Girls Night Dessert!

I have wanted to make chocolate cups since I saw this post on bakerella, I just needed an event to make them for! So when we had a girls night dinner for Christmas, last year, I finally had the excuse I needed! I made two types of mousse to fill the cups with: peanut butter mousse and chocolate mousse. With a big group of girls, I think it's needless to say that they were a pretty big hit!

Chocolate Cup
Semi-sweet chocolate chips melted
Chocolate Almond Bark
Water balloons filled with air to the size you want your cups

Melt the chocolate mixture for dipping the balloons, blow up the balloons to the size you want, get a cookie sheet with parchment and put a little dollop of chocolate on the parchment paper for a base for the balloons to sit on. Dip the balloons in the chocolate and set it on the chocolate base. Let the chocolate cool.

 There will probably be thin spots from dipping where the chocolate layer is not even thickness. Take a basting brush or the back of a spoon and fill in the thin spots so that the bowl will be full thickness. If you try to pop the balloon with thin spots, the chocolate will tear instead of holding its shape.

When the chocolate has all hardened, pop the balloon and pull out the rubber from the shell! Voila, chocolate cups!

I used regular balloons, but since I only blew them up half way, when I popped them, they weren't super stretched out, so I had to pull the rubber out of the cup. I would recommend water balloons, they will be a bit more taught!

One awesome tip about dipping chocolate: whether it is strawberries or chocolate cups, I find that mixing half chocolate pieces and half chocolate almond bark (or even just 1/3 almond bark) keep the same taste while hardening harder and having a nice shiny coat when it cools!

Peanut Butter Mousse
1 cup cream cheese (softened)

2/3 cup smooth peanut butter

4 T sugar

3/4 c. whipping cream

(whip to soft peaks and fold in)

With an electric mixer blend together the cream cheese, peanut butter, and sugar. In a separate bowl whip the cream into soft peaks. Once soft peaks have formed, fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture!

Chocolate Mousse
2 packages of instant chocolate pudding mix

4 cups half and half

Follow the directions on the back of the pudding box for the amount of cream and pudding, using the half and half instead of milk. Now stop following the directions and use mine. Using electric mixer, beat together the pudding mix and half and half about 5 minutes until mousse forms. This is the absolute easiest chocolate mousse ever, but it is thick and rich! It's even thicker and creamier if you use cream instead of half and half... but that seemed just a little too indulgent for me with everything else we were eating at this particular girls night.

Once all the components are finished, layer the two mousse types into the chocolate cups and garnish with chocolate shards or curls! Pretty and delicious!

If anyone else tries this let me know how it turns out, for you!

PeanutButter-ChocolateChip-BananaBread-Muffins

I am a person that likes my bananas with a little green on top. As soon as they go all yellow and start getting little brown spots on them... eh.... not so much. I hate it when the strings on the inside of the peels stick to the fruit when you peel it... NO THANK YOU! Since I am a little picky about my bananas, periodically I will throw a banana, which is too far gone for my taste, in the freezer. Once I have accumulated a few I make banana bread!

Key:
3= not quite 4= perfect 5= still pretty good 6= edible--losing interest 6.5 (not shown)= freezer time 7= NO WAY--might as well be moldy in my opinion!

Now... since I don't really like the over-ripe banana flavor that comes with those brown spotted bananas that means that I don't usually like banana bread with TONS of over-ripe banana flavor, either. What to do... what to do... ? Lets mask the flavor with something else: peanut butter and chocolate!

Don't get me wrong. It is still banana bread. You can still taste the banana, but who doesn't love peanut butter on a banana? or bananas dipped in chocolate? or the great combo of chocolate peanut butter cups? Basically I am telling you, if you are anything like me, this is THE BEST banana bread you will ever taste.

What You'll Need:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
~1/2 tsp. salt (i use the palm of my hand)
1 tsp. cinnamon
tiny pinch nutmeg
2-3 ripe bananas (2 large or 3 smaller)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 Tbl. applesauce (normally calls for butter, but I like applesauce in this recipe!)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup chocolate chips (whatever kind you have, but semi-sweet is my least favorite...stick to either milk chocolate or dark chocolate for best results)

Prepare the "wet ingredients" by mushing your bananas and peanut butter together with fork. Once mashed stir in the applesauce and sugar before adding the eggs, one at a time. Follow with addition of the vanilla extract and the milk. Add your combination of dry ingredients but don't over-mix. Just stir until incorporated! Fold in the chocolate chips and pour into muffin tins or loaf pan for baking. Makes 18 muffins or one large loaf!

One of my roommates is not a huge chocolate lover so I made some of the muffins without chocolate for her. Still yummy. So that is definitely an option if that is your cup of tea... but I never turn down chocolate!

Tips:
1. Use a spatula or spoon to stir and mix the batter... if you use an electric mixer it gets over-mixed and the muffins can turn out spongy and chewy
2. Normally, I am a big fan of rounding up on the chocolate chips but in this case if you round the chocolate over-powers and you just get chocolate chip muffins. Although still tasty, not the intended target here!

For Muffins: cook at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes
For Loaf: cook at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes

Some people might wait for the muffins to cool...using this phenomenon known as delayed gratitude... I am not one of those people.

I would rather burn my fingers and mouth on piping hot muffins fresh out of the oven when the chocolate chips are still warm and melty. I think this is partially why I prefer these as muffins rather than a loaf... loaf you have to wait a while before you can cut it. Not my style!