Hot Fudge Sauce

Hot Fudge Sauce (Dani Carbajal)

1 bag chocolate chips

1 stick butter

1 can condensed milk

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter and chocolate over a low heat in a heavy saucepan. Slowly add canned milk and powdered sugar alternating a little at a time. Turn up heat and cook for 8 minutes stirring constantly. Take off heat and add vanilla. Refrigerate any unused sauce.

(…but make sure your kids don’t know you put it in there. ‘Cause they might get up early and eat it all for breakfast while you’re still sleeping- which is why I have no picture for you.)

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I decided since the frosting we are supposed to make to decorate the cakes for my cake decorating class is not very good (to be honest, it seems completely inedible to me) that I would make a yummy filling.

This buttercream frosting actually uses butter (amazing, huh). A whole pound of it! It's in the first Barefoot Contessa cookbook. It was so light and fluffy it seemed like chocolate mousse. I couldn't help but lick the beater afterwards.

It was a bit involved to make, so I don't know how often I'd use this recipe, but it was fun to try it out.

*caution: it calls for unsalted butter (her recipes usually do) and I only had salted butter and forgot to reduce the amount of salt it calls for to compensate. Kurt said it tasted a bit on the salty side. Also I used regular salt since it didn't specify kosher, so that might have been the problem.

10 oz bittersweet chocolate

6 oz semisweet chocolate

1/2 c egg whites

1 teaspoon salt (kosher?)

pinch cream of tartar (1/8 tsp?)

1 lb unsalted butter

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 teaspoons instant expresso, dissolved in 1 tsp water (I just used some cocoa powder mixed with a little water)

Chop the chocolates and place them in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan simmering water. Stir until melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

Mix the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Place the bowl of egg whites over the pan of simmering water and heat the egg whites until they are warm to the touch, about 5 minutes. Return the bowl to the electric mixer and whisk on high speed for 5 minutes, or until the meringue is cool and holds a stiff peak.

Add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, while beating on medium speed. Scrape down the bowl, add the melted chocolate, vanilla, espresso, and rum, if using, and mix for 1 minute or until the chocolate is completely blended in. If the buttercream seems very soft, allow it to cool, and beat it again.

This recipe is pretty much the same as her Chocolate Buttercream Frosting recipe at foodnetwork.com it just looks to be reduced 2/3.

Chocolate Puddin' ... Surprise!

I heard about chocolate pudding made with avocados. I thought it would be a good way to get the kids to eat some extra veggies and a low sugar, chocolatey treat. So I googled it and found a lot of variations. I decided to try two different kinds and see which I like better. I changed them a bit to my own liking.

I liked the 1st one better. I thought the banana flavor was to strong in the second. My husband even ate it. I didn't think he would since he saw me making it. I know, it sounds weird. But seriously, go buy an avocado and try it. You'll be surprised.

Avocado Chocolate Pudding

2 avocados

1/4 cup coco powder

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoon vanilla

5 Tablespoons agave nectar

Put it all in the blender and blend until smooth. Chill for 2 hours.

The original recipe calls for 1/4 c water, but I decided to omit it cause I thought it would end up runny. I was having a hard time getting it to blend so I added a couple spoons of plain yogurt and then a couple splashes of milk when that didn't work. Later while eating it I mixed in even more milk cause it was too thick. Next time I'll add the coco powder last. Also all the comments said to make sure and let it chill long enough so the flavors can blend.

Avocado Banana Chocolate Pudding

1 avocado

1 Banana

1/4 c coco powder

1/2 c milk

2 Tablespoons agave nectar

Blend in blender. Refrigerate 1 hour. (I didn't bother cleaning out the blender between recipes.)