Dark Chocolate Orange Scones

Posted on April 20, 2013 by mschro

Ever since I made Irish Soda Bread Cranberry Scones I have been thinking about making another batch with a twist. I loved the fluffy texture of the previous batch and I wanted to keep that going. I took the basic ingredients of the first recipe and added chocolate chips and orange zest. It was so easy with great results! The texture and consistency was just like before only with the added bonus of orange and chocolate. The orange zest and chocolate were balanced perfectly and it reminded me more of a dessert than a breakfast scone. These were a huge hit so I will definitely be making these again!

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Chocolate Espresso Cookies

Posted on March 10, 2013 by mschro

Chocolate and espresso is a subtle combination. In many recipes a little espresso or coffee is added to enhance the chocolate flavor. The espresso compliments the chocolate and these cookies play on that idea very nicely. The batter is made with cocoa and espresso powders along with melted chocolate. Solid chocolate chips are mixed into the batter so any cravings you might have had for chocolate will probably be satisfied. After the cookies are baked the outside forms a glossy layer that cracks apart. The inside isn’t really like a normal cookie’s but rather like the inside of a brownie. I was really happy with how these turned out and next time I have a chocolate craving I know which recipe to turn to!

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Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Posted on February 24, 2013 by mschro

Peanut butter and chocolate is just a perfect combination. It brings together sweet, salty and chocolatey so what’s not to like? My boyfriend recently made homemade peanut butter so he wanted to try making a dessert out of it. He made these fantastic peanut butter cups based on Reese’s candy only with dark chocolate. The only complication was melting the chocolate chips smoothly, but he was able to figure out a way to mimic a double boiler by using a flat bowl and a sauce pot. It melted the chocolate smoothly without risking burning the chocolate or creating a lumpy consistency. The peanut butter cups were ridiculously good. The chocolate was just a basic semi-sweet chocolate chip and the hero was the homemade peanut butter. If you have a food processor, it’s one of the best things to try making at home. You can use store bought peanut butter for this recipe, but if you have time to make your own for it I would highly recommend it!

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Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Cookies

Posted on December 19, 2012 by mschro

As far as decadent Holiday cookies go this recipe ranks pretty far up there in the decadence and the deliciousness! I am a big fan of salted caramel and combining it inside of a cookie sounded too good to be true. The cookie’s name makes it sound more complicated than it is and the recipe is really simple and doesn’t take long to throw together. These cookies remind me a little of chocolate lava cake especially when eaten soon after they’re taken out of the oven. The gooey caramel oozes out of the center and mixes with the outer chocolate cookie layer. The cookie just looks festive and almost snow covered from the powdered sugar on top.

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Thanksgiving Desserts

Posted on November 18, 2012 by mschro

And now for the real main course–dessert! Here are some delicious options perfect for your Thanksgiving table:

Pumpkin Pie

Golden Delicious Apple Crisp

Vanilla Custard Pie

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mint Chocolate Meringue Cookies

Gingersnap Cookies

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Posted on November 10, 2012 by mschro

Sadly my favorite month of the year has been over ten days but I am still celebrating Fall with new pumpkin recipes! These muffins would like to pretend they are for breakfast, but they are so delicious they seem more like a dessert. The inside is light and fluffy with gooey bits of chocolate chips all over. The flavor of the pumpkin is mild, but definitely present. I added some yogurt into the batter which gave the muffins a fluffier, creamier texture. This recipe has lots of possibilities for variation–adding nuts or raisins would work well as a substitute for the chocolate. If you wanted to replace the yogurt with apple sauce that would work fine too.

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Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Posted on August 5, 2012 by mschro

I’ve come across quite a few recipes for chocolate zucchini bread and I’ve always been intrigued by this recipe. I had two leftover zucchini wasting away in my refrigerator so I thought I would give this a shot. Turns out you can’t taste the zucchini at all! I’m not really sure why but chocolate and zucchini can both be a little bit bitter so maybe the flavors complimented each other. The bread uses two blocks of unsweetened baker’s chocolate which gives it a very rich chocolate flavor. I used plain yogurt to give it an extra bit of creaminess. The result was a really moist, chocolatey bread with the added benefit of 2 cups of veggies! Plus the kitchen smelled amazing while the bread baked so I look forward to making this again.

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Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on March 17, 2012 by mschro

One of my favorite combinations is mint and chocolate. For St. Patrick’s Day, I decided to make some green chocolate chip cookies and to give the recipe a little kick I added mint extract to the batter. The chocolate and the mint were great together and it was even tastier dipping the cookies into milk. For whatever reason dipping the cookies in milk caused the mint flavor to be more pronounced. This was an easy and tasty recipe for St. Patty’s day!

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