Dress up a box mix with a little espresso powder and a streusel topping. Easy espresso chocolate chip muffins are the perfect last-minute breakfast treat for a busy morning!

I move back to Texas in just over a month. So now I’m using up things in my pantry. You know, the stuff that got shoved to the back.

I don’t use mixes often but after raising three kids, I always keep a few box mixes on hand just in case. You never quite get over those last minute  – Mom I need cupcakes/brownies/cookies today – moments.

I bought a box of chocolate chip muffin mix a year ago. I’ve been meaning to make them for my colleagues. But they mix is just so plain and my colleagues now have very high standards for snacks.

These easy espresso chocolate chip muffins took less than half an hour to make. And, nothing beats warm muffins in the morning.

If you have leftover strong coffee, you could use that in place of the water. But who has left over coffee? I don’t drink coffee so I used espresso powder to give them coffee flavor.

They still looked a bit plain so I made a simple pecan streusel topping. After they were done, I wished I’d added some pecans to the mix too.

My colleagues loved these. Makes me think I should buy muffin mix more often.

If you want to start from scratch, you can add espresso powder and streusel topping to these from scratch chocolate chip muffins.

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Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Dense chocolate cake moistened with rum syrup, this chocolate rum cake goes great with coffee. Make them in mini bundt pans for individual servings – you’ll need portion control.

When I was a kid, my best friend was Italian and her family was ALWAYS cooking. If you’ve seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, it was a lot like that. Plastic on the furniture, wonderful aromas wafting through the house, loud, gregarious people hugging and kissing you, and food, glorious food! It was a good thing I had a high metabolism because there were days that just walking into their house would probably add 10 pounds to your weight.

One of the dishes they always made at Christmas time was Bacardi Rum Cake. If you’ve never had one, you should try it. Dense, buttery cake topped with pecans and soaked in a butter rum sauce.

The recipe tells you to add the rum to the hot sauce which cooks off the alcohol. My friend’s family always let the sauce cool a little so the rum didn’t cook off. It gave the cake a little extra holiday cheer. Either way, rum cake is one of my favorites. The recipe was simple. Just add pudding and rum to yellow cake mix. Pour on top of chopped pecans in a bundt pan and bake. Then drizzle with rum sauce.

This Christmas I thought I’d make one but discovered that cake mixes come in smaller boxes so my recipe proportions were out of whack. I went searching for a from-scratch recipe and came across this Rum Cake recipe from King Arthur Flour. It came out perfectly so I’ll definitely be making it in future years. I left out the rum flavoring and replaced their pecan flour with 1/2 cup chopped pecans to give more pecan flavor to the cake.

When I was thinking about how I could modify a rum cake for this blog, I was reminded of a trip to St. Thomas that Joan organized for Christmas one year.

We’d always celebrated Christmas at my grandparents’ house in Pennsylvania. It was a huge house that was originally built in the 1700’s so there were “secret” winding staircases hidden behind wooden paneling and lots of great places to play hide and seek.

My grandparents had passed away and it was our first Christmas without them so Joan decided we needed to do something really different – a holiday in St. Thomas. We pooled our funds and bought plane tickets for ourselves and our mom and somehow even came up with funds for a hotel. It was so relaxing and the food was wonderful.

The rum balls our hotel made were rich, dark chocolate with enough rum to knock your socks off. They were so potent one was quite enough. I thought I could tone those down by making them in cake form so I adapted the King Arthur recipe to be a chocolate cake base with rum soaking syrup. This chocolate rum cake has a great balance between rum and chocolate flavors.

If you want non-alcoholic chocolate rum cakes, just add the rum to the hot soaking syrup. If you want the adult version, wait until the syrup cools and then add the rum. Either way, the rum flavor is not overpowering.

I sometimes feel like living in Cambodia is like living on a remote island. Things we take for granted at home are either very expensive or just not available here.

I didn’t bring a bundt pan with me and they don’t sell them here so I used a springform pan form my rum cake at Christmas. It worked OK but I had to put extra batter in a small pan so the slices weren’t quite as tall.

A friend of mine was coming over from the States so I asked him to bring a few things.  I wasn’t sure how much weight he would be willing to carry or how much space he’d have so I decided to order this mini bundt pan:

Freshware SL-119RD 6-Cavity Silicone Fancy Bundt Cake, Muffin, Cupcake, Brownie and Cornbread Mold

When silicone bakeware first came out, I bought a cake pan and muffin pan. I tried making muffins in the muffin pan and wasn’t too happy with the results. The muffins always stuck to the pan so I had to use liners anyway. Silicone also lacks structure so I needed a cookie sheet under it to get it in and out of the oven. Based on my not so great experience with the muffin pan, I don’t think I ever even bothered with the cake pan. It’s just sitting in my cupboards at home gathering dust.

The Amazon reviews for this mini bundt pan said to let the cakes cool until they were lukewarm before removing and they would come out fine. I followed their advice, brushed the molds with cooking oil, and waited until the cakes were lukewarm before removing. My chocolate rum cakes came out without sticking at all. I’m loving this pan!

I did find I had to fill each cake a little more full than I would have expected (about 4/5 full) but they cook up quickly and the individual cakes are so fun to serve. If you don’t have a mini bundt pan, you can use a muffin pan but it will probably take a little longer to cook.

This recipe makes 6-8 mini chocolate rum cakes. If you want a large cake, double the recipe and bake for about 50 minutes.

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These Gooey Mississippi Mud Pie Brookies are layers of fudge chocolate brownie and chocolate chip cookies mixed with pecans and mini marshmallows. 

Oh my, I can’t believe how long it’s been since I made Brookies. There was a time when I was slightly obsessed with this brownie/cookie combination and I just couldn’t stop. Well guys, I think it is safe to say that my obsession has resurfaced.

Over the weekend I was trying to decide what to share with you this month. I tried to think of what Joan’s readers really loved. Joan once told me how popular her Mississippi Mudslide Cake was. I thought about making a mud pie cookie, but I wanted them to be extra chocolatety. I had one of those light bulk moments and brookies came to mind. Mississippi Mudslide turned into Mississippi Mud PIE. That’s a lot of miss-iss-ippi for one sentence.

Surely you have heard of a brookie before, right? It’s basically a brownie baked together with a cookie. When I make brookies, I always have the double layer. You get the fudgy chocolate brownie on the bottom and the soft chocolate chip cookie on top.

For these brownies, I’ve gone ahead and added crushed pecan and mini marshmallow. The pecans are nice and crunchy because I’ve not only added them into the cookie dough, but I’ve also sprinkled a layer of them on top of the brownies. I’ve done the same thing with the mini marshmallows. This way, you’ve got that ooey gooey marshmallow pieces in every piece. It’s the same thing I did with my Marshmallow Oreo Brookies.

I thought about sharing these with my coworkers on Monday, but then I decided to throw them in my freezer for a rainy day. Just don’t tell me coworkers, mmkay?

For this recipe, you will need a box of brownie mix. You will mix the batter according the instruction on the box. Now I’ve never made them with homemade brownie mix, but I certainly think that is a good idea! Spread the brownie batter over the bottom the pan.

Then you make a batch of cookie dough, mix in all the magical goodness (Pecan and Marshmallow, I’m looking at you!) and gently layers it on top of the brownies. I like to flatten the dough with my hands, and then put it together like a puzzle on top. It all bakes together and looks uber pretty. Hooray!

Now time to go grab one of these from the freezer. Might I suggest warming these up in the microwave and drizzling with hot fudge? How about a scoop of vanilla ice cream? Now we’re talking.

More from Beyond Frosting

Marshmallow Oreo Brookies

Butterfinger Brookies

Thin Mint Brookies

Do you love these brookies? Make sure you stop by for more!

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These melt in your mouth Sea Salted Praline Pecan Clusters can be made in a microwave in less than 10 minutes and disappear even faster. Make some for a movie night or just because you need some praline goodness in your life.

A little over a week ago my friend Melissa Sperka from Melissa’s Southern Style Kitchen sent me a recipe for Sea Salted Praline Pecan Clusters. She had been editing old photos and came upon this recipe which was one of my sister’s favorites.

Joan always had a stockpile of pecans in her freezer. She put pecans in a lot of her desserts. My personal favorites are her kitchen sink chocolate chip cookies, caramel pecan sticky buns, and nutty toffee bars. As much as she loved pralines, she never came up with a recipe for them. Maybe it’s because making candy can be tricky with three kids running around the house or maybe it’s because Melissa’s sea salted praline pecan clusters just can’t be beat.

When Melissa came up with a way to make these in a microwave, Joan told her she was evil because these can be made any time – even on a hectic afternoon when the kids are running in three different directions. Joan was right. I had company this weekend and work was crazy. I whipped these up in no time and we were in praline heaven.

You don’t even need a candy thermometer! Melissa’s directions are very straight forward. So if you haven’t short-circuited your computer keyboard drooling over these treats, head on over to Melissa’s blog and get the recipe for sea salted praline pecan clusters so you can make your own batch!

But there’s more! Did I mention that Melissa cooks main courses and appetizers too? I’d love to live on desserts but a girl’s gotta eat something besides chocolate every now and then right? Melissa is my go to source for “real food.”

My three kids all have different tastes but we all love Melissa’s Italian Sausage Spinach and Havarti Crescent Braid and her broccoli cheddar and bacon quiche can’t be beat.

Now here’s the really good news. She’s gathered her recipes into a new cookbook: Melissa’s Southern Cookbook. No hunting down your favorites on her website. Or, if you’ve got glitchy internet like I do, no worrying about whether you can get online when you need a recipe. Just bookmark them and they’re always there for you. I can’t wait to get my copy!

Melissa’s Southern Cookbook won’t be out until May but you can pre-order through Amazon. Just click the link below to get yours.

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Combine your basic everyday popcorn with some dried cherries, pecans, and sugar and voila! You have Cherry Pecan Caramel Corn – a nice snack that almost everyone can enjoy!! 

Hi, all! I’m Jen–another of Joan’s cousins, and sister to Kim. Today, I’ll be making one of my favorite recipes: caramel corn (pretty awesome on its own) with dried cherries and pecans.

I’m a procrastination baker. Anyone else like that? You know: Report to be written? Oh, look, a cookie recipe! House cleaning to do? Bake brownies! Have to pack for a trip? Make caramel corn! It’s a skill I honed in college, and resulted in caramel corn becoming the snack for any road trips my friends and I would take.

Today’s not a road-trip day but it is a grey snowy day, so making Cherry Pecan Caramel Corn is giving me delicious taste of summer and being on the open road while it’s still the middle of winter. Now I know there are many ways to make caramel corn–that’s part of the fun of it! Many recipes use corn syrup; mine uses honey, because it’s something I always have around the house. If honey’s not a taste you prefer, you can substitute in an equal quantity of corn syrup.

The cherries add some nice tartness to the sweetness of the caramel, while the pecans add some fun texture. Let’s be honest here–cherries and pecans (or dried fruits and nuts of any sort) make many, many already-delicious things even tastier, and caramel corn is no exception. If cherries and/or pecans aren’t your thing, this would work just as nicely with cranberries or any other tart dried fruit; for nuts, cashews, peanuts, or petty much anything would be delicious. You can also have fun with the caramel by adding a teaspoon of cinnamon to it before boiling.

I also love making this recipe because cleanup is a cinch. Usually when I bake it looks like gremlins got loose in my kitchen: In spite of my best efforts, I have little dustings of flour everywhere, and a pile of dishes so big that it looks like something from Dr. Seuss. For this one, I can have my dishes done in 5 minutes AND have almost no work to do wiping down the counters. I usually use microwave popcorn rather than making it on the stove [here’s a great trick to get rid of those pesky unpopped kernels], and you can clean the sugar pan and wooden spoon by soaking them in hot water and soap for a bit. Easy–and it gives you even more time to sit down and munch on your homemade caramel corn!

 If you like this recipe, you might also be interested in chocolate popcorn

or peanut butter popcorn.

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Creamy custard, sweet peaches and crunchy praline combine for a taste of heaven. Baking in a cast iron skillet gives Peach Praline Skillet Pie an extra flaky crust.

When I was a kid growing up in Delaware, we lived in a neighborhood with no fences. Kids cut through yards to get to their friends’ houses or the neighborhood pool just a little faster. We had a small peach tree in our back yard that produced a ton of peaches every year. Joan hated it because it attracted bees and many of the peaches fell to the ground and rotted before we could pick them all.

I love fresh peaches so I have fond memories of eating sweet, juicy peaches on hot summer days. We used to freeze some of the peaches so we’d have that fresh-picked flavor all winter long. I used the frozen peaches for cobblers, pies and as a topping for my oatmeal during those cold winter months.

I found a recipe for the Delaware state pie, peach custard, some time ago.  The recipe is great but my custard always came out runny and there was too much custard for even a deep dish pie so I wanted to fix that. Peach Praline Skillet Pie is a Texas twist on my Delaware peach custard pie.

So why use a cast iron skillet to make pie? A few years ago, a friend of mine mentioned she was getting rid of her teflon cookware because teflon fumes can kill birds. I thought, if teflon fumes can kill birds, maybe I should limit my use of teflon cookware.

When I did a little investigating I found that PFOA, a chemical is used to make teflon, causes cancer in animals and is found in the blood of 95% of Americans. You can read about the lawyer who cracked open the scandal of PFA in this New York Times article.  I’m not one to panic but I thought it best for my kids to phase out my teflon pans. It wasn’t easy to find frying pans that were non-stick and non-teflon.

While I love my stainless steel pots, stainless doesn’t work so well for frying pans (in my opinion). I did find some ceramic non-stick skillets that work well and I bought a cast iron griddle. I was amazed at how versatile cast iron is and how evenly it cooks.

A few simple rules keep my griddle non-stick. Usually a quick rinse is all I need to clean my cast iron. You’re not supposed to use soap to clean cast iron, but sometimes your pan needs a good scrub. Just dry it, lightly coat with cooking oil and put on the stove until it’s hot. Then let it cool and it’s good to go again. My griddle works so well it’s nearly always on my stove and I bought several skillets and a cast iron muffin pan to go with my griddle. The muffin pan makes small muffins but the outsides are crisp with tender insides.

When I was packing for Cambodia, I was limited to 80 pounds of checked luggage and a good chunk of that was educational supplies so I had tough decisions to make. Cast iron weighs a LOT so my griddle stayed home. I was hoping I could find cast iron in the markets but no such luck even in the specialty stores. I so missed cooking with cast iron that when I was home for my sister’s funeral, I bought a cast iron skillet to bring back with me. I opted for a skillet because I knew I’d make at least one pie for Thanksgiving and the deeper sides of a skillet make it useful for baking.

When Maximus from Old Time Pottery contacted me about doing a post for them, I immediately thought of making Peach Praline Skillet Pie. Sadly, there are no Old Time Pottery stores in Texas so I’m limited to ordering online but for those of you lucky enough to shop there, they have cast iron skillets at reasonable prices. The also have other kitchen gadgets and some wonderful serving pieces in their dining section.

I was hoping that the cast iron would give pie crust the same crunch it gives muffins and I was right. The crust was very flaky and the pie didn’t stick at all to the pan.

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Chocolate and coffee in one sweet treat — why yes, I think I’ll have some! This coffee iced chocolate nut cake combines my favorite ingredients in one moist cake that is great with coffee or as a breakfast treat.

I’m a sucker for old books–and especially for old cookbooks. Finding hand-written recipes tucked in with the printed ones is a treat, and it’s how I’ve found some of my favorite recipes–including today’s recipe for coffee iced chocolate nut cake. I found it pinned in a 1938 copy of Better Homes and Gardens, meticulously written in gorgeous cursive and was instantly intrigued because it included three of my absolute favorite things: chocolate, nuts, and coffee.

Jennifer here again. The first time I made this recipe I spent most of the time thinking “Chocolate nut cake? This looks like soup!” I should have trusted my elders, as it turned out just fine. Further experimentation with chocolate quantities and types of nuts yielded additional tasty results, but I’ve always gone back to the original recipe I found tucked away in a dusty old cookbook.

The chocolate of the cake is subtle, which makes it perfect for an afternoon snack; the pecans offer a nice crunch with the moist cake. I generally make this as a bundt cake with coffee icing drizzled over the top–it’s easier to share with friends that way–but I think it would make an absolutely delicious layer cake, too.

A few notes on making this: I follow the recipe I found pretty strictly, but the more experienced of you will no doubt have shortcuts and tricks that serve you better. Because the recipe calls for mixing so many of the dry ingredients together before adding the wet, it’s critical to scrape down the bowl thoroughly and often.

And yes, when you finish adding everything together, the batter really does look soupy but of course it all comes together just fine in the oven. The coffee icing recipe creates more of a frosting, which is why I tend to thin it a bit with milk to make it easier to drizzle.

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Chocolate Kahlua Coffee Pound Cake

Or this Chocolate Kahlua Pecan Pie

Or these Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes

Or these Starbucks mocha cupcakes from SpendWithPennies.

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Pure maple syrup gives these maple pecan caramels wonderful flavor. Maple pecan caramels are also versatile. Wrap them right after they cool for soft, chewy caramels or let them sit out for a day or two to get a praline texture. Or, dip them in chocolate!

I love Fall. The smell of leaves, the cooler temperatures, the beautiful colors. Sadly, here in Texas, Fall lasts about a week at the end of November but I still enjoy the treats that go with the cooler temperatures.

Probably because nuts ripen in Fall, everything seems to have nuts in it. My grandfather used to have a huge black walnut tree in his yard. I think black walnuts get their name from the black stain the fruit leaves when you touch it. The shells are also rock hard so grandpa would just leave them in the driveway and run over them to get rid of the fruit. He also had a special nut cracker to get past the rock hard shells. I’m glad I’ve got a pecan tree instead of the walnut tree. So much easier to get the nut out of the shell.

I remember touring maple farms in the northeast. I’m not a huge fan of artificial maple flavoring but the taste of real maple syrup is milder and goes so well with so many things.

I took a caramel class at Sur la Table last weekend and found out that one of the tricks to making soft, chewy caramel is to add a second type of sugar. White sugar is sucrose and works best for caramel. The second sugar is usually corn syrup which is a combination of glucose and fructose.

High fructose corn syrup really isn’t good for you so I asked about healthier options. Ok, you can stop laughing. Yes, it’s caramel and it’s basically melted white sugar but why not substitute anyway? As I was brainstorming with Chef Matthew, I mentioned maple syrup. He really liked that idea so I knew I was onto something.

Maple syrup works really well in terms of flavor. I love how these turned out. The maple and pecan go so well with the caramel. However, you can’t see when the boiling sugar turns color so you definitely need a candy thermometer to judge when the caramel is done. I created a video of me making these caramels which you can see on our new YouTube Channel.

Another tip Chef Matthew gave me is that caramel hardens up a bit if you leave it out uncovered. You boil the heck out of it so it won’t go bad. This means you can use the same recipe to get different candies. If you want soft caramels, wait until the caramel cools. Cut it and wrap it in wax paper.

Or, roll it into balls and refrigerate. Then dip them in melted chocolate. Santa Barbara Chocolate sent me some wonderful Vietnam Origin 73% dark chocolate that works really well. You can just use semi-sweet chocolate chips or your favorite chocolate.  Or, just top your cooled caramel with melted chocolate to seal in the moisture.

If you want a harder caramel, leave your tray out uncovered overnight before slicing and storing. If you want a praline texture, leave your caramel out for 2 days.

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Rolo Pretzel Turtles

Sea Salted Praline Pecan Clusters from Melissa’s Southern Style Kitchen

The post Maple Pecan Caramels appeared first on Chocolate Chocolate and More!.

Blondie Bottom Caramel Praline Cheesecake combines a chewy pecan blondie with a New York style cheesecake. Top it with caramel sauce and candied pecans  for a sumptuous dessert. Enter to win fabulous baking tools from DreamFarm!

I love New York style cheesecake. It’s a bit of a pain to make because you need a water bath while it cooks but the results are so worth it. Because springform pans often leak a little, you need to cover the outside of the pan in aluminum foil. Two layers ensures the water won’t seep in and make your cheesecake soggy.

When I was in high school, the Delaware Arts Council subsidized opera tickets so that going to the Opera was cheaper than going to a movie. My friends and I bought season tickets to the Philadelphia Opera. We saw amazing talent (Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo among others) from the nosebleed seats.

After the opera, we’d always go to an all-night diner in a not-so-nice part of Philly. That diner had amazing cheesecake and the time with friends was precious.

A month ago I attended a food blogger’s conference. I’ve never eaten so much in my life. One of the desserts I had was a pecan praline cheesecake bar. I loved the simplicity and combination of flavors so I decided to take it up a notch with this Blondie Bottom Caramel Praline Cheesecake.

This cheesecake also gave me a chance to try out my DreamFarm baking tools. They sent me Levups, Levoons, and a supoon. I love how the Levups and Levoons stack so neatly together. It’s a huge space-saver in your kitchen drawers.

I also love the attached bar that levels your spoon or cup. It makes it so easy to accurately measure ingredients. I wish I’d had these when my kids were small. You never knew whether they were adding heaping cupfuls or scant ones.

Like all of the DreamFarm gadgets, the supoon is genius. It scrapes like a spatula and collects the food into a spoon. They come in two sizes – large and “mini” so you can easily scrape bowls or jars.

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Cranberries and chocolate transform traditional pecan pie into something special. Cranberry Chocolate Pecan Pie goes together in minutes and is the perfect dessert for your holiday table.

Cape Cod Select sent me some of their cranberries as part of a baking contest. I thought cranberries were all the same until I saw these. They are much larger than other cranberries I’ve seen. Best of all, they are available here in Texas at Central Market and other grocers. You can find a store near you by using their store locator.  Such beautiful fruit deserves to be showcased in a dessert.

Here in Texas pecans are plentiful. Almost everyone has a tree in their yard and there are plenty of pecan trees in the parks. Pecan pie is a must have on your Thanksgiving table. Everyone has their recipe but most are pretty much the same.

A long time a friend asked me to make a chocolate pecan pie. I found a great recipe in my old Joy of Cooking Cookbook.  Problem is that copy got lost in my divorce and the new edition doesn’t have the same recipe. I decided to try my hand at re-creating that old recipe with the addition of Cape Cod Select Premium Frozen Cranberries.

Cranberry Chocolate Pecan Pie goes together in just a few minutes so you’ll have more time to spend with your family. During the holidays, time with family is so precious that cutting a few corners is well worth it. So sit back with your loved onces and enjoy a slice of cranberry chocolate pecan pie.

You can get more information and recipes from Cape Cod Select through their social media channels:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest

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