Chocolate Margarita Recipes

Yesterday was my friend Ingrid's birthday. She's a huge fan of Margaritas, so in her honor, I thought I'd post two recipes for Chocolate Margaritas. As always use the best ingredients for the best flavor! Both recipes suggest chocolate rims. How about adding a little salt to the rim mixture? Salt will bring out the chocolate and make this a bit more similar (ok, not all that similar) to a traditional margarita.

I. CHOCOLATE MARGARITA
A simple recipe from Blenderking.com:  (Per serving)

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces Tequila
1 ounce Godiva liquor
3/4 ounce cream or half & half
1 Tbsp Hershey’s syrup
2 ounces orange juice
Ice

Directions
Shaker, not blender: Throw the ingredients into your shaker for a few quick shakes and pour into a margarita glass with crushed oreos lining the rim! Enjoy!

II. CHOCOLATE MARGARITA
And, from Marcela Valladolid at Foodnetwork.com. This recipe is for a crowd:

To rim the glasses:
Chocolate syrup
Finely chopped Mexican or bittersweet chocolate

Margarita:
1/2 cup chocolate syrup
1 cup (8 ounces) tequila
1/2 cup (4 ounces) chocolate liqueur
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup orange liqueur
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Ice

Directions

To rim the glasses: Put the syrup and chopped chocolate into 2 small dishes. Moisten the rims of 4 margarita or martini glasses with the chocolate syrup. Dip them in the Mexican chocolate until coated. Set aside.

Margarita: Combine all of the ingredients, except ice, in a pitcher. Working in batches, transfer the mixture to a shaker full of ice. Shake and pour into the prepared glasses. Serve cold.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, INGRID!

Milk Chocolate Truffles: Milk Chocolate Day!

Photo: Ghirardelli Chocolate!

Today is National Milk Chocolate Day. If you've been reading my blog, you know I'm more of a dark chocolate fan, but I have to be fair to those lovers of Milk Chocolate, especially today!

I love this easy truffle recipe from Ghirardelli Chocolate. Ghirardelli makes a great Luxe Milk Chocolate bar. As always, use what you have or like!

MILK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES


Ingredients
1 pound Milk Chocolate, chopped (I use Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Chocolate)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp sweet butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder -Ghirardelli (or chopped nuts)

Directions
Melt milk chocolate, heavy cream and butter in top of double boiler or in saucepan over another saucepan over simmering water. As soon as mixture is smooth, remove from heat and transfer into bowl or baking dish. Cover chocolate mixture with plastic wrap. Chill in refrigerator up to 2 hours.
Spread cocoa powder (or chopped nuts) in shallow plate.
Using melonballer, scoop chocolate and roll into balls between your hands. Then roll ball of chocolate in cocoa (or chopped nuts) until well coated. Place truffles on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat until you finish making all truffles. Allow truffles to set for about an hour.
Store in airtight container in refrigerator. Truffles are best served at room temperature.

Scotch Brownies for National Scotch Day!

You can never have too many Brownie recipes. Being that today is Scotch Day, I thought I'd repost this recipe for Brownies with 'Scotch' as the 'secret' ingredient,  recipe adapted from DrinkoftheWeek.com's Whiskey Brownies. This recipe, of course, can be made without the Scotch — but why would you want to do that? As always, use the very best ingredients--great Scotch, great chocolate!

Scotch Brownies

Ingredients
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup sweet butter
2 Tbsp water
2 eggs
6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (60-75% cacao)
1 tsp Madagascar vanilla
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup Scotch (yeah, these are pretty boozy!)

Directions
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9" square pan.
In bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In saucepan combine sugar, butter, and water; cook over low heat to light boil.
Take off heat and add chocolate and vanilla; stir until smooth. Add in egg (one at time), beating well after each addition.
Add flour mixture and nuts (optional); stir well.
Pour mixture into prepared baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Cool in pan on rack. After cooled, sprinkle with Scotch. Really let it soak in.
When cooled completely remove from pan and top with Chocolate Glaze.

The recipe at Drink of the Week has an excellent rich chocolate icing, but I think you might as well go all the way with the "Scotch" Brownie theme, so here's a chocolate icing for these brownies that is made with Scotch.

Scotch infused Icing

Ingredients
1-1/2 ounces unsweetened or very dark (85%-up) chocolate
1/4 cup sweet butter
2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp half-and-half
1 Tbsp good Scotch
1/2 tsp Madagascar vanilla extract

Directions
In top of double boiler, melt chocolate with  butter. Combine rest of ingredients in bowl and with electric mixer, beat in melted chocolate and butter. Beat until smooth. Mixture is runny, but stiffens as it cools. Ice cooled brownies.

or... have a glass of Scotch today!

Chocolate Coffee Zucchini Bread

I  know it's not National Zucchini Day ... or Zucchini Bread Day, for that matter, but with the abundance of zucchini in the garden, I decided to post yet another recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread. The 'secret' ingredient  of this particular chocolate zucchini bread is 'Coffee'. If you've been following my daily posts, you know that coffee often enhances the flavor of chocolate, and you'll find that in this recipe! As always, your final results will only be as good as your ingredients. Use the very best cocoa, fresh oil, and good coffee.

Chocolate Coffee Zucchini Bread 

ingredients
1-1/2 cups shredded fresh zucchini (approximately 1 zucchini)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup brewed coffee, cold
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg white
1 tsp Madagascar vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup Flour
1/2 cup unsweetened DARK cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup Walnuts,  chopped (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350° F
Lightly oil 9×5 bread pan.
Shred zucchini using fine shredding disc on food processor or hand shredder. I usually wrap the shredded zucchini in a paper towel and squeeze after shredding to get out excess moisture. Do this before measuring.
Measure 1-1/2 cups and set aside.
Beat together oil, brewed coffee, sugar, egg and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients until incorporated, then beat together until smooth. Fold in shredded zucchini and walnuts (optional). Once zucchini incorporated, pour into prepared pan and bake 55 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out dry. Remove  from oven and cool on wire rack. Remove from pan after cooling for 15 minutes.