Hot Chocolate, Hot Cocoa or Spicy Mocha?

When I was growing up my Dad made me Hot Cocoa and Toast every morning for breakfast. And still today every once in a while I crave Hot Cocoa. We're having another very hard winter, with bitter cold temperatures and way too much snow and ice. Hot Cocoa is such an under utilized comfort food and with more snow predicted for this weekend, I thought it would be perfect for our Valentine's Day Brunch.

The Hot Cocoa recipe was inspired by Giada De Laurentiis' Spicy Mocha. I say inspired because when I wanted to make Giada's recipe, of course, I was short on the proper ingredients. So I used what I had on hand and substituted this and that and the end result was incredibly wonderful. And since we have the most wonderful local dairy, Oberweis, which has the best creamy, ultra thick 2% Chocolate Milk, I used Chocolate Milk as my base. A few weeks later, I made the recipe exactly as per Giada's original recipe. Honestly and with no disrespect to Giada, I think my recipe is better.

And I'm from Michigan and we drink Cocoa not Mocha or Hot Chocolate. :)







Michelle's Hot Cocoa
Recipe developed from what I had on hand at the time

4-5 cups chocolate milk, use a good brand that is thick and creamy
1/2 tsp Hot Hungarian Paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I use Penzeys Vietnamese Extra Fancy)
1 heaping TBL instant espresso powder

Topping: Whipped Cream and Sprinkles

Heat chocolate milk in a small sauce pan. Add hot paprika, cinnamon and espresso powder and thoroughly whisk until well blended. Pour Hot Cocoa into thick mugs and top with whipped cream and sprinkles. Enjoy!!







All Rights Reserved 2008-10 © BigBlackDog

Whisk Wednesday -- Profiteroles au Chocolat or an Old-fashioned Chocolate Ice Cream Soda

This week's menu for Whisk Wednesdays was Profiteroles au Chocolat or Profiteroles with Vanilla Ice Cream and Hot Chocolate Sauce. In American speak that's basically an ice cream sundae on a cream puff.

Well it's summer and I'm living large, so in place of the ice cream sundae I made a tall, cool Chocolate Ice Cream Soda! And since choux is not one of my favorite things, I decided to skip the pastry and made mini Coconut-Chocolate Chip Cookies instead.

It's funny how I came about buying the Coconut Flour. I was at the store and had the bag of Coconut Flour in my hand but because of our frugal recession budget I put the flour back on the shelf instead of in my cart. And that evening I was cruising some baking blogs and happened upon my blogging buddy, Elyse's Confectionery Creations, and I'll be darned, Elyse had posted Chocolate Chip Cookies made with Coconut Flour! The next time I was at my market I did not hesitate with the Coconut Flour!







Vanilla Ice Cream
Recipe developed in the kitchen of Big-Black-Dog

3 egg yolks
1/2 c sugar (I used 1/4 c. Splenda Sugar Blend)
1 c heavy cream
2 c milk
1 whole vanilla bean

Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the dark seeds. Set aside.

Whisk eggs, add cream and beat for several minutes gradually adding sugar. Pour mixture into a small sauce pan and heat until it becomes thick. Remove from heat and add scrapings from vanilla bean. Cool to room temperature. Then put mixture in the refrigerator and cool completely. Pour chilled ice cream mix into your Ice Cream Maker and follow manufacturer's directions.


Chocolate Sauce
Recipe adapted from Le Cordon Bleu at Home

7 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into pieces
1/2 c milk
4 TBL unsalted butter (I used 1 TBL butter)

Heat the milk in the microwave until hot but not boiling. In a small bowl add the semisweet chocolate pieces and butter. Pour the hot milk over the chocolate and butter. Let this sit until the chocolate and butter is completely melted. Once the chocolate is melted, whisk until the chocolate is smooth.







Mini Coconut-Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe adapted from Nestle Tollhouse Cookies

3/4 c Flour
1/2 c. Coconut Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 c Butter, softened
3/8 c Sugar
3/8 c Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 large egg
1 c (6 oz) semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1/2 c chopped nuts

Mix the butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add vanilla, salt, baking soda, egg. Sift together the flour and coconut flour and gradually add the flour mix to the sugar mix. Blend in the chocolate morsels and nuts.

Line a baking sheet with parchment. Using a 1 tsp scoop, drop dough by level teaspoon. I usually shape the cookies a little bit with my fingers.

Bake at 350 degrees until the cookies are just golden brown on the bottom. Remove cookies from sheet and cool on a rack.


Chocolate Soda with Cookie Crumbles
Recipe developed by Big-Black-Dog

Vanilla Ice Cream
1/4 c. Chocolate Sauce
Dr. Brown's Cream Soda

Topping:
Whipped Cream, Cherry and some cookie crumbles

Mix the chocolate sauce with about 1 c. of soda and pour into a tall glass. Add ice cream and pour a little bit more soda on top the ice cream to make it foam. Top with whipped cream, cherry and some cookie crumbles. And don't forget the straw!

Serve on a saucer filled with Mini Coconut-Chocolate Chip Cookies.








All Rights Reserved 2008-9 © Big Black Dog

Strawberry Lemonade

Oh...I am so behind! And I know I'm behind in making my "once a week" lemonades but heck I am so far behind that I'm at the point that it probably does not matter much any more. In the last 2 weeks I've had a touch of food poisoning, a double ear infection, my modem went haywire, virus program was mysteriously disabled and Mr. Tastebuds had minor outpatient surgery! And to top it off Daring Bakers reveal day is tomorrow. So I'm just a little scattered at this point and having a problem with run on sentences.

Now I'll take a breath and get right on with it............

I made Strawberry Lemonade yesterday and it's probably my best lemonade so far! It did not even need the extra sugar on the rim because the strawberries were so sweet. And it's the most gorgeous pinky-red color similar to a Florida sunset. I know strawberry season is almost over but this lemonade is so good, especially with the mint leaves, it's definitely worth the last of your berries!!





Strawberry Lemonade
Recipe developed in the kitchen of Big-Black-Dog

6 whole lemons, juiced
Zest of 3 whole lemons
Water, enough when combined with the lemon juice you have 4 cups
1 c. sugar
abt 20 medium-sized strawberries, processed until smooth
2 large mint leaves

Garnish: 1 whole strawberry and a Lemon slice or mint sprig

Juice 6 fresh lemons and zest 2 of the lemons. Add enough water to the lemon juice to make 4 cups of liquid. Add processed strawberries and stir. Strain to remove any of the nasty strawberry seeds. Add 1 cup sugar or more to taste and the lemon zest. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Muddle the mint leaves in the bottom of the glass, add lemonade and stir. Add ice. Garish with fresh strawberry and lemon slice or mint leaves.






My Strawberry Lemonade is my entry in Sugar High Fridays #14 Berries blog event hosted by Susan of FoodBlogga.





All Rights Reserved 2008 © Big Black Dog

Frrrrrozen Hot Chocolate!

I was watching the FoodNetwork a few weeks ago and a Frozen Hot Chocolate dessert caught my eye. It was from the Serendipity 3 Restaurant in New York and I just had to try it.

I searched for a recipe and did find several but decided to just wing it. It's an easy dessert to make and exact measurements are not necessary.

Frozen Hot Chocolate
Recipe developed in the kitchen of Big-Black-Dog

2 large frozen desserts

6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 TBL powdered sweet chocolate **See Note
2 c. milk
5 c. ice cubes
Whipped cream
Chocolate shavings or a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips

Heat 1 c. of milk in the microwave. Put chocolate chips in a small bowl and add the hot milk. When the chocolate chips are completely melted, add the powdered sweet chocolate and remaining milk and thoroughly mix. Cool to room temperature.

It's best to make this in 2 batches because 5 c. of ice is too much for most blenders. Put about 2 1/2 c. of ice cubes in a blender and add 1/2 the chocolate mixture. Blend until smooth. Pour into a large goblet or bowl and garnish with whipped cream sprinkled with chocolate shavings.

Note: I used Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate.



July is National Ice Cream Month and Nikki of Nik Snacks is hosting an Ice Cream You Scream Blog event and my Frrrozen Hot Chocolate is my entry.


All Rights Reserved 2008 © Big Black Dog

Blueberry Lemonade!

Okay, here's my beverage for our 4th of July feast and it's blueberry lemonade! And it tastes just yummy too. It came out a bit more purple then I thought it would but it's still a fun drink and my husband, Mr. Tastebuds, loved it.





Blueberry Lemonade
Recipe developed in the kitchen of Big-Black-Dog

6 whole fresh lemons
1 cup sugar
1/2 c. fresh blueberries
Water

Garnish:
1 whole fresh strawberry
Several fresh blueberries
Course sugar **See note

Juice and zest 6 fresh lemons putting aside 1/4 c. of juice. Add enough water to the lemon juice to make 4 cups of liquid.

In a blender process blueberries until smooth. In a small bowl mix the processed blueberries with 1/4 c. lemon juice and strain.

Add 1 cup sugar to the blueberry lemon mixture and pop it in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Let the cool to room temperature.

Add the blueberries to the lemon juice and water and mix well.

Fill a pitcher with ice and pour the blueberry lemonade over the ice and chill.

Moisten edge of glass and dip in course sugar. Garish with a strawberry and blueberries.

Note: I usually do the sugar dipping ahead of time. As the sugar dries it will stick to the edge of the glass. This way you only get a taste of the sugar while sipping your drink.







All Rights Reserved 2008 © Big Black Dog

Bikinis and Lemonade

Whenever I drink lemonade or sit on my patio in the warm summer sun a popular '60s tune always pops into my head.....

"She was afraid to come out of the locker
She was as nervous as she could be
She was afraid to come out of the locker
She was afraid that somebody would see
One, two, three, four, tell the people what she wore

It was an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini
That she wore for the first time today.
An itsy bitsy teentie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini
So in the locker she wanted to stay.
Two, three, four, stick around we'll tell you more"

Lemonade has always been 1 of my favorite non-caffeine beverages. My Mom made the best lemonade but I've never been able to duplicate hers. She did not use a recipe just fresh lemons, water, sugar and always slices of fresh lime as a garnish. This weekend I experimented a bit and came up with a substitute. My concoction is a pink lemonade but it's pretty darn good.





Pink Lemonade
Recipe developed in the kitchen of Big-Black-Dog

6 whole fresh lemons
1 cup sugar
Water
1 fresh lime
1 c. unsweetened cranberry juice

Garnish:
1 whole lime, sliced thin
Course sugar **See note
Sugar coated Jelly

Juice and zest 6 fresh lemons. Add enough water to the lemon juice to make 4 cups of liquid. Add 1 cup sugar or more to taste and the lemon zest. Zest 1 lime and add the zest. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Fill pitcher with ice and lemonade. Moisten edge of glass and dip in course sugar. Garish with fresh lime slices and a jelly.

Note: I usually do the sugar dipping ahead of time. As the sugar dries it will stick to the edge of the glass. This way you only get a taste of the sugar while sipping your drink.






My Pink Lemonade is my entry in "Eat to the Beat" hosted by Elly of Elly Says Opa.




All Rights Reserved 2008 © Big Black Dog