Whole Wheat Chocolate Goodies

I was really looking forward to this HBin5 assignment.

Chocolate? How could I not?

But I started hearing through other members about its lack of being "sweet". You see, the rest of our assignment was to make Chocolate Espresso Whole Wheat Bread and Chocolate Tangerine Bars from the Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

Something chocolate thats not sweet? ooooh noooo.....we can't let that happen!

So let me tell you what I did to make these....

Chocolate Espresso Whole Wheat Muffins filled with Nutella Frosting.

Now you're talking!

They were still "wheaty" but good. Moist and tasty. Not too sweet (as if thats even a possibility) but enough to where you feel like you're having a treat.

I started off by following the recipe in the book (can't tell ya how that works or I'll have to.....well, you know how the saying goes)...

Yes....They were in the shape of the Valentine icon

Did I mention that I sprinkled the top with quit a bit of white sugar? I needed sweet!

Earlier in the day I had made a simple icing which consisted of

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of butter
1 3/4 cups of powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

(you're see a chocolate version of this icing in a later post)

Cream the butter, add the sugar and mix until smooth...then mix in the vanilla.

The icing was for some cupcakes my daughter was making for her boyfriend so I borrowed about 1/3 cup and mixed it with 1/3 cup of Nutella. Filled up a zip-lock baggy with an icing tip fitted over a trimmed corner

From the bottom of each muffin, I then hallowed out the centers and filled it in

I then took the "core" of the muffin and trimmed it a bit and used that to plug up the hole

Good stuff....let me tell you!

I did find the dough a bit on the wet side. It was a little harder to work with...but it seemed to rise well. I just have to keep in mind that my kitchen is cooler in the winter (even though I'm in SoCal) and my counter tops are always cool...so I have to let the dough rise longer.

Now....with the same chocolate espresso dough, per the instructions, I added chopped bittersweet chocolate, craisins and tangerine zest

Have you ever tasted a craisin?

I had tasted a specific name brand kind from the grocery store several months ago and wasn't very impressed. I couldn't figure out what all the hype was about....but I figured to each his own, right?

I got this batch of craisins from a health food store.....scooped them out of a bin and got as many as I wanted.

WOW!!! Huge....I mean HUGE difference in flavor. They were wonderful. Tasty little morsels that burst all sorts of contrasting flavor in your mouth....sweet, tart, tangy, dry, moist, sour.....YUM!

Ok, now I'm excited about these "tangerine bars". But I wasn't feeling it. I mean...the "bars" part. We're still dealing with whole wheat here and as much as these would probably resemble brownies, I knew my taste buds would be disappointed. No matter how much I knew intellectually that they'd be "wheat" my taste buds just wouldn't be able to wrap themselves around the wheat.

Once again...I needed SWEET!!!

I don't know how I came up with this....but it totally worked and was totally awesome....

Biscotti!

Chocolate, Espresso, Tangerine, Craisin Biscotti

I formed this oblong rectangle-ish free form, super wet, super sticky loaf and let it bake for about 25 minutes (that was after it rose, not so much, for about 2 hours). I allowed the dough to cool a bit before slicing

I then popped them back into the oven (about 325' F) for 12 minutes on each side. Once they were cool I filled a drinking glass with some melted semi-sweet chocolate chips (added a tablespoon of crisco to make it more melty) and started dipping

Let me just say.....total success. Sweet, tart....and ooooh so chocolatey.

I think there's one small end left. I'll be fighting off the pack tomorrow morning so I can have that last morsel with my cup of coffee.

Please head on over to Michelle's at Big Black Dog so see everyone elses incredible versions of this months goodies