With Love

Happy Valentine's Day lovers! I'm having a dinner party this evening for some friends and I'll be sure to post a recap on here later. Today I bring you a most-loved recipe that is sure to win over your sweetheart. The Baked Brownie. If you've heard of this and haven't tried it then you are missing out! These brownies are amazing and once again I urge you to USE GOOD CHOCOLATE! It makes all the difference. These are super indulgent and divine. My boyfriend goes crazy for them. Enjoy!

Image from Tender Crumb

The Baked Brownie

From Baked: New Frontier in Baking by Matt Lewis 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp dark unsweetened cocoa
• 11 oz. dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1″ pieces
• 1 tsp instant espresso powder
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 5 eggs at room temp
• 2 tsp vanilla extract 

To make:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9×13″ glass or light-colored metal baking pan.
2. In a medium bow, whisk together the flour, salt, and cocoa.
3. Melt the chocolate, butter, instant espresso powder, stirring occasionally, until completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat. Whisk in the sugars. Add 3 eggs to the mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Stir in the vanilla.
4. Sprinkle in the flour mixture, and fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes (note: my brownies were done in 25 minutes), rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs.
5. When cool, cut the brownies into squares. These keep tightly wrapped for up to three days.

Favorite Friday: Be My Valentine

Friday is here again and this week it's all about valentines. I'm one of those girls who loves Valentine's Day. I figure this is largely due to my weakness for all things pink, red, lacy, sweet and/or heart shaped. Seriously how do people dislike v-day? Anyway here are some of my valentine picks around the web. XOXO!

Urban Outfitters: spoon $8, glasses $14, t-shirt $34

Urban Outfitters has a cute valentine section on their site- these are my favorites. How fun is the wooden spoon? Love it.

Image from Ban.do

Ban.do has these shoe clips that add a pop of glitter and love to any pair of shoes you have- fun and cute don't you think?

Image from thebitesite.com

You really can't have Valentine's Day without some chocolate. If you've never made molten chocolate cakes you'll be surprised how simple, elegant & delicious they are. Easy recipe and instructions here. Make them for your significant other/roommate/friends and they will feel LOVE. <3

That's Bananas

Most of us can agree on bananas. They're a good, healthy snack by themselves and a yummy complement to peanut butter, nutella, smoothies & more. I usually have some around my apartment but what do you do with them when they start to go bad? Personally I only like to eat the fruit when it is under-ripe to ripe.  Once they start getting brown the texture grosses me out.  But not to waste!

Here are some good ideas for brown bananas:
1. Cut the banana into small chunks, put it in a bag & freeze it. Next time you want to make a smoothie throw in the frozen banana pieces with some yogurt, juice & and other fruits and blend. Or another tasty option is to put the frozen pieces in the blender with some peanut butter & milk- this is like a "milkshake" with less calories since no ice cream is involved.
2. Mash the banana up and add it to plain oatmeal in the morning with some nuts, brown sugar & a touch of cinnamon to make "banana bread" oatmeal.
3. Bake real banana bread or banana muffins- this is what I did over the weekend using the recipe below. It takes about 40 minutes total & it makes your apartment smell fantastic!  These with coffee on a Saturday morning are perfection.  Enjoy!

MMMuffin

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
Adapted from this recipe
I love the kitschiness of the chocolate chips but if you're not feeling chocolate for breakfast sub in some chopped nuts.

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt (if you use Greek yogurt you may have to add some milk to the batter if it seems too thick) 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (or chopped nuts)

To make:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line your muffin tin with paper liners.  The recipe makes 10 muffins.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In another bowl, combine the egg, oil, yogurt and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. If the mixture seems too dry add a splash of milk. 
4. Fold in bananas and chocolate chips (or nuts).
5. Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Quick & Easy Chocolate Mousse

So I'll just put it out there: I'm a chocoholic!  My first job ever was at Debrand chocolatier and I've been hooked ever since.  Chocolate choices are always what I gravitate towards when ordering off a dessert menu, breakfast menu (hello chocolate chip pancakes), OK any menu!  I love baking with chocolate and the one thing I learned from my stint in the chocolate industry is: don't skimp on good chocolate.  It can be expensive, but high-quality chocolate takes your dessert from OK to OMG.  So my pantry is more Guittard less Hershey's. I have a traditional chocolate mousse recipe that I love- I learned to make it at a cooking class in Chicago. It's basically fluffy chocolate heaven. BUT it is time consuming to make, involves like a dozen eggs and is a big effort! So when I saw this recipe on Cooking Channel I was intrigued.

This is not a traditional mousse recipe and it doesn't replace my standby recipe at all. However this recipe is very tasty especially if you put nice chocolate in it. I was pretty shocked actually- seeing as one of the main ingredients is marshmallows. Anyway- just try it! I made this mousse on a weeknight and my boyfriend asked "How long did this take you to make?" I didn't tell him that it literally took 15 minutes.

Breakfast?

Instant Chocolate Mousse

Adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe

Makes 4-6 servings depending on your craving level. When I made this I cut the recipe in half. 

Ingredients:

• 3 cups mini marshmallows
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 9 ounces best quality semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
• 1/4 cup hot water from a recently boiled kettle
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Chocolate shavings for garnish (optional) 

To make: 

1. Put the marshmallows, butter, chocolate and water in a heavy-based saucepan.
2. Put the saucepan on the stove, over low heat, stirring until everything melts together. Remove from the heat. Let this mixture cool for 10 minutes or so. 
3. Whip the cream with the vanilla until thick and then fold into the cooled chocolate mixture.
4. Spoon into small dishes, top with chocolate shavings and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.