All posts tagged chocolate

good morning sunshine bars.

by shannon on June 8, 2013 in breakfast, desserts, snacks with 23 Comments

good morning sunshine bars.

Pre-bathing suit dieters: avert your eyes and avert them now. Go quickly to a health food blog, do an emergency keyword search for things like “quinoa” and “fennel,” and do your best to completely avoid what I have going on here. This is not the post for you. I’m swimming in the sea of early summer fruits as much as the rest of you, but I couldn’t get this out of my head, so here it is. Page one of the newest Baked offering, Baked Elements: The Good Morning Sunshine Bars, finagled by yours truly. And I did do a good amount of finagling here. Continue reading →

Pin It

the momofuku perfect 10 cookie (karlie’s kookies.)

by shannon on June 3, 2013 in desserts with 25 Comments

momofuku perfect 10 cookie.

Bonus track! Bonnie, this one’s for you.

We talked about this on Facebook a few weeks back, when I asked if you knew about Momofuku Milk Bar’s new mini-line of healthy cookies. Dubbed “Karlie’s Kookies” (after supermodel Karlie Kloss, who is, incidentally, from right here in St. Louis), they are a gluten-free cookie line containing healthy, wholesome little ingredients, and are perfect for snacking on and still feeling good about yourself. I know most of us snack on cookies and still manage to feel pretty okay about ourselves on a semi-regular basis, but this cookie will truly do your body good. Continue reading →

Pin It

chocolate chip cupcakes + chocolate ganache.

by shannon on May 5, 2013 in desserts with 33 Comments

chocolate chip cupcakes + chocolate ganache.

Two very exciting things happened at the end of April this year.

This postcard:

my postcard from emma.

Emma from Of Agates and Madeleines hand-illustrated a postcard and sent it to me from the middle of the Maine woods, where she hangs out most days. This was part of a previous agreement we had made to send each other postcards from our various locations; my vacation site in Florida versus her work site at the tippy top of the States. I sent her two postcards (I couldn’t decide which exemplified my vacation destination more) but they were not hand-illustrated, attached to a little note, and cuddled into a hand-folded envelope, friends. Only Emma would do that, and this is why I love her. She’s my kind of absolutely nuts, and I like it. Thanks, Emma.

The other thing that happened? These cupcakes. Continue reading →

Pin It

classic chocolate bundt + chocolate honey glaze.

by shannon on March 1, 2013 in desserts, Uncategorized with 22 Comments

classic chocolate bundt + chocolate honey glaze.

So I just got finished with a luncheon event with Deb Perelman. Yes, that Deb Perelman. I say “with” because for a few ticks of the clock, I want to imply that I was her opening act.

*moment*

I wasn’t. Maybe someday, but today I just bought tickets like everyone else, lunched on three lovely offerings from her cookbook, and realized she would probably be the most fun ever to hang out with. This last bit is great news, because I have been invited to attend a meet and greet this evening with Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen fame. So we’re clear about which Deb Perelman we’re talking about, I wrote that out. Currently the thing which weighs heaviest on my mind is if I should wear the same thing as I did (thus upping the chances that she recognizes me) or if I should go for something different (thus making it seem like I have many outfits.) Needless to say, complete sentences aren’t coming easily to me at the moment. Forgiveness requested in advance, and in return, I’ll tell you all about Deb in my next post. I took so many notes too, between the eating and the happy tears.  Continue reading →

Pin It

monday bites: diy dessert bar.

by shannon on February 4, 2013 in desserts with 22 Comments

diy dessert bar.

This past weekend, Americans and (I suspect) many others got together and watched the Super Bowl. Some of us hosted parties in honor of the last football game of the season. Some of us got a little too ambitious with the food planning and ended up in tears on the kitchen floor. This, friends, is my story. The details:  Continue reading →

Pin It

monday bites: cherry walnut bark clusters.

by shannon on December 16, 2012 in desserts with 18 Comments
I had big plans for this weekend. Homemade pizza and kid movie night, lots of food-gift baking (finally, right?), perfecting a few recipes so I can put them on here, a little gingerbread house decorating. You know; normal holiday stuff.
But then this happened.
And things seemed a long way from normal. I tend to be an emotional person. I don’t burst into tears constantly, or act strangely, but I do find myself feeling things in a pretty deep way. I take things seriously; mom says I’ve always been a serious person, even as a child. I think, I ponder, I mull things over until I have sufficiently rolled them around in my brain and sorted them out. Those character traits do me no favors when events like this happens. Continue reading →
Pin It

chocolate pistachio biscotti.

by shannon on December 14, 2012 in desserts with 22 Comments

I’ve never made biscotti. Not even one time. And I’m not sure why, because it seems like biscotti is one of those things that begs you to please, please make it from scratch and not judge it based on its store-bought, tasteless counterparts. Really, have you ever tasted a packaged biscotti and thought “wow; this has some massive flavor to it!” No, you haven’t. Fact: pre-packaged biscotti are devoid of flavor (which is why many of them are dipped in chocolate), dry like the Sahara, and possess no redeeming qualities  whatsoever. I bet the real biscotti over in Italy is mortified that these little shards of blandness even exist. Continue reading →

Pin It

sables, three ways: (the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012 cookies)

by shannon on December 12, 2012 in desserts with 16 Comments

Cookie swaps? Fun. Cookie swaps with over 500 people scattered across the world? Agonizing, but in a fun way. There’s so many things to consider! Transport time, crumble factor, freshness window, packing methods; it’s all critical. Not to mention the apprehension of sending your beloved cookies to complete and utter (but nice) strangers. And not that I really have a reputation to speak of, but if I do, it was on the line because of the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012. Continue reading →

Pin It

triple chocolate mousse cake.

by shannon on November 29, 2012 in desserts with 35 Comments

Now seems like a good time for a little pre-holiday baking story. A story about trying to do something for someone else, failing miserably, and then sucking it up and kicking defeat to the curb. It’s almost December, which means it’s almost time for large quantities of cookie-burning, pie-dropping, and the sort of hurried multitasking that results in not just one thing done poorly, but many things, all at once. Something you do will be a failure this month. It’s okay; we all do it. This is my story of disaster and subsequent triumph. Continue reading →

Pin It

espresso chocolate brownies.

by shannon on October 25, 2012 in desserts with 42 Comments

Is it Thursday already? Time flies when you’re decorating for Halloween, carving a pumpkin for a contest you have no business entering into because you don’t know how to carve a pumpkin, and making the Hardest Cake I Have Ever Made. More on that particular cake in an upcoming post, which will be rife with warnings on how to avoid making the same mistakes I did, unless you super enjoy throwing an entire cake in the trash two-thirds of the way through and starting all over again. Maybe that’s your thing. First, let’s talk holiday dessert standbys.  Continue reading →

Pin It
← Older Entries