I’m really itching to make something new and fun this weekend. I’ve got a whole new list full of possibilities — which ones look good to you?

~ Double Chocolate Muffins at Oh So Tasty!

~ Chocolate and Bacon Pancakes from Peace Love & Chocolate

~ Coconut Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies at My Baking Addiction

~ Chocolate Violet Fudge from Not Quite Nigella

~ Peanut Butter Marshmallow Crispy Brownies at The Cooking Photographer

~ After-Preschool Brownies from Sweet Amandine

~ Dutch Cocoa Cookies at The Sensitive Pantry

~ Chocolate Coconut Ice Cream from Comfy Belly

~ Chocolate And Raspberry Strudel at Gel’s Kitchen

~ Spaghetti and Meatballs For Dessert from Ciao Chow Linda

~ Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake Bars at dlyn

~ Chocolate Cookie Cake from Evil Shenanigans

~ Red Currant & Chocolate Tart at Palachinka

~ Very Chocolaty Peanut Butter Ganache Tart from Sweet Tooth

~ Whopper Cake with Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting at Herbivoracious

~ Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cupcakes from Annie’s Eats

~ Ice Cream Bonbons at Zupas

~ Chocolate “Truffle” Cookies from Carrie’s Kitchen Creations

~ Salt Caramel Molten Chocolate Cake at 2 Stews

~ Chocolate Truffle Wrapped Maraschino Cherries from Thibeault’s Table

~ Homemade ‘Nutella’ at Chocolate Chip Trips

~ Chocolate Chip and Peanut Blondies from Dishing up Delights

~ Make You Cry Chocolate Mint Ice Cream Pie at Real Mom Kitchen

Just in time for summer, Klondike has announced that six of their stickless bar varieties will be getting a thicker chocolate shell.

To celebrate, they’re launching the “What Would You Do For A Klondike Bar NOW?” campaign with interactive online “Micro Bytes” to demonstrate just how far ice cream fans will be willing to go for the improved treats - or to just provide some entertainment during snack time!

The Khaki Pants Pete Online Video Game is modeled on the concept of 8-bit video games from the ’80s where characters face a series of “eyebrow-raising” challenges. Chapter 1 launched this past week on Klondike’s new Web site, KlondikeBar.com, as well as on Klondike’s Facebook Fan Page. Additional chapters of the game will launch every other week this summer.

You can also use Klondike’s Facebook “Roast-A-Friend” Application, a light-hearted and comedic Facebook app that will allow users to put their friends on the hot seat to find out how thick their “shell” really is.

So, what would you do for a Klondike bar?

[images used with permission from klondike]

I love having a whole weekend open without any obligations — especially when it means I can experiment with new chocolate recipes! Here are this week’s chocolate links:

~ Melted Peanut Butter Cup Banana Shake from Happy. Healthy. Life.

~ Pecan Praline Caramel Crack(er) Bars at Chocolate Fool

~ Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie from Simply Gluten-Free

~ Chocolate Espresso Semifreddo at Annie’s Eats

~ Foodie-Friendly Rice Krispies Treats with Cacao Nibs from Very Small Anna

~ Homemade Chocolate Sauce at Suzie the Foodie

~ Vanilla Tapioca and Milk Chocolate Lime Cremeux from Tartelette

~ Mounds Cupcakes at Beantown Baker

~ Coconut Almond Chocolate Macaroons from Adventures in Shaw

~ Molten Chocolate Cakes at Back to the Cutting Board

~ Sour Cream Chocolate Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips from Savory Sweet Life

~ Nutella and Hazelnut French Toast at The Pink Peppercorn

~ Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons from Brown Eyed Baker

~ Very Good Chocolate Cake at A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen

~ Chocolate-Mint Ice Cream from Seasaltwithfood

[image: flickr]

Father’s Day always seems to sneak up on me. Between school getting out, birthdays, and summer planning, and the fact that it doesn’t have a specific set date (it’s celebrated the third Sunday in June), it tends to sneak up on me!

Though my husband doesn’t much care for receiving gifts, I still try to get my kids to surprise him with something thoughtful. The above chocolate DAD comes from Anthony-Thomas.com for $8.95.

If you’re into homemade gift-giving, you could easily buy letter molds for chocolate and candy and create your own Father’s Day sentiment for dad. Sugarcraft.com has a huge selection of letters and numbers in a variety of styles, and you could even use the lollipop molds and make a cute “lollipop” bouquet using chocolate.

[image: anthony-thomas.com]

Though edible chocolate is definitely the #1 way to get a chocolate fix, wearing your chocolate can be almost as fun (and it lasts longer)!

image from zazzle.com

This cute shirt from zazzle.com says “A Balanced Diet is Chocolate in Both Hands.”

image: obsessiondesign

There are also a few other cute chocolaty ones: Chocolate Diet; Chocolate: The Other Major Food Group; I Wash My Mouth Out With Chocolate…; and Bite Me.

HeSaysSheSays has this cute one that I’ve also seen as a bumpersticker (”Save the Earth: It’s the Only Planet With Chocolate“).

Obsession Design on CafePress has a ton of cute chocolate t-shirts, hoodies, and other clothing with Peace, Love and Chocolate on them. I like the tank top for summer.

There are also a bunch of cute ones from ChocolateQuote which state simply “I Love Chocolate,” and “I Need More Chocolate.”

Norwegian ice creamery Henning Olsen has created a chocolaty, sweet version of a pop culture icon — the iPod — and given it the only logical name for it: the IcePod!

I couldn’t find any information on the treat in English, but from what I can tell it’s layers of ice cream and what looks like caramel that have a chocolate coating, and is of course shaped like the popular MP3 player.

The treats were released in Norway in March and there’s no word on what Apple thinks of this “homage!” Each box of ice cream also comes with a free MP3 download from a Norwegian artist.

I would love to see these available closer to home, wouldn’t you?

[image: Henning Olsen]

If you’ve ever been to a Chili’s restaurant then you’ve probably heard of the Chocolate Molten Cake.

The dessert is described as “Warm chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling. Topped with vanilla ice cream under a crunchy chocolate shell.” Sounds delicious, right?

In the video above, Todd Wilbur from topsecretrecipes.com shows you how to clone the decadent treat at home with just a few changes: instead of a fluted tart pan, he uses a giant muffin tin and just a basic boxed chocolate cake mix, and Hershey’s hot fudge for the filling.

I have to admit, Todd’s looks much more appetizing than Chili’s!

After watching yesterday’s video of the chocolate covered corn flakes, I got a craving. Sadly, we have no corn flakes in the cupboard (yet!) so my mind wandered to the next closest thing: chocolate peanut butter no-bake cookies!

I’ve loved no-bake cookies since I was a kid, especially because we always had everything we needed. As a teenager, I discovered no-bake cookies with peanut butter and there was no looking back!

Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar
4 Tb cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter
1 Tb vanilla
3 cups oatmeal

In a heavy saucepan bring to a boil sugar, cocoa, butter and milk. Let boil for one minute and add peanut butter, vanilla and oatmeal. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper or aluminum foil until cooled and hardened.

These are good with chunky or creamy peanut butter, and I let mine sit in the pan for just a few minutes after everything’s mixed so it hardens a bit before I scoop it out. If it’s too hot it’ll spread out quite a bit and won’t hold much of a shape.

I decided to make the kids and my husband a treat yesterday and after checking that we had some Rice Krispies in the cupboard (the kids don’t always remember to tell me when we’re out of something), I decided on these Peanut Butter Crispy Bars.

What I didn’t have on hand, though, was any milk chocolate! I was fresh out of milk chocolate chips, had nothing I could use in my chocolate drawer, and didn’t feel like running to the store for it when I had so much dark and semi-sweet around anyway.

So, for the peanut butter/chocolate layer I just used my 60% Ghirardelli chocolate chips (which I also used for the top layer), which is why mine are a bit darker than the ones from the link above. It made for an even richer chocolate flavor, of course, and if I go this route again I’d cut back on the chocolate in that layer just a little bit, as it overpowers the peanut butter a little too much for me.

Peanut Butter Crispy Bars
originally from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Crust
1 3/4 cups crisped rice cereal
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Milk Chocolate-Peanut Butter Layer
5 ounces milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup creamy peanut butter

Chocolate Icing
3 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

To make the crust: Lightly spray a paper towel with nonstick cooking spray and use it to rub the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan. [I also lined my pan with aluminum foil, which I sprayed with the cooking spray, so the bars could simply be lifted out once they set.]

Put the cereal in a large bowl and set aside. Put 1/4 cup water into a saucepan. Add the sugar and corn syrup to the pan and use a small wooden spoon to stir the mixture just until combined. Cook over medium-high heat and bring to a boil; cook until the mixture reaches 235 F on a candy thermometer.

Remove from the heat, stir in the butter and pour the mixture over the cereal. Working quickly, stir until the cereal is thoroughly coated, then pour into the prepared pan. Using your hands or a rubber spatula, press the cereal mixture into the bottom of the pan only. Let cool to room temperature while you make the next layer.

To make the milk chocolate-peanut butter layer: In a large nonreactive metal bowl stir together the chocolate and peanut butter. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook until the mixture is smooth, stirring occasionally with a rubber spatula. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir for about 30 seconds to cool slightly. Pour the mixture over the cooled crust. Put the pan in the refrigerator for 1 hour, or until the top layer hardens.

To make the chocolate icing: In a large nonreactive metal bowl, combine the chocolate, corn syrup and butter. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook until the mixture is completely smooth, stirring occasionally with a rubber spatula. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir for about 30 seconds to cool slightly. Pour the mixture over the cooled milk chocolate-peanut butter layer and spread into an even layer. I recommend simply tilting the pan to spread the chocolate around as opposed to using a rubber spatula which is more likely to disturb the layer below. Put the pan in the refrigerator for 1 hour or until the topping hardens.

Cut into 16 (or 9) squares and serve. The bars can be stored tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

This is one of those fun little forwards that ends up in your email every once in a while. It’s called “chocolate math” and you may need a calculator to help you out

Chocolate Math

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (2 to 9).

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold).

3. Add 5.

4. Multiply it by 50 (I’ll wait while you get the calculator).

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759. If you haven’t, add 1758.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number.

The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).

The next two numbers are YOUR AGE!

It worked for me! Did it work for you?

[image: flickr]