I love Cadbury Creme Eggs though I do understand why some people don’t. One egg is about my limit at any given time since the creme filling can get to be a bit much.

Despite that I’m very curious about the following links I’ve dug up. People actually bake with the creme eggs and some of them don’t look half bad! The creme filling in some of the pictures looks pretty gross but I don’t imagine it can hold up too well to heat

• Cadbury Creme Egg Muffins
• Cadbury Egg Cupcakes
• Homemade Marshmallow Creme Egg Cupcakes
• Cadbury Creme Stuffed Vanilla Cupcakes
• Deep-fried Cadbury Egg

Would you try any of these? I think I might try and surprise the kids with some of the muffins!

[image: flickr]

This week’s chocolate links have a ton of yummy holiday treats and desserts. Did you get all of your holiday goodies made in time?

• Chocolate Mint Bûche de Noël at Apple, Pie, Patis & Pate
• French Yule Log at Use Real Butter
• Easy Christmas Truffles at Shaved Ice Sundays
• Red Velvet Yule Log at Big Red Kitchen
• Martha’s chocolate chip cookies at Slow Like Honey
• French Yule Log at Lemonpi
• Dark Chocolate and Orange Tart at Kiss My Artichoke
• Chocolate Banana Cake at Chowtimes
• Chocolate Crackle Cookies at Butter and Sugar
• Graham Cracker Toffee at Eat Boutique
• Cookie Dough and Oreo Truffles at Good Eats ‘N Sweet Treats
• Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies at Lovin’ From the Oven

I came across a very fun project a few weeks ago called Tuesdays With Dorie. A very large group of people basically make the same thing once a week and post their results in their blogs, with all the recipes coming from the (very awesome) cookbook “Baking” by Dorie Greenspan.

I’m not going to be able to participate in all of them every week because I’m going to stick with the ones that have chocolate in them (or that can have chocolate added to them!) so I can post them here, but I can’t post the recipes anyway - you’ll need to go pick up the book yourself!

This week’s project was Rugelach, which I’ve never made before but I’ll definitely be making again:

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Lots of yummy chocolate creations this week! Check out:

~ Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Cupcakes at Miss Cupcake Face

~ Mocha Chocolate Cookies at Baked Alaska

~ Bittersweet Chocolate and Cardamom Cupcakes at Tartlette

~ Chocolate Thumbprints at The Food Librarian

~ Double Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes with Spice Cream Cheese Frosting at Pinch My Salt

~ Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Blondies at Cinemon Girl

~ Fall Chocolate Cookies at Priscilla’s Baking Adventures

~ S’more-dillas at Chaos in the Kitchen

~ Mini Brioches Filled With Chocolate Truffle at Baking for the Cure

~ Quintuple Chocolate Brownies at Dreamy Desserts

~ M&M Studded Fudgy Oreo-Chunk Brownies at The Recipe Girl

We were given a large bag of mini candy bars last weekend and instead of letting them sit on the counter for the next month (it was a big bag and Halloween’s just a week away!) I decided to dig around and see what else I could do with them.

I came upon the recipe below and found a hit! It calls for Mini Snickers but I also tried a few with Mini Milky Ways.

This makes a lot of dough, so I ended up doing a couple of batches of regular peanut butter cookies while I was at it. I couldn’t use up all the mini Snickers, I’d have had a riot on my hands!

Candy Bar Peanut Butter Cookies

1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. softened butter
1 c. peanut butter
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3 c. flour
1 (16 oz.) pkg. Mini Snickers bars, cut in half

Cream together sugar, brown sugar, butter and peanut butter. Add vanilla and beaten eggs and mix. Add baking powder, baking soda and flour; mix well. Wrap dough around each Snickers bar half, forming a ball.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Cookies will flatten as they bake so don’t press them. Bake at 350 degrees for 11-13 minutes or until light golden brown.

The recipe says it makes 2-1/2 dozen, but I easily got over 50 cookies out of it.
…..

The cookies with the Milky Way Minis turned out pretty good, but the nougat hardened up to the point where the texture suffered for it. I thought they were a little tastier than the Snickers ones, though!

One of my most favorite cookies to eat and bake are chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. There’s just so much you can do to them to make everyone happy - even going so far as to split the cookie dough up before adding anything special so everyone gets the additions they want. I’ve got three kids, it works well!

My personal favorite add-ins are chocolate chips, raisins and chopped walnuts. My husband and one of my daughters don’t like the raisins, and my other two daughters don’t like the walnuts. Oddly, everyone likes the chocolate chips. Can’t imagine where they get that. It’s also good with white chocolate chunks and craisins.

Anyway, I usually add chocolate chips to the entire batch, then just separate it into thirds (though not necessarily equal - I don’t need an entire batch just for me!) and add in the raisins and walnuts for me, just raisins in the second, and just walnuts for the rest. The kids like the special treat made “just for them,” and there are never any leftovers that go stale because half the family didn’t like what was in them!

Happy Family Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
3/4 c butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
Chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, raisins, white chocolate chips, craisins, etc.

In a large mixing bowl beat the butter for 30 seconds until creamy. Add sugars, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon and beat until combined. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined and add the flour. Stir in rolled oats, and other additions.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet (press down on each mound slightly if you want a flatter cookie, they won’t fall on their own) and bake at 375 degrees for 9-11 minutes. Makes about 36 cookies.

Everyone know how to make s’mores - roast a marshmallow, slap it on a graham cracker with a bit of chocolate and smoosh another graham cracker on top.

However, the variations are really pretty endless and can be tailored to fit anyone’s tastes. You can try:

• S’mores bars
• Ditch the graham crackers altogether
• Turn it into a cake
• Add bananas, raspberries, or even cherries
• S’mores cheesecake!
• Minty s’mores
• Use Peeps!
• Make the whole thing from scratch

And check this out - Mexican s’mores!

Happy National Chocolate Chip Day!

NCCD always falls on May 15th and is intended to celebrate the wonderfulness that is chocolate chips and their popularity in our cooking and baking. While there is no congressional record or proclamation that today is officially a “national” anything, it’s still a valid holiday in my book! And of course, there are ecards.

The above video gives you some great tips on how chocolate chips should be added to baked goods. I’ve always kept my chocolate chips in the freezer by default (they get too melty in the cupboard), so I was glad to see that mentioned!

What’s your favorite recipe involving chocolate chips? What is your favorite brand of chocolate chips to use?

My favorite recipe is my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and I prefer the Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips.