Chocolate | Apple Crumbles

Chocolate with Francois: Yogurt Parfaits, Chocolate Granola and Bananas

I’ve made a lot of granola but I’ve never added mini chocolate chips. This is a classic Francois Payard treat from his book Chocolate Epiphany. Francois says this makes a wonderful quick weekday breakfast. I think it’s more like a wonderful dessert that Ted and I could eat over and over again. Not difficult at all and very accommodating to make in part ahead of time. The group Chocolate with Francois featured this recipe and it was chosen by Julie of Little Bit of Everything. Terrific pick! So good! This ones going to be a “repeat offender” on our table. [...]

By Joanne|2011-05-30T14:25:01-04:00May 31, 2011|Chocolate|4 Comments

Chocolate With Francois Chocolate Tiramisu

This month, the group of chocolate lovers who bake from Francois Payard’s book “Chocolate Epiphany” made Tiramisu. It was chosen by Sandy of Seattle Pastry. Sandy is very talented and I’m sure did total justice to this recipe. As for me, my enthusiasm was lacking since I’m not a big fan of tiramisu. The recipe was long and I went at it half heartedly. I made it the weekend Ted was at the Masters and froze it, not sure of the outcome once defrosted. I took a chance and defrosted the Tiramisu for Easter Sunday and it was a HUGE [...]

By Joanne|2011-04-29T20:59:03-04:00April 30, 2011|Chocolate|3 Comments

Whine for Wine

Amazing how quickly Saturday’s fly by. I was running, blogging, bathing, eating, shopping then all of a sudden it’s the middle of the afternoon and Ted is saying “Let’s go”. We made a stop at the bike store and picked up some different mirrors for our bikes. The ones on our helmets don’t work for either one of us. Maybe we’ll get used to them but right now, we don’t like them. We stopped at the mall to see if we could get new batteries for our phones. Ted is wearing them out with all the conference calls for work. [...]

By Joanne|2010-04-18T06:17:26-04:00April 17, 2010|Life|5 Comments

Hershey’s Chocolate GIVEAWAY

My energy levels are down. What better way to get me out of my slump than to offer you guys a delicious giveaway for chocolate. Yay! Don’t you love giveaways? I do. I just love getting packages in the mail or by UPS. Well, I have one for you, compliments of Hershey's Chocolate. Do you have a favorite chocolate? White? Milk? Dark? How do you like your chocolate? To bake with it? To eat it as a candy bar? Do you like it plain or with nuts? How about a filling? Personally, I like caramel…yummmmy! Have you ever tried any [...]

By Joanne|2010-03-02T11:47:49-05:00March 2, 2010|Chocolate|44 Comments

Flour notes and Chocolate Kiss Cupcakes

To get a nice delicate crumb when baking a cake, you need the right kind of flour. I use “Softasilk” cake flour. It’s a Pillsbury product and is milled from soft wheat. This gives cakes a higher volume, finer texture and tenderness. It is so fine, you don’t have to take time for additional sifting. This brings me to the following thoughts on flour. I have quite a few varieties in my pantry and freezer (bean and nut flours can go rancid so I find it better to store them in the freezer). Basics: Wheat flours have gluten which results [...]

By Joanne|2010-03-01T15:18:03-05:00March 1, 2010|Baking, Chocolate|5 Comments

Chocolate With Francois: Pets De Nonne

This month’s cooking with the Choc-a-holics group: Chocolate With Francois we had an excellent opportunity to create little fried donuts. The name “Pets De Nonne” literally means “nun’s fart”. That really doesn’t sound very good to me but ignore the name, take a bite and all skepticism melts away. The pick was by Maggie of “The Other Side of 50”. Great pick Maggie! I don’t like to fry. I don’t have a deep fryer and I am afraid of hot oil. The result of my fears was a very ugly looking fried lump of very dark (some might say black) [...]

By Joanne|2010-01-29T16:50:23-05:00January 30, 2010|Baking, Food, Food thoughts|6 Comments