When the holidays roll around I usually try to use my cheffing skills to make as a many gifts as I can. I am not great at Christmas shopping. I get twitchy when I have to stand in long lines in crowded stores while Christmas music blares. I tend to give up, frustrated and leave the store empty handed.  Thank goodness I learned to cook. For the past few years I have made bacon toffee, peanut or pepita brittle, peppermint-studded caramels and this year I made chocolate truffles.

I made several personalized batches of boozy truffles using the recipients favorite alcohol: Chivas for MQ’s mom, Wild Turkey for his dad, etc. Since I am not much of a drinker, I made cookies and cream truffles for myself (with lots of extra to share.) These were insanely good.

I made them almost two months ago and I still can’t stop thinking about them. The best thing about these was that I got to make them in my kitchen listening to NON-Christmas music and I didn’t have to wait in any lines! They were also pretty darn easy. They would be a great dessert/snack to set out at a Super Bowl party!

Ingredients:
- 4 ounces of cream cheese, softened
- 8 ounce bag of K-Toos (or any gluten-free chocolate sandwich cookie – faux-reo – if you will, harharhar.)
-12 oz dark chocolate cut into chunks for easy melting and dipping
- 1-2 tsp canola oil

Instructions (Makes 22-24 truffles):

In a food processor or blender, process the cookies until you have a fairly fine powder and no big chunks.

In a medium bowl, combine the softened cream cheese and cookie crumb powder, stirring with a spatula until completely combined.
Form balls using a spoon or cookie scoop.

Roll the balls between your palms to make them a round, uniform shape.

I made mine about the size of…sheesh I don’t know what to call this size. Marble Shooter size? Super Bouncy Ball size? You get the idea.

Place them on a parchment lined cookie tray and chill in the fridge for about an hour.

Combine dark chocolate and oil over a double boiler and stir until completely melted and smooth. Drop each ball into the chocolate, one at a time and remove with a fork, tapping the fork gently on the side of the bowl to remove any excess chocolate.

Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and let them chill in the fridge for another hour.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve them as the chocolate is a bit melty since it’s not tempered.

These are not overly sweet but they are super addictive. Enjoy!

Adapted from: Chocolate and Carrots

Sometimes you just need chocolate. In fact, I’ll go even further and say sometimes you just need chocolate cake. This chocolate cake recipe satisfies both cravings because it’s decadently smooth like a solid bar of dark chocolate but still just fluffy and moist enough to make it the dream date for an icy glass of milk (or soy milk, or almond milk.)

This cake recipe came to me via Molly Wizenberg’s book, A Homemade Life. Her descriptions sounded amazing and the fact that this cake only requires one Tablespoon of flour meant that it would be a snap to adapt to be gluten free.

I can’t even put into words how much I loved this cake. There is a reason it is called The Winning Hearts and Minds Cake. It’s not like any other cake I have ever had. It’s a little fudgy, a little cakey, a little buttery and sweet but not too sweet. It’s not nearly as dense as a traditional flourless chocolate cake and it’s not as rich as you might imagine. It’s delicious the day it comes out of the oven, more delicious the next day and maybe even more delicious after it’s been frozen and thawed (though having enough will power to freeze it rather than eat it all is no easy feat.)

The first time I made this cake, I wrecked it. Instead of greasing the pan with butter, I sprayed it with cooking spray. Somehow, this made things go very wrong. As the cake baked, I heard it sputtering and spitting in the oven and thought…that doesn’t seem normal. When it was supposed to be ready, I pulled it out and it was…oily. And bubbly. And smelly. Not in a good way. I tried to eat it and it was foul. It tasted rancid and greasy and just plain nast.

I didn’t give up though. I wanted my heart and mind to be won over by a cake so I bought more chocolate and tried, tried again. Boy am I glad I did.

You have to try this cake. Just trust me.

Ingredients:

7 oz (200 grams) best-quality dark chocolate
7 oz (200 grams) unsalted butter (European-style, the high-butterfat kind, such as Lurpak works best), cut into ½-inch cubes
1 1/3 cup (250 grams) granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1 Tbs gluten free all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur Gluten Free Flour)
tiny pinch of xanthan gum

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 F, and butter an 8-inch round cake pan or springform pan. If you don’t use a springform pan, line the bottom of the cake pan with parchment, and butter the parchment too.

Finely chop the chocolate and melt it gently with the butter in a double boiler or in the microwave, stirring regularly to combine. My “double boiler” consists of a Pyrex mixing bowl placed over a pot of gently simmering water.

Add the sugar to the chocolate-butter mixture, stirring well, and set aside to cool for a few moments.

Then add the eggs one by one, stirring well after each addition.

Lastly, add the flour and a teensy pinch of xanthan gum.

Pour batter into the buttered cake pan.

Bake for approximately 20-30 minutes, or until the center of the cake looks set and the top is shiny and a bit crackly-looking. Start checking at 20 minutes and check every few minutes after that. You’ll know it’s done when it jiggles only slightly, if at all.

Let the cake cool in its pan on a rack for 10 minutes; then remove the springform or carefully turn the cake out of the pan and revert it, so that the crackly side is facing upward.

Allow to cool completely. The cake will collapse slightly as it cools.

Slice and serve with barely sweetened freshly whipped cream (or even unsweetened if you’re not a sweettooth) and fresh berries. Freeze the leftovers and thaw them as you need them. YUM.

I want to virtually send a slice of cake to the the hearts and minds that allowed me to meet my Kickstarter funding goal in only five days! I love you all!

Chett, Alex, This Paper Ship, Micki, Mitchell, Daniel, Rhalee, Lauren, Emily, E.M., Jay and Sunny, Becky, Meagan, Jess, Aron, Shuki, Stephen, Holly, Karen, Vincent, Ross, Leslie, Regan, Huy, Diana, Cindy, Katie, Matt G., Jason, Matt Q., Christina, Jerred, Steve, Bob and Terrie, Scott, Leigh, Jill, Brian, Matt D., John, Janet and Bruce, this slice is for YOU!

Thank you SO much and keep spreading the word! The project is open for funding until October 21. We met our goal which means now we’re dreaming even BIGGER!

Spread the gluten free love!

This, my friends, is why I had to detox. I spent much of December gorging on goodies like this awesome bread pudding, steaks in rich sauces, chips and dips and all manner of unholy buttery treats. January is my time to get back on track but I still have to share this amazing dessert with those of you who are NOT subsisting on beet juice and smoothies. I made this gluten free but it’s even easier for you gluten eaters out there. You start with a loaf of white bread. I made mine from a mix using my new baby, the breadmaker (If you can’t eat wheat, I highly suggest investing in a breadmaker. It has truly changed my life.)

If you’ve never had bread pudding before, this is a great recipe to try for your first time. Traditionally bread pudding has raisins (nasty!) and nutmeg (blech!) This recipe has chocolate and bananas and is sooooo comforting and yummy. It’s great hot out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:

- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 eggs
- 1 cups milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sugar
- big pinch of salt
- 14 ounces gluten free bread, preferably slightly stale, cut into 3/4″-1″ cubes (about one loaf, cut it up and leave it out overnight to “stale” it up)
- 6.5 oz high quality, dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 1 large or 2 small bananas, peeled and cut into small pieces (I cut the bananas into 1/4 inch round slices then halved each slice.)

Preheat oven to 350 F
Cut bread into chunks and fill a buttered large shallow baking dish, around 9″ x 13″

Beat the eggs. Whisk in the milk, starting with just a little at a time until the eggs are well distributed. Whisk in the cream, vanilla extract, sugar, and salt. Chop chocolate into chunks.

Mix the chocolate and bananas into the custard mix.

Spread out the bread pieces evenly in the pan.

Pour the custard evenly over the bread and swish it around lightly, trying to get it to absorb without squashing the bread too much. Fill any spaces and make sure the bread chunks are in a single layer.

Adapted from: http://herbivoracious.com