Melting Hot Chocolate Souffle (Roy's)

ALOHA!
I just went on vacation to Hawaii and it changed my life! 

Not because of this...

Or even this....

But because of this...

I ate at Roy's and finished my meal off with Roy's Classic Melting Hot Chocolate Soufflé right out of the oven served with a heaping scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream. 

Life changing. 

So when I got back to the mainland I immediately searched the internet for the recipe. I was apprehensive about it because I had never made a souffle before but it turned out perfectly and it was just as life changing. 

ROY'S CLASSIC MELTING HOT CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

3 Tbsp cornstarch

4 eggs plus 4 egg yolks

12 Tbsp butter

8 oz semisweet dark chocolate 

(I only had semisweet chocolate chips and they worked great!)

Preparation:

In a mixing bowl, combine sugar and cornstarch. In a separate bowl, mix eggs and yolks together. In a saucepan, bring butter to a simmer, then add the chocolate. Mix until the chocolate is smooth and begins to simmer along the edges. (The chocolate will melt quickly but it takes a few minutes to get it to simmer around the edges). Combine this chocolate mixture with the sugar and cornstarch and mix thoroughly. Add eggs and mix at low speed until sugar is dissolved and mixture is smooth. Refrigerate overnight in a bowl. (The first time I made this I was too impatient to refrigerate and cooked it right after preparation. It still tasted amazing but didn't have the melting chocolate inside. After refrigerating it overnight the batter is cold enough that the soufflé won't cook all the way through and you'll end up with amazing melted chocolate gooey goodness!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

If you are using soufflé rings- find preparation instructions here.

I used 4" diameter ramekins and was able to make 4 soufflés. 

Spray ramekins with non-stick cooking spray. Or you can butter and sugar the ramekins. (I tried it both ways and they both worked great). Fill each ramekin 2/3 full with the batter. Bake for 28-30 minutes. 

Serve with ice cream. 

I hope this changes your life like it has mine! 

Lemon Strawberry Yogurt Bundt Cake

While we're on the subject of fruity desserts, here's another that will knock your socks off!

This recipe is originally from A Spicy Perspective. It's lemony, strawberry-ey, tangy, sweet, and oh so delicious! We vamped up the presentation a little by adding strawberries into the 'hole' of the bundt cake and thickening the glaze for a drizzle look. Without further ado, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 TB lemon juice, divided
Zest of 1 lemon
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz plain (or vanilla) Greek yogurt
12 oz fresh strawberries diced (plus 1 cup diced strawberries for center-optional)
1 cup powdered sugar (might need a little more to thicken the glaze)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.

2. Sift together the 2 1/4 cups of flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.

3. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 TB lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and  the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.

4. Toss the strawberries with the remaining 1/4 cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter.

5. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

6. Allow to cool 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

7. Once cooled, whisk together the remaining 2 TB of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. If you want the look in the picture above, add a little more powdered sugar until you have a thick (but not too thick) glaze. Pour the glaze into a ziploc bag, cut a small hole in the corner of the ziplock back and drizzle from the center to the outside of the cake back and forth.
*Make sure the cake and the glaze are cool.

8. Before serving, cut about a cup of strawberries and place in the center of the bundt cake (optional).



*And what better time to read your child a good strawberry book than while you are eating a slice of this yummy strawberry cake. Here are a couple of my faves!

Mini Peach Dream Desserts

Peaches... I love peaches! I wait all year for peach season...and my family waits all year for peach dream dessert!

This recipe can be made in a cake pan but today I made it in individual mini cups. The individual desserts are great for parties, get-togethers, and are a little more kid friendly. 

Ingredients: 10 large peaches, one box of vanilla wafers, 1/2 cube butter (softened), 3/4 cup sugar, whipping cream (whipped and sweetened), one egg (I usually don't use the egg and just throw in a little more butter. I know the egg is okay in there with the sugar and I have no problem eating raw cookie dough but I usually don't use it in this recipe. Make sure to add more butter if you don't use the egg cause the crust will need a little more liquid), clear plastic cups (or little mason jars).




1. Crush the vanilla wafers in blender or food processor. (It's easiest to do just a couple cups of wafers at a time)



2. Mix together softened butter, sugar, vanilla wafers, (and egg if using)

3. Cut up your peaches into bite size pieces.

4. Put a layer of vanilla wafer crust on the bottom of your cup. Then put a good layer of cut peaches, add a layer of whipped cream, then sprinkle a little of the vanilla wafer crust on top.







5. Enjoy your peach dream dessert and the last rays of summer!








*You can make the crust ahead of time and store in the fridge until you are ready to assemble. Also, if you have extra crust you can store that in the fridge for a few days until you are ready for more of this dessert!

*And you can top your peach season off with a peachy classic

Rainbow Swirl Sugar Cookies

I found this recipe over at Sounders Cookery. What a fun cookie to bake with the kiddos!

Supplies: Favorite sugar cookie dough recipe (or mix!), food coloring (I used McCormick Neon Food coloring to get these fun bright colors), rainbow sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Divide dough evenly into five bowls.

3. Color each with a different color of food coloring. (I learned that the only way to get the color truly mixed into the dough is to knead it with your hands)

4. Roll each color of dough into grape-sized balls.

5. Combine a ball of each color and quickly roll into a larger ball that looks like a beach ball!

6. Roll that ball between your hands and the counter until you have a cylinder about 12 inches long. (This was the hardest step for me. My cylinder kept wanting to break. I had to flatten and turn it, flatten it and turn it.)

7. Starting from one end, roll the dough into a coil, twisting the cylinder as you go (it's very important to twist the cylinder as you go to get the swirl look!)

8. Roll edges of the cookie in sprinkles.

9. Bake the cookies for 10-11 minutes or until done (or whatever your sugar cookie recipe calls for).

While your kids are busy eating these beautiful cookies, take the time to read them a book about cookies or rainbows. Here are some good ones:

Jello Pie + Fourth of July

Do you ever think back on your childhood and reflect on some of the weird foods you ate? Like cheez-whiz sandwiches. Really? Fake cheese spread on bread and that's all? Don't pretend you didn't pack those to school in your 'Rainbow Brite' lunch pail like we did. Another of these foods was a jello pie my mom would make. She took all different colors of jello and mixed it into a white jello and put it in a pie shell. Ta-da! Jello pie. The strange thing is, I remember it tasting good and never once did I wonder what a strange phenomenon that was! So as a blast from the past... here is my mother's jello pie, without the pie crust, Fourth of July style:


1. Supplies: Four 3-oz. packages Jello (2 red, 2 blue), 2 packets unflavored gelatin, one 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk, four small food containers of various sizes.


2. Spray the food containers (even though this is a small step, it's an IMPORTANT step!


3. Combine 1 cup boiling water with each package of Jello and stir to dissolve. Place each jello mixture in a separate bowl. (an easy way to do this would be to boil a lot of water at once then measure it out to combine with the jello).


4. Refrigerate until Jello is set up (4 hours-overnight)


             5. After Jello is set, pour 2 packets of unflavored gelatin into 1/2 cup of cold water. Allow to sit for four minutes. Bring 1 1/2 cup water to a boil. Pour boiling water over dissolved gelatin and stir to combine. Pour in sweetened condensed milk and stir to combine. Allow to cool.

6. Lightly spray star molds, muffins tins, or 9x13 pan. Carefully cut the colored Jello into cubes and gently toss to combine

7. Pour the cooled white mixture over the colored Jello.

8. Place in refrigerator over night.

 So pretty! You better grab one before they're gone!

*Here's the mold I used for the stars! I first tried making the jello in a cake pan then using cookie cutters to cut it into shapes and it was a MESS! The mold worked TONS better. Click on the image for details.

Sweet Freedom

I can already hear you gasping as you look at this tutorial. These dipped strawberries are delicious and such a fun treat to make with your little ones. Let's not spend anymore time drooling...let's get to work!

Materials Needed:
Fresh, ripe strawberries
White chocolate chips
Blue sprinkles
Blue food coloring
Wax paper

 Instructions:
1. Clean your strawberries and dry them. Kids love to hang over the edge of the sink and make sure each strawberry get a thorough bath, so don't hesitate to let them get their little hands on this project.


Make sure the strawberries are completely dry before beginning the next step or the chocolate will slide right off.

2. Heat your white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Cook for 15 seconds at 100% power and stir. Continue in 15 second increments until the chocolate is nice and creamy. 

3. Hold the strawberry by its little green leaves and dip into the chocolate. Twist and turn (the strawberry) until well coated. This is definitely one of those times when its okay to double dip.

 4. Don't stop now. Once you've got a delicious layer of chocolate, sprinkle or dip that unsuspecting strawberry with a dash of sprinkles. 


 5. Set that beautiful, patriotic strawberry onto a piece of wax paper...or don't. This is America. Its OKAY to skip the "setting up" part and take a bite. The kids are doing it...you should too. 

 6. Use all your will power to stop licking your fingers and finish making up the rest of that batch of strawberries. Kids can experiment with any kind of sprinkles or design. Use the quiet time while they're licking their fingers and the edge of the table to teach them about what a great country we live in. Let them know we're proud of our Red, White and Blue!!






Variation: Add a little blue food coloring to your melted white chocolate to change up the look. (Gel food colorings hold their color better and mix in more evenly, but regular food coloring works great too.)


Happy Independence Day!

Happy Father's Day

Father's Day is almost here! What DAD doesn't love to kick back with a great treat? Kids will love this "hands-on" activity with their favorite ingredients!

 Materials Needed:
3 C. Rice Krispies Cereal (or any other puffed rice cereal)
1 C. Sugar                                         1 C. Butterscotch Chips
1 C. Karo Syrup                                1 C. Chocolate Chips
Mini Chocolate Chips                      1 C. Peanut Butter
Licorice Strands                                Marshmallows
Lollipop Sticks                                   Wax Paper
Gumdrops (or any candy treat you would like to decorate with)

 Instructions:
1. Combine sugar and Karo Syrup in a large saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.


2. Add peanut butter and stir until smooth.

 3. Mix in Rice Krispie treats until coated.

 4. When slightly cooled, form into 2 inch balls and slide a lollipop stick into the center. Set aside on wax paper to finish cooling.


Let the kids lick out the bowl to keep them busy while you work on the chocolate coating.

 5. In a medium saucepan, melt 1 C. Chocolate Chips and 1 C. Butterscotch chips. Go ahead and lick the spoon. No one is looking.


Once the mixture is smooth, remove from heat and get ready to make "pop"!

6. Gather your mini chocolate chips, gumdrops, licorice and whatever other sugary goodness you want to add to dad.


Dip the "pop" into the butterscotch mixture and twirl it around until you get the Rice Krispies good and coated. Make the "hairstyle" any way you want.

7.  Set the "pop's" onto a clean piece of wax paper and press two marshmallows in front for eyes. Add a mini chocolate chip to the center of each. Press a gumdrop on for a nose and finally, take a piece of those licorice strands and create a bow tie.










We have a FREE Father's Day tag for you to download. Go make these today. Your dad can't wait.

(Click on image and save or right click and save as...)

And don't forget to read some daddy books. Here are some good ones: