Rather you are stuck in the house due to weather or looking for some sweet treats to celebrate the day with, I have you covered! Here are five simple recipes to bring you some happiness today!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip
Kids and adults alike love this guilty pleasure dip! It has all the goodness of cookie dough, but without the eggs.
Ingredients: 8 ounce Cream Cheese, 1/2 cup Unsalted butter, 1 cup Powdered Sugar, 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla, 1 cup Mini Chocolate Chips, 1 cup Toffee Bits
Directions: Whip the cream cheese and butter together with a handheld electric mixer, and then add in remaining ingredients until well combined. Chill in the refrigerator for an hour before serving. Serve with vanilla wafers or graham crackers.
Dark Chocolate Mousse Stuffed Strawberries
This chocolate mousse is a sweet, easy treat, whether you want to eat it straight up with a spoon, or stuff strawberries to make it even sweeter.
Ingredients: 5 and 1/4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped; 14 ounces cold heavy cream; 3 large egg whites; 1 ounce sugar; Sweetened whipped cream for garnish (optional); Strawberries (optional; the mousse is so good you can eat it with a spoon!)
Directions: Place chocolate in a double boiler at a low simmer and stir chocolate until melted. Beat the cream over ice until it forms soft peaks. Set aside and keep at room temperature. With a mixer, whip eggs to soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar and keep whipping until firm. Using a whisk, fold in the egg whites into the chocolate. Once the eggs are almost completely mixed in, fold in the whipped cream. Cover the mousse and refrigerate for about an hour.
If you are stuffing into strawberries, cut the tops off the strawberries and stand upright on the cut side. Make a cut 3/4 of the way down from the tip of the strawberry towards the bottom. Once the mousse has set, use a piping bag with a star tip to pipe the mousse into each strawberry.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
If someone in your family is gluten free, this cake is perfect for you. Still sweet, chocolatey, and wonderful, minus the flour!
Ingredients: 1/2 cup water, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup white sugar, 18 squares (1 ounce) bittersweet chocolate, 1 cup unsalted butter, 6 eggs
Directions: Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease one 10 inch round cake pan and set aside. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the water, salt, and sugar. Stir until completely dissolved and set aside. Melt the bittersweet chocolate in double boiler or microwave. Pour the chocolate into the bowl of an electric mixer. Cut the butter into pieces and beat the butter into the chocolate, 1 piece at a time. Beat in the sugar water. Slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Have a pan larger than the cake pan ready, put the cake pan in the larger pan and fill the pan with boiling water halfway up the sides of the cake. Bake the cake in the water bath at 300 degrees F for 45 minutes. The center will still still look wet. Chill cake overnight in pan. To unmold the cake from the pan, dip the bottom of the pan in hot water for 10 seconds and flip upside down onto a serving plate
Instant Key Lime Pie
This is so easy it should be illegal. Usually, my favorite time for a sweet and tangy key lime pie is in the summer, but I wanted to make sure I included the non-chocolate lovers out there!
Ingredients: 8 ounce cream cheese, softened; 14 oz can sweet condensed milk; 6 oz can frozen limeade concentrate (thawed), graham cracker crust, 8 oz whipped topping, thawed (I use cool whip) – this is for after the pie is frozen!
Directions: In a large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer to beat the softened cream cheese until it is nice and smooth. Then add the sweet condensed milk and the limeade until just blended. Spoon filling into pie crust, then cover and freeze for at least four hours (overnight works too!) Top with whipped topping before serving.
Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake
Another super easy one with the unexpected delight of cherries! This one takes the best things about pie and chocolate cake, and mixes them.
Ingredients: 1 box of devils food cake mix, 1 can of cherry pie filling (21 ounce size), 2 large eggs, chocolate fudge icing (my favorite is Duncan Hines)
Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch square pan with cooking spray. Mix the cherry pie filling, cake mix, and eggs in a large bowl by hand. Pour into pan, and bake 35 – 40 minutes (until a toothpick come out clean.) Allow the cake to cool at least 30 minutes, and then frost with chocolate frosting.
