Have you ever had a frozen hot chocolate? It's one of my favorite summer treats. They're icy and cold - like a cross between a milk shake and a slushy. Frozen hot chocolate might seem like an oxymoron, but these really do taste like hot chocolate and not at all like a regular chocolate shake.

You can make them with your favorite hot chocolate mix, but I like to make mine with milk and cocoa powder. If you decide to use a mix instead, keep in mind that it will get diluted by the ice. Adding in some melted chocolate chips helps it retain an intense chocolatey taste.

I love chocolate and hazelnut together and I decided that frozen hazelnut hot chocolate sounded great. Instead of adding in melted chocolate, I added Nocciolata organic hazelnut spread. Nocciolata is one of the products presented at the recent Fancy Foods Show, and they sent me a jar to review/play around with. The spread is very similar to Nutella, but it's organic. It's also thinner. At first I didn't know how I felt about that - I like the thick, frosting-like consistency of Nutella. But then I realized it means that the Nocciolata is really easy to spread....meaning you can cover more surface area with less spread and save yourself some calories. It also meant that it blended very easily into this frozen hot chocolate and didn't all end up in one blob.

I like that the ingredients are simple: sugar, hazelnut paste, sunflower oil, skim milk powder, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, and vanilla flavoring. That's all. I think that the hazelnut flavor is also more pronounced in the Nocciolata than it is in Nutella, and the spread isn't quite as sweet. It's definitely not something you want to be eating every day, but it does make a very nice treat.

Click to get the recipe for Frozen Hazlenut Hot Chocolate -->

Psst! Hey… you! Over here. I have cookies.

Not just any cookies: soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies. With brown butter. Because what isn’t better with the addition of brown butter?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a dessert. I’ve been trying to stick to the whole healthy thing. But these last few weeks? They’ve been very healthy; some might even say too healthy. And life is all about balance. No matter how delicious my healthy recipes are, if I don’t get a sweet treat every now and then I get very cranky.

And these cookies are just what the doctor ordered if you’re in need of a treat! Their delicate crumb and deep, nutty, toffee-like flavor has driven me to distraction. I had originally planned to use them for ice cream sandwiches, but they were so good on their own that before I knew it, there were only two left! (There also may have been a very pathetic instance of me standing in front of the open freezer, eating dough that I had put in there to bake another day. Who had time for baking?) I decided I had better seize the opportunity while I still could, and sandwiched some vanilla bean ice cream between my last two cookies. I immediately set aside any doubt that I had harbored about the potential for the ice cream to ruin a thing that was already too good to be true. It was easily one of the best ice cream sandwiches I’ve ever eaten.

I’ve already made a mental list of events that I can make these cookies for. Because I clearly can’t be trusted with them sitting unclaimed in my kitchen. If you have more restraint than I do — or are generous enough to share them with coworkers or neighbors who will suddenly be your best friends – I highly recommend making these. ASAP.

Chewy cookies not your cup of tea? Try my recipe for Crispy Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies!

The other day I mentioned on twitter that I have never had rhubarb. The responses were fast and plentiful, and most fell into a rage from disbelief to pity. I never realized it was so popular - I don't even think I knew it existed until a few years ago! I decided that since everyone seemed to love it so much, I should take the plunge and give it a try. I went with the traditional combination of rhubarb with strawberries, but I didn't want to commit to a whole pie. So I made a tart. A tart with a brown sugar shortbread crust.

Ok, fine. Maybe I just didn't feel like dealing with pie crust. But the shortbread crust was perfect. Strawberries and shortbread. Strawberries and brown sugar. How could you go wrong? Especially when you start out with strawberries that look like these:

I mean, strawberries have been awesome this year as it is, but take a look at those beauties! They were every bit as juicy and sweet as they look. Which is good, since I paired them with rhubarb. Which, in case you're like me and have never had it before, is extremely tart. Especially when it's raw. I don't recommend doing what I did and taking a nibble to test it out.

Despite the tartness of that nibble, I could tell that this was going to be a thing of beauty so I forged ahead. Let the berries and rhubarb macerate in sugar to release the juices. Scooped it into the partially bakes cookie crust. Baked it until the filling became luscious and jammy, almost like a grown up version of a linzer tarte. Where has this been all my life?

Click to continue reading Strawberry-Rhubarb Tart with Brown Sugar Shortcrust -->

• You need to mix the batter a lot more than you think you should. It's ok! Start out quickly and the slow down — it should take around 50 strokes. When it's folded enough, the batter will flow like magma, and a line drawn in it with a knife will disappear after about 10 seconds.
• Use a scale. It's much more accurate than trying to measure your ingredients.
• Parchment paper works better than a silpat. I don't know why, but it does.
• Don't crowd your oven. Bake one tray at a time, turning it halfway through so they cook evenly.
• It's much easier to put your "toppings" on before the macarons bake. I don't now why I thought I would be able to get stuff to stick to them once they were baked last time!!

When it's done right, I love tiramisu. But when it's not done right, it can be pretty disappointing - too sweet and too sloppy. So it goes without saying that I had mixed feeling when I saw that the February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession. As part of the challenge, Aparna and Deeba also required that we make our own mascarpone and lady fingers. It seemed like a lot of work for such an iffy outcome, and since I've been so exhausted lately I seriously considered not participating in the challenge. But some of my friends on twitter were encouraging, promising that despite the length of the recipe and the time involved, the dish wasn't complicated to make and that it was some of the best tiramisu they've ever had.

I'm glad I took their advice - this was hands down one of my favorite daring bakers challenges to date. The tiramisu was surprisingly easy to make and it tasted fabulous! Not too sweet (though I did cut down on the sugar slightly) with the perfect balance of cream to cake. It also freezes really well, which is great because keeping it readily accessible in the fridge would be way too dangerous! Keeping it in the freezer allows me to thaw just the amount that I want - and makes it difficult to go back for a second slice! I would definitely make this recipe again - it would be the perfect ending to a dinner party. [....]

Life has been insane lately and I haven't had the time or energy to post, but I couldn't wait any longer to post these.

I hadn't had pineapple upside down cake in forever. I actually kind of forgot that it existed! But a few months ago, a little pineapple upside down bundt cake at Panera caught my eye. i bought one and was happily surprised when the cakes were fully of crunchy little poppy seeds. I loved the texture that they gave the cake! I immediately knew that I wanted to recreate them at home.

These came out great! The pineapple reminds me of summer and makes even the dreariest winter day seem immediately tropical. The pineapple and brown sugar almost melts into the cake, which is moist and doughy with the great crunch. [....]

So here's the deal... I wasn't going to post this cake. First, because I didn't come up with the recipe or change it enough to consider it my own and, second, because of that obnoxious little "healthy" part of Healthy. Delicious. But then I decided that it would be mean of me not to share because oh my goodness this cheesecake was beyond ridiculous and is 100% my new favorite indulgence. My mouth is watering just looking at the pictures.

The entire cake - all 16 slices - was devoured within about 5 minutes. I'm not even going to tell you how many calories was in each slice (believe me, you don't want to know!) but it was worth every last one. It's certainly not a cake to be baking on any old weekend, but for holidays? You can bet I'll be making this one again! As should you! If you have any last minute holiday gatherings this week, I suggest running straight to the store to get what you nee to make this. It'll be the hit of the night. And anyway, we all have another week before our diets start up again, right? ;) [....]

(Before I start talking about these cookies, I'll let you know that there's a great giveaway at the end of this post. Including FREE CHEESE!)

Ok, now that that's out of the way.....

I'm not going to go on and on about how these are the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. I promise. Everyone thinks they're recipe is the best and, honestly, few stand up to the one that printed on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. But sometimes you're looking for something different. Something... crispier! Soft, gooey cookies have their place but sometimes I just want a little bit of crunch. They're great for dunking in eggnog (I don't like dunking soft cookies - they get too soggy) and they keep really well. They best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever? I'll leave that up for debate. But let's just say if I was Santa, whatever kid left me a plate of these would be written on the "nice" list in permanent marker. [....]

People often ask me where I get my inspiration in the kitchen. It's a hard question to answer, because it comes from all sorts of places. Sometimes its a simple as a restaurant menu, a childhood memory, or a random item that catches my eye in the grocery store. Other times it's a little more random - a color, a texture, a feeling. The inspiration for these pumpkin cinnamon buns came from a question. Someone on twitter asked how they should use up some leftover pumpkin cream cheese icing. My mind immediately went to cinnamon buns. Pumpkin and cinnamon goes so well together, and I thought pumpkin cinnamon buns sounded fabulous. I did some research, attempted a few recipes, and finally came up with a pan of buns that I couldn't keep my hands off of. [....]

The 2009 October Daring Bakers' challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming's TheLast Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Macarons. A word that will simultaneously put joy and fear into the heart of any home baker. I was excited to hear that this month's Daring Baker's challenge - I've made them before, but lost the pictures before I had a chance to post them. I've been looking for another excuse to make them. I chose to make chocolate cookie with a salted caramel filling.

In the US, people often confuse French Macarons with macaroons - a cookie made primarily of coconut. Although macaroons are also delicious, they don't even begin to compare to the beauty that is a macaron. Macarons are a sandwich cookie made of almond flour that is combines with sugar and egg white. The texture is a combination of crispy and chewy, with a crispy outer shells that gives way to a soft meringue center. The cookies are sandwich together, often with ganache, caramel, or fruit preserves.[....]