Skor Apple Dip

This is an incredibly easy 3-ingredient dish that will wow guests at any potluck or holiday gathering. 

It doesn't seem like much - just cream cheese, caramel and crushed skor bars.  But when you combine them and refrigerate overnight, it becomes a tangy, sweet and crunchy dip for apple slices. 

In a class dish or pie plate, spread the cream cheese into a thick layer. 

Cover the cheese layer with caramel.

Spread into an even layer over the cream cheese. 

Crush the Skor bars into small crumbs by placing them in a plastic freezer bag and pounding with a meat mallet or heavy pan. 

Spread the crumbled Skor bits over the dip, cover, and refrigerate overnight. The chocolate on the bottom will start to meld into the caramel a bit, but the top will stay crunchy.

Serve with sliced apples for dipping.  You could even try dipping pretzels or ladyfingers.

Believe me, people will love this!

Here's the (simple) recipe:

Ingredients
340 gram tub spreadable plain cream cheese
250 gram tub old fashioned caramel sauce (found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store in the produce aisle)
191 gram package mini Skor bars or 5 full size Skor bars, smashed into small pieces
1 lemon
6-8 apples for serving, sliced

Instructions
Spread the cream cheese in a thick layer in a glass baking dish or pie plate. 
Spread the caramel sauce over the cream cheese
Spread the Skor pieces over the caramel layer
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 24 hours
Squeeze the juice of the lemon into a large bowl and add a cup of water.
Slice the apples and dip the slices in the lemon water to prevent browning
Serve the dip surrounded by apple slices

Enjoy!

Birthday Cake Popcorn!

Fresh popcorn coated in white chocolate, cake mix and sprinkles makes an adorable, fun snack!

This is a great treat for a kids (or grownups) party, a school snack or just for fun.

The ingredients are easy to find in the bulk store or the baking aisle.

Here's what you need for this easy recipe:

Chewy Chocolate Brownies

This winter has been kicking my ass. I've been super busy with work and other stuff and haven't had as much time as I'd like to cook in my new kitchen (or to write blog posts).

For weeks I was craving brownies but didn't have the energy for baking. I tried to assuage the craving with a mug cake and even a Jos. Louis but it had to be brownies. 

The thing is, brownies are very easy to make. As long as you have the ingredients on hand you can whip them up in a few minutes and have brownies within the hour.

Luckily I had high-quality unsweetened chocolate in the pantry and the rest of the ingredients are staples so I was all set.

I've tried many brownie recipes over the years and read the debates about the merits of cake-y and fudgey brownies, but my preference is for a chewy brownie.  This recipe makes the perfect brownie for me.

Here's what you need:

3/4 cup butter (170 grams or one and a half sticks)
57 grams (2 ounces) unsweetened chocolate 
1/3 cup (43 grams) cocoa powder
2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 cup (128 grams) flour
1 tablespoon vanilla
Maldon salt (or other large-flaked salt) (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line an 8-inch square (preferably metal) baking pan with parchment paper or foil so the paper hangs over the sides making the brownies easy to remove once they're baked and cooled.

Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium heat and add the chocolate, stirring until melted.  Let it cool for a few minutes, then add the sugar and cocoa powder, stirring to combine.  Add the eggs, flour and vanilla and mix them in.  The batter will be extremely thick, dark and glossy.

Pour it into the prepared baking pan and spread the batter evenly. Sprinkle salt flakes over the top of the batter.  This is optional but I think it takes these brownies over the top!  You need to use Maldon salt or another large-flaked salt, not kosher salt or table salt.  Use about 1/2 a tablespoon to get a nice light sprinkling.

Bake the brownies for 35 minutes.  It will be tempting to taste them while they're warm but they will be so much better once you let them cool.  And even better if you chill them! For some reason these really shine straight out of the fridge!

Chill for an hour, then cut the brownies into small squares and serve. They have a deep chocolate flavour and a great chewy bite and the crunch of the salt on top makes them perfection.  So easy, you've got to make these!

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I've enjoyed reading Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen blog for a while now.  All the recipes are beautiful, doable and always turn out delicious. So when I had a container of sour cream leftover from Christmas and guests popping by our new house for coffee, I knew just where to look for a coffee cake recipe. 

This Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake would use up all the sour cream, and I knew I had all the other ingredients on hand. Plus it uses cinnamon which is my favourite flavour in coffee cake. 

This cake is incredibly easy and delicious. The eggs are separated and whipped whites are folded into the batter, making the cake puff up beautifully as it bakes. 

Chocolate chips and cinnamon sugar are layered within the batter and strewn on top of the cake.

We were impatient and ate the cake warm from the oven, but it's even better once it's had a chance to cool and the chocolate chips form back into firm nuggets of chocolate.  The flavour was even better the next day.

You can find the recipe here:  Smitten Kitchen Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Make it and enjoy!  

Tart of the Month - Quick Dessert Tarts

I was away this weekend four our third annual cousins retreat where my sister-in-law and three lady cousins and I enjoy a weekend in Blue Mountain, Ontario.  

We enjoy great food and drinks.

Tart of the Month: Chocolate Tart

Perfect for February when you need a chocolate pick-me-up. This tart is very rich with a buttery crust and caramel-chocolate filling. 

This recipe comes from David Lebovitz, an awesome American pastry chef living in Paris. 

I've learned so much from my tarts of the month. I used to be afraid of making pie crust, but I learned last month how easy it can be. This is a whole new way to make crust that reminded me of the pâte à choux I used to make gougères, except with no eggs.

Here's what you need for this chocolate tart:

Cookies! Oatmeal Chocolate Chip with Figs and Coconut

Although I love to bake, I'm not the worlds biggest fan of eating baked goods.  I can live without most cookies and sweets.  Except oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which I could eat all day, every day.  I made some delicious ones recently from a Martha Stewart recipe, which I will use again.  They stay moist even the next day, which is ideal in an oatmeal cookie.  

These cookies are from Food52 and they add dried figs and coconut to the mix.  The extra ingredients make the cookies even more moist and chewy, adding a nice texture and making them a little more healthy, perhaps?  

Here's what you need:

Dark Chocolate Gelato

If you're looking for a super-rich dark chocolate ice cream, this is the one.  This was my first time making chocolate ice cream.  I've made chocolate mint and strawberry before.  The consistency of this was very different but the taste was amazing! 

The recipe comes from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa.  I only made a few little changes.  

Here's what you need:

Short & Sweet Sunday - Mexican Hot Chocolate

It's still very cold where I am and spring is taking its time getting to us.  So here's something to warm you up.

There are some combinations that I just love and chocolate and chili is one of them.  We bought this Aztec Drinking Chocolate from ChocoSol at a beer festival in Toronto where they were mixing it with milk stout.  That was delicious, but it's just as good made with plain water.  

Orange Muffins with Chocolate Granola

If you wake up this weekend with nothing in the house for breakfast and a craving for muffins, you could do worse than this recipe!  

I love baking but I don't do a ton of it because there's very limited need for baked goods in a two-person household that's trying to eat healthy and rarely eats dessert.  

This recipe is adapted from the Joy of Cooking which is a terrific resource for baking.  You probably have most of these ingredients on hand, or ingredients for some other muffin variation.  Here's what you need:

Dark Chocolate Bark with Seeds

I don't write much about desserts on this blog because we rarely eat dessert. But this is a tasty snack for after a healthy meal or to get you through the afternoon.  It's inspired by the Bon Appetit Food Lovers Cleanse.  

This is all you need for this easy, tasty treat:

100 grams dark chocolate
1/3 cup pepitas (raw, shelled pumpkin seeds)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

Saltine Toffee aka Christmas Crack

A good trashy recipe means many things.  It often includes unlikely, cheap and/or processed ingredients, it's generally easy to make, and it usually becomes much more than the sum of its parts.  This recipe is all those things. It has only four simple ingredients and takes only about 10 minutes of cooking time plus resting and cooling. And it is amazing!  You've got to make it.  It'll become your holiday tradition forever!

All you need is:

40 saltine crackers (one sleeve)
1 cup butter (2 sticks/ 1/2 lb)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 bag chocolate chips

Plus (optional) pecans, white chocolate chips, or anything else you'd care to sprinkle on top.  

I used whole wheat soda crackers because they were out of regular ones at the store, but normal saltines with salted tops are best in this.  I used dark chocolate chips but semi-sweet or milk chocolate ones are good too.  

First preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prep your pan.  You can do this on a non-stick cookie sheet but mine isn't as non-stick as it used to be so I used a couple of layers of foil to keep it from sticking.

First cover in normal foil making sure it hangs over all sides.

Then I used my favourite trick, non-stick foil over top.  If you don't have the non-stick foil you can just use another layer of foil lightly sprayed with cooking spray. You just want to make sure there's no place for the liquid caramel to escape under the foil.

Now lay out your saltine cracker evenly on the cookie sheet.  I used 40 for this pan.  You can use a larger pan if you have one. Just make sure the crackers are flat and even.  If there are a few broken ones, no worries, just piece them together as best you can so there's no space between them.

Now take your cup of butter.  You know butter packages have measurements on them, right?

Add 3/4 cup brown sugar to the butter in a small pot.

Bring to a boil over medium high heat and boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  

Pour the hot caramel over the crackers in the pan.

Spread it evenly to cover all the crackers, right to the edge.  Then pop it in the oven for 5 minutes.

The caramel will bubble and melt into the crackers.  Carefully remove it from the oven, keeping the pan level.

Let it sit for 3 minutes to cool slightly.  The crackers will sort of float to the surface.

If the crackers are uneven, use a butter knife to lay them flat so none are overlapping.

Now pour the bag of chocolate chips evenly over top.  Let them melt for about 5 minutes.

Once the chocolate chips are softened, spread them with an offset spatula (or regular spatula).

Keep spreading...

...until you have an even layer of chocolate over the caramel crackers. 

Now you can add some toppings if you want.  Pecans are good, or other nuts.  I added some white chocolate chips just for contrast.  A sprinkle of sea salt is a classy topping too.  

Now, put it in the fridge or a cool place for about 20 minutes to firm up.  I put mine outside on a cold day which is easier than finding room in the fridge.

Once firm, break it up into small-ish pieces.

Keep breaking it up.  Don't eat it all while you're doing this - very important.

Now package it up in an airtight container and store it in the fridge.  It also freezes beautifully.  I like to serve it cold but it will be ok at room temperature. The chocolate just gets a little softer.  

This is so simple to make for such great results, you've got to try it.  People go nuts for it. 

Thanks Leila for introducing me to this!