Observer Online | Chocolate Puts the Sweet in Your Sweetheart

Posted Feb. 13, 2004

Chocolate Puts the Sweet in Your Sweetheart
Sure you can give your sweetheart a box of chocolates, but the best thing about chocolate is baking with it. On a cold winter evening, the smell of fresh baked brownies, or cookies, or a hot chocolate fudge cake is irresistible.
Chocolate is one of the easiest cooking ingredients to keep on hand, unless you have a member of the household who eats unsweetened baking chips. Melted chocolate can scorch easily, so when melting it is best to use a double-boiler, or keep the melting over a low heat stirring constantly.
Warning: these recipes can be hazardous to your waistline. So, as a Valentine's Day present, consume mass quantities of these cakes and cookies, then go for a long walk—maybe to Ohio—to burn off the calories.

Mary Jo's Oreo Ice Cream Bars
1 lb. pkg. Oreo cookies
1/2 gallon vanilla or coffee ice cream
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk (1 can)
2/3 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups salted peanuts
12 oz. Cool Whip
Crush Oreos (with cream left inside); reserve 1 cup for topping. Mix 1/4 cup melted margarine with the remainder of the Oreos and pat into pan. Freeze until firm. Mix powdered sugar, milk, chips and 1/2 cup margarine in saucepan. Heat until chips melt, stirring constantly. Be careful not to scorch. Let cool.
Soften ice cream and spread over crumbs. Freeze until firm again. Pour fudge sauce over ice cream. Sprinkle the peanuts over the fudge sauce. Spread the Cool Whip on top. Sprinkle with 1 cup Oreo crumbs and freeze. Note: Chocolate chip cookies can be substituted for the Oreos if preferred.

Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1/3 cup margarine
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine sugar and cocoa in a medium saucepan; blend in evaporated milk and corn syrup. Cook over low heat; stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil and stir for one minute. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm. Makes 2 cups sauce. Note: This sauce can be refrigerated for later use. Reheat in saucepan over very low heat, stirring constantly.

Almost ‘Those' Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 cups light brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
4 cups flour
5 cups oatmeal
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
24 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
8 oz. plain Hershey bar, keep cold in refrigerator
5 cups chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans or mixed)
1 tsp. salt
Cream butter and sugars together. Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla. Blend well and set aside. Put oatmeal in a food processor or blender, a small amount at a time, and blend until it turns into a powder. Mix with flour, salt, baking powder and soda. Cool the Hershey bar in the refrigerator, and break into very small pieces with a knife.
Combine the creamed mixture with dry ingredients and add Hershey bar bits, nuts and chocolate chips. Stir until mixed. Roll into 2-inch size balls and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 14 to 16 minutes. Do not overbake. These need to be chewy, not crunchy.

Easy Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake
1 dark chocolate cake mix
3 oz. instant chocolate pudding
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup warm water
1 bag tiny chocolate chips
Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips and beat at medium speed for 4 minutes, scraping bowl sides often. Fold in chips. Bake in a well-greased and floured tube or bundt pan at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Check often. It is done when the toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

Marshmallow Fudge Cake
2 sticks butter
1/2 cup cocoa
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups flour
Dash of salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large pkg. mini-marshmallows
Icing:
1/2 stick butter
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 box confectioners sugar
Melt butter in saucepan. Using a wire whisk, stir in cocoa and keep in stirring over medium heat. When smooth, take off heat and add 2 Tbsp. of hot cocoa mixture to the eggs, stir well, then add 2 Tbsp. more to the eggs, and stir well. Then add all the egg mixture back into the rest of the butter and cocoa in the saucepan. Mix in flour and salt gradually with a whisk. Add vanilla, and mix well again. Pour into a greased, floured 9 x 13 cake pan. Sprinkle chopped nuts over the batter, and bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. When cake is done, just slide out and cover top with miniature marshmallows and return it to the oven just long enough to puff marshmallows. Do not allow the marshmallows to brown—it won't take long. As you remove the hot cake from the oven, drizzle icing all over top. Let cake set until cool and the icing has set. Then cut into small squares.
Icing
While cake is baking, melt butter, stir in cocoa and keep stirring with a whisk so the chocolate butter mixture does not scorch. Add milk, keep stirring, and add sugar. Keep stirring until all sugar is dissolved and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat until cake is ready to come out of oven. If it starts to harden, just reheat gently.

Chocolate Cheesecake with Oreo Crust
Crust:
2 1/2 to 3 cups Oreo cookies, just cookie part
1 stick butter, melted
Crush Oreos into a fine crumbs, and combine with melted butter. Press into the bottom and halfway up the sides of a 10 x 3 inch springform pan that has had the sides generously greased with butter. (Be sure to grease all the way up the sides generously.) Chill crust while preparing the filling.
Filling:
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate bits
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate
2 lbs. real cream cheese (not light)
2 Tbsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp. unsweetened Hershey's cocoa powder
4 eggs
2 cups sour cream (use the real stuff)
Whipped Cream
Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder for a garnish
Shaved Hershey's chocolate bar (or chocolate of choice)
Maraschino cherries
Melt unsweetened and semi-sweet chocolate in a double boiler, and stir until smooth and completely melted. Remove from heat. In a large bowl, soften cream cheese and whip until smooth, then add vanilla and salt, mixing well. Gradually beat in sugar and cocoa powder. Then gradually blend in the melted chocolate. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then add sour cream and blend until mixture is smooth. Pour into the chilled pan, leveling the top with a spatula. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes, and check after one hour. The edges should be firm, and the center should be set—but not liquid or soupy. Turn oven off, open door slightly, and let the cake remain the oven for another 10 minutes. Then remove to a cooling rack. This cheesecake may crack a little, and a thin crust will form on the top as it cools. The center will sink a little as it cools. Allow cheesecake to cool completely, then cover tightly with foil and refrigerate overnight. When ready to serve, wrap a hot wet towel around the sides to heat the metal for a few minutes to help it release, then unclamp carefully. Cut and serve topped with whipped cream, a bit cocoa powder, chocolate shavings and a cherry on top. (Great served with espresso coffee.)

Easy Chocolate Saltine Squares
(Mix of sweet and salt is great.)
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
Box of saltines (salt on top) (Do not use Keebler)
12-oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (or 6-oz. milk chocolate and 6-oz. semi-sweet)
1 cup finely chopped nuts (pecans, almonds, or walnuts)
Grease a jelly roll pan and line with saltines (pack together side by side, no spaces). Combine butter and brown sugar in a saucepan and boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour this hot syrup over crackers and spread evenly. Bake at 375 degrees for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove and immediately sprinkle chocolate chips on top. When chips melt, spread chocolate evenly over top with a spatula (you may need to return the pan to oven to melt the chocolate chips). Sprinkle with finely chopped nuts. Cool until chocolate is set and cut into squares. I usually freeze this pan to set completely before cutting.