Chocolate | The Cookbook Smasher | Page 3

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

October 23, 2007 Author: Rachel
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We were sitting at the car dealership on Saturday waiting for the car to be fixed and the food network was on and showing Paula’s Home Cooking. While many of her dishes sound yummy, I don’t usually cook her food, mainly because they are usually not exactly good for you. The Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars I couldn’t pass up, and they didn’t disappoint! Very delicious, and I made -s bring them to work to share with his co-workers so we wouldn’t eat them all!

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (1 sleeve of graham crackers)
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
- 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
- 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
1. Line a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. Put 1 sleeve of graham crackers in food processor and blitz; then addÂ the butter, peanut butter, and sugar. Process until the mixture forms a ball. Press into the foil-lined pan using your hands or a spatula.
3. Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler over simmering water or in a microwave-safe glass dish in the microwave for 1 minute on high (100%). Stir. If the chocolate has not completely melted, microwave for 10 seconds more, then stir. Spread evenly over the cookie layer with a spatula. Chill for several hours.
4. When ready to serve, allow the candy to come to room temperature before cutting into pieces. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars:
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

October 17, 2007 Author: Rachel
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It’s been a while since I’ve posted. What can I say…I’ve lacked motivation and inspiration to try many new recipes lately. We did prepare the Chicken Sate dish for family, and they really loved it.

I had some very ripe bananas on the counter, and I considered making a classic banana bread, but then I had a most brilliant idea…substitute chocolate chips for the nuts (not that I ever put the nuts in anyway)! It was delicious! Bananas and chocolate go very well together, and the gooeyness of the chocolate was quite decadent.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs beaten lightly
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1.5 TBSP milk
- 3-4 ripe bananas
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
- Blend mashed bananas, eggs, sugar and oil.
- Sift dry ingredients together and add alternately to the wet ingredients with the milk and lemon juice.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Pour into greased and floured loaf pan.
- Bake at 350 for 1 to 1.5 hours-done when knife put in center comes out clean.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Chocolate Banana Cheesecake

April 23, 2007 Author: Rachel
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This cheesecake recipe comes from New Vegetarian by Celia Brooks Brown. We have the 2001 version, but I checked the 2005 version amazon sells, and it contains this recipe. This cheesecake is “lighter” than traditional cheesecakes, but still has incredible richness, texture, and flavor. One thing that makes this cheesecake excellent is the chocolate ganache topping. Chocolate and banana go very well together. This recipe is a keeper as we’ve already made this recipe a half dozen times since we purchased the cookbook back in 2002.

Chocolate Cookie Crust:
- 8 ounces plain Milano cookies
- 4 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Assemble Crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350Â°F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan.
2. Process cookies in a food processor, then transfer to a bowl. Pour in melted butter, add cocoa, and mix well. Pat mixture into the bottom of the greased springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool.
3. Reduce oven temperature to 300°F.
Cheesecake filling:
- 2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
- 10 ounces mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
- 2 large ripe bananas, broken into chunks
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
Assembly:
1. Process the cheeses in a food processor until smooth. Add the bananas, vanilla, and sugar and mix well. Add the eggs, a little at a time, and pulse until smooth.
2. Pour mixture into the pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until just set but still slightly wobbly in the middle.
3. Let cool in the pan, and then chill overnight.
Chocolate topping:
- 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 1 large banana
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler.
Assembly:
1. Remove the sides of the springform pan and transfer to a serving plate.
2. Top with the chocolate mixture and spread, letting it dribble over the edge.
3. Cut the banana diagonally into long slices and toss in the lemon juice and pat dry. Arrange on top of cheesecake.
4. Chill until topping is set prior to serving.
Chocolate Banana Cheesecake:
Chocolate Tasting Notes: Santander, Perugina

February 7, 2007 Author: Rachel
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In my continuing research on chocolate, I like to taste and score various chocolate bars. For scoring I used my “three Ts” — taste, texture, and toppings. Taste refers to both the overall taste of the chocolate and, if there are toppings, the chocolate part of the flavor. That’s why a bar can get a 2/5 for taste but only a 1/5 for toppings (the chocolate part of the flavor brought the score up.)

Santander
70% Dark Colombian Single Origin
Taste: 5/5. Good roast flavor, strong.
Texture: 5/5. Good melt in mouth, smooth.
Toppings: N/A.
Purchased at: Cost Plus

Perugina Dark Chocolate
Taste: 4/5. Rich and nutty, strong.
Texture: 4/5. Smooth with slight clumping.
Toppings: N/A.
Purchased at: Cost Plus

Perugina White Chocolate
Taste: 3/5. Not strong, decent flavor, some aftertaste.
Texture: 4/5. Smooth but not amazingly so.
Toppings: N/A.
Purchased at: Cost Plus

Santander
70% with Pineapple Colombian Single Origin
Taste: 4/5. Strong chocolate flavor, good balance with pineapple, bitter.
Texture: 5/5. Smooth with nice chunks of pineapple.
Toppings: 4/5. Good pineapple flavor.
Purchased at: Cost Plus
Chocolate Tasting Notes: Endangered Species, Dagoba, Valor

January 29, 2007 Author: Rachel
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In my continuing research on chocolate, I like to taste and score various chocolate bars. For scoring I used my “three Ts” — taste, texture, and toppings. Taste refers to both the overall taste of the chocolate and, if there are toppings, the chocolate part of the flavor. That’s why a bar can get a 2/5 for taste but only a 1/5 for toppings (the chocolate part of the flavor brought the score up.)

Endangered Species Chocolate Eco Rounds
Caramelized cocoa nibs in “exquisite” chocolate
Taste: 3/5. Good flavor but not strong. Slight roasted flavor.
Texture: 5/5. Melts nicely in mouth, nibs are crunchy.
Toppings: 4/5. Nibs contribute to both flavor and texture.
Purchased at: Fred Meyer

Endangered Species Dark Chocolate with Deep Forest Mint, 70%
Taste: 4/5. Good blend of chocolate and mint. Chocolate flavor very good.
Texture: 5/5. Very smooth.
Toppings: 5/5. Excellent mint flavor.
Purchased at: Fred Meyer

Dagoba Lavender and Blueberries 59%
Taste: 2/5. Lavender overpowers all else. Tastes like Grandma’s bathroom.
Texture: 3/5. Smooth but clumpy mouth feel, not much addition from berries.
Toppings: 1/5. Lavender is overpowering and lingers too long in mouth. Blueberries add nothing.
Purchased at: Fred Meyer

Valor Dark 70%
Taste: 4/5. Rich, bitter, strong.
Texture: 4/5. Good smooth melt in mouth.
Toppings: n/a
Purchased at: Cost Plus
Notes On Truffles and Ice Cream

January 29, 2007 Author: Rachel
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These are the notes I originally wrong that go along with the creation of the truffles and ice cream I wrote about in this post. It was originally put up on the Salemfood website, which is why I write things like “Christmas party coming up.”

Chocolate Ice Cream Notes
I put this on the page for the story, but I’ve had great success using a mix of the Lindt 70% cacao dark chocolate and the Lindt milk chocolate. The flavors balance nicely and the mix provides high, medium, and low notes. Using all dark tends to result in mostly medium and low notes, but I won’t say it tastes bad, as it’s still really good. The Lindt bars are 3.5 ounces each, so the total weight of the bars is 7oz.I’m sure some people are wondering why the ice cream has no eggs in it. The answer is simple: they aren’t necessary. One of the best parts of the recipe is its simplicity in preparation. The other best part is the how mindblowing the result is. The key is the cream.

On a recent episode of Top Chef the chefs had to do an ice cream challenge, and one chef was complaining about how difficult it was to make the ice cream creamy. Well it’s harder when you skip the cream and rely on eggs and milk!

Yeah yeah yeah you shouldn’t eat large portions of this ice cream. It’s got a TON of fat in it. But it’s so good that you will be satisfied with a smaller portion. Trust me.

You can leave out the chocolate and use the base recipe for pretty much any kind of ice cream you want. For instance, for mint chocolate chip, leave out the melted chocolate, add 1-2 teaspoons of the mint extract of your choice, and add chocolate chips when it comes time to add the toppings. Easy.

Here are some pictures for you…

Melting chocolate

Melted chocolate

The mix, ready to be chilled

It’s not pretty yet, but oh so good

I added marshmallows for the topping and smashed up some chocolate covered peanuts for garnish

If you are wondering, I did the photography as well. I would do pictures of a plate, Rachel and I would eat it before it melted too much, and then I would clean the plate and set up another scoop. Not bad work.

Truffle Notes
The truffles got top billing and for good reason. They are freaking awesome and like the ice cream, not too difficult to make. Here’s some truffle porn for you…

Coating starting from the left: Santander 70% with pineapple and toasted coconut (“tropical”), Valor 70% with mint, cocoa powder, Perugina white chocolate with semi-sweet drizzle

From another angle:

My favorite truffle base came about pretty much by accident. I wanted to do a shot of chocolate bars so I bought a variety of bars at Cost Plus. When it came time to make truffles, I saw what I had to work with and said “why not?” I ended up using a Santander 70% Colombian single origin bar, a Valor 70% bar, and a Perugina dark chocolate bar (no percentage listed, sorry.) It was absolutely amazing.

A couple of weeks later we made a huge batch for Thanksgiving and I used all Lindt 70% dark, which is an excellent chocolate mind you and created excellent truffles that were loved by all, but the mix was even better.

On to practical matters…

Be patient during the process of making these. Chilling is extremely important.

You will also rediscover your love of wax paper. Wax paper is your friend.

The universe of toppings for these things is huge. If you can melt it or get it to stick without falling off you can probably use it.

Toasted coconut

Topping the truffles — tropical up top, mint bottom right

Of the four I made for the story, my tasters (Rachel, her dad, stepmom, and brother, J-me, and the BeekeeperTM) liked the mint the best, followed by the white chocolate, the tropical, and the cocoa powder. But keep in mind the quantitative values were something along the order of “Oh my God,” “Incredible,” “Amazing,” and “I liked the cocoa powder the least.” Poor cocoa powder.

For Thanksgiving we did the white chocolate and mint variations. We also did some just for us topped with Dagoba latte chocolate, which is like a mild Mexican chocolate. Which is to say, it was awesome. I am making more for a Christmas party coming up, and will definitely do the mint again and may try using a melted Mexican chocolate tab (it’s been awhile since I’ve melted one, so I’m not sure how well it will work.)

And for the record, the Valor 70% dark chocolate bar with mint is one of my favorites. Excellent! You can get it at Cost Plus. Overall I was pretty impressed with the Valor brand bars.
Chocolate Ice Cream and Truffles

January 25, 2007 Author: Rachel
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Back in December I wrote a piece for the Salem Statesman Journal on high end chocolates, and in it I put two incredibly good recipes for chocolate ice cream and chocolate truffles.

Check it out here. Read my notes about the recipes here.