Tag: chocolate

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Dessert Featured Recipes

Chocolate Pound Cake

Chocolate Pound Cake from www.jasonscooking.com
Chocolate Pound Cake
Temperature325°Time1 h 15 mins – 1 h 30 mins

Chocolate Pound Cake from www.jasonscooking.com

BackgroundBackground

In my recent pound cake adventures, I pondered the possibility of a chocolate pound cake. After doing a bit a research, chocolating up a pound cake seemed easy enough. All I needed to do was add some more liquid and some cocoa powder and that’s that. We used this cake as a base for a DYI Strawberry Shortcake bar and it worked really well to soak up the juice from the strawberries.

This cake was adapted from an old Fanny Farmer’s recipe and pound cakes back then were a lot more dense than these cakes today with their rap music and their twitter. This cake will stand up beautifully to juicy toppings but I don’t think I’d serve it by itself. I’d opt for a less-dense version instead.

The RecipeRecipe
Chocolate Pound Cake
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 2 Sticks Butter, Softened
  • 1⅔ Cup Sugar
  • 5 Eggs
  • ½ Cup Milk
  • 2 Cups Flour
  • ½ Cup Cocoa Powder
  • ½ tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 325° and spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, and salt together and set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer on medium low speed, cream the butter and sugar together until they lighten up a bit and turn a pale yellow.
  4. Add the eggs, one at a time until they’re well incorporated, and then add the milk, vanilla and salt.
  5. Reduce the speed to low, add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
  6. Pour the batter in the prepared loaf pan and cook for 1 ¼ - 1 ½ hours or until a toothpick stabbed into the cake comes out clean.
  7. Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 – 10 minutes and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
  8. Slice and enjoy!
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

Stir in some chocolate chips, some peanut butter chips and/or some nuts for a middle-of-the-cake surprise!

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

To freeze, cool the cake completely, wrap in parchment, then in foil, then put it all in a zip-top bag and freeze for up to 6 months. Thaw for about an hour and enjoy!

Fun FactsFun Facts

Does this recipe look familiar? That’s because the only difference between this pound cake and the classic pound cake from earlier in the week is cocoa powder and a little more milk.

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Dessert Featured Jason's Favorites Recipes

Sugar Cookie Cheesecake Bars

Sugar Cookie Cheesecake Bars from www.jasonscooking.com
Sugar Cookie Cheesecake Bars
Temperature350°Time40 mins

Sugar Cookie Cheesecake Bars from www.jasonscooking.com

BackgroundBackground

The first time I ever made cheesecake squares was when I was a kid. I found a recipe in one of those checkout stand Christmas cookie cookbooks, made the squares, enjoyed them, and then I could never find that cookbook again. I think it was one of those TV spirit of Christmas things where I made the thing thinking that I had the recipe but found out it was inside me all the time and then I hear jingle bells and Ho Ho Ho off in the distance.

Anywho…My favorite cheesecake is from the Carnegie Deli in NYC for 3 reasons. It’s flippin’ delicious, my Aunt Pat introduced it to me when I went with her to New York when I was a kid, and because the crust is made of sugar cookies! When I was deciding what I wanted to make this week, I thought about the cheesecake bars which are super easy to make and how I could make them more Carnegie Deli cheesecakey. A tube of sugar cookie dough and 45 minutes later, here’s what I came up with.

The RecipeRecipe
Sugar Cookie Cheesecake Bars
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 12 Bars
Ingredients
  • 8 oz Sugar Cookie Dough (1/2 of a Tube)
  • 8 oz Cream Cheese, Softened
  • ½ Cup Sugar
  • ¼ tsp Kosher Salt
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
  • 2 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate
  • 1 Tbs Butter
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°
  2. Line an 8x8 glass baking dish with parchment paper and spray that with nonstick cooking spray. This helps you remove the bars when they’re completely cool. See the tips section for more details.
  3. Crumble the cookie dough and press it into the bottom of the pan.
  4. In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, salt, egg and vanilla with a hand mixer until it’s smooth and has the consistency of cake batter. Pour the batter on top of the cookie dough and cook for 40 minutes until it’s just set in the middle.
  5. Remove the bars from the oven and let them cool for about 30 minutes.
  6. Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave in 30 second incriments, stirring in between each 30 seconds until all of the chocolate is just melted. Be careful not to overcook the chocolate.
  7. Spread the chocolate all over the top of the cheesecake bars and put the whole thing in the refrigerator to chill completely (about 2 – 3 hours).
  8. When the bars have chilled completely, remove from the pan and cut in 12 pieces.
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

To make depanning a snap, run a strip of parchment paper down one side of the pan, across the bottom, and up the other side leaving a bit of overhang and then spray everything with cooking spray. This will give you a convenient handle to remove the bars in one quick motion.

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

Freeze your leftover cookie dough for the next time you want some tasty sugar cookies or for when you want to make another batch of cheesecake bars.

Fun FactsFun Facts

While the Greeks considered it a cake, cheesecake is more closely related to a custard pie, soufflé or torte.

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Dessert Featured Michael's Favorites Recipes

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from www.jasonscooking.com
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Temperature375°Time8 – 10 mins

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from www.jasonscooking.com

BackgroundBackground

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies are some of Michael’s favorite cookies so when I was thinking of stuff for today’s blog post, I thought I’d give them a shot. While researching recipes, I discovered that the recipe for oatmeal cookies and the recipe for chocolate chip cookies are pretty much the same thing so I added some oatmeal and cinnamon to my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and got some pretty darn tasty oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!

Give these tasty cookies a try and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed – assuming you like oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip cookies. If you don’t like oatmeal cookies or chocolate chip cookies, the aforementioned guarantee does not apply to you. Perhaps I could interest you in a nice berry crisp?

The RecipeRecipe
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 2 Sticks Unsalted Butter, Melted and Cooled
  • 12 oz Bread Flour (about 2 ¼ cups)
  • 1 tsp Kosher Salt
  • 1 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1 Cup Regular Oatmeal
  • 1 tsp Cinnamon
  • 2 oz Sugar (about ¼ cup)
  • 8 oz Light Brown Sugar (about 1 ¼ cup)
  • 1 Eggs
  • 1 Egg Yolk
  • 1 oz Milk
  • 1 ½ tsp Vanilla
  • 12 oz Semisweet Chocolate Chips
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, soda, oatmeal and cinnamon together and set aside.
  2. Beat the melted butter and both sugars together in a stand mixer for about 2 minutes until it’s lightened in color.
  3. Add the egg, egg yolk, milk and vanilla to the mixer and let it mix for about 30 seconds.
  4. Reduce the mixer to low speed and add the dry ingredients ⅓ at a time until it’s all incorporated.
  5. Once all of the dry ingredients have been added, fold in the chocolate chips and chill the dough for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
  6. Preheat the oven to 375
  7. Scoop the dough into 1 ½ oz portions and put on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. You’ll want to leave about 2 inches between each cookie.
  8. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until the edges of the cookie just start to turn brown. If they look done in the oven, they’re overcooked.
  9. Remove to a cooling rack and repeat with the remaining dough.
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

Use a 1.5 – 2 oz ice cream scoop with a trigger (a disher) to portion out your cookies onto parchment paper while your waiting on your first batch to come out of the oven.

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

Freeze portioned raw cookie dough or baked cookies for up to 6 months for a tasty anytime treat. To cook dough from frozen, just add a minute or two to the cooking time.

Fun FactsFun Facts

This Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is based on The Chewy from Alton Brown which is based on the Toll House Cookie Recipe which is based on Ruth Wakefield’s chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Categories
Dessert Featured Michael's Favorites Recipes

French Chocolate Mousse

French Chocolate Mousse

French Chocolate Mousse

BackgroundBackground

Chocolate mousse is one of Michael’s favorite desserts. The first time I ever made it for him, I was nervous that it would be super complicated and time consuming based on the fact that it was classic French food and served at fancy restaurants. That couldn’t be further from the truth! Chocolate Mousse is essentially melted chocolate with beaten egg whites or whipped cream beaten folded into it.

This recipe contains raw eggs and the FDA says you shouldn’t eat raw eggs. If you’re worried about consuming raw eggs, they make pasteurized raw eggs. If you’re super worried about them, you should probably stick to the whipped cream kind of mousse.

The RecipeRecipe
French Chocolate Mousse
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 6 Oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
  • 4 Eggs, Separated
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
Instructions
  1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (a metal bowl set over a pot of about a cup of gently simmering water), stirring frequently. As soon as all of the chocolate has melted, remove the bowl from the heat and set aside.
  2. In another bowl, beat the 4 egg yolks until they are pale yellow in color.
  3. Slowly (VERY slowly) drizzle the chocolate into the egg yolks while stirring vigorously. If you go too fast, you might cook the eggs and then you’ll have chocolate scrambled eggs.
  4. In a third bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
  5. Mix the vanilla and ⅓ of the beaten whites into the chocolate and egg mixture. Once it’s all incorporated, gently fold the remaining beaten whites in and keep folding until the color is uniform and you no longer have any streaks.
  6. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours and serve.
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

If you really don’t want to use raw eggs, beat a cup of heavy whipping cream to stiff peaks and use that instead of the eggs.

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

Frozen chocolate mousse? Be my guest! Frozen chocolate mousse is almost like a super chocolatey ice cream. Mmmmm.

Fun FactsFun Facts

While chocolate is the most famous, there are many different kinds of mousses. In French, “mousse” means foam or froth so technically anything that uses air or a foam to lighten the texture is a mousse.

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Dessert Featured Recipes

AB’s Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Temperature375°Time6 – 10 mins

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

BackgroundBackground

If you Google chocolate chip cookie recipes, odds are pretty good you’re going to find lots of different sites that have used Alton Brown’s The Chewy recipe and this site is no different! AB adapted this recipe from Ruth Wakefield’s Toll House Cookie Recipe and as far as I’m concerned, this recipe wins the chocolate chip cookie recipe race.

But Jason, if this recipe is ubiquitous on the internet, why put it on your site? Because it’s chocolaty, chewy delicious, and the perfect foundation for all of your cookie-based recipes. These cookies are super easy to make and you probably have the stuff to mix up a batch in your house right now.

The RecipeRecipe
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 2 Sticks Unsalted Butter, Melted and Cooled
  • 12 oz Bread Flour (about 2 ¼ cups)
  • 1 tsp Kosher Salt
  • 1 tsp Baking Soda
  • 2 oz Sugar (about ¼ cup)
  • 8 oz Light Brown Sugar (about 1 ¼ cup)
  • 1 Eggs
  • 1 Egg Yolk
  • 1 oz Milk
  • 1 ½ tsp Vanilla
  • 12 oz Semisweet Chocolate Chips
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt soda together and set aside.
  2. Beat the melted butter and both sugars together in a stand mixer for about 2 minutes until it’s lightened in color.
  3. Add the egg, egg yolk, milk and vanilla to the mixer and let it mix for about 30 seconds.
  4. Reduce the mixer to low speed and add the dry ingredients ⅓ at a time until it’s all incorporated.
  5. Once all of the dry ingredients have been added, fold in the chocolate chips and chill the dough for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
  6. Preheat the oven to 375
  7. Scoop the dough into 1 ½ oz portions and put on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. You’ll want to leave about 2 inches between each cookie.
  8. Bake for 6 – 10 minutes or until the edges of the cookie just start to turn brown. If they look done in the oven, they’re overcooked.
  9. Remove to a cooling rack and repeat with the remaining dough.
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

Make quick work of portioning out cookies by using a 1 – 1 ½ ounce disher (ice cream scoop with a trigger). If you want to make bigger cookies, use a bigger scoop!

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

Freezing cookie dough is one of the best things you can possibly do in your lifetime. I normally portion the cookies out before freezing so that way I can just make a couple when we want them. Cook from frozen and add a minute or two to the cooking time.

Fun FactsFun Facts

Ruth Wakefield sold her famous cookie dough recipe to the Nestle Corporation for a lifetime supply of chocolate!

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Dessert Featured Michael's Favorites Recipes

Homemade Chocolate Frosting

Homemade Chocolate Frosting

Homemade Chocolate Frosting

BackgroundBackground

Hello dear readers, Michael, the other half of Jason’s Cooking, here to talk about my favorite frosting! My Mom and Aunt Suzi have always made the best yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Growing up, I had this on average probably a dozen times a year and still love it to this day. From birthdays and holidays, to random cravings, I love it so much that I still have Mom, Aunt Suzi and now Jason make it for me.

The secret to my favorite cake is the frosting. The cake is typically just boxed yellow cake mix but the homemade frosting makes it the best cake ever!

The RecipeRecipe
Homemade Chocolate Frosting
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 2 or 3 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate
  • ⅓ Cup Butter
  • ¼ Cup Milk
  • 1 ½ tsp Vanilla
  • 4 ½ Cups Confectioners’ Sugar
Instructions
  1. Melt the chocolate with the butter in the microwave by cooking for 30 seconds, stirring, cooking for 30 seconds, and stirring until it’s melted.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the melted chocolate and butter, milk, vanilla and ½ of the sugar and beat until everything is incorporated.
  3. Add the remaining sugar and beat until it’s stiff and airy.
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

If the frosting is too thick, add a wee bit of milk to thin it out a bit.

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

Freeze this frosting by tightly sealing in a zip-top bag and storing for up to three months. When you’re ready to use it, defrost completely and let it come to room temperature. Once it’s at room temperature, beat it again and adding milk until it’s spreadable again.

Note: This frosting is so easy to make that it would be more difficult to thaw and revive frozen frosting than it is to make a new batch, so this recipe’s freezer tip is: don’t bother freezing this frosting unless it’s on a cake.

Fun FactsFun Facts

In the 15th century, bakeries in Germany started marketing sweet cakes to celebrate birthdays and weddings to sell more treats.

Categories
Dessert Featured Recipes Snacks

Fancy Indoor S’mores!

Indoor S'mores
Temperature375°Time5

Indoor S'mores

BackgroundBackground

It’s August in Georgia and while this summer has been very pleasant so far, I still didn’t relish the idea of building a fire to roast marshmallows for a Fancy S’mores post. With that in mind, I wondered what would happen if you put marshmallows in the oven. Would they roast? Would they explode? The answer is, they get really big and toasty and delicious – perfect for s’mores!

What makes these s’mores fancy, you ask? Twix, Snickers, Reese’s Cups, Kit Kats, and Mr. Goodbars! My friend Gwen introduced me to Fancy S’mores after she had them for her son’s 1st birthday. It was a simple idea that completely blew my mind and changed my s’mores shopping list forever. I guarantee that if you serve these around the camp fire, you will also blow your friends’ minds and be heralded as a visionary!

The RecipeRecipe
Fancy Indoor S’mores!
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 8 Large Graham Crackers, Broken in Half
  • 8 Jumbo Marshmallows
  • Your Favorite Chocolate Candy Bars – I use Reese’s Cups, Twix, Kit Kats, Mr. Goodbar and Snickers
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375° and line a sheet pan with parchment paper
  2. Put the marshmallows on the pan and put in the oven for about 5 minutes. The marshmallows will expand and turn golden brown and delicious.
  3. Stack your Fancy Indoor S’mores thusly: Graham Cracker, Candy, Marshmallow, Graham Cracker
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

I haven’t tried it but I suspect that you can stack the s’more before putting it in the oven and cook the whole thing at once. Since it’s in the oven for such a short amount of time, the chocolate should warm up and get just a wee bit melty.

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

What to do with a ton of leftover marshmallows? Freeze them of course! Make sure you divide them before freezing or you’ll have a huge wad of frozen marshmallows when you want to make s’mores.

Fun FactsFun Facts

Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts of the USA in Savannah, Georgia in 1912 and has been building “girls of courage, confidence, and character” ever since. They’ve also built a s’more or two along the way…empowering the women of tomorrow requires refueling every once in a while.

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Dessert Featured

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Temperature350°Time35 mins

dessert_070214_chocolatepeanutbuttercupcakes

BackgroundBackground

As far as dessert is concerned, perfection was achieved when chocolate and peanut butter got together to make sweet sweet lovin’ down by the fire.  See what I did there?  Sweet?  Fire?  It’s funny.

Seriously though, I cannot resist this combination so when deciding on what to make for our sweet treat this week, I went with the chocolateyest peanut butteryest cupcake that I could find.  The bonus to this is that cakes and cupcakes are great freezer foods.  Check out the Freezing Tips below for more info on freezing unfrosted cupcakes.

The RecipeRecipe
Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
  • 2 Cups Sugar
  • 1-3/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
  • ¾ Cup Cocoa
  • 2 tsp Baking Powder
  • 2 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1 Cup Buttermilk
  • ½ Cup vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1 Cup Boiling Water

For the Frosting
  • 8 oz Cream Cheese, Softened
  • ½ Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
  • 2 Cups Powdered Sugar
Instructions
Make the Cupcakes
  1. Heat oven to 350°
  2. Line 24 – 30 muffin tins with cupcake liners and spray the liners and top of muffin pan lightly with cooking spray.
  3. Mix everything together in a stand mixer or with beaters and fill muffin cups about ¾ full. The batter will be pretty thin.
  4. Cook for 22 – 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean.
  5. Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Make the Frosting
  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat cream cheese and peanut butter together until it’s well mixed and lightened in color.
  2. Slowly add in the powdered sugar, a little bit at a time, until it’s all incorporated

Frost and Eat the Cupcakes!
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

To make frosting the cupcakes easier, wait until they have cooled down. Use a cake decorating bag or make your own using a Ziplock bag. Put the frosting in the bag and cut off the corner. Frost away!

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

Unfrosted cupcakes can be frozen for up to 3 months.  When you’re ready for a tasty cupcake, pull one out of the freezer, frost and enjoy!

Note: Freezing frosted cupcakes is not illegal and frosted cupcakes will do just fine in the freezer.  Never let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do with your cupcakes.

Fun FactsFun Facts
  • Cupcakes are over 200 years old.
  • 13% of wedding receptions now use cupcakes instead of traditional wedding cakes.