chocolate chips

Although the Inauguration isn't until next Tuesday, I'm inviting friends over to kick off the ceremony on Sunday. Since Barack Obama was senator in Chicago, the menu has a Chicago theme. After finishing the deep-dish pizzas, wait an hour before serving this decadent dessert. Eli's is the Windy City's famous bakery known for its chocolate chip cheesecake. While you could order a cheesecake from Eli's and have it delivered, I recommend whipping up a homemade variation. This recipe features sour cream (like most Chicago-style cheesecakes) and results in a cake that is firm on the outside, but deliciously creamy on the inside.

To look at the recipe, read more

Florentine cookies make excellent gifts. Wrapped in plastic baggies and tied with a festive ribbon, who could deny such a tasty treat? Despite their name — which hints at an Italian heritage — florentines were originally created by Austrian bakers. These flat cookies are wonderful alone, but taste even better with chocolate sandwiched between two layers. If you prefer dark chocolate over milk, use that instead. For this scrumptious recipe, read more

As much as I love fancy pastries and innovative desserts, nothing can take the place of a really great chocolate chip cookie. Everyone's familiar with chocolate chip cookies and almost everyone has a memory related to it, but how long has it existed and who invented it?

Since today is National Chocolate Chip Day, I thought I'd let you in on how they came about, and surprisingly, it seems that chocolate chips may have been one of those happy kitchen accidents. In 1937, Ruth Wakefield - owner of the Toll House Inn near Whitman, Massachusetts - decided to make a chocolate butter cookie by putting together dough and chocolate. She assumed that the chocolate chunks would melt and mix into the dough, fortunately for us, they did not melt and kept their shape instead. Ruth called her happy mistake the Chocolate Crunch Cookie and went about making herself a deal with Nestle: they could put the recipe on their chocolate bar and in return she could have all the chocolate she needed. Initially they sold the bar with a mini chopper to help cut it up into pieces, but in 1939 they began distributing chocolate morsels aka chocolate chips. I love a great chocolate chip cookie, but I also love just snacking on these right out of the bag...

To check Ruth Wakefield's original chocolate chip cookie recipe, read more

Who doesn't love to eat warm gooey chocolate chips right out of the oven? Now you can feel good knowing that your morsels are made with organic chocolate.

Sunspire Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips are made with premium organic chocolate that is grown, harvested and produced using fair labor practices and no chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

The cocoa for their chocolate chips is grown in the tropics of Central and South America. It's blended, roasted, and stone ground, then cured in real vanilla. That's the secret to getting the smooth and rich chocolate taste that is Sunspire's signature.

They're made with real organic vanilla and organic sugar to produce a chocolate chip that rivals the top grocery store brands in both flavor and baking performance - no joke! Plus they're dairy free (great if you're lactose intolerant or vegan) and they have 1/2 the fat of Nestle's.

Here's how they compare nutritionally to Nestle's Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels. You better be sitting because there's a HUGE difference. Want to see what I mean, then read more