Chocolate

These shortcut donuts are made with refrigerated biscuit dough for an easy version of a deliciously soft and warm bakery style donut.

Easy Biscuit Donuts Recipe

These shortcut donuts are made with refrigerated biscuit dough for an easy version of a deliciously soft and warm bakery style donut.

These shortcut donuts are made with refrigerated biscuit dough for an easy version of a deliciously soft and warm bakery style donut.

I’ve said it a million times, and I’ll say it again: donuts are my kryptonite.

I could eat donuts for every meal (I mean, I don’t… but I could ????) and be so happy.

Growing up, my dad would visit a local bakery most Saturdays and come home with a box of freshly made donuts. I looked forward to it each weekend. Of course, we didn’t like anything that wasn’t covered in chocolate and sprinkles.

These days I love warm donuts coated in cinnamon and sugar or a simple buttermilk glaze. I L-O-V-E custard filled and angel cream filled donuts, and I adore devil’s food cake donuts. But back then, it was only about the chocolate frosting and the sprinkles.
These shortcut donuts are made with refrigerated biscuit dough for an easy version of a deliciously soft and warm bakery style donut.

These donuts are made to taste just like a bakery’s donuts– fried, not baked. But there’s a simple shortcut to that famous bakery taste! You can skip over the mixing and kneading and rising and cutting by using refrigerated biscuit dough instead of homemade.

It tastes just as good, I promise.

Here’s the secret: glaze the donuts before you frost them.

Any good donut-making bakery worth its salt will glaze their donuts before frosting them. It makes all the difference in the world between feeling like you’re eating something fried and feeling like you’re eating something that melts in your mouth.

These shortcut donuts are made with refrigerated biscuit dough for an easy version of a deliciously soft and warm bakery style donut.

So let’s talk about the frosting. I already cheated using the refrigerated dough, so I decided to go the homemade route with the frosting. If you wanted, you could always just melt canned frosting and dip the donuts in that. But for today’s donuts I made my favorite chocolate glaze (the same I used on these NYC Black & White Cookies).

I think the chocolate glaze is perfect. But if you wanted something a little thicker, you could always dunk your donuts in this chocolate ganache. Unreal.

These shortcut donuts are made with refrigerated biscuit dough for an easy version of a deliciously soft and warm bakery style donut.

Enjoy!

This is a recipe from my local bakery and it is SO good! Peanut butter smeared on top of chocolate chip cookie dough and topped with M&Ms. EASY too :)

Bakery Style Peanut Butter Swirl Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

These easy, three-ingredient bakery-style cookies will knock your socks off! Crispy edges, soft centers, and heavy on the peanut butter please.

This is a recipe from my local bakery and it is SO good! Peanut butter smeared on top of chocolate chip cookie dough and topped with M&Ms. EASY too :)

Truth: I was thisclose to not posting this recipe. But my my deep and abiding love for these peanut buttery cookies trumped my hesitation, and here we are ????.

Let’s go ahead and take care of the elephant in the room: these cookies are not pretty. They’re not sexy. You’ll find no shiny, melting pools of chocolate here. They aren’t thick and fluffy. They’re intentionally overbaked and irregularly shaped. And guess what else?

They’re not even made from scratch.

I know. ????

Still with me?

Good. Because these cookies are going to knock your socks off. I promise.

This is a recipe from my local bakery and it is SO good! Peanut butter smeared on top of chocolate chip cookie dough and topped with M&Ms. EASY too :)

My mom and I visit a nearby deli for lunch pretty often. And by “pretty often,” I mean 4 or 5 days a week. It’s a problem, really. We’re addicted. Mostly to the sweet potato fries (omg). But I could really close my eyes and point to just about anything on the menu and know I’ll like it. It’s that kind of place. I could eat their chicken salad all day long and be so happy.

In addition to their sandwiches of all sorts, this deli has a fully stocked case of baked goods at the check out. And on top of the case, they haphazardly strew these saran-wrapped GINORMOUS peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

These cookies are thin and crispy around the edges. And they have this thick, luscious swirl of peanut butter that winds all the way through the cookie. They top theirs with Reese’s Pieces (which I actually prefer), but I used M&MS in this post so I could use Valentine’s colored candy (priorities people!).

This is a recipe from my local bakery and it is SO good! Peanut butter smeared on top of chocolate chip cookie dough and topped with M&Ms. EASY too :)

When I was pregnant (and for a while after), I picked up one of these cookies every visit. I’d wait until I got in my car to break off a piece, thinking I could just eat a little bit and save the rest for later. It was ALWAYS completely gone by the time I got home (a less than 5 minute drive).

After one bite, I just can’t control myself. They are SO GOOD!

I spent weeks trying to work out the logistics of how I could replicate the cookie at home. I couldn’t figure out that thick peanut butter swirl and layer on top. I toyed with a few ideas, none of which were very promising, before finally asking the cashier at the deli about who made their cookies (they have an outside vendor for most of the baked goods).

I was prepared to hunt down this baker and beg for her peanut butter swirling secrets. As it turned out, no begging required. The cashier told me that the cookies were made in house and that the recipe is as simple as this:

“We just smush three chocolate chip cookies together, spread peanut butter on top, and stick some Reese’s Pieces on top of that.”

This is a recipe from my local bakery and it is SO good! Peanut butter smeared on top of chocolate chip cookie dough and topped with M&Ms. EASY too :)

She was right– it was that easy. It only took me one try to make an exact duplicate at home (so dangerous). I used frozen cookie dough, since I was pretty confident they weren’t making dough from scratch there at the deli. And then I spread on the peanut butter and candy, just like she said, and VOILA! My favorite cookie made right in my kitchen.

Easy peasy. My waistline is not pleased.

So there you have it– it’s not elegant, and it’s certainly no culinary feat whatsoever. But, frozen cookie dough and all, it’s one seriously good cookie.

3-Ingredient Nutella Brownies

3-Ingredient Nutella Brownies Recipe

A rich and fudgy brownie that trumps all other brownies! And the best part is that you only need three ingredients for this quick and easy recipe. You’ll never be tempted by a box mix again!

3-Ingredient Nutella Brownies

If you’ve been in the food blog world at all today, then you know that many of us are paying  a chocolate tribute to a very loved member of our community who unexpectedly passed away last week, Joan Hayes– or as you may better know her: Chocolate, Chocolate, and More.

Joan and I met via an online blog conference a few years ago, had a few phone chats, and many, many Facebook conversations. Joan was a social media guru and was always willing to have a helpful chat with anyone about improving their Facebook page or Google Plus reach.

She had the sweetest Southern accent you’ve ever heard, such a big heart, and a major love of all things chocolate.

I think she would have LOVED these Nutella Brownies.

3-Ingredient Nutella Brownies

Is there anything better in the world than homemade, fudgy, chocolate brownies? Hm. Maybe brownies made with Nutella with a tall glass of cold milk on the side. Yes?

Well, it just so happens that’s exactly what we have here. A brownie in it’s fudgiest form, made up almost entirely of NUTELLA. This is my favorite brownie recipe as of late. And the best part? You don’t even need a mixer, it’s that easy. Nutella, eggs, and a little flour. Mix it all up together in a small bowl, bake, and voila! Best brownies ever.

If you really want to get a little crazy and add even MORE CHOCOLATE, you could mix up a batch of this Nutella frosting to spread on top (excuse the poor photography in that post, it’s super old).

 

3-Ingredient Nutella Brownies

3-Ingredient Nutella Brownies

Really though… these brownies don’t even need the frosting. They are rich and fudgy and decadent all on their own.

Exactly the way Joan would have liked them ❤️.

Don’t forget to visit Joan’s site Chocolate, Chocolate, and More. Continued support of her blog from readers like you will allow her family to continue receiving the financial support she worked so hard for her site to provide.

Follow the hashtag #ChocolateForJoan on Instagram and Twitter to see all of the chocolate recipes we’re posting in honor of Joan today.

Chocolate Wasted Cake

Chocolate Wasted Cake Recipe

This cake is not for the faint of heart! Sinfully fudgy and moist on the inside and recklessly covered in chocolate on the outside, topped with Snickers candy bars, Reese’s Cups, sea salt caramel filled chocolates, dark chocolate ganache, and a semisweet chocolate drizzle. 
Chocolate Wasted Cake

This cake is not subtle. No siree. It slaps you in the face with more chocolate than you ever knew could be in one cake, from the inside out! I’ve wanted to make a cake like this one for AGES. And although I didn’t quite achieve the same level of finesse that Rianne did with hers, I was still thrilled with how mine turned out.

You can’t see it yet, but the inside of the cake is actually the best part. I’m putting the cart before the horse there though. I think before we get to that, we’d better talk about the outside first. I mean, how could we not??

Just look at this monstrosity!! Snickers candy bars, Reese’s cups, sea salt caramel filled chocolates, dark chocolate ganache and a semisweet drizzle are all piled high on top with my favorite Guittard milk chocolate chips covering the rest of the cake.

I mean… there just are no words for this level of chocolate-iness.

Let’s talk method for a minute: it may look like one big mess just thrown together, but it actually does require a certain level of technique to get things to stay put. Those chocolate chips on the side are tricky little boogers. Here’s what worked for me:

  • add a little more powdered sugar to the remaining frosting after you’ve layered frosting in the middle of the cake. I’ll discuss this more in a second, but the filling frosting is meant to be a little soft, so it doesn’t hold the chocolate chips as well on the outside.
  • pile the chocolate chips up the side of the cake and press in– I used plastic gloves, so that I didn’t get chocolate all over my hands. This part is a bit messy.
  • this step is hard to describe, and it’s not 100% necessary, but I felt like it was helpful– fold parchment paper into a long strip about the same height as the cake. Wrap the strip around like cake like a tube, and gently tie a piece of bakers string around it to hold it in place. This allows you to do a little more pressing through the parchment paper without making a mess, and it secures all the chocolate chips onto the cake while the frosting does a little bit of hardening (not like hard hard, but just the little bit that powdered sugar causes in frosting). Keep the parchment on there until ready to serve.

Chocolate Wasted Cake

Ok, so let’s talk about the inside of this cake! SO GOOD!

It’s my very favorite chocolate cake recipe that starts with a cake mix and is made incredibly moist by adding pudding and sour cream. Add to that my very favorite fudgy chocolate frosting, which I’ve thinned ever so slightly by adding a little less powdered sugar than the recipe calls for. This really contributes to a further moistening of the cake, so that it literally just melts in your mouth.

As good as the outside of the cake it (and how it could it not be?!), the inside is really my favorite part of this whole thing. It’s really pretty incredible, and I think you are going to just die over it.

I mean, just look at this!

Chocolate Wasted Cake

By the way… you can use any chocolate candy you would like on the top. I personally think M&Ms and Oreos would be amazing. But I have to say, I die over the ooey, gooey caramel that I used on this cake. I used Ghirardelli sea salt caramel filled chocolate, and I thought the caramel was the perfect thing to break up the chocolate a little bit. And it’s just visually so great as well.

This cake definitely takes a little bit of time and effort, but it’s so worth it! Enjoy 🙂

Want to comment on this cake? Visit me on Instagram and let me know what you think!