Dagoba Organic Chocolate: A Giveaway!

Greetings! I am back on the east coast, safe and sound at home. It's so nice to be back in Boston! My first trip to San Francisco was great though, and someday I hope to go back. If you're a regular blog reader, you remember from my last post about Good Eats in San Fran, that I may have mentioned a giveaway... Well, here it is!

While in San Fran, I visited a Scharffen Berger store in the Ferry Building Marketplace near the water. Loved that marketplace! It's where I got one of the best oatmeal raisin cookies I've ever had, remember? ;) Anyway, while there, I also visited Scharffen Berger and spent a loooong time perusing the various chocolates they have. Such a variety!! If you're not familiar with the company, it was founded in 1997 and was the first "bean to bar" chocolate maker in America in over 50 years. The company's history is quite interesting; you should check it out!

So the funny thing about this giveaway though is that the bar I bought to give to one of you lucky readers is actually made by Dagoba, not Scharffen Berger. Oops! I didn't even realize it at the time that it wasn't an actual Scharffen Berger bar (I finally realized it when I started to write this blog post! Silly silly me). I have been trying to understand the connection between the two companies, but I'm not quite sure how they're "related." However, it does appear that there is a connection of some sort, as they've paired up in their wholesale orders. Hmmmm... So perhaps that's why the Dagoba is being sold in Scharffen Berger. I loved what I read about Dagoba as a company. Their efforts and actions all work toward "full circle sustainability" and are quite impressive and meaningful! I encourage you to read more about this great company. 

I had such a fun time checking out all the different flavors in the store (both Scharffen Berger and Dagoba!). Sadly, I didn't sample all of them (I would have been there all day!) but I did try a few. They were all delicious, but one flavor in particular that stood out to me was the Dagoba organic chocolate mint flavored bar. This particular bar is dark chocolate (59% cacao) and made with mint and rosemary! Yes, you heard me right - rosemary! How unique. The rosemary flavor was very subtle, but it is there. And it really complemented the mint well too. :)

Because I liked this flavor so much I decided to get one to share with one lucky reader! 

And no, don't worry; this opened bar pictured here is not the one I'm giving away. That's the one I bought for myself. ;)

So what do you need to do to enter this giveaway? Well, I ask that you please leave me a comment here on this post and tell me what your favorite chocolate is. You can tell me if you have a favorite brand of chocolate or even simply if you just prefer milk or dark chocolate - whatever you'd like! Just make sure to somehow answer the question, "What is your favorite chocolate?".

The giveaway will be open for comments (U.S. mailing addresses only, please) until Saturday, March 31st, at 11:59 PM EST. :)

I'll choose one winner at random and will announce the winner on April 1st (and will get your mailing address from you privately). Thanks in advance for entering, friends!

Good Eats in San Francisco

Hello and happy weekend to you all! I've had a great two and a half days so far here in San Francisco. I spent half of Wednesday and all of Thursday exploring various parts of the city, but today I actually had to attend the conference. Sad. :(  Haha, just kidding. The conference is going quite well! One more day of the conference and then it's back to good ol' New England.

More importantly though, I should share a few of the good eats I've enjoyed since I've been here! This is just a sampling...

A delicious sourdough bread bowl filled with a very tasty tomato soup from Boudin Bakery, San Francisco's original sourdough bread. They've been around since 1849!

 As you can see, I liked it. :)

The bread was soooo good!

That same day I visited the Ferry Building Marketplace, where I came across this little bakery called Black Jet Baking company. The cookies pictured above were just a few of the treats I had to choose from...

Which one did I settle on? The oatmeal raisin. And I can honestly say it was one of the best oatmeal raisin cookies I've ever had. Seriously! I was sad when I finished it. :( It was flavorful and chewy and just all-around delicious. And it was huuuuge too! I ate it in small sections throughout the day to savor it...

Oh, and I may have had a beer or two while here as well, including this tasty sampler from Gordon Biersch... My first evening I dined and drank alone (something I've never done until this trip!!) at 21st Amendment, a fabulous local brewery/brew pub.

This breakfast? Delish! I've been eating breakfast at my hotel in the restaurant on the 36th floor overlooking the city. Not a bad way to start off the day! Today's breakfast was a "healthified" eggs benedict. No hollandaise sauce on this one. Instead, it was tomato slices, spinach, and poached eggs topped with onion jam and served with breakfast potato. Such a satisfying meal to start my day!

And finally, one more snippet of my food adventures so far... I also visited Scharffen Berger, America's "first contemporary artisan chocolate maker," founded in San Francisco in 1997. I was lucky enough to taste a few samples while shopping, and boy, do they make good chocolate! Stay tuned next week; there's a chance that I bought some chocolate to give away on the blog... So be on the lookout for that soon!

Enjoy your weekend, friends! :)

Cookies & Cream Brownies

I'm pretty sure that my coworkers have a love/hate relationship with me. Once every week or two, I bring in some sort of baked goodie to the lab "just because." I'll bake for coworkers' birthdays and special occasions too (as I've mentioned on the blog multiple times!), but sometimes, just because, I'll make something to bring to work. It really all comes down to the fact that I just love baking and even if I don't have a particular occasion to bake for, you'll still find me in my kitchen baking a delectable batch of cookies, bars, or cupcakes. And then I bring them to work. And that's where the love/hate relationship happens.

When my coworkers see me coming toward them with a big tupperware full of treats in the hours after lunchtime, they love me. They've just finished lunch and are craving something sweet. Don't you worry; it's the Barbershop to the rescue for your afternoon sweets craving! But then, as they're taking that cookie or brownie from the tupperware, they're mumbling "Oh Colleen, why do you do this to us? I'll have to work out longer at the gym tonight." And that's where the "hate" part of the relationship comes into play.

Sorry, guys. I just love to bake and you can't stop me. :)

The two products pictured here went into these cookies and cream brownies - Heads or Tails Oreos and Hershey's Cookies n' Creme Eggs (which are only around at Easter time!).

You may remember these Oreos back when I made Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes. I had yet to finish the package of Oreos (I know; what's wrong with me?!), so I decided to chop them up and put them into brownies. Obviously.

And I also just happened to have on hand these delightful little cookies and cream flavored egg-shaped candies. So, again quite obviously, I chopped those up to put in the brownies too. And that's how this new creation of cookies and cream brownies was born!

And then I brought these babies to work.

Uh oh.

Ingredients:

-1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

-1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

-3 large eggs

-1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

-1 cup granulated sugar

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

-1/4 tsp. baking soda

-10 Oreos, chopped (can be any flavor you'd like)

-24 Hershey's cookies n' creme eggs, divided into two groups (16 eggs and 8 eggs) and chopped

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 baking pan. Chop the Oreos into 1/4 to 1/2-inch sized pieces (I usually got about 6 to 8 small pieces out of each Oreo). This should yield approximately 1 cup of chopped Oreo pieces (and make sure to use every last crumb of the Oreos!). Next, chop the first group of 16 Hershey's eggs into pieces. This will be a little trickier, and there's no strict measurement for how big these pieces will or should be. Just chop them however you'd like them! Set those 16 chopped eggs aside (this should equal about 3/4 to 1 cup). Finally, chop the remaining 8 eggs and set aside to sprinkle on top of the brownie batter just before baking.

Melt the 1 cup of chocolate chips and stick of butter over low-medium heat on the stove in a heavy duty saucepan (I use a 2-quart pan with this recipe). Stir the chocolate and butter until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the eggs. Add the flour and mix well, followed by the sugar. Again, stir well and then add the vanilla and baking soda, mixing well. Next, stir in the chopped Oreos and the group of 16 chopped Hershey's eggs. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan, and sprinkle with the remaining 8 chopped eggs.

 Bake for 18 - 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely and cut into bars. Makes approximately 24 - 30 bars, depending on the size of the bars that you cut.

Ooey gooey cookies and cream chocolatey brownie deliciousness. :)

The Oreos definitely added a slight crunchy texture to the brownie. And the Hershey's eggs plus the cream filling of the Oreos added that creamyness to truly make these cookies and cream brownies.

Now, tell me your opinion. Is it cream or creme?! I have no idea and feel like I've seen it both ways, so I just went with cream.

Either way, cream or creme, these brownies taste the same (you know, amazingly delicious) and that's all that matters.

:)

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Icing and Crushed Candy Cane "Sprinkles"

Remember those chocolate whoopie pies with peppermint buttercream filling last week? Right. My obsession with the combination of peppermint and chocolate. Well, here it is again but this time it's in cupcake form. :)

I made these cupcakes for a coworker's birthday last week. They were eaten quickly and folks used positive words to describe them. I am going to go out on a limb and say they were a success. ;) The chocolate cupcake recipe is the same one I used when I made my oreo stuffed chocolate cupcakes a few weeks back, and the icing recipe is from a great little book Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans.

Ingredients for the cupcakes:

-1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

-1 cup hot water

-1 and 2/3 cups flour

-1 and 1/2 cups sugar

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1/2 cup butter, softened

-2 eggs

-1 tsp. vanilla

Ingredients for the icing:

-2 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar

-1/4 cup unsalted butter

-6 Tbsp. water

-1/4 tsp. peppermint extract

Also:

-crushed candy canes to sprinkle on top :)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper cupcake liners in muffin pan. Mix the cocoa with the hot water in a bowl until the mixture is smooth. Set aside and let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes. When it's cool, place it in a mixing bowl and add the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Beat on low speed for two minutes. Increase speed and beat for two additional minutes. Fill the cups about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from pan and let cool completely on wire rack before topping with the icing. Makes approximately 18 cupcakes.

For the icing, sift the powdered sugar into a large bowl. Heat the butter and water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until the butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the peppermint extract. Pour the warm mixture over the powdered sugar, then whisk vigorously until it is smooth. The icing will be soft but thick enough to cling to the tops of the cupcakes. Immediately sprinkle with crushed candy canes, if desired. These cupcakes can be stored at room temperature, covered tightly, for up to 3 days.

I crushed candy canes in my food processor - worked like a charm! So easy.

One thing I might do differently next time is make the icing thicker than it was. The icing was definitely tasty with a strong peppermint flavor; however, in my opinion, it was a bit too runny. I would have just added more powdered sugar this time around, but I had actually run out! At the time I made these, I had just the two and a half cups called for in the recipe. Oops! Probably 98% of the time, I have extra on hand of just about every baking staple you can think of. Not this time though! Oh well. The icing was still very yummy but I would have preferred it to be a bit thicker, that's all! No big deal. :)

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Peppermint Buttercream Filling

Chocolate and peppermint might be one of my favorite flavor combinations during the holiday season. Well, actually, it might just be one of my favorite flavor combinations year round, let's be serious. :)

I made these deeelicious whoopie pies for a holiday party this past weekend. And they were a huge hit!! The cakes were light and airy, yet moist, and the peppermint buttercream filling had just the right amount of mint flavor and, in my opinion, the filling is what really made these whoopie pies the hit that they were. If you love chocolate and peppermint like I do, you are doing to love these. I promise!!

The recipe is from a handy dandy, awesome little whoopie pie cookbook a friend gave me:

This cookbook has made an appearance on the blog before too, back when I made zucchini whoopie pies with a maple filling. What I like about this book is that it has many different cake recipes ("cake" meaning cookie) and many different filling recipes, and then you can mix n' match flavors as much as your little heart desires! In case I haven't mentioned it, this chocolate and peppermint combo was a real winner (oh wait, have I already said that??).

Ingredients for chocolate whoopie pie cakes:

-1 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

-2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

-1 and 1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 tsp. salt

-4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

-4 Tbsp. vegetable shortening

-1 cup packed dark brown sugar

-1 large egg

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

-1 cup milk (I used 1%)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, shortening, and brown sugar on low speed until just combined. Increase the speed to medium and beat until fluffy and smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for another 2 minutes.

Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk to the batter, and beat on low until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the remaining flour mixture and 1/2 cup milk and beat until completely combined.

Using a spoon, drop about 1 tablespoon of batter onto one of the prepared baking sheets and repeat, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time for about 10 minutes each, or until the pies spring back when pressed gently. Remove from oven and let the cakes cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely. Makes about 48 two-inch cakes (says the book!). I made about 36 cakes (so 18 sandwiches), but mine were more like 2 and 1/2 inches wide.

Ingredients for the peppermint buttercream filling:

-2 cups confectioners' sugar

-4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

-3 tablespoons heavy cream (whipping cream)

-2 tsp. vanilla extract

-1/2 tsp. mint extract

-1/2 tsp. salt

Instructions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the confectioners' sugar and butter, starting on low and increasing to medium speed, until the mixture is crumbly, about 1 minute. Add the heavy cream, vanilla, mint extract, and salt and beat on high until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Spread a generous tablespoon of the buttercream filling on one cake, and top with another cake of roughly the same size. If desired, sprinkle with colored sprinkles or crushed candy canes.

After writing this post, I really want to just go make another batch of these!!