Chocolate Peanut Butter and Pretzel Cookies

I wanted to try some of Dove's new spring goodies in cookie form and this is the first one I tried. My sister tried them today and gave them a thumbs up. Let me know what you thing!

Makes 4 dozen

2 cups softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

2 Tb vanilla extract

4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 pinch salt

12 ounces Dove milk chocolate peanut butter baking bits

1 cup salted peanuts or walnuts

1 1/2 cups Dove milk chocolate covered pretzels, chopped to chocolate chip size

Preheat oven to 350F

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Blend into creamed mixture. Stir in baking bits, pretzels, and nuts.

Drop by heaping tablespoons onto cookie sheet with parchment paper. Bake 10-13 minutes until edges are lightly browned and center is till soft Cool on sheet for a minute then cool completely on cooling rack. Store tightly in covered container.

Next I'm going to try these with Dove dark chocolate mint baking bits and dark chocolate pretzels. Can't wait!

To temper or not to temper

Have you ever wondered the difference between melting and tempering chocolate? Or maybe you've tried making candy only to have them not harden correctly. melted chocolate is used in recipes like cakes or on top of some bar recipes. If you want to make delicious candy that has a nice bite and sheen, you need to temper chocolate. Tempering involves heating chocolate up to a certain temperature (dark-120 F, milk-115 F, white-110 F) then cooling some(dark-82 F, milk-80 F, white-78 F) and heating up again(dark-90 F, milk-86 F, white-82 F). As you can see, each type of chocolate has different temperature requirements and constant stirring is needed so it doesn't burn. If you temper alot or would like to temper while you take care of other things around the house, think about getting a tempering unit. There are so many things you can do with tempered chocolate that is only limited by your imagination. Here's a few ideas:

• Chocolate covered fruit, try some of them frozen
• Make a bowl by dipping a balloon into chocolate, then pop it when it's hardened
• Make decorations to go on top of cakes or cookies, like these flowers
• Dip pretzel rods in chocolate then dip into nuts or sprinkles
• Make or buy cookies and dip half of it into chocolate for a gourmet look

So, what would you do with tempered chocolate?

Dove Chocolate March Special

If you want to make your own candy, you need this tempering unit and March is the time to get it! This bundle is a savings of $213.00! Go in on it with a friend or even a group to save more! Be patient, the page might take a minute to load.

Banana Bread

I found this on Recipezaar (#1387) and changed a couple of ingredients. Let's see how they turn out!

1 cup flour (supposed to be 1 3/4 but I didn't have enough)
3/4 cup ground up oatmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp lemon zest, optional (I didn't use any)
1/4 cup almonds, ground (I used dk choc cinnamon almonds from Dove ground up)
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup ripe bananas, mashed, about 4 medium

Preheat oven to 350.
Grease 9x5 loaf pan (I used silicone muffin pans)
Sift first 7 ingredients in a bowl.
Add zest and almonds. Stir until conbined.
Beat sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat till blended.
Alternate adding bananas and flour mixture until blended.
Pour into prepared pan.
Bake 1 hour until toothpick comes out clean. (Muffins took about 35 minutes)
Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes then remove from pan and cool completely on rack.

Mine turned out tasting delicious but they wouldn't come out of the silicone nicely. They sat in there about 30 minutes while I took care of some baths and getting a one year old to bed so maybe that was the problem. Or maybe using oatmeal and flour instead of all flour didn't work. I'll try these again with the right amount of flour and see how they go. Using the chocolate almonds again for sure!

President's Day Chocolate Recipes

Happy President's Day! To celebrate here's a couple recipes from first ladies.

Barbara Bush's Chocolate Chip Cookies 3 dozen
1 cup flour sifted
2 tsp flour sifted
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter softened
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp very hot water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Grease baking sheets with vegetable oil. Sift flour, baking soda and salt on wax paper.Beat butter, sugar and egg in large bowl until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Beat in hot water and vanilla extract. Gradually beat flour mixture until blended and smooth. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonful on baking sheets with parchment paper.
Bake until golden, about 10 minutes.
Cool completely on wire rack .

Laura Bush's Hot Chocolate 6 servings

6 Tbls unsweetened cocoa
6 Tbls sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 cups light cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix cocoa, salt, and sugar. Add milk. Heat to dissolve. Add light cream, cinnamon, and vanilla. Heat to just under boiling.
Mix very well and pour into mugs. Garnish with whipped cream (see note), cocoa powder, and fine orange zest, if desired.
Note: Instead of whipped cream, try using the white chocolate mousse to make a topping. Just whip 1 cup heavy cream with 1 tsp sugar until soft peaks form. Melt 4 oz white chocolate in microwave at 20 second intervals, stirring in between until smooth. Gently stir melted white chocolate into whipped cream. Use a pastry bag to pipe on top of hot chocolate.

Fun Chocolate Facts

Mexican Emperor Montezuma drank Chocolate before entering his harem. This gave chocolate it's aphrodisiac notion.

Napoleon supposedly carried Chocolate on his military campaigns, and ate it to restore energy.

The word "Chocolate" comes from the Aztec word, "cacahuatl" or "xocolatl" They mean "bitter water".

Cocoa was originally spelled cacao, but became cocoa from a misspelling.

Cocoa trees require warm moist climates. thus these trees are mostly found in West Africa-Ghana, the Ivory Coast, and Nigeria.

Chocolate syrup was used in Hitchcock's famous shower scene in "Psycho". The 45 second scene took 7 days to shoot.

The first chocolate brownie recipe was in The Fannie Farmer Cookbook in 1896.

Chocolate chips were introduced by Nestle in 1939.

Chocolate is made to melt in your mouth because cocoa butter has a melting point just below the average human temperature.

Chocolate can be deadly for dogs because of an ingredient called Theobromine which can be toxic to their central nervous system and cardiac muscles and can cause death.

Cocoa beans were first brought to Europe by the Spanish Conquistadors in 1528.

Henri Nestle of Switzerland was the first to create milk chocolate by adding condensed milk when making chocolate bars.

To make one pound of chocolate it takes about 400 cacao beans.

Rudolph Lindt of Switzerland was the first to develop a method to give Chocolate a smooth consistency in 1879.

The oldest known Americans, The Olmecs from 1500-400 B.C., were probably the first users of cacao.

The first recorded "Death by Chocolate" occurred in the 17th century.

Chocolate has great health benefits. It helps depression, high blood pressure, tumors and premenstrual syndromes.

Aztec Indians believed chocolate to be an aphrodisiac to increase sexual desire.

To see the original article, check out http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_J_R

Tempering Chocolate

Tempering chocolate is melting, cooling, and melting again chocolate so that candy can be made with a nice shine and bite. Here is a video by chow.com on Youtube that demonstrates one way to temper chocolate.

If chocolate gets too hot, 200F, it burns. If water gets in it it's ruined.

You'll need:

1 lb or more of chocolate, not chocolate chips

double boiler

instant read thermometer

rubber spatula for stirring

bowl of ice water

First you will need to melt the chocolate. Chop it up and melt 3/4 of it. Place it in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. I you don't have a double boiler place a heat proof bowl over a pot that has simmering water in it. Clip on an instant read thermometer. Stir until it comes to 115 degrees for dark and 110 degrees for milk chocolate. Remove from the heat and add remaining chocolate. Let it cool to 84 degrees. If needed place bowl of chocolate in another bowl of ice water and stir to cool, but don't let any water get into the chocolate! Now it has to be reheated so place back on double boiler. Let it get to 88-89 degrees for dark, 87 for milk and white. Check a small amount by spreading a spoonful thinly on waxed paper. Let it cool and check to make sure it's shiny and smooth. Now it is tempered and ready to be molded or dipped!

If that sounds too complicated and intimidating or if you temper chocolate often, Dove has a tempering unit that does all the work for you. Happy candy making!