Homemade Everything: This You Gotta See to Believe

While on break (thank you VCU for your monstrous, rejuvenating winter breaks) Weston returned home from work positively flushed with excitement over his latest cooking idea: homemade Snickers. These things are the real deal and here is a little photo documentary...

First we made the nougat...

Foam the egg whites

Use obscene amounts of sugar...

Heat the sugar to a bubbling 230

Mix the cocoa powder with, more sugar, I believe

Gently drizzle in the boiling HOT sugar (thankfully, Weston was very careful not to burn me)

Beat until a beautiful snowy white

It gets SUPER STIFF, though!

Fold the egg white/sugar mixture into the cocoa - very difficult since the nougat is already pretty stiff at this point

Spread into a Pyrex to let harder

The recipe doesn't say this, but I buttered my palm and used my hands so it wouldn't stick

So, we only had natural Spanish peanuts, so we had to roast and shuck them ourselves

Then we layered...

First the peanuts

Then the caramel, heated in the microwave until spreadable

Finally, the chocolate and a few bits of Heath brittle to make it "Sheston approved"

You'll find the recipe for Homemade Snickers here, but it was a very laborious process with not a very satisfying result. We tried making the caramel homemade but it boiled over and didn't set properly so we went to the website and saw about 50 comments saying the same thing, so there was something wrong with it. Hence the store-bought caramels. If I were you, I'd just buy a Snickers... learn from our mistakes :)

I quite appreciated an evening spent with Weston, but it being our last night together before I returned to Virginia, I would have been happy with a take out pizza and an old movie.

Chocolate Truffle Currency

What to do with a whole lotta leftover cream?



Melt 1/2 cup Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips with 1 cup heavy cream. You can either microwave them together and be sure they don't burn OR heat the cream over the stove until it is just warm enough that it doesn't boil - then add the chips and allow them to melt off the heat. Let this mixture stand for about a half hour until it thickens. If it doesn't, add 1/2 cup confectioners sugar. You can flavor this mixture with rum or coffee or mint or raspberry liqueur.



Refrigerate again until the mixture is hard enough to drop into balls on a cookie sheet. Refrigerate once more. If you want, you can roll them in cocoa powder after they have set. They keep in the fridge, in an airtight container, for two weeks.



I made these delights for a friend in my program who loaned me her air mattress when my family came to visit for Thanksgiving. And a personal sidenote here: I like the warmed mixture better than the chilled truffles...call me crazy but mix it into some warmed milk and you've got some crazy good hot chocolate.

The perfect snack :)

Cookies for Sharon

I love this picture because the lighting makes it seem like the perfect mid-night time for snacking!

I have met the most awesome person here at VCU - she's the sweetest and kindest and most delightful person to be around. Everyday she drives about an hour to come on campus where she works in the lab, creates hilarious analogies to remember physiology concepts, and performs a little Maid of Honor work on the side. To thank her for being such a star, I decided to make her a batch of oatmeal cookies.

Now, if you don't know me, here's a little personal detail: I don't like raisins. Crazy? Maybe, but I really don't like 'em - unless they are in rum raisin ice cream. Then I'll make an exception. Usually I substitute cranberries for the raisin part, but unfortunately I didn't have anymore. I crazily dug through the cupboards before realizing - duh! Chocolate chips. Dark chocolate ones. And so the story beings...





I actually made the entire recipe, which I got off the side of my Quaker Oats container - okay, let me honest. I used the Quaker Oats recipe - the oats I had were actually of the Kroger variety because it was $2 cheaper and that was how I justified spending $4 on Ghirardelli chocolate chips.







The end result was sinfully delicious and absolutely perfect paired with a glass of milk. I ate three and called it dinner. I mean, oats are filling, right? Again, remember to take the cookies out when they are still a little un-set in the middle if you want them a little chewier. Or you can pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds before eating.

So here's to Sharon - one cookie for every time you had to explain the intrafusal fibers to me ;) Hehe :)

Colorful Chocolate Cup-a-Cakes

Oh how I love a cup-a-cake (this is how I pronounce it because, let's face it, it just makes them sound so much sweeter). Whenever you feel happy or sad or silly, they are the perfect little dessert. A bit time consuming, perhaps, but so worth it in the end.

For these little beauties, I used a chocolate cake recipe from...you guessed it: Ina Garten...and just poured the batter into a muffin tin. No paper frilly things necessary because they a) are expensive and b) get in the way of devouring the cake beneath.

I also used a nice Belgian cocoa powder. I am a huge Ghirardelli fan and always use their chocolate chips, but their cocoa always seems a little stale to me.

For a few of the cakes, I cut a hole in the center and filled it with extra frosting - a nice little surprise for the unsuspecting.

I also contemplated adding 2 heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter into the buttercream but decided against it because I just wanted my chocolate pure and sinful :)

I also cut the recipe down to 1 1/2 sticks of butter - which I set out all day so they would actually be room temperature. If you don't do this, you get terrible little chunky butter pellets that are unattractive and an awful reminder that you ARE eating pure butter.

A handy trick I use to fill the pastry bag is to orient a Ziploc baggie over the rim or a cup - this way both your hands are free to fill it up. Then, pick the bag up, snap it shut, and squeeze the icing to one side. Snip a little hole with kitchen scissors and decorate away!

Finally, I sprinkled the tops with some funfetti chocolate chips my boyfriend shipped over from Michigan - thanks, sweetie!

Friday Night Fix

Brownies, as I sure many of you already know, are one of my favorite treats. Perhaps because my Persian/Indian upbringing didn't run into much chocolate, let alone baked chocolate with frosting. This week my roommate and I started classes and after only two days, I was already excited for the weekend. And a night with a good friend, good food, and a great movie (Ever After!) sounds like a awesome way to kick start a (hopefully) productive weekend.

While visiting the Student Services office, I picked up about 4 of these little caramels and decided to throw them into the batter.

I prepared the mix just like it says on the box, substituting milk for water as usual. I am also particularly proud of the eggs I picked up at the store: aren't they gorgeous: organic AND free range!

My new favorite thing is to bake brownies in a cake pan: I just think it makes the brownies more moist. And I like a cake pan because I like thicker brownies that hold tall on their own. Another thing I've fallen in love with is my brilliant idea to make two kinds of brownies in one pan. Caramel on one side, regular on the other. You can also go M&M on one side and toffee on the other, or chocolate chips (white or milk or dark), or swirl in a little peanut butter.

Finished Product!!!! I love how the caramel bits are hidden in there :)

On to dinner... I decided to do a little Asian flair night...

Asian noodles are a bit chewier than Italian ones, but equally delicious. The sauce on Asian food is typically acidic and heavy (peanut butter and soy sauce), so you need the noodle to stand up to these liquids. Making this dish made me hungry for some Pad Thai. Anyone know a good place?

So then I made the Asian sauce - I used the peanut sauce that came with the noodles and then added some peanut butter, soy sauce, and garlic powder.

Then I chopped up some broccoli florets and carrots and steamed them. First I blanched the broccoli then I sauteed it. I also cooked up some chicken and seasoned it with pepper, salt, garlic powder, and chili flakes. To this I added the sauce and plated the whole thing in a black bowl. I know a lot of people like white plates, but I think Asian food looks beautiful on a black one :)

And here we have a picture of the delicious brownie with caramel spilling out :)