Chocolate and Walnut Biscotti

* 185 grams Butter
* 1/3 cup Caster Sugar
* 1/3 can Condensed Milk
* 1 1/2 cups Self Raising Flour
* 1/4 teaspoon Salt
* 125 grams Chocolate Chips
* 1/2 cup Walnuts chopped


Instructions
Put small spoons full onto lightly greased trays and bake for 15 - 20 minutes in 180dg. oven (fan forced).
Loosen and cool on trays.

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Recipe donated by Eli from http://www.goodrecipes.com.au/

Simple Chocolate Sauce

* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 cup milk
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Instructions
Mix sugar and cocoa powder together in a pot, add milk, making sure there are no lumps. Slowly bring to the boil stirring continiously making sure the sugar has dissolved. Boil for 10 minutes. Add salt. Remove from stove and allow to cool slightly, add vanilla. Keeps well stored in the fridge.
Enjoy!!

Eli's Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup rice flour
* 1/2 cup plain flour
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/3 cup cocoa powder
* 1 1/4 cups caster sugar
* 2 eggs
* 150 grams butter, melted

Instructions
1)
Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 4cm-deep, 20cm x 30cm (base) slab pan. Line with baking paper, allowing a 2cm overhang at both long ends.
2)
Sift flours, baking powder and cocoa into a large bowl. Add sugar. Stir to combine. Make a well in the centre. Add eggs and melted butter to flour mixture.
3)
Using a metal spoon, mix until just smooth.
Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out with crumbs clinging.
Remove from oven.
4) Allow to cool in pan. Lift from pan. Cut into squares.


Recipe donated by Eli from http://www.goodrecipes.com.au/

Double Chocolate Brownies

1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup low fat evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate

chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Set oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 9 baking pan.
2. Combine flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Whisk together vegetable oil, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract.
4. Meanwhile, in sauce pan heat milk and chocolate chips until all the chips have melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Slowly add to sugar mixture while whisking.
5. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture and whisk until just combine. Fold in remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips and chopped pecans. Pour batter into baking dish

and bake in a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes. At this point, an inserted toothpick will probably not come out clean but this does not mean that the brownies are not cooked. Set on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then cut into cubes.

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This recipe is from my blog Healthy and Gourmet (www.healthyandgourmet.blogspot.com) and is in response to your request from foodbuzz for recipes with chocolate. I focus on creating recipes that look and taste absolutely decadent but which are made with an emphasis on healthy and wholesome ingredients. I try to avoid using unhealthy fats as much as possible. Most of my recipes are my own creations but some are my healthy versions of traditional American/European and other ethnic dishes.
Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.
Thanks!
Natasha

Raw Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups walnuts, unsoaked

dash of salt

12 medjool dates, or 16 deglet dates, unsoaked

1/4 cup raw cacao powder

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 tsp water

2 tsp maple syrup or agave nectar

1/2 cup raspberries to garnish (optional)



Steps:

1. Blend walnuts and salt in a food processor until finely ground. Add the dates, cacao powder and vanilla. Process until the mixture begins to stick together. Add the water and sweetener and process briefly.
2. Transfer to a serving plate and form mixture into a 5-inch round cake. Chill for at least 1 hour. Decorate with fresh raspberries or make a raspberry fruit sauce before serving, if desired.
3. Cover with plastic and keep in the refrigerator. Will keep for three days or two weeks in the freezer.


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Recipe added to http://tastebuddelights.com by gfchef from http://www.heartofcooking.com/

Raw Chocolate

Ingredients:

2 cups raw cacao powder

1 cup coconut oil or cocoa butter

1-2 Tbsp. vanilla extract

3-4 Tbsp. agave nectar

chopped almonds, walnuts, raisins, or anything else you’d like to add

Steps:

1. Heat oil slowly over low-medium heat in a saucepan. Mix in the agave and vanilla. Then mix in the cacao powder. Make sure it never boils or gets above medium heat (or 110 F).
2. Pour mixture into a pan and put it in the freezer or refrigerator to harden.

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Recipe added to http://tastebuddelights.com by gfchef from http://www.heartofcooking.com/

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

2 1/4 cup flour, unsifted
1 tsp. baking soda
Salt
1 (4 serving size) of chocolate instant pudding mix
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 (12 oz.) pkg. chocolate chips


Mix flour, soda, and salt. Combine butter, sugars, and vanilla until creamy, beat in eggs. Add flour mixture, then pudding mix. Stir in chips. Drop on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until lightly brown.

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Contributor is Chef Tom

Weekly Cookbook Club: http://www.recipesnoop.com/club

Revise and Conquer: Chocolate Heroes and Heroines

George Saunders, MacArthur Genius Award winner and a liberal-minded quick-witted model citizen of the 21st century, has written that "the best stories proceed from a mysterious truth-seeking impulse that narrative has when revised extensively; they are complex and baffling and ambiguous; they tend to make us slower to act, rather than quicker." In the optimistic (despite this semester's "narrating war and protest" theme) and frenetic freshman composition courses that I teach at the University of Pittsburgh, I obsessively quote Saunders, along with the heady and graceful poet/memoirist Patricia Hampl ("it still comes as a shock to realize that I don’t write about what I know, but in order to find out what I know"), and I present revision as the divine route to, if not salvation, at least understanding. At the beginning of the semester, I tell my students that "revision is much more than copy-editing--it is an informed return to a piece of writing, an opportunity not only to refine but to reconsider your writing." Toward the end of the semester (that is, right now), as projects get longer and questions get more complex, I emphasize that "while writers often approach revision as a way of looking back, revising can also be about looking forward."

I don't always follow my own advice. In the free-wheeling rant I posted on this blog a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I'm not writing very much right now. What I do write, I don't tend to revise. This semester, I tend to give my work a quick scan, followed by a long sigh, and then I send it off to where it needs to go (this website, a professor's mailbox, an editor's inbox), hoping I won't have to look at it again any time too soon. But what would have happened if I had reread and revised my post about "Barthes and the Chocolate Man"? I might have found that my philosophical bafflement over Roland Barthes was actually the key to a provocatively original analysis (anyone similarly hoping to turn frustration into epiphany may want to consult the heartening textbook for introductory classes much like the one I'm teaching The Elements (and Pleasures) of Difficulty, by Mariolina Rizzi Salvatori and Patricia Donahue). I also might have concluded--perhaps more importantly, in this context--that my comment that "while food industry insiders find chocolate to be the greatest thing going, I'm finding the conversation to be a bit banal" was incomplete, worthy of more elaboration. I could have said, instead, that the oversaturated market makes the search for transcendent experiences in chocolate more challenging.

But there are, of course, transcendent experiences to be had. That is, there are still heroes and heroines in the chocolate world. Last weekend, I made my annual trip to the Annual New York Chocolate Show, where I discovered a chocolate-outfitted Wonder Woman, a new(ish) California chocolatier named Christopher Michael (and Food & Wine magazine reports on yet another one: Eclipse Chocolat), and several old friends and allies, including Jeff Shepherd of Lillie Belle Farms, who told me that my purchase of his new "Red Velvet Almonds" would go toward his daughter's college education.

And I've gotten--in addition to bogus chocolate tablets imprinted with PR slogans--some terrific chocolate samples in the mail in the past couple months. Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate sent me his latest 67% and 70% mircobatch Madagascar bars--the stuff is currently more expensive than Valrhona and it's not (yet) as good as Valrhona, but Alan is dedicated enough to get there. The utterly unpretentious staff at Michel Cluizel's US outpost sent me the company's new 85% and 99% "ganaches" (or ganache-filled bon bons), packed tightly into a handy little box that's no bigger than a pocket reference book--the ganache itself was a bit too dry and grainy for my tongue, but the little box is an absolutely delightful marketing feat.



Looking back is useful, helpful, necessary. So is looking forward. Sometimes, you can take your work, rearrange it, make it work better. And sometimes, you have to break the whole structure apart. One of the most vindicating moments of the last month was when a bunch of guys (mostly roboticists and nuclear power plant engineers) whom I invited over to play poker took it upon themselves to forcibly demolish the Axe chocolate tablet.

White Chocolate Raspberry Trifle

175g White chocolate
2 Medium egg yolks
25g Castor sugar
150ml Milk
85g Double cream
2& 1/2 Tbsp Icing sugar
4 x 4cm slices Swiss roll(Bought/homemade)
2Tbsp Kirsch Liqueur
225g Fresh Raspberries
A few fresh mint sprigs

1.Put a 55g piece of white chocolate in the fridge. Break remainder into smaller pieces.
2.Cream egg yolks & caster sugar together in a large bowl. Whisk for about 2-3mins till the mixture is pale,thick,creamy & leaves a trail.
3.Pour the milk & cream into a small,heavy based saucepan & bring to the boil.Pour on to the egg yolk mixture,whisking all the time!
Pour back into the pan & place over a moderate heat. Stir the mix with a wooden spoon till it's starts to thicken & coats the back of the spoon.
4.Add the chocolate pieces & stir in until completely melted.
5.Remove the pan from the heat & allow to cool slightly.Cover the custard with a little icing sugar & piece of cling film to prevent a skin forming.
6.Place the Swiss roll slices in a large glass bowl & sprinkle with Kirsch. Scatter with fresh raspberries reserving a few for decoration.
7.Pour the white chocolate custard over the Swiss roll & leave to set in the fridge. Over night would be ideal
8.To serve: Decorate the trifle with the reserved raspberries. Take the piece of white chocolate from the fridge & finely grate over the trifle.
9.Finally ,dust with a little icing sugar & place the mint sprigs on top


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Contributed by Angelique Frew.

Chocolate Biscotti

160 ml Whole blanched almonds
175ml flour
100g dark/milk chocolate, grated
125ml sugar
60ml cocoa powder
2 eggs,beaten
5ml vanilla essence
1egg white

1.Preheat oven to 160'C
2.Place nuts on a baking tray & toast for +/- 10mins in the oven. Allow to cool
3.Line a large baking tray with baking

paper.
4.Combine flour,chocolate,sugar & cocoa pwd. Add beaten eggs & vanilla essence & mix to form a stiff dough.
5.Dough should be slightly sticky.Dust hands with flour & shape into 3 wide logs & place on baking paper.
6.Brush with beaten egg white. Bake for +/- 30mins.
7.Remove from oven,turn down oven temp to 140'C & slice logs with a slight diagonal into thick slices.
8.Place back on baking tray,sliced side up & bake again for another 20mins or till dried out.

Makes +/- 24

Enjoy with yummy chocolate cups!!!

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Recipe contributed by Angelique Frew.