cocoa | Just About Baked

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Strawberry Ganache Tart

I’m kind of annoyed with dessert menus at restaurants.

First of all, they often just change seasonally, if at all. And when they do change, there are a couple of standbys that never shift. At any given time of year, you can be pretty sure that there will be crème brulee and molten chocolate cake on the menu, along with a fruit-based dessert (tart or crisp, usually) and an assortment of ice creams and sorbets.

Don’t get me wrong. I love all those things. But why can’t pastry chefs be allowed to really get creative? To have more fun? And, dare I suggest it, change the menu at least (gasp!) monthly? Would that be so terrible?

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Flourless Chocolate Chewies

This post is for my buddy Sarah.

See, Sarah has been looking for a recipe for these cookies for quite a while, and I’ve been promising to get on it. Well, it’s been about a year since I said that, so better late than never. I hope.

For pretty much my entire teaching career (minus the three years I spent at my first school), I’ve spent my early mornings with Sarah. She’s the person I talk to first every day between Monday and Friday, and it’s kind of a ritual for us to catch up before heading off to our classrooms to teach.

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Cheesecake Brownies

December 24, 2014
Mir
Bars n' Brownies, Cupcakes and Cheesecakes
8 Comments

Cheesecake sounded so gross to me when I was a kid. The whole concept was confusing. How on earth could cheese and cake ever intersect without bringing disaster?

Oh, irony. Many years later, I tried cheesecake, and well, you probably know what happened. I realized that I am a prize idiot. Who would ever argue with magic? Not me, I can tell you. Since that bright and shining day, I’ve had a very hard time not having cheesecake whenever it happens to appear in front of me.

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Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

November 26, 2014
Mir
Pie Day, Pies
12 Comments

Okay, this is my third pie of the week. Don’t worry, I’m not tired of it yet!

Ordinary pie flavors are great, don’t get me wrong. I love pumpkin pie and pecan pie, and I’ve never been able to resist a good key lime. But I really like being creative when I bake, so a lot of what I do goes a touch beyond the norm.

When I first saw this recipe, I knew I had to make it. I initially glimpsed it on Pinterest, the home of all that is good. I think it originated with Martha Stewart. Anyway, I made one or two small adjustments and here we go! Chocolate pumpkin pie.

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Triple Chocolate Cheese-Filled Brownies

November 21, 2014
Mir
Bars n' Brownies
14 Comments

Help! There’s a chocolate shortage!

I’m not kidding, you guys. I just saw this article and I’m freaking out! I don’t want this to happen. How can we stop this from happening? Now I feel really awful about using so much chocolate all the time. This is my fault!

And this post isn’t helping, either. I swear I made these before I learned about the shortage. But I can see that really, using three times the amount of chocolate that I need to in a recipe might be going too far. But isn’t that what makes baking fun?

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Black and White Cookie Dough Fudge Bars

November 19, 2014
Mir
Bars n' Brownies, C is for COOKIE!, Candyland
18 Comments

I’m about to go on a little rant here. Y’all ready?

I have very strong feelings about food safety. A few years ago, Nestle released a batch of tainted cookie dough and a few people ate it raw. One woman died. And Nestle closed their plant to clean it and disinfect it, but the bottom line is, somebody made a huge mistake.

The same thing has happened with bags of salad mix. I mean, really. Tainted spinach? And peanut butter. How did salmonella get into peanut butter? And of course, eggs and raw meats are always an issue.

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Rocky Road Brownies

Sometimes wonderful things are staring you right in the face and you don’t see them.

Take my husband, for instance. I knew him for 7 years before we even thought about dating. I mean, it’s not like I never noticed him. He was super adorable. How could I not? But for some reason, it just didn’t click for quite some time that he was the man I was meant to be with. Luckily, we both figured it out.

I feel the same way about these brownies, though on a slightly less major level. I’ve made brownies for years. I’ve loved rocky road anything for years. Why have I never done this?

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Teddy Bear Cookies

September 21, 2014
Mir
C is for COOKIE!
14 Comments

It’s hard to make kids happy sometimes. The more effort I put into cooking, the less they tend to appreciate it. If I make really good homemade crispy chicken tenders, for instance, they’ll leave them on their plates. But if I buy the frozen processed ones and throw them on a baking sheet, my son will very nicely thank me for such a delicious dinner.

No, I’m not a lousy cook. But I don’t speak kid palate. Their likes and dislikes remain elusive to me.

That’s why I had to try these cookies. They are just so adorable. And I needed to know if their looks would trump everything else. Does a teddy bear-shaped cookie get eaten no matter what it tastes like? There’s your philosophical question of the day.