Custom Chocolate Bars

Ingredients

A couple of weeks ago was National S'more Day, as I was surfing the internet looking for s'more related goodies I stumbled across Not So Humble Pie's posting on S'more Chocolate Bars. They looked so good that I had to try them.

Fast forward three weeks and I finally had some time to try them out, but first I needed a chocolate bar mold. Boy, that was hard to find. I went to the wholesale baking place where I pick up all of my supplies from and they didn't have any thick plain old chocolate bar molds, they were either super skinny or had sudoku on them. I settled on a large chocolate bar mold that I would have to cut into smaller pieces.

First off I followed the recipe and made a s'more chocolate bar, I made sure I tempered the chocolate correctly to get the nice glossy finish. Luckily, the chocolate turned out great! The next bar I tried was a neapolitan bar that I came up with while at the grocery store getting ingredients. I already had some strawberry fluff that my Mom brought me back from Florida so I got some Nilla biscuits to go with it for the vanilla part of the neapolitan equation. Of course you can make any combination of chocolate bars, I can't wait to see what I dream up next...potato chips anyone?!

Here is a little photo journal process (recipe steps) I did to make my delicious custom chocolate bars. 

Chocolate to temper

Lindt Chocolate

Chocolate starting to melt

Chocolate tempering

Top part of the bar, chocolate in the mold

S'more Bar

Toasted Marshmallow (you should have
seen the size of the torch)

Marshmallow in the chocolate

Graham Crackers

Finished S'more Bar

Neapolitan Bar

Ingredients

Toasted Strawberry Marshmallow

Biscuits on top of the chocolate and marshmallow

Finished Neapolitan bar

If I could change anything for next time I'd make sure my chocolate was a little more set before I started putting the layers not the bar. As you can see from the picture above the marshmallow came through in the shallow areas because the chocolate wasn't set long enough.

At the end, they turned out delicious. 

Enjoy!

National S'mores Day

If you're a reader of this blog you will know that I LOVE s'mores, anything with the combination of chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker is good in my book!

Here is a collection of s'more baked goods that I have made over the years and one s'more chocolate bar that I will be making as soon as I get home from vacation.

Plan Jane S'more Cupcakes (chocolate cake, marshmallow
frosting and graham cracker crumbs)

S'more Bars (recipe here)

S'more Whoopie Pies (recipe here)

Brownie cupcakes with marshmallow, chocolate
 chips and graham cracker chunks on top

The chocolate bar that I just have to try is over at Not So Humble Pie. The s'more chocolate bar that she has made looks absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to try it!

Happy National S'mores Day Everyone!
Enjoy,

Snicker French Macarons

I made these quite awhile ago and never posted them.  The macarons turned out great, they are quite finicky to make. They take patience and a stand mixer, there would be no way that I could hold on to a normal electric mixer.

These snickers macarons include a chocolate macaron shell, peanut butter and marshmallow nougat, chocolate ganache and caramel or dolce de leche sauce.  These macarons are decadent, you can only have one, maybe two at a time. I'm going to see if I can find the recipe, until then check out the photos, they'll make you drool!

Enjoy!

OMG Baked Goodness

Back in April, my friend Cailin from A White Picket Fence and I went on a mini-cupcake crawl to a couple of cupcakeries in Toronto.  It was a wet and gloomy day but we didn't mind as we were in search for some awesome cupcakes.  Our first stop was OMG Baked Goodness which is located on Dundas St. W. between Dufferin St. and Lansdowne, a very cute shop.

Now let me start off saying that I really don't enjoy vegan cupcakes and that's just what OMG is a vegan cupcake store that also sells tarts, sweet breads and other sweets.  But we were there for the cupcakes, and I guess the cupcakes were good but nothing compared to regular eggs and dairy cupcakes. Cailin and I bought three different kinds of cupcakes.

So my review - the chocolate cupcake I had it was a good dense chocolate cupcake.  The vanilla, cupcake tasted like a corn muffin.  It was really lacking the sweetness you'd expect.  The carrot we tried was really good, the spices were perfect and the cream cheese icing was not too dense, but it did taste like a muffin and not a cupcake (I have a major issue with textures of things!).  Probably my biggest issue was that the icing had gone all hard, it was like they were sitting out for a long time and when we got there they had only been opened for one hour.

All in all, I wouldn't go back again but that's because I'm not vegan and I can eat regular cupcakes.  If I was it would probably be my go to shop for vegan desserts.

How to videos

About a year ago I went to a studio and did three instructional "how to" videos.  The first, me making one bowl chocolate cupcakes, the second making marshmallow icing and third, me frosting the cupcakes.

I had a great time but they were my first videos so they are quite awkward and I'm very stiff.  I hope you have a laugh!

Enjoy!

Jumbo Cream Filled Cupcakes

Wow these were some awesome cupcakes.  I have made these cupcakes before from Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook but this time I used some amazing cocoa powder from Askinosie Chocolate which put them over the top.  I took these to work and one of the ladies said that they were the best cupcakes she ever had.  I think it was because of the sour cream and the cocoa powder.

These cupcakes were light and fluffy (not just the cupcake but also they were filled with marshmallow fluff) and super moist.  Plus the batter tasted awesome which is always a clue that the baked version will turn out just great.

I made regular size cupcakes as I think a jumbo would be a bit too much with the chocolate and marshmallow filling.  They also go great with a cup of tea. For the recipe click here.

Batter

Awesome cocoa powder

Cupcake

Filled

Messy inside

Coffee and Doughnut Cupcakes

What’s better than coffee and doughnuts?  Well I think a coffee and doughnut cupcake.  The cupcake has not only coffee, but coffee grounds in it.  I love Starbucks coffee and decided to use their Sumatra blend. 

These cupcakes turned out really well, nice and fluffy with a great taste of coffee, cinnamon and sugar.  I used the recipe from Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit.  I followed the whole recipe for the cupcakes and the whipped cream frosting but I skimped out on making my own doughnuts and bought some mini's from the grocery store.  Next time I'll plan when I make these doughnuts to coincide with the Ex or some place where I can get Tiny Tom doughnuts 'cause they're sooo good!

Cupcake

Chocolate

Cinnamon & Sugar

Powdered Sugar

Enjoy!

Cadbury Cream Egg Snack Cakes

Box of 6 snack cakes

OMG!! Look at what I found today at the grocery store.  My favourite chocolate has been turned into a snack cake.  These little cakes are actually quite good, specially at $2.50 for six cakes.  They are nice and moist the only thing is that the cream isn't exactly like it is in the chocolate egg, it's a too thin.  I think I enjoy making chocolate cupcakes and putting mini cream eggs into them more.

I just had to share my find, I was so excited in the store and influenced two other people to buy them as well.  Plus there was a 50 cent coupon!  Who could resist?!

Inside the cake

Enjoy!