Banana Booze Cake

This was a difficult cake to photograph, but trust me, it's tasty.  Not a recipe of exact proportions and one that is open to additions and interpretation, this variation of it includes pudding, bananas, cookies, and a healthy portion of liquor.  I think that next time I make this I may try a variation with coffee liquor and chocolate pudding.  Be sure to make in advance to allow pudding to saturate the cookies and bananas thoroughly before serving. 

For this you'll need banana liquor, Kahlua and Bailey's Irish Cream, or as close to these as you can get.  Here there are only 2 boxes of pudding shown but to make a cake of the size shown above (approx 18"x9"x4") you will need 4 boxes.  Look for the boxes that call for 2 cups of milk per box as this will give you the correct ratio of liquid to allow the pudding to come together despite the alcohol. 

Put all 4 boxes of pudding powder into a mixing bowl.  Add one cup of milk for each box (4 cups) as well as 2/3rds a cup of each type of liquor. 

Beat pudding with an electric mixer for however long is indicated on the boxes of pudding mix.  Mine called for two minutes at low speed.  Once this is done toss the pudding in the fridge to firm up. 

While you're waiting for the pudding, slice up some bananas very thin, about 1/8 of an inch thick. 

Pull out the pudding and spread a thin layer on the bottom of the the cake pan you are using. In this case I used a tupperware for ease of transport and storage, just pop on the lid and you're ready to go.  You could easily use a loaf pan, brownie pan, or your usual round pie plate. 

Spread a layer of cookies on top of the pudding, then a layer of bananas on top of them. The type of cookies isn't important. I've considered using chocolate chip, vanilla wafers, oatmeal, anything works as long as the pudding will be able to soak into them, so nothing totally coated in chocolate. 

Top the layer of bananas with more pudding, then repeat the pattern of adding cookies then bananas.  Continuing doing this until all pudding is gone, finishing with a layer of cookies.  Put cake in the fridge to allow pudding to saturate cookies and bananas with flavor, about 3-4 hours or overnight. When ready to serve, garnish with whip cream if desired. 


Banana Booze Cake

6 bananas
2 boxes of vanilla pudding
2 boxes of butterscotch pudding
4 cups milk
2/3 cup banana liquor
2/3 cup Kahlua
2/3 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
60 cookies

Pumpkin Pie Cookies

These cookies are like little miniature pumpkin pies!  Each one contains its own small amount of pie filling and is quite delicious.  The original recipe I found these in calls for them to be shaped like pumpkins and have jack-o-lantern eyes and mouths cut into them, however, since it was after Halloween that I made them I went ahead and added white chocolate and caramel as decoration and they turned out just excellent!

No pictures of the mixing stage of the pastry, unfortunately  I realized too late that this dough needs refrigeration for 'several hours to overnight' so I was forced to make the dough quickly to give it time to rest.  It's fairly easy though. 

Mix the flour, sugar and salt with a fork, then add in butter and cut in with pastry mixer (or fork or potato masher if you're without) until there are no lumps of butter bigger than a pea.  After this, mix in just enough cold water until the dough holds together.  Probably best to just use your hands to mix at this point! Then divide the dough into two and wrap in plastic wrap as seen here, then pop it in the fridge for at least 2 hours. 

Once the dough is ready roll it out to about a half to a quarter centimeter thick.

I didn't have a perfectly round cookie cutter handy, so I used this one that was shaped like a Christmas ornament and just sliced off the nub to make round cookies.   You could use a cup if you're without a cutter but it doesn't work quite as well. 

Place the rounds on a parchment-lined baking pan.  Put about a tablespoon of pumpkin pie filling on each one, then top with another and push the edges down with a fork. Be sure to create deep indentations here as the cookies will puff up while baking and if you don't make them deep enough you will lose that super cute "pie" look.  Bake at 350C until bottoms are lightly browned and tops no longer feel soft or wet. 

While those are baking melt white chocolate chips in a double boiler until smooth and runny. 

Use a proper icing bag and tip if you have it and fill with white chocolate. If you're like me and don't have those things, put a ziploc over a tall glass as shown, with one corner pointed towards the bottom and fill it up with chocolate.  This makes for a much easier and cleaner fill up and gives you somewhere to rest the bag if you have to put it down for a couple seconds. 

Snip the corner off the bag and drizzle chocolate back and forth across the cookies.  Repeat the same melting and drizzling process for caramels. Beware that caramel will be MUCH stiffer and take longer to melt, however the process is the same. Just make sure there are no lumps left before transferring to the plastic bag and consider wearing an oven mitt as you drizzle, as I found the caramel to be much warmer than the chocolate. 

Pumpkin Pie Cookies

2 ½ cups flour (whole wheat pastry or all-purpose)

6 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 ½ sticks cold unsalted butter, cubed

~½ cup ice water

1/2 can pumpkin pie filling

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup caramels

recipe adapted from: Building Buttercream

Fruity Chocobowls

As you may have guessed from the name, this is a combination of recipes and my own creation.  A bowl made of solid chocolate, filled with a fruity cream cheese pudding, garnished with bits of Skor and assorted other crushed up chocolate bars.  These would also be good with whip cream, caramel, nuts, sprinkles or pretty much any other topping you can think of. 

First off, this is not a recipe of exact proportions.  These are the ingredients I started with - eventually I ended up adding an extra brick of cream cheese and more icing sugar than was originally called for.  I also added some milk later on, to smooth out the pudding. 

Working on the chocolate bowls first gives them time to cool while you make the pudding. Start by melting all the chocolate chips in a double boiler until smooth.  Once melted, take them off the heat and let them sit until they're no longer warm to the touch.  Don't worry about it re-solidifying - once chocolate has been melted it will stay liquid for a long time.  Also, the thickening that happens in the chocolate makes making the bowls easier.  I waited almost an hour before proceeding. 

Now for the balloons! These are used to create the shape of the bowl.  Each is dipped in chocolate, then later deflated once the chocolate has hardened.  You want to use water balloons or other small balloons.  Now is a good time to enlist your friend, room mate, significant other or anyone else who may at one point have enjoyed your delicious baking to help  you blow up about 20 balloons.  More than likely some will pop and not survive to become bowls, so inflate more than you think you will need. 

Now that the balloons are inflated and the chocolate is cooling, it's a good time to start on the pudding. Take your frozen fruit - as much as you want, really - I used about 1.5 cups, and chop up any particularly large pieces. 

Once fruit is chopped put cream cheese and icing sugar together and beat with a hand mixer until fluffy.  Add milk and vanilla and beat until combined. Again, isn't a recipe of exact proportions, so taste and add until you get something you like. 

Throw in the berries and mix until everything is well blended.  It can be chunky, if you would prefer it that way, or you can beat it until it's smooth.

Back to the bowls! Once your chocolate has totally cooled, take balloons by the end and dip them into the melted chocolate.  You may have to swirl them on their sides a bit to get a good chocolate coating.  Gently place balloons on a parchment lined baking sheet and let sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes, then transfer to fridge.  After totally solidified in the fridge bowls can be transferred to the freezer to further firm up.  This is particularly a good idea if you're going to have to transport them from where they're being made to where they will be served.  


Once the chocolate has set up in the fridge for about 30 minutes, use a pin or scissors to put a small hole in the tip of the balloon.  Use this hole to slowly and gently release the air from the balloon.  The balloon should peel away from the chocolate, leaving just the bowl.  If you have trouble getting the balloon out, refrigerate for a while longer - the balloon should pull away from the chocolate naturally and it will be easier to remove. 


Don't get discouraged if you loose a few balloons during the dipping/cooling/popping process - I lost about 3 total.  Just make sure you make a few extra and experiment with what works best for you.  Once bowls are set, fill with pudding and garnish with toppings of your choice. 

Fruity Chocobowls

yield: about a dozen

Pudding:

2 350g bricks of cream cheese

1.5 cups of mixed frozen berries

3/4 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Bowls

500g chocolate chips (any kind)

~20 water balloons

Garnish (Anything works, sprinkles, whip cream, smashed up chocolate bars, nuts, etc)

Chocolate Coated Candied Orange Peels

These things are A-MAZ-ING.  They say everything is better home made, so what could be better than something that tastes like a home made Terry's Chocolate Orange?  I accidentally made about a trillion of these, so be careful if you're going to double the recipe.  You will end up with tupperware containers FULL of these guys.  On the other hand, they do take a while to make, so if you're into chocolate and orange, it might be worth making one big batch and saving them. 

First, cut your orange in half top to bottom.  Using your hands or a spoon, scoop out the orange pulp from the inside, leaving only the peel.  You can also juice the oranges then scrape out the remaining pulp, if you want to make orange juice out of it.

Cut orange peels into thin slices.  Try to keep then as consistently sized as possible.

This is where the fun really starts! Blanche the peels by putting them in a pot with cold water, covering them by about 1". Put a lid on the pot.  Bring the water to a boil, allow to boil for a minute or so, then drain water.  Repeat this process two more times.  Blanching is important as it removed the bitterness from the peels. 

Mix together 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to make a simple syrup.  Add syrup to orange peels and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and allow most of the water to simmer away.  Don't wait for all of it to evaporate, as this will get your peels burnt and stuck to the bottom of the pot. Err on the side of taking it off too soon rather than too late.  Remove peels from syrup with a slotted spoon, placing them on baking sheets to dry.  Allow to dry for 4-5 hours, possibly overnight depending on the humidity where you are. Peels should be hard before dipping, but I dipped some that were still sort-of soft and it

was still delicious, just chewier.  

Melt chocolate in a double boiler.  Make sure the chocolate is really melty before you begin to dip the orange peels.  Chocolate isn't very warm will stick to the peels too much and result in an too much chocolate sticking to each peel. 

Dip each peel into chocolate.  You can dip the whole thing or just half.. I tried to do about 3/4 but it got more difficult as I started to run out of chocolate and resulted in a few finger burns, so be careful or use forks to manipulate the peels in the chocolate.

Chocolate Coated Candied Orange Peels

3 sunkist oranges
1 cup water
1 cup sugar for syrup
1-2 cup sugar for coating
Water for blanching
350g dark chocolate

Adapted from: Food.com

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Someone around me mentioned they had a hankering fo banana muffins, so I whipped these up.  I made them a little fancier than normal by piping chocolate on top and putting nuts on it.  The extra chocolate was deeeeeelicious and the nuts made it nicely crunchy.  I don't usually have any luck with muffins and this time was no exception - I had it all mixed up and ready to put in the pan when I realized I had forgotten no fewer then four ingredients.  I was sure they weren't going to turn out, but I added what was missing and they were totally fine.  So, if you stress about muffins, don't worry about these, they're very forgiving.

In small bowl, blend bananas, melted margarine, milk, eggs and vanilla.

In large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips

Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just mixed.  It's right about here I realized I was missing ingredients, so do a double-check to make sure you've got everything, but don't panic if you missed some!

Fill muffin cups.  Bake for 18 to 22 minutes at 375F, or until golden brown and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let stand several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool

Once your muffins are cool they should look something like this. They're totally delicious like this, but the chocolate kicks it up a notch.  Make sure your muffins are completely cooled  before proceeding to next steps.

Heat chocolate chips reserved for topping in a double boiler until mostly melted.  You don't want to get it too hot because in order to pipe the topping you'll have to put it into a plastic bag, so just melt it until it's lumpy, remove from heat and stir until smooth.

Trying to get things into piping bags used to be a nightmare for me until I discovered this simple solution.  Put the zip loc bag into a tall glass with one point towards the bottom.  Spoon melted chocolate into the bag.  Seal the bag once finished, or else you'll get chocolate all over your hands when you try to squeeze it out to decorate. Clip the corner 1-2 millimetres wide and use the bag to pipe the chocolate design on to each muffin.  While chocolate is still liquid, add nuts.   Store in sealed container, unrefridgerated, to retain maximum moistness.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips
2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 4 large)
1/2 cup (1 stick/4oz/113g) butter or stick margarine, melted
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Topping:
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup nuts of your choice


adapted from: Diane's Desserts

Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons

I made these but didn't end up being able to take them where I wanted.  They are, however, so delicious I will have to make them again.  The coconut is sweetened by the condensed milk and the chocolate dipped half makes it like two cookies in one.  Very easy and addictive!

 Dump the coconut in a large mixing bowl, then add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Add can of condensed milk and stir. 

Separate the whites from two large room temperature eggs and put them into a bowl.  Mix on high until medium stiff peaks form.  Basically, when you can pull up a peak that stays but eventually fades back into the bowl.

Gently fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture

Use an ice cream scoop to place balls of the mixture on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.  I again didn't have parchment paper, but I cooked them in a glass pan and it turned out fine. 

Bake in a 325 degree oven for about 25 minutes, or until they just start to brown

To make ganache, heat cream until boiling then pour over chocolate chips.

Let sit for 2 minutes.

Stir ganache until smooth and shiny, being careful not to overwork.  Dip half of each cooled cookie in ganache and then let cool on parchment paper or tin foil. 

Coconut Macaroons

• 14 oz sweetened shredded coconut
• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 extra large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Ganache

• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Super Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies were probably the chocolatiest thing I'd ever put in my mouth, and that's saying something.  By my rough estimate, they're about 75% chocolate.  I made a double batch for two work Christmas parties, so if my pictures seem like they have extra, that's why.  All in all, these are an easy crowd pleaser, but be sure to have milk ready!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a double boiler, put 1 cup chocolate chips with butter, stirring often until just melted.

While chocolate is melting, put eggs, brown sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. 

By this time, the chocolate should be mostly melted.  Remove from heat and stir until smooth. 

Beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy.

Reduce speed to low; beat in melted chocolate.

Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks

This is what your 'dough' should look like once the chips are in.  It should be really thick and sticky.  I did my mixing on my oven while it was pre-heating, which was a mistake since it made the dough thinner and runnier than it should have been a resulted in a pan of huge, thin cookies.  If your dough seems too runny to make good cookies, let it sit on a cool counter for 10-12 minutes before putting it on the pan.

Drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 to 3 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in centers, 12 to 15 minutes.  Allow to cool a minute or two on the pan, but then remove with a metal spatula.

 

Super Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 2 dozen

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips/chunks
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 package (350 grams) semisweet chocolate chunks

adapted from: Martha Stewart Cooking