Homemade Fudgesicles

I love making treats for my family and in the past it was almost always baked treats.  But my oven's not working AND I'm trying to watch what I eat, so believe it or not the only baked good this year has been birthday cakes for my beloved.

While perusing Pinterest one day a pin caught my eye for Homemade Fudgesicles and I had to give them a try.  The recipe is from Brown Eyed Baker and can be found here.

They were a hit!  And while all this chocolatey goodness is cooking on the stovetop you'll have a real challenge keeping yourself from dipping a spoon in, you know, all in the name of quality control.

I'm thinking that I should keep some of these in the freezer for any time my butterfly granddaughter stops by (face painting at the Easter festival at our church).

Yep, even the adults loved them.  I have a set of popsicle molds (see the one Brooklyn's holding above), but they actually were rather cumbersome so I think we all decided that going forward we'll stick with the tiny Dixie cups and craft sticks.  We liked the small size and they were easy to remove from the wrapper.

HOMEMADE FUDGESICLES
recipe from Brown Eyed Baker

1/4 cup chocolate chips

2/3 cups sugar

2 T cornstarch

3 T cocoa powder

2 1/2 cups whole milk

1 t vanilla

1 T unsalted butter

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time at half power, stirring after each time, until creamy.

Add the melted chocolate chips, sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder and milk to a medium pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.  Remove from heat and add the vanilla and butter, stirring until well combined.

Let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes, then pour into small Dixie cups.  Place the cups in an 8x8 pan (or similar) and place in the freezer.  Freeze for 20-30 minutes, then insert craft sticks and freeze completely.

To serve - hold your hand around the Dixie cup for about a minute to loosen the fudgesicle and it will pop right out!

Note:  After these were frozen I put them all in a large freezer bag and sealed to keep freezer burn away.

This pan is ready for the freezer!




** Linking to Tuesdays at the Table, Terrific Tuesday, Crazy Sweet Tuesday, Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits, Tasty Tuesday

S'mores In The Oven

So the first three day weekend of the summer is now over. We went to the lake, but since the lake level was 11 feet high we didn't even get in the water. However, we did go down to the boat ramp and watch some of the action. The picture above shows probably the most amazing boat I've ever seen as they were putting it back on the trailer. The boat was big enough that it required a semi to pull - who says there's a recession?? With the excess water the truck had to back this far into the water just to be able to find the boat ramp and be able to get the boat back on. The "little" boat to the left is a nice sized normal boat, but it looks a little small next to that big one.

And above shows what a little determination can accomplish. We had planned to roast hot dogs and then make S'mores for dessert, but the rain made it a little uncomfortable to be outside manning the fire. Plan B was to boil the hot dogs and pop in the Miss Congeniality 2 dvd - excellent family evening. Lynne' still wanted s'mores, so her Plan B was to line a 13x9 pan with foil, put the graham cracker, chocolate bar and marshmallow on top, then set the pan under the broiler (watch this CLOSELY - it took probably about 30 seconds is all!). She then put the top graham cracker on and pressed it down - Perfect! And while she was preparing these we discovered that Keith had never tasted a s'more - ever! So last night was his first and I don't think he was over impressed simply because he's not a big fan of sweets. But Lynne' and I had a big smile on our faces. :)

Kit Kat Bars

Last night I made the first holiday treat of this season - Kit Kat Bars.  They turned out amazing and took almost no time at all to prepare.

I first saw the recipe on Bev's blog and immediately knew this was one I needed to try.  Be warned though - they are very, very sweet and very, very rich.  Keith isn't as much of a chocolate fanatic as I am, so he just had a small bite.  This leaves me with an entire 13x9 pan to enjoy.  ;)    just kidding...

I think this might be my new "go to" recipe to take for holiday functions.  And since it's kind of a cross between a cookie and candy it will go in with cookie boxes quite nicely.

"Man cannot live by chocolate alone, but woman sure can!"  - Unknown

Retreat Treats

These are the two snacks I prepared last Thursday night to take with me on retreat. Rice Krispie Treats on the left, which are one of my absolute favorites, maybe because I'm a kid at heart???

And my new favorite take along dessert snack, Symphony Brownies by Paula Deen. Love her or not, this gal can cook and these brownies are no exception. I left a couple of Rice Krispie Treats and a couple of brownies for Keith to eat and I think he was pleased when I returned home with a few of each. Did I mention we had a LOT of food?!?!?


SYMPHONY BROWNIES

1 package of brownie mix (17.6 ounce or up to about 20 ounce)
3 (5 ounce) Symphony candy bars

Line a 13x9 cake pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.

Prepare the brownie mix according to the directions on the package. Spoon half the batter into the prepared pan and smooth with a spatula. Place the candy bars all in a row on top of the batter, then cover with remaining batter, smoothing the top.

Bake according to brownie package directions. Cool completely, then lift from the pan using the edges of the foil. Cut into squares and enjoy!

WARNING: These brownies are soooo rich when they are warm. A little will go a long way. :)

"There's nothing better than a good friend, except perhaps a good friend with chocolate!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated our holiday a day early by going out to dinner last night. Tonight is my Weight Watcher meeting and we could go out after, but fear of the crowds sent us out early.

Before leaving the house I had time to try a new fudge recipe - a Weight Watcher fudge recipe believe it or not! It said to cool for two hours before cutting, so I hurried and got it in the fridge before Keith got home from work.

When we got home from dinner I set about getting some little gifties made for my workmates. The recipe claims that each 1 1/3 inch square is only 2 points, but as you can see by the photo of the pan my "squares" weren't really all that square. ;)

I placed two pieces of fudge in the middle of a piece of saran wrap and tied it with curly ribbon. This morning at work I went around and left a little package on workmates desks.

I do believe this will be my new "go to" fudge recipe. It isn't quite as over the top sweet as some and it is the creamiest I think I've ever had. I'll try to get the recipe posted in the next couple of days. And I will run it through the WW calculator to double check the points as well.

A Little Christmas Cheer

Keith started wrapping gifts last night and Joe was right there to supervise!

I don't do much of the gift wrapping at our house. The gifts that I have wrapped in the past were many times met with the raising of the eyebrows of both the husband and the daughter, both of which manage to create stunning gifts. So it really didn't upset me a lot to pass that particular item on to them and let their creations bless others with their beauty. Really...they are that nice.

--<>--

I just got a tin of the most wonderful candy ever! They are called Caramel Candy (she thoughtfully gave us the recipe with the chocolates), but I think they taste just like turtles. A very gracious gift given by a workmate and the presentation was beautiful. She did tell me that I should take them home and give them to Keith since they were not WW friendly. And even though weigh in is today, I ate half of one.

You know, just to test them out. I had to do it for her.

Always doing my part to spread good cheer.....

Chocolatey Goodness

On our way back home this weekend I somehow convinced Keith to stop by the Russell Stover Store in Corsicana. You can't see it in the picture, but behind and to the right of the store is the giant plant where they make the confectionary delights. During business hours they have tours and while I was disappointed to have missed that, perhaps it was from the best. Can you imagine their faces when one of the tour guests - that would be me - had to stop and embrace all that chocolatey goodness?

Lest anyone think that Keith stopped there just for me to visit the store, I'm going to tell the rest of the story. He actually would NOT have stopped and that actually IS for me. He knows that I'm doing really well on my losing weight and even though the saying is "like a kid in a candy store" he knows that an "Elizabeth in a chocolate store" is just asking for diet sabotage. And he would NOT have stopped for himself because even though he enjoys a slice of chocolate cake on occasion he's just not that excited about candy. What he WILL stop for is a geocache. I found one online called "My love for chocolate" or something like that and of course immediately loaded it into the gps. We searched for this cache for a little while before I gave up and said "Really, since we're here anyway we should go inside." What a dastardly plot indeed. ;)

So now today I'm quite popular at work. I bought a case (I kid you not!) of the cutest little tin boxes that have 4 of the Whitman's assorted chocolates inside. This morning I left a tin on the desk of everybody in my area and it was fun hearing their reactions.

I've learned that everybody here loves chocolate. And I've learned that even more than chocolate everybody here loves little tins - LOL! I've also learned that chocolate surprises make people smile a LOT!

Another popular saying is that "diamonds are a girl's best friend (bff?)", but I'm here to tell you that chocolate makes an awfully good second best friend (2bff?).