Category Archives: Desserts

Molten Chocolate Love

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If I had to pick the easiest, most universally crowd-pleasing dessert in my repertoire, it would hands-down be these molten chocolate cakes.  They take only minutes to make, can be made well ahead of time, and never fail to elicit “oohs” and “ahhs” from diners of all ages when the magic molten chocolate centers are discovered.

If you happen to have a supply of chocolate or chocolate chips on hand (does anyone not??), you most likely have all the ingredients necessary to make these for Valentine’s dinner tonight. In a pinch, any type of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate will do – chips, baking bars, secret-stash candy bars. I typically use either Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips or chopped Valrhona bittersweet chocolate. If you’re chopping chocolate, a serrated knife makes it a little easier. I love the ease of the bittersweet chocolate chips; semisweet chips will work as well, but the cakes won’t have the same intense chocolate hit as with the bittersweet chocolate.

Makes 4 cakes; recipe can be doubled. Batter can be made up to 2 days ahead and baked just before serving.

  • 4 oz. good-quality bittersweet chocolate (chips, or chopped; approx. 1 cup)
  • 6 Tablespoons (3 oz. or ¾ stick) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing ramekins
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour

Heat oven to 400ºF. In the top of a double boiler or bowl set over (not in) hot water, combine chocolate, butter and sugar until just melted; whisk smooth.

Remove chocolate mixture from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.(Alternatively, you can temper the eggs by whisking some of the warm chocolate mixture to the beaten eggs; this will prevent the hot chocolate mixture from prematurely cooking the eggs.)

In a separate bowl (especially if a 7-yr-old is helping you), crack eggs and whisk. Add beaten eggs to cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth. Add flour and whisk to incorporate.

Generously grease four 4-oz. ramekins or custard cups (Pyrex custard cups are available in the bakeware section of many supermarkets.) Distribute chocolate batter evenly among the four dishes. (A spring-release ice cream scooper can help with this.)  Set filled dishes onto a baking sheet. [Cakes can be made up to this point and kept in the refrigerator (covered with plastic wrap) until ready to bake. Set out for at least 30 minutes prior to baking.]

Bake cakes for exactly 12 minutes. (Thick-sided ramekins may require an additional 1-2 minutes.) The sides of the cakes should be set but the centers should still be soft. Do not overbake! The molten center will disappear if you do. (Though you’ll still be left with the richest, most delicious brownie you’ve ever had.)

With a paring knife, cut around edges of cakes to help them release from the ramekins. Now for the tricky part: inverting the cakes onto serving plates. (Tricky because the ramekins are very hot.) I’ve found that wearing rubber gloves is a good way to protect your hands but still provide a good grip on the ramekins.

Serve immediately with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. (Fresh raspberries or strawberries also make a nice garnish, but good vanilla ice cream is all you really need. Shown here is Vanilla Swiss Almond, which was all we had; plain vanilla or vanilla bean would’ve been better.)

Family Granola

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Like our family, this granola is basically an eclectic mix of nuts, bound together and elevated to a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts. It’s also wholesome, packed with protein, lightly sweet, delicately crunchy and moderately addictive. If you – like me – are facing a pantry full of impulse-purchased holiday baking ingredients (nuts, coconut, corn syrup, brown sugar), now’s a great time to make granola. As a snack, it’s delicious straight out of a jar or sprinkled onto yogurt. Because I have a sweet tooth and love extra crunchy everything, I add it to salads and even butternut squash soup.  My husband thinks this is weird.  I say we’re all entitled to be a little nutty.

Family Granola

  •  2 cups Quick/1-minute oats
  • 1 cup shredded sweetened coconut (preferable, but unsweetened is OK too)
  • 1 cup sliced almonds
  • ½ cup raw pine/pignoli nuts
  • ½ cup unsalted pistachio nuts
  • ¼ cup sesame seeds
  • ½ cup pure maple syrup (amber or dark)
  • ¼ cup dark brown sugar
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • ¼ cup corn syrup (light or dark)

Important first step any time you cook with nuts or seeds: taste a few before proceeding. Nuts can go rancid fairly quickly, especially if they’re not stored in the freezer.  I’ve had a few dishes ruined by bad nuts; don’t let this happen to you!

Preheat oven to 350°F. In large bowl mix together oats, shredded coconut, nuts and sesame seeds.

In a small bowl or Pyrex measuring cup, whisk together maple syrup, brown sugar, vegetable oil and corn syrup. Pour over oat/nut mixture and stir to coat evenly.

Spread granola onto rimmed baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes; remove from oven and stir/scrape so mixture cooks evenly. Return to oven and bake another 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Cool on baking sheet; granola will crisp up as it cools. Store in airtight containers; will keep at least a week. For longer-term storage, keep in freezer.

Makes about 5 cups.

No-Bake Pretzel Treats

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No time? No problem! In just a few minutes you can whip up a batch of these white chocolate covered pretzels sprinkled with chopped M&M’s® Chocolate Candies. No rolling. No measuring. No baking. No nuts. No sweat. No kidding!

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • M&M’s® Milk Chocolate Candies (find red & green by holiday displays)
  • 1 bag white chocolate chips
  • Vegetable oil, such as canola
  • Mini pretzels (I found a big tub of Utz mini holiday shaped pretzels at Wal-Mart)

Place M&M’s® Candies in a large plastic storage bag. Take a moment to appreciate the beautiful glossy shell (which took hours and hours to produce); then, smash them gently, respectfully, with a rolling pin or jar.  You want to break the candies into big, colorful pieces – not pulverize them into a gray dust.  Set out at least 2 baking sheets; line with parchment or wax paper if you’d like to make cleanup a little easier. (Who wouldn’t?)

In medium-large bowl, mix chocolate chips with a splash of vegetable oil and melt in a microwave. Do this in 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval until smooth.  (Microwaves heat differently, and you don’t want to overcook the chocolate.) Throw a few handfuls of mini pretzels into the melted chocolate and stir gently to coat. Using a fork, transfer the coated pretzels to baking sheets, arranging in a single layer. Quickly sprinkle with M&M’s® pieces before chocolate sets.  The thicker the coating of white chocolate, the better the M&M’s® pieces will adhere to the pretzels. Repeat as necessary to use up all the white chocolate.

When chocolate has set, transfer coated pretzels to airtight containers. (You can put the baking sheets in the refrigerator to speed up the set time.)

Tantalizing Toffee

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Washington, my home state, is famous for many things: apples, Starbucks, Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, and Almond Roca. If you’re not from Washington, you probably just said, “Almond Whaaat?” But anyone from the Evergreen State, or the West Coast for that matter, would recognize the ubiquitous buttercrunch toffee shaped like little nut-studded logs, wrapped in gold foil and packed in Barbie-pink tins. We often used the terms Almond Roca and Almond Toffee interchangeably (a marketer’s nightmare!), and my high school friend Jen used to make Almond Roca/Toffee every Christmas. I always thought hers was much better than Brown & Haley’s pink-canned version.

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MMMagic Bars

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Busy month! Time to start cranking out some holiday treats for the freezer (keeps things fresh and safely out of sight). This is one of my favorite recipes because it’s fast, festive and irresistible. (We squeezed in a batch between school concert prep and math homework.)

I’ve adapted this from the classic Magic Cookie Bars recipe – usually found on the back of Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk; instead of using semisweet chocolate chips, I use red and green “M&M’s”® Brand Milk Chocolate Candies. (Nine years post-Mars, I still feel compelled to use the correct trademark protection for the brand. We took those ®s , ™ s and descriptors very seriously; the colorful little candies are a billion dollar business!)

MMMagic Bars

Makes about 3 dozen squares

  • ½ cup (1 stick) butter
  • 1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs (available in the baking section)
  • 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)
  • 1 ½ cups sweetened flaked coconut
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
  • Approx. 2 cups red & green “M&M’s”® Milk Chocolate Candies (not quite a full 12.6-oz. bag; you’ll have to figure out something to do with the leftover candies . . .)

Preheat oven to 350ºF (325º for a glass dish).  Put stick of butter to 13×9-inch baking pan and melt in oven while oven preheats. When butter is melted, remove pan from oven and add graham cracker crumbs; mix and press evenly into bottom of pan to form cookie base.  (I do it this way to reduce the number of dirty dishes; by all means you could melt the butter in a bowl in the microwave, mix in the graham cracker crumbs, then add to the baking pan.)

Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. (Spread carefully so as not to disturb the crumbs too much.)

Layer the remaining ingredients, ending with the candies. With the bottom of a clean jar or large spoon, lightly press down on candies (so they stick to but don’t get submerged in the condensed milk mixture).

Bake 23-25 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbling.

If you can resist, let cool before cutting into squares.  Cookies will firm up once cooled. (I always have to “test” the edges when still hot, though, and it’s a gooey albeit delicious mess.) Store in the freezer if you want them to last more than a day (because they will disappear).