Paula Deen is one of the few cooks/chefs on the Food Network that I bother to watch anymore. I don’t make a lot of her recipes (I like my arteries) but the ones I have made have always turned out well.

This one is her Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies which is a take-off from her Gooey Butter Cake. I like it with a Devil’s Food cake mix, it gives the cookies and extra rich chocolate flavor. They’re a lot like Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, but a little bit chewier.

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (18-ounce) box moist chocolate cake mix
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the cake mix.

Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls. Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon sized balls and then roll them in confectioner’s sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and “gooey.” Cool completely and sprinkle with more confectioners’ sugar, if desired.

I don’t think I’m going to have any trouble talking my husband into making this for me for Mother’s Day! It’s from Gale Gand at the Food Network and she says she started making it when she worked in England at the Stapleford Park Hotel. She also points out that using croissants that are a few days old will better absorb the liquids and give you a creamier, flakier dish.

Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding

4 to 6 croissants, preferably 1 or 2 days old
2 cups half-and- half
2 cups heavy cream
Pinch salt
4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 eggs
1 cup sugar
Vanilla ice cream, for serving, optional

Cut the croissants into 1-inch cubes. You should have about 3 1/2 cups. Place the cubes in an ovenproof baking dish.

In a saucepan, heat the half-and-half, cream, and salt over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to make sure the mixture doesn’t burn or stick to the bottom of the pan. When the cream mixture reaches a fast simmer (do not let it boil), turn off the heat. Add the chocolate and whisk until melted.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together. Whisking constantly, gradually add the hot chocolate-cream mixture. Strain the mixture over the croissant pieces and toss lightly. Let sit while the mixture is absorbed, at least 15 minutes. As it soaks, fold the mixture a few times to ensure even soaking.

When ready to bake, heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line a roasting pan that’s 2 inches deep and larger than the baking dish with paper towels. Fill the pan with very hot water and place the dish of bread pudding inside. Bake until set, about 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on each serving.

[image: stock.xchng]

I know, that does not sound too appetizing. This was originally intended for a Halloween party, but there’s absolutely no reason it can’t be used for a St. Patrick’s Day party too! This comes from an episode of Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello on the Food Network.

Green Chocolate Slimedoo
2 cups heavy cream
2 ounces sugar
2 ounces butter
2 pounds white chocolate
6 to 12 drops green food coloring
Strawberries, bananas, pineapples, apples, pretzels for dipping

Make a ganache: In a non-reactive double boiler set over medium-low heat, bring the cream, sugar, and butter to a boil. Meanwhile, chop the chocolate into small chunks - a serrated knife works best for this.

Add the chocolate chunks to the cream mixture in the double boiler, whisking, until it is melted and incorporated into the cream. Finally, add the food coloring until it is the desired shade of green.

Keep mixture warm in a fondue pot. Set out the fruit and the pretzels for dipping with long wooden skewers next to the fondue pot. Guests can dip their pretzels or fruit into the fondue.

Brownies, like many other great inventions, are said to have been the mistake of a careless cook who forgot to put baking powder into a chocolate cake recipe. She ended up with what we now call brownies, and thank heavens she didn’t just toss the pan out without trying them first!

I was watching Food Network last night and caught Alton Brown doing an episode on cocoa, which included him to making the brownies below. I’ve made these before (but didn’t get pictures of them) and they’re delicious!

Cocoa Brownies

Soft butter, for greasing the pan
Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan.

In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it’s done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it’s mostly cool.

I found an amazing interview yesterday with Mr. Chocolate himself, Jacques Torres. I remember when he had his own show on the Food Network for like a month before it disappeared into the ether. Why does FN hate talent? (kidding, kind of

The video has embedding disabled so click on the picture or link above to view it.

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve seen Giada De Laurentiis make this on Everyday Italian. Hazelnuts aren’t the easiest thing in the world to find but any natural/health food store with a bulk nut section should have them.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Tart

1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups peeled, chopped, and toasted hazelnuts
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips (about 1 cup)
1 cup corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 store bought frozen pie crust, defrosted

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and the flour. Add the eggs, hazelnuts, chocolate chips, corn syrup, butter, vanilla, and salt. Stir well. Pour the mixture into the pie crust. Bake for 1 hour.

Cool the tart for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Truly a product after my own heart. I was watching Food Network the other day (nothing odd about that, trust me) and saw a segment on a product that made me drop what I was doing and sit in rapt attention for seven minutes. It’s called Backpackers Chocolate, an odd name for a really cool idea (pardon the pun):

“After climbing Santa Fe Baldy one hot summer day and opening a bag of melted chocolate, Clif and Chris, the founding partners, came up with the idea for ‘weatherproof chocolate.’ By encasing gourmet chocolate in wax, they created a product that was not only waterproof and heat-tolerant, but beautiful as well. Since their discovery, Backpackers Chocolate has traveled to various jungles, mountaintops and cities around the world. When exposed to high heat, the chocolate softens inside its wax casing, but it quickly returns to its original consistency after cooling down. To eat, simply slice a wedge, peel off the wax and enjoy!”

The different colors of wax indicate different flavors: Dark Chocolate, Dark Chocolate Nuts and Berries, Dark Chocolate Orange Chili, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter, and Dark Chocolate Raspberry.

It’s available from several different places: ZombieRunner, Wilderness Dining, Hammond’s Candies, and Duluth Pack.

What do you think? Would you try it?

I saw these cute chocolate map boxes on Food Network a while back and made a mental note to mention them. But I forgot. Then my friend Alicia sent me a link to them several weeks ago and I thought I had bookmarked them to refer to later but… I forgot. Then my other friend Heather wrote about them today with her contest entry so hey, third time’s the charm! And as she pointed out, the “Due To Current Weather Conditions We Are Currently Not Shipping” at the top of the page is pretty amusing.

The chocolate boxes are filled with little foil-wrapped chocolate earth balls. They also have a fair sized inventory of other chocolate goodies. (I’m going to have to get some of this.)