You can serve it with crackers just like you would a regular savory cheese ball.

Chocolate Cheese Ball
from allrecipes.com

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans

~ In a medium bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in confectioners’ sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Stir in chocolate chips.

~ Cover, and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

~ Shape chilled cream cheese mixture into a ball. Wrap with plastic, and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

~ Roll the cheese ball in finely chopped pecans before serving.

[image: flickr]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

This one is from Daydreamer Desserts, and while the recipes are somewhat similar, this new one included the addition of sour cream. I have to admit that I couldn’t really taste the sour cream when the bread was finished, but it did help make for a light and fluffy batter when I was mixing it up!

Though this recipe was good, I did end up having to keep it in the oven for nearly fifteen minutes longer than it specified since the middle was still pretty gooey (I used the correct pan size, oven temp, etc), and the crust ended up being a bit crispier than what I like on banana bread.

No matter, though – it was still delicious and pulled double duty: I was able to pass it off on the kids last night for dessert night, and then they each got half a slice with their breakfast this morning too! The recipe can be found at Daydreamer Desserts.

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

This would be very easy to make with your own homemade chocolate chip cookie dough — in fact, that’s what I’d do instead of using store bought. Simply make the dough, roll it into a log and wrap in plastic wrap and then cut as directed in the instructions.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
from Mr. Food

3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 (16.5-ounce) rolls refrigerator chocolate chip cookie dough

~ Preheat oven to 350°.

~ In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla until well mixed; set aside.

~ Slice cookie dough rolls into 1/3-inch slices. Arrange slices from one roll over bottom of a greased 9″ x 13″ baking dish; press together until there are no holes in dough.

~ Spoon cream cheese mixture evenly over dough; top with remaining slices of cookie dough.

~ Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until golden and center is slightly firm. Remove from oven, let cool then refrigerate. Slice when well chilled.

~ Serving tip: Serve the cheesecake plain, with chocolate or fudge sauce, or whipped topping – whatever is your favorite.

[image: flickr]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

This recipe from Rebecca Kols of Good Morning America is fast, easy and something kids will really enjoy helping out with.

Creepy Crawly Caterpillars

1 package chocolate chips
1 package chow mein noodles
1 package of red hot candies
1 bag large marshmallows
1 bag thin stick pretzels

~ Melt chocolate on low heat in a double broiler and remove from heat.

~ Thread 3 marshmallows on a pretzel and brush marshmallows with melted chocolate (painting on with pastry brush is easiest). Place chocolate covered marshmallows on parchment paper or wax paper.

~ Randomly insert individual chow mein noodles until desired look is achieved.

~ While chocolate is still wet, position two red hots on front, for eyes. Allow chocolate to harden and place caterpillars on a plate.

[image: flickr]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

If peanuts are a no-go, you can substitue chopped pretzels or even Rice Krispies.

Rocky Road Halloween Treats

1 (12 oz.) pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp. butter
2 cup dry roasted peanuts
1 (10 1/2 oz.) package white mini marshmallows
Assorted Halloween candy pieces such as candy corn, M&M’s, gummies, etc.
Wax paper or Halloween decorated paper cupcake or candy cups
13″ x 9″ Pan

~ In top of double boiler melt chocolate, condensed milk and butter.

~ Remove from heat.

~ In a large bowl, combine nuts and marshmallows. Combine with chocolate mixture.

~ Line a 13×9 inch pan with the waxed paper.

~ Pour the entire mixture in and press it down or scoop into prepared cups.

~ Top with candy pieces.

~ Chill until firm and cut into squares. Store at room temperature.

[image: flickr]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

I’ll admit, these sound so great that I almost second-guessed myself with the brownie buttons I made yesterday for my sister’s visit today. But, I figure it wouldn’t hurt to have two desserts on hand, right? Especially with a couple of extra kids and some sweets-loving adults!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares
from TheStar.com

2 cups spelt or whole wheat flour
1 tsp each: cinnamon, baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each: ground nutmeg, ground cloves, ground ginger
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup canned pure pumpkin
1 12-oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

~ In medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.

~ In large bowl using electric mixer on medium-high, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla, then pumpkin. Reduce speed to low. Stir in chocolate chips.

~ Spread batter evenly into buttered and floured 9-inch by 13-inch baking ban. Bake in preheated 350F oven until toothpick inserted in centre comes out with just a few moist crumbs and edges begin to pull away from pan, about 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in pan before cutting. Makes 24 squares.

[image: flickr]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

I found this recipe from My Baking Addiction, one of my favorite food blogs, and was very happy to realize that I had all the ingredients on hand.

In her post, Jamie explains how the creation of the cookies came from a need to clean out her pantry, something I can totally relate to! I had pecans that needed to be used up, half a bag of shredded coconut that was about to end up in the garbage, and several “odds and ends” bags of chocolate chips in the freezer.

When I make these again (it probably goes without saying that they were a hit), I’m actually going to pare down the chocolate chips and pecans just a tad, but everything else was perfect. I used 3/4 of a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and 3/4 cup of milk chocolate chips. I also got about 26 cookies out of the batch.

Coconut Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
from My Baking Addiction

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk, from a large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk chocolate or any combination)
1 cup of chopped pecans
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

~ Pre-heat oven to 325°F

~ Cover 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper

~ Mix flour, baking powder & salt in a bowl or bag and set aside

~ Mix butter and sugars with with a mixer until blended and smooth, add egg, yolk & vanilla; mix until incorporated

~ Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined

~ Stir in chips, pecans and coconut

~ Divide into 18 equal balls, a 2″ cookie scoop works just about perfectly, (about 2.1 ounces)

~ Evenly space 9 on each cookie sheet

~ Bake for 12-18 minutes, rotating front to back and top to bottom after 8 minutes. (I did mine for 13 minutes.)

~ Cool on sheets to maintain chewy texture

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

I had never thought about adding chocolate chips before, though. I don’t know why, we all know that chocolate and bananas go well together! So, I found a recipe for a basic banana bread on the Food Network site, and using suggestions in the reviews I added chocolate chips and I also bulked up on the walnuts, because I love walnuts.

The bread came out dense and moist, and is delicious spread with butter. I made this Saturday night for our Sunday breakfast, and was lucky enough to get pictures before it was devoured by my family!

Chocolate Chip Walnut Banana Bread

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for preparing the pan
1 cup sugar
3 very ripe bananas, peeled, and mashed with a fork (about 1 cup)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

~ Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together, set aside. Lightly brush a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

~ Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually pour the egg mixture into the butter while mixing until incorporated. Add the bananas (the mixture will appear to be curdled) and mix well.

~ With a rubber spatula, mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips and transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Turn the bread out of the pan and let cool completely on the rack. Wrap in plastic wrap. The banana bread is best if served the next day.

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

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:

I love working with pastry and had fun with this one because it uses cream cheese with the butter, which made for an amazingly tasty, flaky pastry.

There were several options for the filling but I went with raspberry jam, chopped walnuts, currants, and mini chocolate chips (maybe a little more chocolate chips than what was called for!).

My two eight-year-olds had a blast helping me sprinkle the fillings on and my almost-ten-year-old enjoyed helping roll them up. It made a lot of perfectly bite-sized treats that the kids and grown-ups all loved!

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

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.

Post from: Chocolate Bytes