Cocoa nibs: Roasted, peeled and crushed up cocoa beans. Also, my new obsession. I’ve seen these little things around for the last couple of years but never thought much about them. I love chocolate, so you would think that I would have tried them by now but as you know just because you watch TV doesn’t automatically mean you watch Mad Men (which we don’t). I don’t know exactly what spurred me to give them a try, but the accumulated exposure to them in a zillion food blogs and all over Pinterest probably brought us to this point. Well, I threw some into a batch of semifreddo a couple weeks ago and now I’m obsessed! The bitter, chocolatey/coffee flavor plus the added crunch these provide is something that I don’t know how I lived without all this time. It’s like owning an iPhone!
Each ounce of cocoa nibs contains:
130 calories
3 grams of protein
10 grams of carbs
13 grams of fat (but doesn’t raise cholesterol)
Cocoa nibs are a good source of potassium, chromium, copper, calcium and zinc. Cocoa nibs are also a rich dietary source of magnesium (which many Americans lack). They are chock full of antioxidants which as you know fight off disease. The flavanols in cocoa nibs also help with emotional and cardiovascular health. It’s like eating a bunch of chocolate without getting all the sugar you don’t want. A big win in my book! They can be added to ice cream, yogurt, tossed in your cereal or just eaten in small handfuls (although by themselves they can be an acquired taste for some people).
. She is an inspiration to me for many reasons. One being her story of how she used to come home and bake to relax from a long day at work. How her husband seen the difference in her, and his encouragement and support for her to follow a passion. It is very close to my personal story, but with a slightly different ending. The real winner for why I adore her, is she is local Minnesotan.
I could barely contain my excitement every recipe is pure gold. We try to cook out of it as often as possible all the recipes we have made taste perfect. This cake was no exception. It was dense and moist, and the rum flavor just made it sing. The frosting, oh my goodness, the frosting. I could have ate a bowl of it, and for someone who does not like chocolate frosting at all this was a big deal. This frosting tastes like chocolate silk. My one word of advice for this cake is do not, by any means skimp on the quality of the chocolate you use. You will taste the difference and for utter and complete decadence use a high quality 55-65% cocoa chocolate bars or buttons.
they make this cake seem very decadent as Julie’s husband smears it all over his face moaning “it is so good”. We used to laugh at it and think how odd, and what a waste of cake. Now we completely agree with the reaction in the movie it is spot on. This is now his favorite chocolate cake, and it was hard for him to admit that after the Chocolate Ginger Cake.
for baking, but in the mean time I hope you give it a try. You will be very pleased with the consistent results you get and how much sense it makes to weigh dry ingredients (and sometimes wet, like egg whites) rather than measure by volume.
by chef and owner Mitch Omer of Hell’s Kitchen in Minneapolis. We’ve been there many times now and everything on the menu is absolutely amazing. I wanted to try something different that I have never made before, so I went with their Caramel Pecan Rolls. I just made half of the books recipe and some aspects were failing for me so I had to make some slight changes. Otherwise, it was superb. They were a lot easier than I first thought. The dough itself is slightly sweet rather than being bland and letting the filling and caramel carry it. My husband keeps raving about it as he finishes off the last of them. The caramel itself isn’t overly sweet either which gives the rolls a nice rounded flavor that doesn’t make you run for a glass of milk to wash it down. I’m going to make these the next time my mother-in-law comes to visit as she adores caramel pecan rolls, and I will use any opportunity available to impress her.