Valentine's Day

Want a quick and easy Valentine's dessert? How about Chocolate Fondue! All you have to do is melt some good quality chocolate (about 8 oz) with some whipping cream (about 3/4 cup). You can play around with the consistency of the sauce by using more or less cream. And you can use milk for a lower-fat version, but it isn't quite as rich and smooth. Dip firm fruit (strawberries, orange segments, apples, pineapple), cake, cookies, or marshmallows into the warm chocolate. And if there is any left over sauce, use your imagination!

Ultimate Brownies

This is a recipe I can claim as my own. I combined a couple of Brownie recipes, then tweaked it to develop the ultimate brownies. These are not your bake-sale brownies, not your quick-treat-for-the-kids brownies. These are a chocoholics delight, especially if you follow the instructions for the Million Dollar Brownies at the end.

3 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 oz dark chocolate
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp dark rum
1/3 cup flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp sour cream

Melt chocolates and butter. Whisk eggs with sugar and rum. Stir in chocolate. Mix dry ingredients separately, then fold into chocolate mixture. Fold in sour cream. Bake in 9 inch pan for 30 minutes at 325F. The edges should just be pulling away from sides of pan. Let cool in pan for an hour, then place in fridge for about an hour before cutting.

For Million Dollar Brownies, chop 4 oz each white, milk and dark chocolate. Add half to batter. Melt remaining chocolates separately. Drop spoonfuls on top of batter in pan, then swirl for a marbled effect. Bake as above.

Gingerbread cookies

I know its a little late, but I got too busy with Christmas to post recipes for Christmas baking. Better late than never? At least they will be here for next year.

This is a recipe for a soft gingerbread cookie. It rolls out nicely, and makes a lot! You can cut the recipe in half, but they do freeze well, so I make the whole batch, then pull them out of the freezer just when we think all the cookies are gone.

1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup molasses
2/3 cup water
6 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves

Cream butter and sugar. Add molasses and water-it will appear curdled, its okay. Mix the spices and baking soda into the flour, then add all but about 1/2 cup to creamed mixture. It will get quite thick! Sprinkle the remaining flour on a clean surface, then roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out with cookie cutters and bake at 350F for 8 to 10 minutes.

I sometimes use half whole wheat flour, and I've been known to add fresh grated ginger, as well. I also roll out half the dough at a time for the first rolling, just because its a large amount. And you can make these throughout the year, not just Christmas. I don't usually ice them, but they can be decorated.

Cranberry Chocolate Mini Scones

This is a recipe I found a few years ago in a book called Death by Chocolate. They are so good right out of the oven (well, cooled down for 10 minutes), but do keep for a day or two. They also freeze very well, so I usually freeze half the batch.

3 1/2 cups flour
2 Tbsp baking powder
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup butter, cut into 8 pieces (chilled)
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients together. Add the butter and cut in. I've found you can do this with a mixer with a paddle, it takes about 2 minutes. Add the buttermilk, cranberries and chocolate chips and mix just until combined. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and pat out to a thickness of 3/4 inch. Cut with a 1 1/2 inch biscuit cutter, gently re-rolling extra dough and cutting it. Bake at 325F for 12-14 minutes, until light golden.

This should make 3-4 dozen, depending on the exact size of your biscuit cutter and how thick you make them. If you don't have a biscuit cutter, a small juice glass works well.

Cherry Balls

This is the other recipe I would help my grandmother with. When the Shortbread and Cherry balls were made, it was Christmas!

1/2 cup icing sugar
1 1/2 cups dessicated coconut
1/2 cup butter
1 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp almond flavouring

Mix together and roll around
2 dozen maraschino cherries

then roll in
1 cup graham wafer crumbs

Store in fridge, letting warm up a bit before serving.

Shortbread Cookies

Oops! Been a bit longer than I meant between postings. Hope you don't think it is too early to start with Christmas recipes, but I wanted to give people a chance to try some out before the holiday busy season. This is the recipe my grandmother would make every year. We would wait until she came for Christmas, then I would help her make shortbread cookies.

1 cup butter (at room temperature)
2 cups flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup icing sugar

Cream butter, then blend in sugars and 1/2 cup flour. Work in balance of flour. Roll out on a lightly floured surface (1/4 inch thick) and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes (just until bottoms are lightly browned).

I have various size star-shaped cookie cutters I like to use for these. And last year, I got some snowflakes - can't wait to use them!

Apple Crumble

One of the guys at work brought in a bag full of apples from his tree, so I was inspired to make Apple Crumble (or Crisp- what is the difference?). This is a simple recipe to scale up for a crowd, because the topping is made from equal amounts of the ingredients.

Topping
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 tbsp cinnamon (optional)

Filling
4-6 apples
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp sugar (white or brown)

Slice apples into pieces about 1/8 inch thick and toss with sugar and cinnamon. Pour into a medium sized casserole dish (the wider the dish, the more surface area for topping). In a large bowl, mix flour, oats, sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter until it is the size of the oats. Sprinkle over the apples, and bake at 375 for 35-45 minutes. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving. This is terrific with vanilla or cinnamon ice cream. And I've been known to have it for breakfast (oats are healthy, right? And apples are wonderfully healthy)