Chocolate E'clair Cake

As simple as this recipe is, you'd think it to be a delicacy.  It's full of flavor with a light crust and soft vanilla pudding insides... And the fudge topping is heavenly!

Ingredients:

(Cake)

• 1 box graham crackers
• 2 pkg. instant French Vanilla pudding
• 3 cups milk
• 1 (9 oz) container of Cool Whip

(Fudge Topping)

• 2 squares unsweetened chocolate
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tbsp milk

Directions:

1. For cake, grease 9x13 pan.  Line pottom of pan with crackers. 
2. Mix pudding and milk, then blend in Cool Whip.  Beat until slightly thick.
3. Pour half of pudding mixture over grahams.
4. Layer more crackers, then the rest of the pudding.
5. Add another layer of crackers.
6. For frosting, combine fudge topping ingredients, beat until creamy. 
7. Pour frosting over top layer of graham crackers.
8. Refrigerate for 30 minutes then serve!

Scotcheroos

A dessert so good, that my husband's family fights over them at Christmas time--to the point that last year, the parents had to ration them between family members so everyone got their fair share.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 6 cups rice krispies
• 1 cup chocolate chips (6oz)
• 1 cup butterscotch chips (6oz)

Directions

1. Combine sugar and syrup in a saucepan.
2. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until mixture begins to bubble.
3. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter; mix well.
4. Add cereal and stir until blended.  Press into buttered 9x13 pan.
5. Melt chips together over low heat.
6. Remove from heat and spread evenly over Rice Krispies mixture.
7. Cool until firm, then cut into very generous portions for greedy family members.

Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies

Mmmm... chocolate... I am in dire need of a batch of these delicious no-bake cookies.
The nice thing is, if you don't have all the ingredients, it's easy to replace some of them with others--for example, you can use flaked coconut instead of oatmeal.
You could also add some chopped peanuts to the mix, or add some chocolate chips for that extra chocolately goodness.

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, combine sugar, milk, cocoa, salt, and butter and mix well.
2. Bring to a boil and cover saucepan for 30 seconds to allow steam to wash sugar crystals down sides of the pan.
3. Stir mixture and bring it to a boil that can't be stirred down for 1 minute*
4. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter until smooth.
5. Add oatmeal and mix well.
6. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to let the oatmeal absorb some of the liquid.
7. Drop mixture by the spoonful onto wax paper or parchment paper.
8. Let cool until you can touch the mixture, then reshape the cookies to make them into balls.**
9. Let cool completely; store at room temperature.

*Make sure that the sugar mixture boils hard for at least 1 minute, otherwise the cookies will be sugary instead of creamy.

**You can also pour the mixture into a 9x9 baking dish and allow it too cool--then cut into pieces.

Oreo Truffles

I know, right?  I went to a football party thing a while back, and one of the girls brought these.  The container was empty about 20 minutes later.  Wow. 

Healthy?  Probably not.  Delicious?  You bet your boots they're delicious.
Thanks to Bakerella for the picture and the recipe. :)

Ingredients

• 1 Package of Oreo cookies, crushed
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 bag chocolate chips, melted or 2 packages of dipping chocolate (white, dark, milk---which ever you prefer)

Directions

1. Mix the crushed Oreo cookies and cream cheese together in a bowl.  Use a food processor or blender to speed up this process.
2. With your hands, roll Oreo and cream cheese mixture into small balls.
3. Place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.
4. Chill in the freezer for 30 minutes.
5. Melt chocolate chips or dipping chocolate in the microwave untiil melted
   Note: only melt for 10 seconds at a time, stirring between meltings
6. Using a toothpick, dip the Oreo balls into the melted chocolate. Cover well.
7. Let the Oreo balls harden on the cookie sheet in the fridge or freezer for about 15 minutes.
8. Serve cold.

*To make a healthier version, you could try using low fat cream cheese, but really--does it make that big of a difference?

Makes about 25-40 balls, depending on how big you make them.

The BEST Chocolate Cake EVER

Found this one on the web last winter at Kevin and Amanda's Recipe Blog, and yes, it's true. It is truly the best chocolate cake ever. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients (for the cake)

• 1 box devils food cake mix
• 1 package Jello instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup veggie oil
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

Ingredients (for the buttercream frosting)

• 1 cup Crisco
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
• In a VERY large bowl, mix together everything on the cake ingredients except the chocolate chips. Batter will be thick.
• Now stir in the chocolate chips.
• Pour batter into the cake pan of choice (I used two 9 inch round pie pans).
• For cooking time, I use the cooking times on the back of the devil's food cake box as a guide and usually add 10 mins to whatever it says.
• Then I do the toothpick check, and if t's not done, I check on it every 5 mins after that.
• It usually takes around 45 mins for two, 9 inch pie pans.
• In a separate mixing bowl, cream shortening until fluffy.
• Add sugar and continue creaming until well blended.
• Add salt, vanilla, and whipping cream.
• Blend on low speed until moistened. Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.
• Take the first cake out of the pan and put it on a plate. Frost the top of it.
• Put the second cake on top of the first cake and frost the top of that one.
• Then frost the sides.
• If you have any mini chocolate chips left over, you can sprinkle some on top and on the sides.