chocolate Archives - Feeding the Masses

Post-Partay Thoughts (And a Great Pistachio Cupcake Recipe)

March 9, 2020March 9, 2020 by Debi Simons

So . . . this past Friday, March 6, was the Irish concert by the Cherry Creek Chorale, a great, great occasion. And afterwards was the reception (which, thankfully, is held only after the Friday-night concert, not the Saturday-night one.) I made three items: my Spicy Cheddar Cookies, Guinness Brownies, and Pistachio Cupcakes. Follow the links to the first two recipes if you’re interested. And for the wonderful frosting I made, go here. I’m giving the recipe for the pistachio cupcakes below. For the Guinness Brownies I’m linking to the post over at Sally’s Baking Addiction. Note, though, that I ended up just using the white chocolate-cream cheese frosting linked to above for those as well as for the pistachio cupcakes. I had made a double batch of the frosting and realized that I had plenty for all of them. I

A Fabulous, Rich Chocolate Tart That’s Vegan–But You’d Never Know It

February 6, 2020January 9, 2020 by Debi Simons

Image by code404 from Pixabay; to see original photos go to https://bojongourmet.com/gluten-free-vegan-chocolate-tart-tahini-caramel/

I’m not a vegan myself nor do I plan to ever become one, but it’s an interesting challenge to have a vegan guest for dinner. My friend Aubrey had made some vegan chocolate tartlets last year for our church Christmas party and I just about passed out when I ate one of them. Astonishing! I couldn’t believe that it didn’t have any butter or eggs in it. So I set out to reproduce this experience as part of our desserts for my sister-in-law’s birthday dinner on Dec. 30 since a vegan friend of hers was coming, and I found one online that sounded pretty good. The original was also gluten free, but I had no need for that and didn’t want to buy tapioca starch and sweet rice flour. I can’t stand being told that I need some specialty ingredient but only a small amount! The original called for only two tablespoons of the tapioca flour, so I’d be buying a whole bag that would then sit on my pantry shelf. But one item that the recipe does call for and which you should always have on hand is tahini, that is, sesame-seed paste. I’ve bought high-end tahini through the mail (and paid a pretty high-end price), but actually I like the stuff you can find at the grocery store just fine. Tahini and chocolate are an inspired combination.

Easy, Rich Chocolate Cupcakes

April 11, 2016 by Debi Simons

rich chocolate cupcakes

Pretty nice-looking cupcake, isn’t it? Beautifully domed, perfectly sized for the muffin tin cup. And the inside was moist and delicious, in spite of the fact that I overbaked it a bit. (Note to self: Be sure to use the oven timer that measures minutes and seconds, not hours and minutes, when baking something that requires minutes. If I hadn’t realized at about the 20-minute mark that I’d set the wrong timer, the above would be a picture of a lump of chocolate coal. As it was, they probably baked about five minutes more than necessary.) I did frost these with an unbelievably delicious chocolate buttercream, but I’ll be discussing that recipe in a later post.

Below are are two comparison shots of the cupcakes this week and the ones last week.

A Couple of Unusual Brownie Recipes

May 20, 2015 by Debi Simons

plate of mexican brownies plat of mom Brownies, or some kind of simple bar cookie, are a great asset to have in your recipe box. You can pull them out, whip them up, and get them to the potluck or party in reasonably short order. You probably have a simple chocolate brownie recipe that you use; these two are a little off the beaten track. I’ve always had good success with them.

Lava You Don’t Get from a Volcano

March 23, 2015 by Debi Simons

chocolate lava cake a la mode Here’s a shot of one of the chocolate lava cakes I made for my brother-in-law’s birthday party. I think the last time I made these was for the same occasion, two years ago. Gideon has said periodically since then that I should make them again, and my answer has always been, “I’ll make them for Ed’s birthday.” So here they are. I made some changes from the recipe I found online, and this is now a pretty standard recipe anyway. I did find it interesting that, as for a number of recipes, the innovation came about because of a mistake. Its originator, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, apparently pulled a chocolate cake out of the oven too soon and realized that its underbaked warm center was actually an asset. Then he must have developed the individual cakes that are usual today. A full-sized version would be very messy to serve.