How to Make Chocolate Granola Bars in 10 Minutes

 

Whenever I think of granola bars, I think of school lunches.  But with my new recipe for Chocolate Granola Bars, snack time can be much tastier.  The secret ingredient is unsweetened cocoa powder.

Messy but Tasty: Stuffed Cupcakes

My mother-in-law used to make cupcakes stuffed with a chocolate chip mixture.  It was a unique dessert that was gobbled up as soon as it appeared on the dinner table.  She wrote down the recipe, but unfortunately I immediately misplaced it.

Years passed before I found the recipe, and I wondered if these cupcakes were really as good as I remembered. 

Want a Chocolate Fix? Try This!

I admit I am a chocoholic.  At Halloween I always make sure I have extra Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups so some will be left for me.  In the summer I turn to fresh strawberries and melted chocolate.  It’s hard to think of a better dessert or a mid-afternoon snack than chocolate-covered strawberries.

One Cup of...Chocolate Chips

Normally when I read a recipe, I take a quick look to see if I have the ingredients.  If I do, I may start preparing it right away.  If I don’t, I either add what’s missing to my shopping list or decide not to make that dish after all.

But what if I start with an ingredient I have and then search for a recipe that calls for it?  One of my favorite ingredients when I’m baking is chocolate chips.  What could I make with one cup of them?  Here’s what I found:

Calling All Chocoholics

Even if I just whisper the word ‘chocolate,’ every family member in my house will find their way to the kitchen in 30 seconds.  They have good reason to be optimistic. 

My son Kevin and I wrote a chocolate cookbook--“Chocolate on the Brain”--so we have a wide range of desserts and snacks to draw from.  You may have baked some of our favorites--Chocolate Chip Bagels,  Chocolate Banana Bread and Lava Cookies.

Now it’s time to introduce you to

Lure of the Chocolate Chip

Mom's Jaffa Cakes

I’m proud to be a chocoholic.  I’ve tried weaning myself off this addiction.  Once I managed to avoid chocolate for two weeks, but that was a long time ago.  Without the invention of chocolate chips, I might have succeeded. 

A 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips is incredibly versatile.  Eating a handful now and then is one way to empty the bag.  Making Chocolate Chip Cookies is another way. 

Tired of Chocolate Chip Cookies? Try Chocolate Biscotti!

A huge box of biscotti somehow found its way into my shopping cart at Costco, and soon after I got home every adult in the house was standing next to it.  Maybe the see-through packaging was too inviting to ignore.  Within a few days the box of 20 individually wrapped 8-inch-long biscotti was empty.

Why Are They Called Lava Cookies?

How do certain foods get their names?  Consider Toad in the Hole, a British concoction featuring sausages baked in a flour-egg batter that puffs up in the oven.  Could it be named after the character Toad in “Toad of Toad Hall,” a play written by A.A. Milne of “Winnie the Pooh” fame?

Is It Possible to Eat Just a Little Bit of Chocolate?

Anything is possible. But when chocolate desserts are sitting on the table, I’m not one to walk away—or turn down seconds.  There is no real way to deal with my chocolate passion.

I’ve tried the Jodie Foster method of not keeping chocolate in the house.  She claimed it worked for her.  I’ve tried this approach, but the rest of the family rebelled and brought in their own chocolates.  And I knew where they kept them.

Kids’ Choice: Chocolate Pizza

When kids have a say in the menu, how many of them are going to suggest broccoli? Not many.  When we had kids’ choice the other night, top of the list was Chocolate Pizza.  The kids at my house love both chocolate and pizza, so it seemed like the perfect choice.

Actually this was a cooking lesson in disguise, and they enjoyed every minute in the kitchen. 

My Endless Hunt for Chocolate Desserts

Chocolate Pecan Bars (right)

One of my main missions in life is to find good chocolate desserts.  Yes, when I’m desperate I’ve been known to lay out a few handfuls of chocolate chips on a plate.

But that’s for my personal consumption.  I can’t really end a dinner party with a bowl of chocolate chips. 

My latest go-to chocolate dessert comes from my friend Rukhi,

Make Your Own Chocolate Pudding

Back in the dinosaur age, when Hershey Bars were just about the only chocolate bars available, my favorite dessert was Royal Instant Chocolate Pudding.  It was basically brown powder in a box.  You poured it into a large bowl, added cold milk, stirred a while and then refrigerated it until needed. 

Years passed and I moved to London. That’s where I discovered Chocolate Mousse,

Lemon and Chocolate? Why Not?

You might not think lemon and chocolate belong together. You would be wrong.  A chocolate brownie-type base topped with a firm lemon custard is just what the dessert doctor ordered—especially if that doctor is Mom.

These Chocolate Lemon Bars started out as plain Lemon Bars, and they were good.  But they weren’t memorable.  Also, they were chocolate-free.  I don’t make many desserts without a smigeon of chocolate, so eventually I began experimenting.  Why not substitute a chocolate crust for the traditional shortbread crust used for Lemon Bars?

Nostalgia When the School Bell Rings

One of the greatest joys of my childhood occurred when I got home from school and smelled homemade chocolate chip cookies in the oven.  My mother was not a great cook, but she knew the ins and outs of making chocolate chip cookies.

Now that school is back in session, I am reminded of those homework-filled afternoons sustained by seeing how many chocolate chip cookies I could get into my mouth at one sitting.  For some reason my mother liked making small cookies.  Seldom were they more than 2 inches across, and often they were smaller.

How Many Ways Are There to Eat Chocolate?

Too many.  The easiest, of course, are chocolate bars and handfuls of chocolate chips, but that generally won’t work if you’re serving anyone but yourself.  Fudge can be a good choice, but that often involves a candy thermometer.  I have had numerous disasters with this “helpful” kitchen tool.

Then I discovered Fudge Pie.

Seriously Chocolate Brownies

I love going to potluck brunches because there’s always a chance I will discover something new and delicious. That’s how I came across a brownie recipe that has a deeper chocolate flavor than any I’ve tasted before.  My friend Rhea brought the whole pan of brownies to share, and she took very few of them home with her.

Do Pie Crusts Scare You?

Rolling out pie dough often scares cooks so much that they forget about making a pie.  I inherited my grandmother’s rolling pin, which somehow gave me the courage to makes pies.  However, I’m still hesitant to make those that require a top crust.

This very easy pie crust recipe made out of cream-filled sandwich cookies (like Hydrox or Oreo) only works for desserts.  I came up with it several years ago when I was unable to locate a box of graham crackers.  I liked it better than a graham cracker crust and have been making it ever since.

Why Reinvent the Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie?

Chocolate Chip Cookies Using Only Brown Sugar

I have often wondered why there are so many different variations of chocolate chip cookies.  After some considerable thought, I have come up with a simple answer.  Bakers don’t like to leave well enough alone. 

I grew up on chocolate chip cookies.  It was the one dessert my mother prepared flawlessly.  She never told me where she got the recipe, but I imagine it came from the back of a package of chocolate chips.  

The ingredients are simple: butter, flour, sugar, brown sugar, egg, vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips.

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Homemade Truffles

In case truffles are new to you, they are little balls of chocolate mixed with cream, butter and vanilla, then covered with cocoa or powdered sugar. 

They are a lot more exotic than a bar of chocolate, even though they’re usually made from a bar of chocolate.  The process is straightforward, but there are two steps that require your full attention.

1) Melting the chocolate—a simple task as long as you focus on it.  Look away for a minute while checking your phone, and the chocolate may turn gritty and inedible.  Melting directions are below.

2) Shaping the truffles once the chocolate mixture is cold.

Store-bought truffles can be expensive, but 15 homemade truffles can cost less than $5 total. 

Can You Ever Have Too Much Chocolate?

I find this hard to admit, but I was once in a room with too much chocolate.  This room, about the size of two football fields, was inside the Los Angeles Convention Center. 

A Chocolate Festival was in progress.  My job (courtesy of the International Herald Tribune) was to visit as many booths as possible, take notes and taste whatever was on offer.  That way I could tell readers about the latest American chocolate trends. 

I couldn’t believe my luck, especially when I saw 25-pound bars of semi-sweet chocolate being hacked into fist-sized samples.  But I soon discovered there’s truth in that old saying, “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach.”