 year later as it was on the wedding day. (I wish I had some now.)

Okay, I know, that was what, over 6 months ago? Well, since that first attempt at "dipping" I have fallen in love with chocolate dipped treats. I mostly thought it was made for fruit, until I attended a bridal shower for my friend Ashley. Her mother-in-law and sister-in-law had done this fabulous dipped pretzels. I must have had 5 or 6 that day! They dipped in white and dark chocolate and added pink sprinkles. They were beautiful. I really got addicted so I had to try it myself.

It is really sooo easy to make chocolate dipped treats. There is no need for one of those cute yet hard to clean fountains you can by at Bed Bath and Beyond. Baker's makes the cute little tub, but using its chocolate squares is just is easy. This weekend I had a craving and was feeling "artsy" so I went to work.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Lay out wax paper on a plate, tray or cutting board.
Melt 4 chocolate squares in a small bowl in the microwave following package directions.
Dip pretzel sticks in chocolate.
If the bowl is not deep enough, use a spoon. Scoop chocolate up in spoon then roll pretzel across spoon.

Place pretzel on wax paper.

Melt 1 or 2 white chocolate squares
Dip spoon in white chocolate then drizzle over chocolate covered pretzels in a back and forth motion.

Place plate/tray in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to let the chocolate set. Pretzels will get soggy if left in the fridge too long.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Follow same directions as with pretzels.
Leave covered strawberries in the refrigerator until 15-30 minutes before serving.

Or, just dip the pretzel/strawberry in the warm chocolate and eat immediately :)