Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins

For my last batch of muffins in February, I decided to go all out and make something chocolatey, which I had been avoiding for most of the month because it's much harder to feign eating a healthy breakfast with a chocolate muffin stuffed in your mouth. These muffins have chocolate and hazelnuts in them, as well as a dollop of Nutella inside which is melty and extra delicious if you eat these muffins when they're still warm. (Full disclosure, I actually used Korger's brand of Nutella because they have a crunchy version that has little bits of hazelnut in it, too. You can use whatever kind you prefer though.)

Chocolate-Marshmallow Whoopie Pies

What exactly is a whoopie pie? Is it a cake? Is it a cookie? Does it really matter? It's delicious, whatever you consider it. I used to make these all the time when I worked at the coffee shop, and the older customers especially would snatch them up, saying that they tasted like childhood. I think that's a pretty apt description no matter who you are. These whoopie pies have a simple, classic taste that almost has the flavor of a homemade Oreo, though the texture is quite different.

Halloween Buttercream Fudge

Before I get to the recipe, I just want to apologize for the lack of updates in the past couple weeks. Justin and I were kind of busy for a bit there. Our first wedding anniversary was also earlier this month, and so we were out and about some, including a day trip to Williamsburg to go ziplining. (It was great fun, by the way--sometimes terrifying, but great fun.) Then I had a few recipes that I tried out and intended to post. However, they just didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, and I didn't want to post anything that I thought was subpar. A lot of things combined to cause my lack of posts. Either way, I'm back now, and hopefully I should be back to posting with semi-regularity.

My first post back is this lovely, simple fudge. It tastes like buttercream frosting, and just for Halloween, I made it in layers that look like candy corn. I've made fudge from scratch before, and I even have a specific pot that I refer to as my fudge pot. It was given to me by my mom, and it's the only pot she ever used to make fudge. (It's a Club aluminium pot with a super thick bottom that makes it a lot more difficult to accidentally burn whatever anything delicate that you make in it.) Still, fudge can be somewhat of a hassle to make from scratch. You have to make sure it gets to the exact right temperature, or it won't set properly. It can't be too humid out, or it won't set properly. You can't look at it wrong, or it won't set properly. You get the idea. This fudge involves none of that. Honestly, the most difficult and time-consuming part of this process was cutting it into triangles. This is seriously the easiest dessert you will ever make. You have no excuse not to make a batch or three.

Amaretto Bundt Cake

My mom used to make this cake fairly often. It's simple because it starts with boxed cake mix and also doesn't require frosting. It's also incredibly delicious if, like me, you love amaretto. Mom always used yellow cake and vanilla pudding mix, but I think it's just as good (and maybe better, actually) with chocolate cake and chocolate pudding mix. The recipe is the same either way, so feel free to experiment. I bet that a pineapple cake would be delicious with this recipe actually. I suppose you could also use other types of alcohol, too. You could make a screwdriver cake with orange cake mix and vodka or maybe a strawberry margarita cake with strawberry cake, a bit of lime juice, and tequila. If you give it a try, let me know how it works out.

Bourbon Chocolate Buttercream

It's a proven fact that alcohol makes everything better. Why have orange juice when you could have a mimosa? Why eat spaghetti sauce when you could have vodka sauce? Why eat plain, boring chocolate buttercream when you could have bourbon chocolate buttercream? Alcohol and food are best buds--they love to hang out together. Let's embrace their friendship!

As sad as I know you will be about this, I'm not going to be sharing the brownie recipe with you. I was trying out a new recipe from one of my many cookbooks; this one was supposedly voted New York's best several times (according to the author at least), but I don't get it. Either the people in NYC don't know what a brownie should taste like, or the author is crazy. These brownies had great chocolate flavor, but the texture was absolutely terrible. They were super dry and crumbly and not at all what a brownie should be. The only saving grace was the frosting that I made to put on the top. Therefore, I'm going to share the frosting recipe with you but not the brownie one. (You wouldn't like it if I did. Trust me.) You can use this on brownies, cake, cookies, cupcakes, or whatever else you can think of. This recipe made enough to put a fairly thick layer on top of an 8x8 pan of brownies. If you want to pipe it in big swirls on top of cupcakes, I'd suggest maybe making a double batch.

No-Bake Cookies

I can't recall ever having no-bake cookies before I moved to Indiana, but in Indiana, they're everywhere. Have a bake sale, and you're guaranteed to have at least one person bring a batch of no-bakes. They're as prevalent as chocolate chip cookies. They're by far not my favorite cookie, but Justin loves them, especially if he can get to them as they're coming out of the pot, before they've had time to actually set. They're warm and runny, all chocolate and oats and tastiness. If he has to eat it with a spoon, he's happy.