Chocolate covered caramel pretzels

These are easy and yummy to make. I made them for Christmas but they can be adjusted to any holiday.

You'll need:

pretzel rods

melting chocolate

caramel

sprinkles

I use that brick of caramel you can find at most baking supply stores. Wet your hands and take a piece and roll it into a 'snake' then wrap it around the pretzel rod like shown.

Melt your chocolate (in microwave or on the stove) and dip your pretzel. I also use a spoon to help cover the entire pretzel.
Lay on some foil or waxed paper and add your sprinkles, let dry

I actually went and bought the pretzel bags and tied them with a ribbon to give to some friends.

Enjoy!

It really is a tasty treat.

Sneaky treats!

I have a son who is a super picky eater. The only vegtable he will eat is raw carrots. I found this recipe from the book Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfield -
knowing that he likes Chocolate - I decided to give it a try.
It was a HUGE success!!

Chocolate Fondue

1 T. trans-fat-free margarine spread (I just used butter)

1/2 c. Avacado Puree

1/4 c. Carrot Puree

1 c. confectioners' sugar

1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 t. pure vanilla extract

Sliced fruits, whole berries, or cherries for dipping

Melt the margarine over low heat in a medium saucepan. Add the avacado and carrot purees, sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla, and whisk well until smooth. Serve warm, with fruit.

**A trick I learned while experimenting with sneaky nutrition is that for things like "carrot puree" I just use a jar of carrot baby food - it saves a lot of time.

Toffee Squares

This recipe came from a friend's blog. However, I can't find the original post. (I know it was there at some point in time!)

This recipe is so easy. It is a cross between toffee and cookies.... yummy!!

Toffee Squares

1 cup Butter
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg yolk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 cups Flour
1/4 teaspoon Salt
6 Hershey Milk Chocolate Bars

Beat butter, brown sugar, egg yolk and vanilla together until creamy. Slowly add flour and salt until well blended.

Bake at 325 for 13 minutes or until lightly browned. It will be soft, do not over bake.

Remove from oven and immediately place unwrapped chocolate bars on top of hot cookie base.
Let it stand a few minutes until chocolate is melted. Spread melted chocolate evenly to cover entire cookie base. Cut into squares after chocolate has cooled and set.

ENJOY!

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

1 1/2 - 2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
4 tablespoons white sugar
6 T butter, melted
1 (10 ounce) package frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water
4 cups white chocolate chips (2 bags)
1/2 cup half-and-half cream
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


DIRECTIONS
In a medium bowl, mix together cookie crumbs, 4 tablespoons sugar, and melted butter. Press mixture into the bottom of a 10 inch springform pan.

In a saucepan, combine raspberries, 2 tablespoons sugar, cornstarch, and water. Bring to boil, and continue boiling 5 minutes, or until sauce is thick. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer to remove seeds.

Preheat oven to 325 º In a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt white chocolate chips with half-and-half, stirring occasionally until smooth.

In a large bowl, mix together cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in vanilla and melted white chocolate. Pour half of batter over crust. Spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over batter. Pour remaining cheesecake batter into pan, and again spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over the top. Swirl batter with the tip of a knife to create a marbled effect.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until filling is set. Cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 8 hours before removing from pan. Serve with remaining raspberry sauce.


* The real recipe calls for just one bag of white chocloate chips, but we love white chocolate so I added more! And once the cake was cooled I added mini chocolate chips to the outer edge of the cake- YES I sat there and put them in one by one! Here is the original recipe, I just made a few changes to the one I made

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

Food Network needs to be banned from my house! I found this recipe while flipping through channels and the Barefoot Contessa was making this, so I got up and had to start making them.

1 pound unsalted butter

1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, divided

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate

6 extra-large eggs

3 tablespoons instant coffee granules

2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 12 by 18 by 1 1/2-inch sheet pan.
Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the remaining 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the prepared sheet pan. Spoon the peanut butter over the top of the chocolate mixture and using a knife, swirl it through the chocolate mixture

Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes more or until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into large squares.

** I did not use the coffee granules, and these would be even better with some frosting on top and a large glass of milk!

Cupcake Bites

Debra and I made these fun little cupcakes for the 4th of July. We found them on Bakerellas website (which is very awesome by the way) She was even on Martha Stewarts show, to promote her cupcakes she made. If you are interested in making them I suggest just visiting her website, she does a great step by step instruction. We did the easier version of the cupcakes, but she also did a cupcake pop that is way cute so here is the link for that one.

The cake with many names

This cake is usually known as the "Better than sex cake" But also has lots of other names and lots of different versions, this was how I made mine.

1 box devils food cake mix
caramel topping
heath candy bars
chocolate cool whip

Bake cake according to directions (I did add some of the toffee bits to the cake batter), let cool for a few minutes. Poke holes with fork all over the cake. Drizzle caramel topping over top (to your desired liking) so it starts to melt into the cake. Then I put it in the fridge to finish cooling.
Add cool whip to top of cake and top with heath toffee bits.
Oh so delicious!!


* I grabbed the bag of Heath Toffee pieces from the baking isle, and when i got home realized it only was the toffe bits, so I took about 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips and chopped those up and added it to the toffee pieces.

Indoor S'mores

I am posting this from Debra, she made this delicious treat the other night so I quickly took a picture of my piece that we hadn't devoured yet. Really yummy treat if you can't be outdoors to make the real s'mores.

Indoor S'mores

Golden Grahams

8 cups Golden Grahams cereal

5 cups miniature marshmallows

1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

1/4 cup light corn syrup

5 T butter

1 t vanilla

1 cup miniature marshmallows, if desired

Into a large bowl, measure cereal. Butter 13x9-inch pan. In a large microwavable bowl, microwave 5 cups marshmallows, chocolate chips, corn syrup and butter uncovered on High 2 minutes to 3 minutes 30 seconds, stirring after every minute, until melted and smooth when stirred. Stir in vanilla.

Pour over cereal; quickly toss until completely coated. Stir in 1 cup marshmallows.

Press mixture evenly in pan, using buttered back of spoon. Let stand uncovered for at least 1 hour, or refrigerate if you prefer a firmer bar.

*This can be done on the stove-top as well

Chocolate Banana Cake

½ c butter
1 ¼ c brown sugar
¼ c sugar
2 eggs
1 T water
½ c cocoa
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ t baking soda
¼ t salt
1 t baking powder
1 ½ c mashed, ripe bananas
½ t vanilla

Cream butter, sugars and water together. Add eggs one at a time. Beat thoroughly after each. Stir in all dry ingredients and add to the batter alternately with the mashed bananas; stir in vanilla. Pour into greased and floured 9 inch cake pans. Bake in preheated 350º oven for 30-35 minutes, until cake test is done. Frost with your favorite frosting

* I used this cake recipe for the Sunflower Peeps cake- I tasted a little of it while I was leveling the cakes off- yummy.

Peeps Sunflower Cake

I found this in my magazine that I recently subscribed to, Taste of Home. This recipe was in the back and I knew I had to make it! Now I am not a peeps fan but they work out great in this recipe. Tonight is our Relief Society Birthday event and I signed up to bring a cake for August, so I figured this sunflower would be perfect...and easy!

1 package (18-1/4 ounces) yellow cake mix
2 cans (16 ounces each) chocolate frosting
19 yellow chick Peeps candies
1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions: Prepare and bake cake according to package directions, using two greased and waxed paper-lined 9-in. round baking pans. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely; carefully remove waxed paper.

Level tops of cakes. Spread frosting between layers and over the top and sides of cake.

Without separating Peeps and curving slightly to fit, arrange chicks around edge of cake for sunflower petals. For sunflower seeds, arrange chocolate chips in center of cake.

Yield: 12 servings.

* I use one can of frosting and it worked out perfect, if you want alot of frosting then get 2

kisses!

This is a silly recipe because it's so easy, and it's one of those I can make really quickly (because I totally cheat!) and they're super yummy! I've been asked several times for my peanut butter cookie recipe... love that! All I do is roll the dough into balls, roll them is sugar and bake them for 7 1/2 minutes (I like anemic cookies- ask my mom), and then my girls love to help unwrap the hershey kisses (with clean hands mind you) and we squish them in the middle together!
Ta-da!

Wanna know what my "secret" is???

Good ol' Betty C. saves the day!

Chocolate Chip pancakes

I was watching the news this morning and saw that it was National Pancake Day- and I thought that sounded like a good thing to make for dinner. I had to go to Macey's to pick up a few things and I passed by this pancake mix (on sale this week too by the way)-since it's also Heart Healthy month I thought I would make this. Sorry it's not a homemade recipe but it was easy and who doesn't love those nights where you have breakfast for dinner! I did add a ½ cup of mini chocolate chips to spice up the mix,
they tasted great!

Our old friend Mickey Mouse appeared in my pan :)

Love day treats!

Last night for Young Womens, we had to come up with a last minute activity and we decided to just do some molding chocolates and do some valentines day fun stuff. It was a lot of fun and the girls all got to take some home and they were in heaven! I had at least 1 or 2 girls ask me for the recipe and I had to laugh because, um- there isn't such thing!
The pink in these pictures is a mixture of red, pink and white... Abby & Brenna had that idea!
We have LOTS of these, so in case you were desiring to eat one of these decadent treats- they'll be here on Sunday for the birthday party! I know you can't wait!

Do you love Reese's???

Reese's Peanut Butter Cake

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar

½ Cup creamy peanut butter

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup hot water

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

8 oz softened cream cheese

½ Cup powdered sugar

¼ Cup creamy peanut butter

1-2 packages Resees Peanut Butter Cups, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease two 9 x 1 1/2 inch pans. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt- set aside.

2. Mix together brown sugar, peanut butter and butter for two minutes. Add egg and egg yolk and mix for another 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and mix for another minute.

3. Add half of the flour mixture and mix until incorporated about 20 seconds. Then add the sour cream, mixing again for 20 seconds. Gradually add the remaining flour mixture. Add the hot water in a slow, steady stream and mix on low to combine, about 30 seconds. Add the vanilla and mix for another 10 seconds. Add the reese's peanut butter chips and use a rubber spatula to finish mixing the ingredients until thoroughly combined.

4. Divide the cake batter into the prepared pans, spreading it evenly. (batter will be thick) Bake for about 15 minutes. If you have Use a toothpick to see if it is done. Let cool completely.

5. Place cream cheese, powdered sugar, and peanut butter into a medium bowl. Stir until smooth. Once cakes are cooled, spread cream cheese over bottom of one of the cakes. Top with 2nd cake.

Chocolate Ganache

1 Cup semisweet chocolate chips

¾ Cup heavy cream

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Place chocolate chips into a medium mixing bowl. Place cream and butter into a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat cream/butter until just boiling. Remove and pour over chocolate chips. Let sit for 3-5 minutes then stir until smooth.

To Assemble: Place layered cake on a wire rack. Place rack on top of a cookie sheet (lined with tin foil) so that the extra chocolate has a place to drip onto. Pour chocolate ganache over cake and using a narrow metal spatula, quickly spread it evenly over the top and sides of the cake. Garnish with chopped peanut butter cups in center of cake.

Note* I used probably 1 bag of reese's and the cake turned out great to me. Also I might try using milk chocolate chips instead of the semi sweet for the ganosh- I don't know if it would change the consistency but it might be tasty! Also I had a bag of the Valentine reese's hearts so that is what I used to garnish my cake

*** Recipe came from the Picky Palate.