The grill is friends with things that come in pouches. Little foil packets, corn in husks, the list goes on. But one thing that I’d never even considered throwing on the grill is a banana. Well, all that has changed now. Ladies and gentleman…s’moranas!
Take as many bananas as you have people and slice them along the side three-quarters of the way through. Then, fill them with whatever you like! For four s’moranas, I used 16 milk chocolate Hershey squares, mini marshmallows, and crumbled graham crackers. Stuff them as full as you can, stick them on the grill and leave them there for about 5 minutes or until the skins are mostly black. Scoop out the insides with a spoon while wondering why you’ve been wasting your time on corn all these years.
I love chocolate infused with just about anything, but chiles have a special place in my heart. There’s something about creamy chocolate and spicy heat that really wins me over. These will kick your ass, give you a hug, and have you asking for more.
Chocolate Chili Brownies
1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 ¼ c. white sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup Mayan Cocoa, available at The Savory Spice Shop
¼ c. Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon Mexican vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 bar Vosages Oaxaca Chocolate
1 ½ c. 70% dark chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line your cupcake tin with wrappers. In a microwave-safe bowl melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the microwave briefly, just until it’s hot, but not boiling. It should look somewhat shiny as you stir it.
Crack 4 eggs into a bowl separate bowl, and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla till smooth. Add the hot butter-sugar mixture and stir until incorporated. Fold in the flour and chocolate until just incorporated. Over-beating makes your brownies tough!
Fill your cupcake lines 3/4 of the way up and bake for 15-20 minutes. Seventeen minutes was the sweet spot for mine. You want the tops to be raised and cracked. The toothpick test is less reliable here since each brownie is chock full of chocolate!
It’s hard to beat the indulgence of dipping a spoon into a fresh jar of dulce de leche while no one’s looking. Unless you put that spoonful on top of a personal sized cheesecake with dulce de leche in it.
Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Cups
1 box Nilla Wafers
Two 8 oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup jarred dulce de leche
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp cinnamon
Topping
1 ½ Tbsp heavy cream
Heaping 1/3 cup of dulce de leche
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a cupcake pan with foil wrappers. Place one Nilla wafer at the bottom of each cup. In a food processor, blend cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs 1 at a time, and pulse 3 to 5 times to blend between additions. Add dulce de leche, vanilla, and cinnamon and process for 10 seconds.
Spoon the batter over top of the wafers in the cups, filling them about 2/3-3/4 of the way up. Bake for 20 minutes and cool completely.
Once cooled, you’ll notice that the center of each cheesecake dips slightly. Pour the cream and the dulce de leche for the filling into a microwave safe bowl and heat at 10 second intervals until the mixture is fluid. Fill the center of each cheesecake with approximately 2 teaspoons of filling. Refrigerate before serving.
Salted Margarita Cupcakes. I can’t think of another treat that can make eating your lunch at your desk on Monday feel more like Friday. At least for the 3 minutes you’re consuming it. I made a chiffon cupcake baked with lime, tequila, and triple sec and then soaked each cake with the trio again for good measure. The airy confection is topped with a tequila-lime cream cheese frosting and little bits of salt—making the bearer of the happiest hour.
Margarita Madness on Facebook! -
TREAT is auctioning off a dozen Salted Margarita Cupcakes today on Facebook. Bidding starts at $3 and ends at HIGH NOON. They’re amazing! Lime cake with a tequila/triple sec drizzle, tequila lime cream cheese frosting, and a little sprinklin’ of salt. Get them before they’re gone and bid at the link above.
she said yes! this engagement cake has 4 layers of fluffy white cake with strawberry filling between each of them and my favorite vanilla buttercream topping it all off. the couple’s dog was a part of their proposal, so it was incorporated into the design on top. thanks so much to tara for ordering!
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Cupcakes on the braaaaaaaain. Thanks to Jared for this awesome link.