The three layers of cake with the coconut frosting are amazing!

German Chocolate Cake – (From The Joy of Baking)

• 4 ounces (120 grams) semi sweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 1/4 cups (270 grams) cake flour
• 3/4 cup (60 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch processed)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (240 ml) hot coffee or boiling water
• 1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk
• 1 1/4 cups (280 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 1/4 cups (450 grams) granulated white sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Coconut Pecan Frosting

• 1 1/4 cups (125 grams) pecans (roasted)
  
• 1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
• 1 cup (240 ml) evaporated milk (can also use light or heavy cream)
• 3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups (150 grams) sweetened flaked coconut
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

The Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and move the rack to the center of oven. Butter or spray three 8-inch cake pans.  On top of spraying the pans line them with parchment paper.  To see how to line pans with parchment click here.  The parchment will help you remove the cake pans in one piece without break them.

In a double boiler or a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

On a piece of wax paper or parchment, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the hot water/coffee and buttermilk.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the sugar and butter until fluffy (this will take about 2-4 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla extract and beat to combine.

Add the buttermilk mixture and flour mixtures in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat only until the ingredients are incorporated. Fold in the melted chocolate.

Divide the batter evenly among the three prepared pans and smooth the tops. If you make a little well in the center of the cakes they will cook flat.  Cakes rise the most in the center so creating a well will allow them to rise totally flat.

Bake for about 30 – 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes. Butter or lightly spray a wire rack with a non stick vegetable spray before inverting the cakes onto the rack to prevent the cakes from sticking. Cool the cakes completely before frosting.

Coconut Pecan Frosting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Roast the pecans on a baking sheet and bake for about 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned with a nutty scent. Remove from oven, let cool, and then coarsely chop.

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, milk, egg yolks, butter, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, and when the mixture begins to boil and thicken, remove from heat. Stir in the chopped pecans, coconut, and vanilla extract.

Let cool until spreadable.

Creating the ultimate layer cake

Place a dab of frosting on a serving plate.  This will hold the cake in place so that it does not move around.  Then, place one layer of cake, on your serving plate, and cover with one third of the frosting. Do the same for the second layer.

Then add the third cake layer and frost the top of the cake with the remaining frosting (the sides of the cake are left bare).

The finished cake can be stored at room temperature for a couple of days or it can be refrigerated.

Dream Bars II

The crust is perfect.  The top is almost there, but not quite.

Dream Bars #2

• Crust
  • 6 tbs butter – Room Temperature
    
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • pinch of salt
• Topping
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbs flour
  • 1/2 cup coconut
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together the butter and the brown sugar.  When light and fluffy add the oats, flour and salt.  Press the crust into a 8×8 pan.  I am using a smaller pan for this as I want a nice thick bar instead of a puny little bar.

Press into a pan

Place the crust in the preheated oven and cook for 10 minutes.

While the crust is blind baking, mix the eggs and brown sugar in a bowl.  Stir in the flour and vanilla.  Mix well.  Then finally fold in the nuts and coconut.  Don’t worry this will be a bit runny.  I decided to remove some of the flour and all of the baking powder as I did not want the bars to have the consistency of a cookie.  The Dream Bars from Pot Belly are moist and chewy.  Hopefully this change will help.

Mix up the filling

Place the chocolate chips over the pre-baked crust.  Then spread the topping mixture over the top of the pre-baked crust.  Spread it out evenly.  Place the pan back into the preheated oven for another 12-15 minutes.  Remove when the top turns golden brown.

Spread out the filling

Let cool before cutting.

Let cool before eating

These are my closest try so far.  Not quite there.  The crust was perfect but the topping still needs a little work.  The topping was not as chewy as I hoped.  The layer of chocolate in the middle is nice, but does not follow the dream bars that I am trying to re-create.  I think these tasted better than the Dream Bar I recipe, however, neither fits the bill for the pot belly dream bars.  Any thoughts, let me know.

Dream Bar Try #1

Not quite the same, but still a damn good cookie bar.

Dream Bar #1 (AKA – First Try)

• Crust
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 2 tbs vegetable oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt
• Filling
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tbs flour
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together the shortening and the brown sugar.  When light and fluffy add the vegetable oil, oats, flour and salt.  If the mixture needs a little more moisture to stay together, add a tad bit more oil.

Mix together and add oil until the mixture comes together

Grease your hands with a tad bit of vegetable oil and press the mixture into a 9×13 pan.  Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Make sure to grease your hands to press this into the pan, otherwise you will have hulk hands.

While the crust is blind baking, mix the eggs and brown sugar in a bowl.  Stir in the flour, baking powder and vanilla.  Mix well.  Then finally fold in the nuts, coconut and chocolate chips.  Don’t worry this will be a bit runny.

The filling will be a tad bit on the liquid side.

Spread the mixture over the top of the pre-baked crust.  Spread it out evenly.  Place the pan back into the preheated oven for another 12-15 minutes.  Remove when the top turns golden brown.

Golden brown and ready to eat

Let cool before cutting.

These tasted like Dream Bars, but did not have the right texture or consistency.  Not that they are bad, they were actually awesome.  I enjoyed them a ton.  I might actually make these again.  The top was chocolate chip cookie like and the bottom was soft and chewy and the middle was gooey awesome.  While not quite the Dream bars that I wanted, they were tasty.

Homemade Chocolate Fudge

Serve it in paper cupcake cups or just stacked on a plate.

Chocolate Fudge – From Alton Brown

• 2 3/4 cups sugar
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 3 tablespoons butter, plus more for greasing pan
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 1 tablespoon corn syrup
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped, roasted nuts, optional

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar, chocolate, 1 1/2 tablespoons of the butter, half-and-half, and corn syrup.  I know it is a lot of sugar and it doesn’t appear brown, but don’t worry.  It will end up being the most amazing fudge ever.

Doesn't look like fudge now, but it will. Keep on stirring.

Over medium heat, stir with a wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved and chocolate is melted.  Make sure that all of the sugar is dissolved.  You do not want grainy fudge.

Looks like fudge now

Increase heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and boil for 3 minutes. Remove the cover and attach a candy thermometer to the pot. Use any kitchen thermometer that you have that will read to around 234 degrees.  I didn’t have a candy thermometer but I had a deep frying thermometer that hit that temperature.  Note – next Christmas I could use a candy thermometer.

Boiling the mixture

Cook until the thermometer reads 234 degrees F.   Remove from the heat and add the remaining butter. Do not stir. Let the mixture cool for 10 minutes or until it drops to 130 degrees F.

The butter will immediately sink and melt, don't stir.

After 10 minutes, add vanilla and nuts and mix until well-blended and the shiny texture becomes matte.  You will see a noticeable change in the texture of the chocolate.  Don’t worry, just keep stirring.

Vanilla brings out the true flavors of chocolate. They sound like opposites but they compliment each other perfectly.

Grease an 8 by 8-inch pan with butter.  Pour into the prepared pan. Let sit in cool dry area until firm. I know what you are thinking but there should be enough fudge left in the pan and on the spatula to keep your cravings at bay.  Cut into 1-inch pieces and serve.  If you want you can make this up to a week ahead of time as long as you store it in an airtight container.

On a side note, that chocolate was boiling so wait a few minutes before licking the bowl clean.  I may have burned my index finger and tongue.  Ok, I burned the heck out of them, but it was well worth it.  The fudge was amazing.  Although it has been 4 days and I literally haven’t tasted anything since the fudge.  Live and learn.

Let the fudge cool completely before eating

This is a great little dessert for a party or the perfect treat to leave out for Santa.  He told me he loves fudge.  After eating so many cookies, it is nice to have something a little different.

Tip – If serving at a party, place each individual square into a paper cupcake liner.  Then place the liners onto a tray and serve.

No-Bake Cookies

The hardest part is waiting for them to set.

No-Bake Cookies - (From Mom)

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 stick Margarine – I tried butter, but they don’t set right.
  
• 2 cups oatmeal
• 1/2 peanut butter
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1 tsp vanilla

Place the sugar, milk, cocoa and margarine into a pan and bring to a boil.  Start slow to fully melt the butter and then bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally.  When the mixture starts to boil, set the timer for 1 minute.  After a minute remove it from the stove.

Allow the sugar to dissolve and mixture to boil

Add the peanut butter, oatmeal, coconut and vanilla.  Stir until everything is mixed in.  Let cool for a minute.

Add the uncooked ingredients

Place a sheet of parchment/or wax paper onto a flat surface.  Then using a tablespoon drop the cookies onto the parchment paper.  This should yield about 2 dozen cookies.  Feel free to make them as big as you like.  Remember the bigger that you make them, the longer you have to wait for them to set.

Place on parchment or wax paper to set

After about a half hour they should be set.  Feel free to eat them.  Let them cool all the way before storing them in a airtight container.  Enjoy!!

Lessons learned:  I tried to use butter instead of margarine and it did not turn out well.  The cookies never set completely.  They ended up sticky and gooey.  With margarine they set up quick and easily.

Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Muffins

Alternating the batter will give you nice swirls.

Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Muffins

Pumpkin Muffin Batter – (Adapted from the American club, in Kohler, Wisconsin via Gourmet Magazine)

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 15 oz can pumpkin
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Chocolate Muffin Batter

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2/3 cup butter, softened
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt

Hardware

• 24 paper muffin cups
• 2 – 12 cup muffin pans

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Place the pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of your mixer and mix on medium until smooth, then turn your mixer to low and mix in the flour until just combined.  Then place the mixture into a large bowl.

Clean the mixer bowl and then place the sugar, eggs, baking poweder, vanilla, milk and butter into the bowl.  Mix on medium/low until smooth.  Then turn the mixer to low and mix in the flour and cocoa powder.

Batters ready to go

Line the muffin pans with the paper liners.  Alternate spooning in the pumpkin batter and the chocolate batter into the cups.  Fill the cups till they are about 3/4 full.  If you like muffin tops like I do, then fill them a bit higher.

Alternating the batter will allow you to portion the two batters easily

Place the pans in the preheated 350 degree oven and bake until puffed and wooden =skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25-30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool on rack for 5 minutes.

Fresh out of the oven

Then remove the muffins from the pan and then let them cool till room temperature.

Let cool before placing them into a air tight container for storage

These muffins are really good.  I ate 3 while taking pictures.

Pretty on the inside too.

Enjoy!

  Ultimate Smores

• 1 Cinnamon Sugar Graham Crackers – Original will work, but the cinnamon sugar makes the smore.
• 2 Large marshmallows
• 1 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup
• 1/2 Hershey’s Chocolate Bar

According to Jeff, the recipe developed from Spud trying a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup instead of just a standard chocolate bar.  While tasty, it lacked enough chocolate and was dry in the mouth.  Here comes the moment of genius.  Spud added a chocolate bar to the mix.  Yes, chocolate on chocolate.  Awesome!!

The first step is to build a fire.  Since we live in the DC metro area, we used a firepit.   While not a bonfire, it makes awesome coals to perfectly roast a marshmallow.

Living in a city is not that bad, when you have a firepit.

After about 20 minutes you have perfect coals.

Watch out for sparks

Then using a roasting stick or an old coat hanger as we did, roast the marshmallows over the coals.

Make sure to rotate the marshmallows. You don't want them to burn.

Turning the marshmallow over the coals will allow you to perfectly roast the marshmallow.  Stay away from the flames, marshmallows catch on fire quite easily. 

Sorry about the pic, it was the best one that I had showing my roasting skills.

Now its time to assemble the ultimate smore.  Take the graham cracker and break it into two squares.  Next, place a peanut butter cup on one half.  And place half of a chocolate bar on the other half.  You will need an extra set of hands to make this come out perfectly.  While holding both halfs of the graham cracker, have your assistant place the marshmallows on top of the peanut butter cup.  Then slowly place the other half of the graham cracker with the chocolate bar on the top.  Pressing gently, have your assistant remove the stick from the marshmallows. 

How awesome does that look.

These are the best smores I have ever had.  The mixture of the cinnamon sugar graham cracker with the chocolate peanut butter is to die for.  There is the perfect amount of chocolate, peanut butter and marshmallow.  You can try it without the other piece of chocolate, but you will be sorry.  It needs the extra amount of chocolate.

My ulimate brownies are loaded with caramel, chocolate and walnuts.

They are moist and delicious and require four napkins to eat.  Awesome!!

Ultimate Chocolate Brownies – (Adapted from Alton Brown’s Cocoa Brownies)

• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar, sifted
• 1 cup brown sugar, sifted
• 8 ounces melted butter
• 1 1/4 cups cocoa, sifted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup flour, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 bag of caramels
• 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup milk

The first step is to start the caramels melting on the stove top. This takes about 15 minutes.  Place the unwrapped caramels in a sauce pan with 1/2 cup of milk.  Slowly melt the caramels on low heat, stirring frequently.  At this time I would also melt the chocolate chips either over a double boiler, or in the microwave at 20 second intervals.

Next preheat the oven to 300 degrees and grease a 8×8 pan.  I use a non-stick spray and then cover the bottom of the pan with parchment.  The allows for easy removal later.

Now sift your flour, cocoa powder and both sugars.  The sugar is easily sifted using a food processor.  Sifting brown sugar any other way is extremely hard due to its moisture content.

In your mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the four eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow.

Once the eggs are fluffy, remove the whisk attachment and replace it with your beater attachment.  Then add both the brown and granulated sugar.  Once the sugar is mixed in, add the remaining ingredients.  The melted butter, cocoa powder, flour, vanilla extract and salt.  Stir until incorporated.  Don’t over mix. 

Mix until everything is just incorporated. Make sure to add the butter before you add the chocolate cocoa powder and flour.

Now place half of the dough in the greased pan. 

Place half of the batter into the pan and spread out evenly.

Now layer with the melted chocolate.

Drizzle the chocolate all over. No need to make it uniform.

Add the walnuts and drizzle with the melted caramel (slightly cooled).

Now cover the caramel with the remaining brownie batter.  Don’t worry if you can’t spread the batter evenly.  Having a few pockets of caramel makes the brownies look even more delicious.  Plus, when the batter heats up, it will spread and evenly coat the top.

Cover with the remaining batter. Spread it out the best you can. When it heats up, it will spread out all over the top.

Bake on the center rack of a 300 degree preheated oven for 45-50 minutes.  Check with a toothpick for doneness.  Remember you layered in melted chocolate so your readings might be a tad bit off.  I usually bake until the top crust forms and cracks when tapped.  The tap test is the best way since the middle of the brownies is molten from the chocolate and caramel.

Fresh out of the oven, you can see a little caramel popping through.

When done, remove from the oven and let cool in the pan on a rack for at least 30 minutes before cutting.

They are so delicious. I ate three already.

Serve with a ice cold glass of milk. 

That last sentence to a while to write. Make that four brownies...

These brownies are amazing. They are chewy and have a surprise in the middle.  Delicious.

I have been on a quest for the best chocolate chip cookies for a while.  After a while I have figured out the ingredients needed to make a really good cookie.  You need to use both butter and shortening.  If you use all butter your cookies come out flat and crunchy.  If you use all shortening your cookies come out fluffly but don’t spread out.  A perfect balance of the two gives you a light and fluffy cookie that is not too thick and not too thin.

Chocolate Chip Cookies – (Adapted from The Worlds Best Chocolate Chip Cookies from Chef2Chef.com)

•  3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Butter
• 1/2 Cup Shortening
• 1.5 Tbs Vanilla – 1 Tbs if you are using mexican vanilla (it has a stronger flavor)
• 2 Eggs
• 3 Cups Bread Flour
• 3/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 3/4 tsp Salt – (Preferably Kosher or Fine Sea Salt)
• 1 Bag of Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Side Note – I just want to take a minute to let you know that if you have a kitchen aid mixer you should get a beater blade.  The original blade that comes with the mixer works great but requires that you scrape the edges of the bowl so that everything is incorporated.  The beater blade has silicone scrapers on the edge of the blade that scrape the edges and make it so that you do not need this step.

Back to cooking.  Add room temperature butter, shortening, sugar and brown sugar to your bowl.  Mix at medium speed creaming the butter and sugar. 

Now add the eggs slightly beaten and the vanilla.  Vanilla is a compliment to chocolate, so by adding the vanilla you are going to enhance the chocolate flavor.  Who doesn’t want more chocolately chocolate.  I know I do!

While that is mixing sift the flour and baking soda onto a piece of wax paper or parchment.  This step can be skipped but if you want the perfect textured cookies, I recommend that you sift your flour.  Then once your flour is sifted you can use the wax paper or parchment as a funnel to get the ingredients in the bowl.  This makes less of a mess when incorporating flour.  Otherwise you might end up looking like casper the friendly ghost. 

I used a strainer to sift the flour. It works great. No need to buy expensive equipment.

The wax paper makes pouring the flour into the mixer easy.

Mix until the flour is incorporated.  Then fold the chocolate chips in with your favorite wooden spoon or spatula.

Now portion the cookies out onto a baking sheet covered in parchment or a silpat.  I use an ice cream scoop to portion out the cookies.  I have found that I could get six cookies per sheet.

Using an ice cream scoop makes sure that all of the cookies are the same size.

The silpat is reusable and thus saves money in the long run.

Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes.  Remember to take them out when they get stiff.  If the cookies look done they are probably over done.  That is one of the biggest mistakes most cooks make.  An overdone cookie is a crime.

When the cookies are done, remove them from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.