Recipes Discovered

Read my review of this recipe.

It’s been awhile since I posted a new recipe, but I have had an extremely busy month. It hasn’t been all fun and games though, and I did use my travels to get ideas for new recipes. Seth and I spent one weekend in Seattle, and had the opportunity to eat at Tom Douglas’s restaurant, Dahlia Lounge. Not only did I have the best crab cakes there, but I also had the most amazing coconut cream pie I’ve ever eaten. Words cannot describe it. If you are ever in Seattle, Dahlia Lounge is a must. Just be sure to make reservations a couple days in advance because it’s a very busy place. Another city we visited was Nanaimo, British Columbia. While we were there, we discovered that Nanaimo is very famous for a dessert appropriately named the nanaimo bar. The nanaimo bar is a no bake dessert that has a chewy chocolate bottom layer with nuts and coconut, a creamy custard filling, and chocolate topping. It’s delicious and easy to find the recipe, so when my family was here this weekend, I treated them to part of our trip. >> Read more

Peanut Butter Fudge Recipe

Chocolate Fudge Recipe

White Chocolate Marshmallow Creme Fudge Recipe

I am continuing to collect recipes for desserts that can be made in the microwave, and this week, I decided to try a trio of fudge - chocolate, peanut butter, and white chocolate marshmallow creme. The three recipes are actually very different, but all of them rely on the microwave to “cook” the fudge.

The first microwave fudge I made is actually called never-fail fudge, but white chocolate marshmallow creme fudge sounds a lot better. This fudge was the most difficult (if microwaving can be difficult) to make and also took the longest. I mixed granulated sugar, evaporated milk, butter, and marshmallow creme (or marshmallow fluff) in a glass bowl and microwaved it for 3 minutes. I then stirred it well to mix everything together. All of the mixing for these recipes takes a couple minutes, just as a regular fudge recipe requires. I continued to microwave the mixture for another 3 minutes, until the mixture started to boil. >> Read more

Coconut Caramel Chews Recipe

I ran across this recipe while searching for microwaveable desserts. It combines caramel candies, white chocolate, coconut, and peanuts. Since I was looking for a recipe that didn’t contain nuts, I just omitted them from this recipe.

In a two quart microwave-safe bowl, I added caramels, white chocolate chips, and coconut. The recipe called for 5 ounces of caramels or 24 pieces. I’m not sure what kind of caramels they were, but I used Kraft soft caramels and there were about 18 candies in 5 ounces. I made a double batch though, so I think I used 40 caramels. After a minute in the microwave, the white chocolate was starting to melt, but the caramels hadn’t melted at all. After another minute in the microwave, I realized I had to smoosh the caramels with the back of my spatula to incorporate them into the white chocolate and coconut. It took a few more minutes, but eventually it all blended together. >> Read more

No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

Generally, no bake cookies are made by melting sugar, cocoa, butter and milk on the stove top and then mixing in peanut butter and oatmeal . Without a stove, this is difficult, so I found a recipe that utilizes the microwave to melt the ingredients together. The microwave doesn’t so a great job of melting the sugar, so I had to do a lot of stirring to get the sugar to dissolve with the cocoa, butter, and milk. After that, I mixed in peanut butter until it melted and then stirred in old-fashioned quick oats and some vanilla for flavor. At this point, the mixture looked pretty runny, but trust me, it will set up when it cools down. When everything was well combined, I dropped spoonfuls onto waxed paper and allowed them to cool.

I like these cookies because they are full of peanut butter and chocolate flavor, plus they get a chewy texture from the oatmeal. They aren’t the best cookies in the world, but for being made in the microwave, they are nice little treat.

Crispy Chocolate Squares Recipe

Being in a hotel room doesn’t change the fact that I have a major weakness for chocolate. It does add a challenge though, since I only have a microwave to work with. I did find a recipe though for these crispy chocolate squares. They are essentially a chocolate peanut butter Rice Krispie treat with chocolate frosting, and best of all, they are made in the microwave.
For the bars, I combined a bag of mini marshmallows, peanut butter, butter, and instead of chocolate chips, half of a bag of Dove dark chocolates in a two quart glass dish. I covered the dish and put it in the microwave for 2 and a half minutes on high. The marshmallows puff up quite a bit, so be sure to watch it so it doesn’t pour over the sides of the dish. After 2 and a half minutes, the marshmallows were puffed, but nothing else looked like it was melted until I started stirring it. >> Read more