Category Archives: Dessert

Balsamic Chocolate Truffles

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The bottle of balsamic from House of Balsamic has been staring at me for months now. I knew that I needed to create something amazing with it, but I just was not sure what. When Krissy posted this truffle recipe, I knew it was that something amazing!

Balsamic Chocolate Truffles
adapted (just barely) from Krissy’s Creations

  • 81/2 ounces Dark Chocolate, Chopped
  • 1/4 cup Heavy Cream
  • 4 – 5 teaspoons Balsamic Vinegar
  • 1/3 cup Cocoa Powder

Place the chopped chocolate and heavy cream in a medium bowl.  Place the bowl over a pot of lightly simmering water and melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. I had a really hard time with this, but eventually it worked! Pour the melted chocolate into a small, shallow bowl, and stir in the balsamic vinegar. Transfer the bowl of chocolate to the refrigerator to cool until it has hardened, about 1 hour.  Remove the chocolate from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature until it is easily moldable. Place the cocoa powder in a small bowl.  Using a cookie scoop, scoop rounds of the chocolate into the palm of your hands.  Roll the chocolate into a round ball.  Place the chocolate ball into the cocoa powder and roll it around to completely coat it.  Repeat with the remaining chocolate. These truffles keep best in a sealed container in a cool area.  If left at room temperature, the truffles could soften.  You can also keep them in the refrigerator and then allow them to sit at room temperature for about 1 hour before serving. Krissy got this recipe from Giada De Laurentiis on Food Network.

These truffles were amazing! I was a little bummed that I could not taste the balsamic that much, so I might add more next time. I want to make more truffles, any other flavor suggestions?

Andes Mint Cookie Recipe

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These cookies were a major hit on our Christmas cookie trays this year. I have to give some major thanks to my friend Krista for giving me this recipe. She gives out a huge stack of recipe cards to brides-to-be, and this is one of the recipes. I have gotten to know her after I was a bride, but she was nice enough to give me the word document to print out my own set! I have been meaning to make this for about a year, but I kept putting it off until Christmas cookie baking. I am so so glad that I made them. Enough with the chitter chatter, let’s see what this is all about…

Andes Mint Cookies

  • ¾ cup Butter
  • 1 ½ cup Brown sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons Water
  • 12 ounces Chocolate Chips (that’s one package, you can also substitute mint chocolate chips, if need be)
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 ½ cups Flour
  • ½ teaspoons Salt
  • 1 ¼ teaspoons Baking Soda
  • 1 package Andes mints (more than you need, but you’ll have some to snack on later!)

Melt together butter, brown sugar, water and chocolate chips, let stand 10 minutes to cool. Add remaining ingredients to form dough. Chill for at least one hour. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Scoop into balls (use a cookie scoop) and place onto parchment paper, making sure you leave room for the cookies to spread. Bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes.  Remove cookies from oven and place half of an Andes mint on top.  Allow it to melt and swirl it on top of the cookie.

These cookies are quite tasty. I highly recommend trying them out. These will definitely be made for my birthday this year!

Mocha Chip Cookies

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Want to hear a funny story? Let’s preface this with this fact: I’m not very good at math. So when I set out to make a bunch of cookies, I carefully figured out how to triple the recipe I had chosen. The goal: make 3 dozen cookies. While I nailed the math of tripling the various ingredients, I failed to notice that the original recipe yielded 2 dozen, meaning I had made dough enough for six dozen. Whoops!

Got dough?

They were still pretty tasty, though! Much credit goes to the lovely and fabulous Joy of Joy the Baker for this recipe. Hers is actually Cappuccino Cookies with white chocolate. I used regular chocolate chips instead, since it’s what I had on hand. Also, I feel like white chocolate is cheating because it’s not really chocolate. ;) So that’s the reason I chose to rename them mocha cookies.

Mocha Cookies
ever so slightly modified from Joy the Baker

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons instant espresso
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside and we’ll preheat the oven after we chill the dough.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and instant espresso powder.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the butter mixture with a spatula.  Add the egg and egg yolk and beat on medium speed until mixture is fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes.  Stop the mixer and add the dry ingredients, all at once to the butter mixture.  Beat on low speed until just combined.  Stop the mixer, add the chocolate chunks and fold together with a  spatula until well combined.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 45 minutes.

Just before you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Scoop cookie dough by the heaping tablespoonful onto the prepared baking pans.  Bake for about 12 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges.  Remove from the oven, allow to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Tips for Hosting a Christmas Party

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This weekend marked our fourth Christmas party thrown at our house. It’s always a fun time to eat, drink and be merry with all of our friends. Here are some pictures from the night as well as some tips for hosting a Christmas party. Do you have anything else to add? Share your party wisdom in the comments.

  • Encourage people to dress their best. It’s not very often that people get dressed up these days, which makes it more fun when you do. It also helps sets the tone of what kind of party you’re wanting. Perhaps your friends can get a little rambunctious sometimes. I find that being nicely dressed tends to keep people on their best behavior, or close to it.
  • Be festive. Decorations are great, especially when you can find them all around the house. Some affordable options are non-breakable ornaments in a vase or on a charger plate. Tinsel is cute, too, and you can find plenty at the dollar store.

  • Prepare ahead of time. Cleaning, moving furniture, food prep — all things I wish I had done the night before or two nights before.
  • Make a cooking schedule. Figure out in advance the times and temperatures for what you’re making. Write it down and calculate backwards from just before the party starts.

Cupcakes by Jillian

  • Go for a semi-homemade menu. As much as I like to cook and bake, slaving away in the kitchen all day and night isn’t very fun. You’re worn out before the party has even started or you miss the party trying to finish cooking. I loved the Santa brownies I posted about and ended up doing those with the little brownie bites from Costco. I made some buttercream and cut some strawberries and boom — done.

  • Don’t stress. This is the first year I’ve taken more of a laid-back approach to party planning. It all got done and while we missed a couple of things, everyone had a great time. Stressing out only makes it worse for everyone.
  • Use disposable plates and cups. One year we used our regular glasses. Not only did we keep running out and having to wash them all night, we had to wash a ton of stuff the day after.
  • Be thankful. We often get too caught up in worrying about everything going on at the party. It’s a time to be fun and carefree with your favorite people all at the same place, which probably only happens once a year.

 

NewlyWife Likes #27

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Is anyone else so excited for this time of year? Now the music hasn’t gotten annoying — at least, not for me! — and there’s still time to get things done so I just sit back and enjoy the festivities. Matt and I went to my Christmas party and I thought I’d share a couple of pictures with you before we get to the NewlyWife Likes for the week.

 

  • Ho Ho Home Movie Magic: The Foster family decided to skip Christmas cards and make videos each year instead. This has to be one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. I just love the idea! Although I can only imagine how much time and effort went in to creating this. Found via Making it Lovely.

    Jingle Bells – Christmas Video Greeting 2011     from Jared Foster on Vimeo.
  • This car is famous! Have you ever heard of Down East Basics? It’s a cute clothing store (with no locations near me, unfortunately) that recently asked my dad if they could use his classic woodie car for their catalog photo shoot. The catalog turned out so cute and I love the vintage outdoorsy style that they chose.
  • Santa’s Sweet Tooth: Did you all leave out cookies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph? I actually still do. This year I may up the ante and give him a Santa brownie that really shows my appreciation.
  • Bocce in the Dark: Have you played bocce ball before? It’s been called Italian bowling and it can be played on the grass or on a court. Fun fact: I play in a league in the spring and summer. It’s casual competition and a whole lot of fun. This glow in the dark bocce set would be so fun to play in the warm summer evenings. If only we had a yard… Found via Cup of Jo.

Alrighty, I’m back to working on some more Christmas decorations and getting annoyed by the “car as a gift” commercials. I just don’t get them. Uh, hello, if he buys you a car, it’s most likely coming out of your pocket! I digress…

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