Day 9: Swirled Peppermint Bark

The 12 Days of Christmas Baking On the 9th Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me.. Some Chocolatey and Refreshing Peppermint Bark!

Are you one of those people, that when you see desserts with peppermint you move on to the next dessert?? Well that was us, up until now! Before this Christmas, we never had peppermint bark and never really cared for anything flavored with peppermint.

We had a baking party the other day and wanted to make some kind of peppermint bark. Our friend Sarah suggested that we make peppermint bark because it's her favorite! We said why not, not really expecting to like it. Well, little did we know that we would LOVE it! We plan on making this recipe for all the Christmases to come!

Ingredients

12 oz white chocolate

12oz either dark or bittersweet chocolate

2 Tbs Vegetable Oil, divided

6 oz Peppermint Candy Canes

Directions

Line a 13 x 9 baking pan with foil( use non stick foil), make sure you let the sides overhang so you can pull the bark out when its done.In a heavy duty zip lock bag, crush the peppermints.

In a double boiler, melt the dark or semisweet chocolate and 1 Tbs of oil and stir until smooth. Pour the chocolate into the baking pan and evenly smooth out. Place in the fridge for about 15 minutes to firm. In a double boiler, melt the white chocolate and 1 Tbs of oil and stir until smooth. Remove the dark or semisweet chocolate from the fridge and with a paper towel, blot off and moisture that has accumulated on the top. Pour the white chocolate over the dark chocolate. Sprinkle the peppermint candies over the white chocolate.Place in fridge to firm for about 1 hour. Remove and cut to your desired shape and size.

*We didn't wait the complete 15 minutes for our semisweet chocolate to cool so when we put the white chocolate on top, it melted in the semisweet chocolate and created a swirled affect! =)

Day 3: Peanut Butter Fudge

The 12 Days of Christmas Baking On the 3rd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me A lot of ooey gooey peanut butter fudge!!

This recipe is truly a perfect Christmas fudge. We don't know why, but the only time we make peanut butter desserts is usually around christmas time! What we love MOST about this recipe is that the fudge has graham cracker crumbs in it. It gives the fudge really nice texture that is irresistible!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups peanut butter

2 sticks butter, softened

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1\2 tsp vanilla

12 oz of powedered sugar (We used about 3\4 of a 1lb box).

12 oz milk chocolate chips

1 1\2 cups of peanut butter

Directions:

First mix the first 5 ingredients in a bowl until all combined. Then, spread evenly into a 13" x 9" baking dish.

Then, melt the chocolate and peanut butter in the microwave.

Spread this mixture over the peanut butter layer.

Sprinkle the top with some graham cracker crumbs!

This recipe is so easy and so fast! I think it took us all of 10 minutes to do! You can't ask for anything more simple. 10 minutes, no baking, and it tastes heavenly. We'll be making this recipe for all the Christmases to come!

Day 2: Oreo Truffles

The 12 Days of Christmas Baking On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me These TO DIE FOR Oreo Truffles.

Ok , if there is one recipe that is a GUARANTEE, this is it! It is so simple and they are ridiculously, amazingly, good! Oreo truffles are a decadent, rich, delicious dessert . If you haven't tried this recipe yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??!"

There are several reasons why we like to make Oreo Truffles.

First, of course, Oreo balls are sinfully good!

Second, they are rich enough that most people will eat only a few. So Oreo balls make great treats for parties or get togethers because they go a long way.

Third, the Oreo balls recipe is pretty inexpensive to make. Since this recipe makes about 3 dozen, it is a bargain.

The Oreo balls recipe only uses four simple ingredients. Most of us have at least some of the ingredients sitting in our kitchens already. Also, you can make these for any holiday! Just play with the chocolates and the decorations!

They're so good that they make you want to make a little snowman out of them!

SEE??!

Here is the recipe!

INGREDIENTS:

1 pkg of oreos

8oz cream cheese

1\2 tsp vanilla extract

1lb of white chocolate almond bark, chopped

DIRECTIONS:

Using a food processor, grind cookies to a fine powder. With a mixer, blend cookie powder, cream cheese and vanilla extract until thoroughly mixed.

Roll into small balls and place on wax-lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate for 45 minutes.

Line two cookie sheets with wax paper. In the microwave, melt the white chocolate almond bark in a heat-proof bowl. Dip balls and coat thoroughly. Using two forks, lift balls out of chocolate and let excess chocolate drip off. Place on wax-paper-lined cookie sheet.

Store in airtight container, in refrigerator.

Black Magic Chocolate Cake with Nutella Frosting!

This recipe is our FAVORITE cake recipe! Whether you're a chocolate lover or not, you'll love this cake! We came across this recipe when our cousin in Italy made something very similar to it. Over the years we've modified it to our liking and truly created something so good! It consists of a moist chocolate cake with a filling and frosting that is made of only whipping cream and nutella. It's so simple yet so amazing!

The cake recipe is from Ina Garten's beatty's chocolate cake. We discovered this recipe a couple years ago and have loved it ever since. The cake recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

Butter, for greasing the pans 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans 2 cups sugar 3/4 cups good cocoa powder 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup buttermilk, shaken 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.

The frosting is so simple! The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

2 cups of heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup nutella

Directions

Whip the heavy cream until thick anf fluffy. Place the nutella in a large bowl and slowy add the whipped cream to it, folding it in. When you have incorporated all the whip cream into the nutella it should be a mocha color. If the cream is too pale or the nutella flavor isn't strong enough, feel free to add more nutella by the tablespoon! I probably added up to 3/4 cup into my frosting!

TWD: Chipster-Topped Brownies

We know, we know! We're a day late with this post. We've just been really busy, but we will try to get back to posting on Tuesdays! We almost skipped this recipe but then we thought, how could we skip on this recipe!! This week's Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) recipe was chosen by Beth of Supplicious: Chipster-Topped Brownies. You can find the recipe here!

These turned out really yummy! We don't know how no one thought of this recipe before. Brownies AND Chocolate chip cookies! What more could you want. =)

We cooked these for 10 minutes longer and keep them covered for half of the time.

The brownie layer was moist and chocolatey and the cookie layer was golden brown and crunchy. We used bittersweet chocolate for the brownies because we couldn't find unsweeted chocolate! We definietley would make these again, but next time just bake them a little longer because the very middle of the pan was a little undercooked!

Make sure you visit the TWD Blogroll to see what everyone else thought about this weeks recipe!

* Recipes notes:

- We used 9 oz of bittersweet chocolate in place of the 6 oz bittersweet and 3 oz of unsweetened chocolate.

- We omitted the walnuts from the brownie layer.

- We placed a foil tent over the brownies for half of the cooking time,

Black and White Cupcakes

We have been baking a lot lately... A LOT....For sure 1-2 times a week. Sometimes more... We came to the point to other day where we said, "Ok we're only gonna bake once a week." Well... Then Lisa came across this recipe. Bake or Break is one of our favorite food blogs. We have tried several of Jennifer's recipes and they ALL came out great so far!

These are chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese filling. They are Y-U-M-M-Y. Thank God Lisa and her boyfriend are bring these to his Aunt and Uncle's house tonight because we definitely could eat them all up!

You can find the recipe here!

We know these aren't the most photogenic cupcakes, but looks can be deceiving sometimes! ;)

Nutella Self-Frosted Cake

We've came across this recipe several times for a while now. We never got a chance to making it until now and we wished we wouldn't have waited that long! We don't know many people who don't like nutella. Actually.... we know ONE person...

::cough:: ::sarah:: ::cough::

Nutella is amazing and this cake is just perfect! Its a good dessert to have after dinner and even better to have in the morning with coffee or tea.

You could either make this as a cake, like we did, or also as cupcakes.

Nutella Frosted Cupcakes

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup, 12 oz) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

Nutella, approx. 1/3 cup

Preheat oven to 325F.

Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners or grease the cups with some butter. Alternatively, butter an 8-inch round cake pan. Cream together butter and sugar until light, 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Don’t worry if the batter doesn’t look smooth. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.

Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full (or pour all the batter into the cake pan). The batter will be thick. Top each cake with a dollop (I used about 2 tsp per cupcake and about 1/3 cup dolloped in tablespoon measures for the cake round) of Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the nutella.

Bake cupcakes for about 20 minutes and the round cake for 25-30.

Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.Makes 12 cupcakes or 1 8-inch round cake.

We did a recipe and a half and used a 9inch cake pan. We think next time we'll just stick to 1 recipe so the cake part will be a little thinner and you'll get more nutella with each bite!

ENJOY! =)

OUR NEW FAVORITE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!!

We are always on the search for a good recipe for chocolate chip cookies. These cookies were on the thin side, but very chewy and yummy!! We added in some toffee bits to make them even better! This recipe is from Alton Brown and you can find it here.

Give them a try you won't regret it!!!

TWD: Chocolate Amaretti Torte

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) recipe was chosen by Holly of Phe.MOM.enon: 15 Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte. Aside from ground almonds, one of the main ingredients in this torte are amaretti cookies. We LOVE amaretti cookies. We have a cake that we have made several times and everybpdy always loves it. Its a cake with almonds and amaretti. We tried to recreate the cake after we had it in Italy at our Aunt's house. Took a few tries, but we got it down!

We were excited to try this recipe, but we are sad to say that we weren't crazy about this cake. We weren't crazy about the texture. It just wasn't anything special and did not meet our expectations. Oh well! Better luck next time.

You can find the recipe here!

Devils Food White-Out Cake

We made this cake to celebrate our brother Paolo and our mother's bithdays! We won't be able to eat it till Easter Sunday so we can't tell you just yet how it tastes, but it sure does look YUMMY!

You can find the recipe here!