In tribute to Mr. Ferrero, King of Nutella

You may have heard that Michele Ferrero, father of Nutella, passed away on Valentine's Day. Fitting since, via Nutella, he really was a valentine to us all. ♥


Apparently, Mr. Ferrero's father began combining hazelnuts and chocolate during World War II when cocoa was in short supply and hazelnuts were plentiful. His son, Michele, was credited for making the mixture more spreadable and coining the name Nutella in 1964. (Same year Mr. E was born...it was a good year.)


In tribute, I thought I'd revisit one of my favorite Nutella concoctions here on the blog, Nutella-Filled Banana Muffins. Maybe they're one of my favorites because the dose of Nutella is in its pure form...not mixed, not baked...the perfect dose of chocolate-hazelnut goodness. It makes these the best banana muffins ever.


Nutella at breakfast makes any morning a good morning.
(You can quote me on that.)


Here's the low-down:  the mashed bananas keep the muffins soft and moist, the salted butter and kosher salt give a double-shot of salty to the sweet, the nutmeg & cloves add just a bit of spice and interest, and the Nutella?  Well, it pushes the delicious factor over the top.


Want to make them?  Yes, yes you do.  Here's how...

Nutella-filled Banana Muffins

2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 medium bananas, mashed
1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup Nutella

instructions:
Preheat oven to 350.  Line 12 regular size muffin tins with liners and lightly spray with cooking spray (this will keep the muffins from pulling away with the liners).  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.


{Don't you love freshly grated nutmeg?  If you never tried it, do.  you don't even need a fancy-schmancy microplane....the small holes on your grater will do.}

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.  Beat in the egg, mashed banana, and milk.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed.

With a silicone spatula, gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet.  Divide the batter into the 12 muffins tins.  Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.


Place on a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, remove from the tin to cool completely.


Meanwhile, spoon the Nutella into a pastry bag fitted with a large tip. (I used a Wilton 4B.) Once the muffins are cooled, poke the tip into the center of each muffin.  Fill until you see the muffin expand a bit and, while squeezing, pull the tip up and out of the muffin.

DEVOUR.

*this recipe first appeared on the blog in 2012 and has become a family favorite. 

Thank you, Mr. Ferrero! ♥ 

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Sweet on Trader Joe's Saturday: Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Filled Cupcakes

In honor of Valentine's Day, we knew we had to bring you a chocolate review. Alas, we could not find anything heart-shaped and chocolate in Trader Joe's
[Note to Trader Joe's: if there were something heart-shaped and chocolate, we would totally buy it.]

Today's review is of Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Filled Cupcakes.

You'll find these in the baked goods section of TJ's. Four to a package, you'll pay $3.99 for them. The package description reads, "chocolate cupcakes filled with peanut butter and topped with a decadent ganache icing."


A mom's (my) take: Like a peanut butter cup in cupcake form with a lovely, moist chocolate cake to go with it. I've seen these on some "top 10 Trader Joe's desserts" lists. Now I know why.
Overall rating 5 of 5 stars

A teenager's (kiddo's) take: First, the incredibly rich ganache hits your taste buds like a train, only to be complemented and made less formidable by the light and airy cake; which, I might add, has a great taste. Then comes the peanut butter- but wait! The little spot on the top is a false alarm. The real reservoir of peanut butter isn't connected to it, which adds to the flavorful suspense this phenomenal cupcake gives you. All in all, a quality buy. :)
Overall rating: 5 out of 5 stars



Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Filled Cupcakes: a perfect treat for Valentine's Day...or ANY day! 

Read all of our Trader Joe's sweet treats and dessert reviews!

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Happy ValenWine's Day!

Hey guys! I'm blogging over on my publisher's (Lark Crafts) blog today, writing about adapting cookie designs to fit different holidays and themes.

Pop on over to see where the inspiration comes from for these Valentine wine bottle (ValenWINE) cookies!

Cheers! 

Salted Almond Shortbread Cookies with Milk Chocolate Toppers

Let me just confess right away that I could not stop taking pictures of these cookies. For every one picture you see here, there are 7 more sitting on my computer. I feel a little like one of those people who invite the neighbors over to watch a vacation slideshow.


As soon as I saw these cookie cutter and chocolate mold kits from Fancy Flours, I knew I had to try them. I used this kit and this one. Each kit comes with a cookie cutter/stamp and a set of chocolate molds.

The cookies are so pretty on their own!


To make the toppers, I tempered some milk chocolate. I still have some work to do on my tempering...you can see some little flecks in the chocolate, but overall, I was happy with them. The book Sweet Confections has great step-by-step instructions for tempering chocolate...and lots of other candy making.

You could also use candy melts...and I did actually make a few pink topped cookies with pink candy melts and totally forgot to take pictures of them! It's a travesty.


The cookies. Now, Mr. E looooves a shortbread cookie. Every Christmas, I buy him a tin of those butter cookies and he's in heaven. Me? I don't love them. Shortbread cookies sometimes seem a little one-dimensional to me. (I have no idea what I'm talking about, but they're not usually my favorite.) SO, I thought I'd try to make them a little more interesting.


These shortbread are salted almond shortbread. The healthy dose of salt works really nicely with the milk chocolate toppers...and even without the toppers. I love some salty with my sweet, so these were perfect for my palate.

Salted Almond Shortbread Cookies

{makes about 20 3-inch cookies}

[notes: I used some white whole wheat flour in these cookies because I always think of shortbread as being more rugged than other cookies. ;) Feel free to use all-purpose for all of it. Also, if you'd like the cookies less salty, use unsalted butter and reduce salt to 1/2 teaspoon.]

1 cup salted butter, cut into chunks
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 & 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the salt and almond extract.

Add in the flour and mix on low until combined.

Roll to 1/4-inch thick on a flour-dusted surface. Bake for 10-12 minutes until done. Remove to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.


For the toppers:
Temper milk chocolate or use candy melts. Pour into molds and let set. Unmold.


Use a microplane to shave off any rough edges or to smooth the backside (I wish I could do this to *my* backside). ;)

Melt a little chocolate and use to adhere the molded chocolate to the cookies.

Wishing you lots of love and cookies (and chocolate!) this Valentine's week!

*this post contains amazon affiliate links.

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Sweet on Trader Joe's Saturday: Cocoa Batons

Today, we bring you a review of Trader Joe's Cocoa Batons.

I think these might be a new item as they were on an endcap and caught my eye immediately. Cocoa Batons come in a cute cardboard tube like a Pringles can. 

Trader Joe's describes these as "delicate rolled wafers filled with rich chocolate cream." A 5-ounce package will set you back only $1.99. 

A mom's (my) take: Super thin and crispy wafers filled with creamy chocolate...what's not to love? Crunchy and creamy at the same time, it's hard not to eat more than the suggested serving size of 2 pieces. I think these would be perfect served with ice cream, or so pretty on a dessert table. 

Overall rating: 4 of 5 stars

A teenager's (kiddo's) take: I am a HUGE fan of any of these types of wafer rolls, but these... These are quality. The wafers are thin, very crispy and slightly sweet. They yield easily to the decadent and flavorful chocolate inside. Also, it's the perfect balance of both; not too much wafer and not too much chocolate either. I could easily eat a couple containers with no regrets, aside from a stomachache;)
Overall rating: 5.5 out of 5 stars (not a typo)

Trader Joe's Cocoa Batons: we like 'em. 

Read all of our Trader Joe's sweet treats and dessert reviews!

Mini Heart-Shaped Red Velvet LAVA Cakes!!!

I remember the first time I had a lava cake. (I can't remember what I wore two days ago, but I can remember FOOD from 15 years ago.) My sister worked for Morton's and one night, she and I splurged and treated ourselves to dinner there. Dessert was a magical cake with a warm, liquid, molten chocolate filling. I think I heard angels singing.

That was many moons ago, and many lava cakes ago (and many pounds ago). Since then, I've eaten my share of them. They're made one of two ways...1: a slightly undercooked batter that runs out from the center. 2: a chocolate truffle is inserted during baking; the truffle melts as the cake bakes.


For this recipe, I went with the truffle method. (Also, you'll have a couple of extra truffles to munch on while you're working...bonus!) I'm not usually a huge fan of red velvet cake. It pretends to be chocolate, but it's just not. WELL...red velvet lava cakes totally solve this issue. You'll get your red velvet AND a mega dose of chocolate.

These mini red velvet lava cakes are so special...for Valentine's Day, anniversaries, or just to say "I love you" to your people. :)

{The batter looks a little like ketchup. I used Americolor Gel Paste Food Coloring in Super Red. You'll only need 1/2 teaspoon as opposed to 2 bottles of the liquid coloring.)


{The cakes will deflate a little as they rest.  That's ok. You'll invert these onto a dessert plate, so these are actually the bottoms of the cakes.}

*If you can't find heart-shaped ramekins, feel free to use round ones. Look for 6-ounce ramekins.

I'm sharing on Imperial Sugar today. 

Hop on over and grab the recipe!

Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting...with Devil's Food Cake

Yes, the cake is typically first in a recipe title, but really, this salted caramel buttercream is the star of the show.

Let me tell you about something astounding, momentous, and incredible that happened last week. My baby, our kiddo, turned 16.
It's still sinking in. (Ohmygosh...just found this post of his 10th birthday!)


He has his driver's licence and today drove to school for the first time. This is such an fun age...so exciting. Between this and his flight lessons, my prayer life had grown considerably.

I read Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist years ago. I don't remember quotes from movies or books, but this one has stuck with me...

"This is my new prayer, my mother-prayer: Dear God, please please please, and thank you thank you thank you." 

Yep. That's running through my brain in a loop.

Let's talk cake. Kiddo requested Devil's Food Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting. Who am I to say no???


He chose the cake from the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. I made it straight from the book....no tinkering. The recipe online is just a bit different.

Here is the cake recipe. The one in the cookbook calls for natural cocoa and replaces the 2 teaspoons baking powder with 1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking soda. I followed the book recipe. The cake is mild in chocolate flavor with a beautiful crumb...we liked it quite a bit.


The frosting. Oh my word. The FROSTING.

I'm so happy that the birthday boy chose salted caramel. His mama raised him right. ;)


For the salted caramel buttercream, I used Sprinkle Bakes' recipe. Heather has some incredible Triple Salted Caramel Cupcakes on her blog, and in her book, so I used the frosting for the cake.

You start by making caramel. Don't be scared. If I can do it, you can do it. Then, you make frosting using that caramel. For the cake, I doubled this recipe. I also added in about a cup more powdered sugar. I always make notes in my cookbooks after making a recipe and by this one, I wrote, "exquisite."

Eat a salad for lunch on the day you make this because you'll be doing quite a bit of taste-testing of that frosting before it goes on the cake. Trust me.


A little trick I learned from My Cake School, is to pipe an edge of thicker frosting around the outer ring of each cake layer before filling with frosting between the layers. It keeps the frosting from oozing out when adding another layer. I just scooped some frosting into a separate bowl and added a bit more sifted powdered sugar to thicken it up. (Here's a better visual of what I mean, in case you're having trouble understanding my incoherent ramblings.)



Don't wait for a special birthday...you need this cake in your life!

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