National Chocolate Milkshake Day

Today is National Chocolate Milk Shake Day!

The easiest way to celebrate is to mix a little Milk with Chocolate Ice cream and Chocolate syrup and mix it up in the blender. Or you can mix Milk with Vanilla Ice cream and Chocolate syrup and blend. Measurements are up to you, but I have a few quasi-measurements below for Special Chocolate Milkshakes. 

If you're absolutely Dying for Chocolate, use 1 cup chocolate ice cream, 1/4 cup chocolate syrup and 1/2 cup chocolate milk. Mix in Blender.

A Chocolate Malted Milk Shake is a variation on your traditional chocolate milkshake. Add a Tbsp of malted milk powder to milk, syrup and chocolate ice cream and blend.

Like bananas? Make a Chocolate Banana Milk Shake: 1 cup milk, 1 scoop banana ice-cream, 1 scoop chocolate ice cream, 1/2 ripened banana and some chocolate syrup, and blend.

Jumping ahead to tomorrow's food holiday:  September 13: International Chocolate Day and National Peanut Day, celebrate all three holidays with a Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshake. Blend 1 cup creamy peanut butter, 1/2 cup chocolate syrup, 1/4 cup milk, 12 cubes ice. Blend until smooth. (Ice cubes instead of ice-cream).

Have a great day!

Gluten Free Dutch Cocoa Cookies: Laura K. Curtis

Once again my mystery and chocolate worlds collide! Today Laura K. Curtis is guest posting a fabulous recipe for Gluten-Free Dutch Cocoa Cookies! Laura K. Curtis is a chocoholic and writer. She lives in Westchester county, New York, with her husband and two wild Irish Terriers, who have taught her how easily love can coexist with the desire to kill. Her first novel, Twisted, comes out in November from Penguin/InterMix.

LAURA K. CURTIS:

I used to eat a full package of Archway’s Dutch Cocoa Cookies in a single sitting. This is not something I am proud of, it’s simply fact. In the terminology of the old Weight Watchers, they were “red light” foods. Once I took a bite, I just couldn’t stop eating until they were all gone.

Eventually, I had to stop buying them. Even walking down the cookie aisle was dangerous. I mean, all things come to an end, right? And when I had to give up gluten, it seemed there would be no going back. Of course, once I got over my period of mourning for all the glutinous foods I could no longer eat, I began experimenting with making gluten free versions of all my favorite foods.

Recently, I developed this Archway-like recipe. I hope you enjoy it!

Gluten Free Dutch Cocoa Cookies

Ingredients: 
2 1/8 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour (buy it from King Arthur or Jules Gluten Free, or use Jeanne Sauvage’s recipe to make your own if you have time!)
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa (I like to mix it with black cocoa for extra depth)
1 teaspoon baking soda (fresh!)
1 teaspoon salt (preferably sea salt)
1 ¼ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Decorator’s sugar, sanding sugar, or just extra granulated sugar for rolling (I used Demerara sugar, but I think it might be slightly too crunchy--you want something that’s a bit smaller)

Directions
In a small bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In an electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar together on medium-high until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat to combine. Scrape down bowl so dough is in center and add about 1/3 of the flour mixture. Beat to combine, then slowly add the rest of the flour mixture until thoroughly combined.

Scrape dough from sides again and cover and refrigerate for two hours.

Preheat oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment. Using your fingers and/or a cookie scoop (I love my cookie scoop!) shape cold dough into balls approximately 1.25” in diameter. Roll each ball in decorator’s sugar and place on sheet. (I recommend 10 balls to a sheet in a pattern of three, two, three, two, so that there is about 1.5 inches of space between each.)

Bake approximately 10-12 minutes. Cool on sheet until cookies can be safely lifted to wire racks to finish cooling. Makes approximately 40 cookies.

Home-made Tootsie Rolls

It's officially Fall here.. hot and breezy with high fire danger. This is very different from where I grew up when Fall meant a sharp change in the weather to cool and even cold. Fall back East was all about Football Games, new clothes and new teachers, and Halloween.

This Vintage Tootsie Roll Advertisement reminded me of those days, so for today's post I thought I'd post a recipe for Home-made Tootsie Rolls. I've tried several different recipes, and you might want to search the web for others. Paula Deen has one that has orange extract in it, but this recipe is my favorite. These are perfect for Halloween! You can wrap them individually in orange wrappers!

Notes:
This recipe makes 80 -100 tootsie rolls, but you can roll them out bigger and cut them longer. Remember the 5 cent Tootsie Roll?

As always the brand of chocolate will make a difference. You also might want to substitute 1/2 cup DARK cocoa powder for the unsweetened chocolate. In that case, sift with the dry milk.

Powdered milk, by the way, is not instant milk powder, it's dehydrated milk. Hope you can find it.

I also sift the flour. Not sure if it's necessary, but old habits die hard.

HOME-MADE TOOTSIE ROLLS
This recipe is adapted slightly from Elizabeth LaBau at About.com

Ingredients:
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 tbsp softened butter
3/4 cup powdered milk (not instant.. see note above)
1 tsp Madagascar vanilla extract
2-3 cups powdered sugar (sifted)

Preparation:
1. Melt chocolate in large microwave-safe bowl or in a double boiler over simmering water.
2. Once chocolate is melted and smooth, stir in corn syrup and butter, stirring until butter is melted. Stir in powdered milk and vanilla extract.
3. Add cup of powdered sugar and stir until incorporated. Once that sugar is mixed in, add second cup of powdered sugar and stir to mix. Dough will be getting stiff and might be difficult to stir more powdered sugar into candy.
 4. Dust work surface with powdered sugar and knead the candy until smooth. If still very soft, knead in more powdered sugar until firm but not dry or crumbly. You might need up to 3 cups of powdered sugar total.
5. Once Tootsie Roll candy is smooth and firm but supple texture, break off palm-sized piece and roll into long, thin rope. Using sharp knife, cut it into small pieces and place on baking sheet. Repeat until you have formed all of Tootsie Roll dough into small pieces. Depending on size of rolls, you should get 80-100 pieces.
6. Refrigerate tray of Tootsie Rolls until they firm up, about 1 hour.

Store Tootsie Rolls in an airtight container in refrigerator for up to two weeks.
You can wrap them individually in waxed paper if they start to stick together because of condensation from refrigerator. Bring Tootsie Rolls to room temperature before serving.

Chocolate Bacon Panini: BBC

International Bacon Day was September 5. Better late than never! Chocolate and Bacon go so well. It's the salty fatty thing of the bacon with the sweetness of the chocolate. What a great pairing!

I've posted several chocolate panini recipes over the years, but this recipe from Vosges is terrific and easy if you're hankering for a BBC: Butter Bacon Chocolate Sandwich! Butter, Bread, Bacon and Chocolate! All the food groups!

Mo’s Milk or Dark Bacon Bar Panini 
from Katrina Markoff's Peace and Love Blog (Vosges)
Yields One Sandwich

Equipment needed: Panini press or waffle iron

Ingredients
2 Italian country bread slices about 4-5 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick
2 tbsp Sea salted butter, French brand, Isigny Ste Mere, or make your own by mixing 1/2 tsp Maldon salt and 2 tbsp of a fabulous butter
Pinch Maldon salt
2 squares Vosges‘ Mo’s Milk or Dark Bacon Bar (dark is better!)
2 strips of crispy bacon (this is optional, but I think you should put it in)

Directions
Spread butter on all sides of the bread.
Place bacon bar squares on one piece of bread, followed by strips of bacon if you are using them and a sprinkle of salt.
Place other piece of buttered bread on top and press with Panini press until golden brown.

Tips:
Make sure your bread doesn’t have many gaping holes or your fillings may seep through and burn.
If you don’t have a Panini press substitute with a waffle iron.
Make sure the bread you use isn’t overly crusty or it may cut your mouth a bit when pressed. At the same time don’t choose a overly soft bread not a good quality sign either and it won’t have the rigidity. Try a crusty ciabatta or italian peasant bread.