Barbara Bretton: Wish You Were Here

What's Cooking?

The Food Goddess is in the Kitchen! I am delighted beyond words to present my friend, my pal, Kali Amanda Browne (daughter of the beauteous and talented Marie) aka The Food Goddess. Enjoy!

CHOCOLATE WITH SWIRLS: IT'S A FUNKY KIND OF LOVE!

I want to talk chocolate: the true American gift to the world! Fitting, as it is February and Valentine's Day is quickly approaching.

Across the street from my office there is a closeout store. It is one rung above the usual 99¢ retailer. Last week, while browsing, I found swirled morsels for a ridiculously low price.

It wasn't just that I found the chips and they were affordable. These were special! They were pretty swirls of dark and white chocolate and chocolate with peanut butter swirls. How brilliant is that?!

This is going to make the chocolate-covered spoons very funky. Mom tried to make these lovely cookie cups topped with the swirly chocolate chips on top, but we're still doing a post-mortem because the tops were shiny and beautiful but the bottoms broke apart… Still they tasted fantastic! And while originally intended to be mailed to friends, we ended up enjoying with coffee while Judge Judy yelled at people on TV.

Making the cookies is a snap. Preheat oven to 350° F and grease a dozen mini-muffin cups. Place squares of cookie dough into the cups and press down (as if baking tiny pie crusts). Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and fill cookie cups with morsels and allow cooling down. The morsels will start to melt, but will retain their shape and their swirliness.

You could try these Swirled Cheesecake Nibbles, which are just as beautiful and plant fresh thoughts that travel the palate to the brain in nanoseconds!

You can email me at kali.templeofdoom@gmail.com.