Strawberry cream and tea chocolate ganache

I like simple desserts and I have to confess my love for chocolate and strawberries... If you demand that I chose between chocolate and strawberries I may have to do bad things to you if you don't let me pick both. Mum gave me a recipe for a simple dessert a long time ago and I was wondering how to improve it.... This is what I came up with:

Strawberry cream and tea chocolate ganache

(seen with Vanilla/banana and coconut frosting cupcake)

Strawberry cream:

1 box of strawberry Jell-o
1 Cup of boiling water
1 Cup of plain yogurt



Empty the Jell-o box in a bowl, pour the boiling water on it and mix until the powder completely dissolved. Add 1 cup of plain Yogurt and whisk until blend. Pour in small cups and refrigerate.

Seriously, how easier can it get?


Tea and Chocolate Ganache

1 Cup of 35% 2cream
1/4 cup of tea leaves (I used bakeapple tea but unless you are in Newfoundland or had some brought back to you use another one. Orange Pekoe works well with this.)
400g (14 oz) of dark chocolate, in smalls pieces

Put the chocolate in a bowl. In a small pot bring the cream and the tea to a shimmer on low to medium heat. Put a stainer over the bowl of chocolate and pour the cream in, keeping the tea out of the chocolate. Let it sit for about 5 minute. Mix well until the chocolate is completely melted and well blended with the cream. Refrigerate until cooled down and pour on top of the Strawberry cream. I poured mine in a pastry bag before putting it on top of the Strawberry cream so I could have a cleaner look.

I then added whipped cream and a strawberry for decoration.


Bon Appetit!

Chocolate decorations

I didn't think it would be that easy. I simply melted chocolate in a Ziploc bag in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, cut the tip and started drawing on a parchment paper.

For Valentine's day, I made chocolate rings by making full hearts, putting silver candy balls in it and half circle on a parchment paper. I put those in the freezer for about an hour and with more melted chocolate assembled the rings.






Hubby said he would marry all over again for a chocolate ring.

But he keeps eating it...

Bon Appetit!

TNT Brownies

I made those around Christmas time, originally named Chocolate chip cookie dough brownies, after hubby served a regular cake size piece, with whipped cream, we were bouncing off the walls and it was renamed TNT brownies.

My nephews did not complain on the amount of sugar they put in their mouth eating this however, my brother was ready to shoot me. Be careful with the size you serve, bite size is more then enough!!!

TNT Brownies

You can use any brownies recipe you prefer. I made it simple, I used a boxed mix.

Cookie Dough:

1 cup of butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
4 Tablespoon of milk
2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 cup of flour
1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugar, milk and vanilla extract together. Add flower and mix until smooth then add the chips and stir together. Spread the mix over your cooled down brownies and refrigerate for an hour or 2.

Chocolate glaze:

1 cup of chocolate chips (I used dark)
1 table spoon of shortening

Melt the chocolate slowly with the shortening, stir constantly. Spread over the cookie dough layer and refrigerate again for a few hours.

Bon Appetit!

Neapolitan Cupcakes

When I was a child, Mum would buy Neapolitan ice cream and being the chocolate lover that I am, even back then, I would eat the chocolate part and leave the vanilla and strawberry in the box. Yes I did get yelled at a lot for that but I never stopped.

Well on these cupcakes, I didn't leave anything behind! (Even the leftover pudding didn't last long!)

Neapolitan Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes:

3 eggs
1 cup of softened butter
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of milk
1 1/2 cup of flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven at 325.

In a bowl, beat the eggs, add the butter and sugar then mix until a light and smooth texture. Add the milk, flour, baking powder and the vanilla. Mix for about 2 minutes until it's creamy.

Bake for about 18 to 20 minutes.

Let it cool down completely.

In the meantime, prepare filling and icing.


Filling:

For the filling I used Jell-o chocolate pudding. After following the instruction on the box, I poured it in a pastry bag and put it in the fridge to cool.

Strawberry Icing:

1 Cup of softened butter
1 Cup of powder sugar
1 Shirriff Strawberry Mousse

Cream everything together.


Cut a a hole in the middle of the cupcake and fill it with Pudding and then cover with icing and decorate as you wish.








As my hubby said, mine looks like boobies...




I also melted a bit of chocolate in a small plastic bag, cut a tiny hole and drew hearts on a wax paper. Once the chocolate was hard I was able to remove it from the paper and put it on the cupcakes.

Bon appetit!

Chocolate and coffee balls

Now what kind of blog would this be if it was named Fraise et Chocolat and only involved healthy main dishes?

Here comes the sweets!

Choco-coffe balls



Very simple to make.

Bake a cake, any cake, made from scratch, box cakes... I used a boxed Dunkin Hynes chocolate cake. Once it is baked and cooled down just break it into pieces and put it in the food processor and gave it a go. I added my coffee icing (recipe to follow) and blended it until it made a dough.



Easy enough so far?

I let it sit in the fridge over night.
Then it's fun time, make balls! Just roll the dough and put each balls on parchment or wax paper.




I melted dark chocolate and coated each one individually. Put them back on parchment paper and let it sit a bit, then put them in the fridge for a few hours. Decorate the way you want :)





Serve a big glass of milk and enjoy!