Better Than Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

Yes, that's a salad dressing bottle. Don't tell anyone.

1 1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 c. water

dash salt

1 t. vanilla

In a saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa, and salt with a whisk.  Add water; bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat and cook one minute.  Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.  

Cool and store in refrigerator.   For chocolate milk, add 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup to 8 ounces of milk.  

I found this recipe here.

Banana Fudge Pops

These handy popsicle molds are not necessary--some people make popsicles with paper cups and popsicle sticks.  However, if you happen upon any at a garage sale or second-hand store, they are handy to have around.

Basically all you do is thoroughly mash bananas, peanut butter, cocoa powder, vanilla, and milk together; spoon into popsicle molds; and freeze.

Begging pardon--my amounts are approximated.  I didn't measure anything; and I ended up with too much filling.  The leftover filling I froze in an ordinary container for spoon eating.  For six pops, three bananas probably would have been enough.

Banana Fudge Pops

3-4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 to 1/3 c. Peanut butter
3-4 T. Cocoa powder
1 splash vanilla extract
Milk, to thin

Beat all ingredients together until smooth.  Taste for correct amounts of cocoa and peanut butter.  Add frozen blueberries or strawberries, if desired.  Spoon into popsicle molds.  Cover with lids, add sticks, and freeze.  Makes 6-8

Savor on a summer day!

Post-Workout Smoothie (Milkshake?)

Pure deliciousness

At what point does a smoothie cross the line and become a milkshake?  Is it when it tastes too good to be true?  Is it when chocolate is added?  Is it when it ceases to be healthy?  Whatever the case, this beverage is so delicious that it probably crosses that line.

I've recently taken up running.  And being the perfectionist that I am, I haven't started it without doing some research.  My sources tell me that it's best to eat something--especially protein--within 30 minutes after working out.  This helps rebuild the muscles you've damaged exercising. 

Other sources have told me particular things that are good to eat after running--yummy things like dark chocolate, bananas, and peanut butter.  Considering everything I've read, this smoothie seems to be the perfect food to eat/drink after running: it cools you off, it re-hydrates you, it's full of protein, and it's delicious.  Regardless of how many calories it contains, you've probably just burned them off, and you deserve the reward!

*You don't have to work out before drinking this; but if you do, there will be no guilt in savoring every delightful sip.

Just five lovely ingredients

Here are the ingredients: cocoa powder, banana, peanut butter, almond milk, and frozen yogurt.  (There is enough sugar in everything else to sweeten the cocoa.)  I use frozen ingredients in my smoothies so that they won't be diluted with ice cubes.  If you like it thicker, go ahead--but I'm warning you, it would be better to freeze the banana.

Place it all in the blender and blend until smooth.  Vary amounts according to taste.

Tip: an easy way to clean your blender is to fill it with water and add a drop of dish soap.  Blend on low (some blenders have an "easy clean" setting) until clean.  Rinse thoroughly.

Chocolate Protein Smoothie

1 medium banana
Peanut butter to taste
Cocoa powder to taste
Vanilla frozen yogurt to taste
Almond (or regular) milk to thin

Blend until smooth.  Savor every sip.

Double-Chocolate Pecan Scones

Double-Chocolate Pecan Scones

Their very name suggests sophistication.  These little pastries are not as sweet as cookies; but they are sublime with peanut butter spread on top.  You may notice that I did not cut them the traditional triangle shape; this is because in my research into scones I saw a comment from a Brit that traditional British scones are actually round like American biscuits.  If anyone knows better, please correct me.  ☺  And now, the recipe.

The first thing I do when baking with nuts is to toast them.  This brings out the flavor and makes them yummier.  Simply spread them on a baking sheet and pop them in your preheating oven.  Watch them carefully; they burn quickly.  Five minutes should do the trick.

Set them aside to cool while preparing the dough.  After they cool, chop them.

Yummy toasted pecans

Combine the dry ingredients.

Cut in the butter.

If you don't have buttermilk on hand, place ½ T. vinegar in a measuring cup and add milk to the ½ c. line.  Let it sit for 5 minutes or until the milk curdles.

Combine the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla. 

Add to the dry mixture.

Add pecans and chocolate.

Combine thoroughly.

Place on a floured surface and dust with flour.  (My dough was very wet, so I kneaded in more flour at this point.) 

My hands were floury at this point, so I didn't photograph the rolling/cutting/placing on the cookie sheet part.

Bake for 15-20 minutes....

...and enjoy!

Double-Chocolate Pecan Scones

2 c. flour

⅓ c. firmly-packed brown sugar

1½ t. baking powder

¼ t. baking soda

¼ t. salt

½ c. butter

½ c. buttermilk

1 egg

1½ t. vanilla extract

⅜ c. pecans, toasted and chopped

½ c. chocolate chips

¼ c. white chocolate chips

Flour for rolling

Preheat oven to 375°F.  In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  In a small bowl, combine buttermilk, egg, and vanilla.  Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine.  Stir in pecans and chocolates.  

Place on a well-floured surface and roll to desired thickness (I think about 1 inch).  Cut with biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter and place on baking sheet.

Bake 15-20 minutes.  

Enjoy with a hot cup of tea, and imagine yourself in a London tea room....

(This is, in fact, a variation of Triple-Chocolate Chunk Scones.)

Chocolate Chip-Pecan Cookies (or, the best cookies ever!)

Although the idea of adding pecans and cinnamon to chocolate chip cookies was not originally mine, some girls I know have spread my cookie-baking reputation because of these cookies.  They are quite simple really; but they taste sublime.

They melt in your mouth.  They break the strongest will to resist a second one.  And, they might make you famous.  So, here is how to make them:

First, melt the butter.  (I didn't photograph this step.)  Actually, first preheat your oven.  Unless you plan to chill your dough before baking.  (Whether I do that depends on how much time I have and how soft the dough is to work with.)

Add sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

And beat well.

Add flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Mix thoroughly.  

At this point you will want to use a sturdy fork, not a whisk.

When these are combined, add chocolate chips

and pecans.

Toasting the pecans beforehand is optional.

Stir to distribute.

Hungry yet?

Next, prepare your baking sheet with this stuff.

A baker's best friend. Besides the oven, of course.

Line up your cookies two inches apart on the sheet.  Actually, it's okay to eyeball it.

At this point the camera got blurry. Sorry!

Place in the middle of the oven and set your timer.

Except that it's eight minutes, not thirty-eight.  I broke my timer and put it back together the wrong way.  

Check the cookies when the timer rings.  Remove them when they look like this:

They don't look done, but that's why you leave them on the sheet for another minute or two.  They start to look like this:

The beauty of parchment paper is that you can pull the batch of cookies off the sheet and let them cool on the table;

and then you can prepare the next batch on the counter while the sheet is cooling off.

(You won't have to do this if you have multiple sheets.  But you still want to take the cookies off the baking sheet after two minutes.)

Cool slightly, and enjoy with a cup of tea.

And share the rest, because believe me, you don't want all of these for yourself.

Chocolate Chip-Pecan Cookies

1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. butter (2 sticks), melted
2 T. vanilla
2 eggs
2⅔ c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 T. cinnamon (or more if desired)
2 c. chocolate chips
1 c. pecans (toasted if desired)

Preheat oven to 375° F.  Cream sugars, butter, eggs, and vanilla.  Add flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix thoroughly.  Stir in chocolate chips and pecans.
Spread 2 inches apart on paper-lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 8 minutes or until they look almost done.  Leave on sheet 1-2 minutes before removing to a table or plate to cool.

One more note: cooling racks dry out cookies.

Tractor Birthday Cake

My little nephew loves tractors.  And he just turned two.  In honor of him, I made a tractor cake.  And he loved it!

Side view

It was my brother-in-law's idea to put the candles in the cookies.

I didn't follow Jodi's instructions to a T.  Knowing how much my family loves chocolate, I used M&M candies for the head and tail lights, and stick cookies for the exhaust pipe.  The only wax-covered donuts I found at the store were miniature, so I had to send my sister on an emergency bakery run for regular donuts for the rear tires.  And, I used the extra cake to crumble for mud around the tractor.  It's sinking in the mud because of all the rain we've had recently.  ☺

The cake was a hit!

Mostly gone. There is a difference between mostly gone and all gone.