Chocolate Dipped Bananas

My boyfriend works as a valet at the DFW airport. They changed the dress code this summer to NO SHORTS and my poor honey has to stand outside in this 100+ degree weather in a heavy black polo and black pants! So I made him a sweet frozen treat to help him cool off after a long day at work.




Chocolate Covered Bananas
8 popsicle sticks
4 bananas, halved crosswise
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp sugar
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate
finely chopped pecans, if desired

Insert the popsicle sticks into the thick end of the banana. Place on wax paper and freeze for at least 2 hours.

In a small saucepan, heat the cream and stir in the sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside. In a double broiler, heat chocolate until melted. Add the heavy cream mixture and stir until smooth.

Remove the bananas from the freezer and roll in the chocolate, covering them completely and place back on the wax paper. Sprinkle with nuts, if desired. Place back into the freezer until ready to eat.

We had a lot of chocolate left over, so I dipped some strawberries in them, too, and just placed those in the fridge until the chocolate set.

S'mores Treats and Birthday Wishes!

Today is my amazing boyfriend Matt's 25th birthday! As a special treat, I made an invention of his: S'mores Treats! We created them together for a bake sale last ear and they were such a big hit they have become a bake sale staple. I've spent the last few days studying for a tax midterm so I love having the excuse of Matt's birthday to make sweets. One of the best things about him is that he is so easy to please. A PB&J makes him just as happy as gourmet sushi and I just love it! Makes my life easier.


We normally mix chocolate chips directly into the mix but they always melt and make a phenomenal, gooey, delicious mess. This time, in honor of his birthday, I put a little more effort into it and dipped the bottoms into melted chocolate and drizzled it on top.

Delicious!

S'mores Treats
6 cups Golden Grahams
1/2 stick butter
10 0z bag of marshmallows
chocolate

Melt the butter in a large pot and then fold in the marshmallows, stirring until melted. Remove from heat and stir in the cereal, then spread into a buttered pan. Let sit until cool. Once cool, cut into squares. Melt the chocolate, then dip the bottoms of the squares into the chocolate and invert on a cooling rack. Refrigerate to set the chocolate. Once it has set, flip them over and drizzle remaining chocolate over the top.

Chocolate Pecan Torte

As promised, my first food post is the torte I mentioned. This recipe was given to me by my grandmother when she found out that I had no use for my food processor. Funnily enough, after I bought everything to make the torte, I got out said food processor and discovered that at some point in the 4 years I have owned it and never used it, I lost the bowl attachment! So I improvised and used my blender. First food lesson? Blenders are not good substitutes for food processors.


Chocolate Pecan Torte
1 cup nuts
4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
1/2 cup flour

You can use any kind of nuts for this recipe; I chose pecans because the grocery store I went to only had pecans, walnuts, and almonds, and pecans sounded the tastiest. Plus I planned on taking this to my boyfriend's mother, and she has a walnut allergy.

I've never had a torte before. The closest I have come is drooling at the Sacher Torte that they serve at La Madeleine. So I was pretty surprised to look at the recipe and see only half a cup of flour, but wikipedia informed me that a torte uses ground nuts in substitute of flour.

After preheating the oven to 325 degrees and lining a spring form pan with parchment and butter, I started out by putting the chocolate and the pecans in the blender and ground them into a fine paste. So far so good.

The next step of adding the sugar and butter was a little tricky. My poor little blender, try as it might, could not handle all that thickness! So I turned to my trusty KitchenAid mixer and hoped for the best. A whisk attachment is not really a substitute for blades, so everything didn't get ground up like I'm sure it was supposed to.


I added the eggs one at a time, then followed with the flour. When I scraped the batter into the pan, it didn't look smooth at all:

After half an hour in the oven it looked pretty good, and smelled amazing! Bob the Fish approved.



I made whipped cream to go with it, and took it over to Matt's parent's house yesterday, and it was a hit! Matt's mom liked it so much she asked me to make it for her birthday cake. I forgot to take my camera with me, but I took this one with my iPhone.


People liked it? Sounds like success to me! But I think I'll get my hands on an actual food processor before I make that birthday cake.