Deep Dark Chocolate Bar

Wishing all my readers a Happy Valentines Day! 

This valentines day is a little different for me. So, what's happening in my life is that I'm doing this 10 week weight loss challenge with my bootcamp group. Its going great and I love it - but the biggest change I made to my eating habits is that I cut out sugar. Totally. Big, huge, humongous step for me. You all know how much I love that nasty little thing. But I've given it up. And after 4 weeks, I don't even crave it. An orange seems way too sweet for me now. 

But what's Valentines Day without a little chocolate right? I bravely told my husband not to bother getting me chocolates this year - he has my permission to get a box of protein powder instead. But I did hear a separate conversation between my daughter and him - and she made sure he still gets her a box of chocolates because she too is his valentine and that she's not off sugar or anything like that. What a loving family I have. 

Anyways, on my quest for some healthy chocolate recipes (and also the fact that I indulged in a little impulsive shopping when I saw this little chocolate bar mold), I came across this wonderful recipe from a chocolate lover's blog -  Three-Ingredient Chocolate Bars from chocolatecoveredkatie.com. Thank You Katie for making my dream come true! I'm saving this as a classic favorite recipe for all my life. 

The recipe is very simple. Three Ingredients. About three minutes to make. That's it.

Start of course, with some Cocoa Powder.

Next, some Organic Unrefined Coconut Oil. I was surprised to see how relatively healthy this is compared to the other oils and butters. And it smells divine too. And no, I'm not a spokesperson for them. 

The original recipe from Katie's blog uses Stevia extract to make a sugar free indulgence. But I chose to use Agave instead just because I wanted to make it in the 5 mins after I saw the recipe and I could not wait to go to the store to buy stevia extract and besides Agave is amazing as well!

The ratio of ingredients is 1/4 cup cocoa: 1/4 cup coconut oil: 1 tbsp Agave. 

I doubled that ratio while making this as you can see below. 

Measure out 1/2 cup of coconut oil. Add 2 tbsp of Agave to the oil.

 Stir well together. I love this color btw.

Measure out 1/2 cup of cocoa powder.

Add to the oil mix and stir together scraping the sides.

There's some magic showing already. On a very tangential note, did you know you could probably get a facial done with this - well, maybe without the agave. Ok. let't not go there and just stick to the eating part here.

Pour into molds. Can you see why I was obsessed with making this. My new silicone chocolate bar mold. Love it!

I just poured the remaining on a parchment sheet.

Tried some sweetened coconut and almond toppings. We all need variety right?

I haven't yet perfected the art of filling these up just right - but hey, when has a little extra overflowing chocolate hurt anyone?

Pop them into the fridge and just in about 20 mins, they are solid and amazing. You can chop them neatly or break them rough. Just play with them. They've been good to you.

Since virgin coconut oil hardens at temperature below 76F, these turn solid really quick in the refrigerator  Hence this recipe won't work with any other oils.

Enjoy some gorgeous Deep Dark Chocolate. These are great to make hot chocolate drinks too. Btw - these are bitter and I thought my daughter would not like these but she turned out a surprise and loved them!

Happy Valentines Day to all!

Enjoy. Peace Out!

Mocha Chocolate Shortbread

When there's happiness to be shared, it should always be accompanied by chocolate. Is that not true?

So, here I'am sharing happiness with all of you again. And that does come with chocolate too. There are many reasons to be thankful and happy - and my biggest reason now is that my little girl is here - she was born the first week in November. And yes, when the say a baby changes life, its all true. Now I have two little girls to spoil - and oh yes a lot more girly shopping that I can indulge in!

Another big reason to be thankful and happy is that my blog turns 3 today! My heartfelt thanks to all of you for being a part of the blog. Thanks for all your wonderful and supportive feedback even though I've not been very active the last couple of months.

Here's a super easy shortbread recipe - a favorite of mine from the Southern Living magazine archives. If you have an IPad - download the Southern Living My Recipes app - it provides a beautiful dessert recipe for every day of the year and some more. The app costs about 4 bucks but its all worth it if you enjoy baking or just looking at pretty pictures.

Here the link to the original recipe - Mocha Chocolate Shortbread from Southern Living 

Get all your ingredients in place.

1 1/4 cup of All purpose flour
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
2 tsps of Instant coffee granules ( I used taster's choice)
2/3 cup of softened butter
2 cups of semi - sweet chocolate chip morsels
2 tsps vanilla extract - the recipe calls for it - but I was all out and just skipped using it. Trust me, I did not miss it

The great thing about this recipe is that it is an eggless recipe as well and takes about 5 mins to prepare. You can make this as a quick dessert when you have friends over for an impromptu dinner.

To a mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar and instant coffee crystals.

Add the butter and vanilla extract and mix well in slow speed. It is very important that the butter is softened and not completely melted in order to get the crisp texture of the shortbread.

And this is how the dough looks once mixed well.

Now add 1 cup of the semi sweet chocolate chips to the dough and mix well using a spatula.

Spread out the dough in an ungreased 9 inch square pan.

Using a fork, poke in a few times to aerate the surface.

Bake in a pre heated oven at 325F for about 20 mins until the top gets a little brown.

Switch off the oven and immediately add the remaining 1 cup of semi sweet morsels. I added a few more of milk chocolate morsels ( because two little hands and a mouth ate some of my semi sweet chips in the pretext of helping me in the kitchen!)

In a couple of mins, the chocolate chips would be melted. Spread it around with a spatula and make an even coating of chocolate on top of the shortbread.

Can I just dive in here and swim??

Cut the shortbread into little pieces while its still warm. Then let it cool for about 30 mins to an hr. That's the hardest part of the whole process.

Obviously I could wait - who has 30 mins, right?? These were just oh so melt in your mouth good. Glad I did not wait...all the wet chocolate is worth the warm shortbread..if you know what I mean..just go ahead and indulge. 

Since the theme for A Sweet Punch Series this month was anything that we'd like to bake, I'm sending this across there as well. 

Enjoy. Peace Out!

And Thank You for making 3 years of blogging so much fun!

Magic Mint Chocolate Barks

Its Christmas season and the lights and festivities are all over town. Every place is beautifully decorated and red and green seem to be the colors in charge now.

You know what else is great about this season. Shopping? Yes, of course. But also the very seasonal sweets available everywhere - Fruit cakes, Candy canes, Eggnog, Gingerbread, Pies etc. And the hero of this post as well - Mint! Found these bags of Dark Chocolate & Mint morsels at my store and I just had to buy these. What a wonderful combo.

I actually wanted to bake brownies with these first but then came across this 2 minute recipe from one of my favorite sites - Nestle's Very Best Baking site.

Tell you the truth - there is no recipe here. No measuring anything. No mixing anything. No blending anything. Just cut, spread, bake and swirl. All of it takes about 3 mins..including the baking time! Magic Really! But it does make a really pretty little thing to get your hand on.

The other great thing about this is that it is an absolute perfect chocolate dish to cook with your kids. Get those little munchikins around you and get baking and spread the joy. They can do the whole thing except for sticking it in the hot oven and taking it out when ready. And the sense of pride and accomplishment that follows a bite of the mint bark that 'they' made is priceless.

I also added white chocolate to the dark chocolate and mint mix. And I made a lot of quantity as I was making these as gifts for a very special group of people I was meeting - more foodies like me. Our first local LA Area bloggers meet was planned over the weekend. I met 4 other fun gals and we had a really fun time chatting up. And these were little gifts for them. Thank you gals for a very memorable time!

So let's get on to the barks..woof woof..

Here are the morsel packs..like you can't see.

Take your favorite baking sheet and line it with a layer of aluminum foil. Pour the chocolate morsels on here and press it down so that they sit next to each other and form one layer.

This one was extra curvy at the top - must be the model of the batch!

Move the baking sheet into a pre heated oven at 350F and heat up for about 3-4 mins. You'll see the chips getting soft and shiny. Time to take out.

Using a toothpick, swirl around the morsels - this is the fun part.

And here's a little tip - if you want your barks to look more minty - just swirl them and leave it to set. If you want them to look chocolatey like mine does - use a small spatula and even out the top - the dark chocolate moves across and it makes the whole thing look more chocolatey - then, swirl one last time to get the good lines and patterns.

Can you see that the part of the left side of the baking sheet has been swirled with little fingers? Oh yeah..she had a lot of fun - but before she would do more- she wanted to lick the toothpick! So much for little chefs!

Drag the toothpick from one side to other and you can create these fun patterns.

Let the baking sheet cool down to room temperature. Then, move it to the fridge for at least a couple of hrs. I made these late at night and hence left them in the fridge overnight.

And I woke up the next morning to the smell of mint and chocolate. Side note - they taste great with coffee too.

You can see that its completely set and at this point, its just a thick sheet of chocolate.

Using a strong knife - try to cut lengthwise into wide strips - the bark will break when you cut but that's totally fine. 

And then just snap and break the wide strips into little squares. Done. 

How easy was that?

But wait a min - what is that in my bark? A bird? Can you see a little bird there?

How about now? This looks like a little bird with its long beak. Wow - this bird found the right bark to come settle down! Maybe its one of my ancestors..

I packed some of these in little lollipop sacks with a pretty little bow. For the girls.

I think these would also make a wonderful return gift if you are hosting a bday party or baby shower or something. Won't it?

Oh well..here's a jug full of Magic minty barks - Enjoy the season and spread the joy!

                                  

Enjoy! Peace Out!