Milk chocolate stracciatella ice cream

The day is cold, gray, cloudy, the rain comes and goes, and I plan to spend the afternoon under the blankets, with a bowl of popcorn and a good movie. Too bad this delicious ice cream is long gone - it was so amazing I would certainly have a bowl of it even on this chilly day. :)

Milk chocolate stracciatella ice cream
from the always amazing The Perfect Scoop

225g (8oz) milk chocolate, finely

Dark chocolate, pear and pistachio cake

A long time ago I told you that I was addicted to IMDb’s movie trivia – I still am, therefore it was a joy for me to find Gabrielle Wee’s gorgeous Tumblr: just be careful because you’ll probably lose track of time reading it (I speak of personal experience). :D

On that same post I also told you how much I loved browsing Gourmet Traveller’s recipes – I still do, and this delicious cake comes

Rocky road brownies

I bought a bag of mini marshmallows last week with these cookies in mind – I found the recipe going through my folder of torn magazine pages and thought it would be great to use whole wheat flour in my baking (haven’t done that in a while now). But the reviews discouraged me to make the cookies. :(

Luckily, Alice Medrich – a.k.a. the Chocolate Queen – came to my rescue and I ended up with

Chocolate crème brûlée tartlets

Sometimes it takes me forever to do certain things – make a recipe, watch a movie – and then, when I finally do it, it just feels... bleh.

Many, many years ago I watched the trailer for “November” and it intrigued me: I thought it looked interesting and I liked the idea of watching Courteney Cox in a drama: to me, she was the funniest of the girls in “Friends” – to this day I haven’t

Dark and white chocolate cookies

No, these are not the traditional black & white cookies – but it was impossible for me not to think of Seinfeld after baking them.

Peace! :)

Dark and white chocolate cookies
from the always gorgeous Donna Hay Magazine

¼ cup (56g) unsalted butter, chopped
100g dark chocolate, chopped – I used one with 53% cocoa solids
½ cup (88g) brown sugar, packed
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (150g) all purpose

Honey and dark chocolate truffles - a great gift

Cookies are my favorite things to give as gifts – they’re super tasty, easy to package and everyone likes them. But facing a lack of butter – I know, what kind of baker forgets to buy butter? – I turned to truffles. And it ended up being a smart choice – my friend was delighted to receive a box of these and told me they were absolutely delicious. And to make things even better I got to use a

Upside down pear chocolate cake

I grew up eating my grandmother’s upside down pineapple cake, with prunes or candied cherries placed in the wholes of the pineapple slices. I even made it a couple of times when I started baking. But not until I became a food blogger did I learn that there are several other types of upside down cakes – I was amazed to know that one could bake those using different kinds of fruit! :D

I love

Caramel brownies and changing my mind in a matter of moments

One of my cooking/baking pet peeves – and I have several – is that I hate it when I choose a certain recipe and it says there that there will be some frosting/filling/whatever left: it immediately puts me off making it because I know that the frosting/filling/whatever will probably go to waste.

After much delay I decided to make these brownies – even though there would be caramel sauce left.

Gooey chocolate cake with raspberries and something positive about getting old

Getting older is not a walk in the park – gray hair, anyone? – but there is definitely a positive side to it. I’ve become a more patient person, and let me tell you, patience was never one of my virtues.

After baking and unmolding this delicious cake – oh, it was really delicious and I’m no chocoholic – the result almost made me cry: the poor thing looked ugly as hell on the plate. A glance

Double chocolate chip cookies - from skinny cooks to skinny cookies

A while ago I was talking to Fezoca (via Twitter) about Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook – I have to say I wasn’t (and still am not) all that excited about it. I think she’s a beautiful woman, can sing really well, but would never make it to my list of favorite actresses – I find her really limited as far as acting is concerned. Anyway, that has nothing to do with the cookbook thing – what doesn’t

Cinnamon-chocolate fruit mince tarts

I’d been meaning to make mincemeat pies forever, because I think they look absolutely adorable! But I always gave up at the idea of using suet, or anything similar to it.

That is why this recipe is perfect: besides being suet-free, both the pastry and the filling are delicious, with a not-very-Christmas-but-yummy hint of chocolate.



Cinnamon-chocolate fruit mince tarts
slightly adapted from

Chock-full of chocolate chip cookies

Yes, people, chocolate chips again – the person behind this blog has serious problems trying to control herself sometimes, and that can result in the purchase of a 2.5kg (over 5oz) bag of chocolate chips. So get ready to see loads of chips around here (luckily the chocolate is excellent and I can melt it to make brownies and such). :)

Speaking of control – or the lack of it – buying a huge bag

Chocolate chip coconut cookies

I once told you how much I love hopping from one link to another, then another, and another... I still do that a lot – old habits do die hard, I guess. :D

I needed to finish up a bag of shredded coconut – impulsive purchasing, anyone? – and my much beloved Food Blog Search got me here, then Memoria got me here... And Sheena’s recipe ended up in my oven.

These cookies are delicious and were

Chocolate-chunk oatmeal cookies with pecans and cranberries

Just so you know it, these cookies – from Tara’s gorgeous blog – are delicious. And if you do not believe me, here’s the dialogue I had with one of my friends from work (the ones I shared the cookies with):

- You know, L., oats are really good for you, good for your heart.
- Well, those cookies were so delicious I would have eaten them even if they were bad for me.

I rest my case. ;)

Dark and bitter orange chocolate cookies

I’m not a chocoholic but love chocolate and orange together.
I know the thought of making the candied orange strips might make some of you discard this recipe, but let me tell you: these cookies are absolutely worth the “trouble”. :D

From U.E.’s blog – and I already have another recipe of his on my "to try" list. :D

Dark and bitter orange chocolate cookies

Candied orange peel:
3 oranges,

Whole wheat chocolate chip cookies

A couple of days ago I was discussing Oscar injustices with the lovely @liliantrigo – it all started with this post – and we came to the conclusion that the year of 1994 was a disaster in the male categories: Ralph Fiennes, magnificent (for a change) in “Schindler’s List” lost to Tommy Lee Jones – just typing this makes me mad already. And Tom Hanks got the award for “Philadelphia” (what a bad

Double chocolate cherry cookies

If you’re looking for a good and quick cookie recipe, this is for you: the cookies
turned out delicious and take almost no time to bake – I had just mixed the dough (half the recipe below) when my sister called, asking if I wanted to go to the movies with her; the movie session was going to start in 40 minutes, and we would need at least 20 to arrive at the mall. Cookies baked and cooling, hair

Choc chip marshmallows

Not only my readers are the sweetest people ever, they also give me wonderful ideas – Barbara left me a comment once about homemade marshmallows she used to order and told me that her favorites were the chocolate chip ones. Hey, that is one marshmallow flavor I hadn’t tried yet! :)So I made choc chip marshmallows, inspired by the lovely Barbara. And for the record, they became my sister’s

Chocolate and cinnamon suspiros

It’s been a month since I last brought you anything chocolate – cocoa doesn’t count – and hope you like these meringues as much as Jessica and I did. :)

I wasn’t really in the mood for meringues but needed to do something with my frozen egg whites (which seem to be suffering from the Gremlin curse, too); what convinced me here was the addition of chocolate and cinnamon.



Chocolate and

Choc chip madeleines

Thank you all for your thoughts on the size of the photos here – I was surprised by the amount of comments! :)

Some of you liked the larger photos better – including me – but the majority preferred smaller ones (and yes, I counted the votes). :)

I’ll try to make us all happy with this size – not too big or too small – and hope you like it too.



Choc chip madeleines
adapted from Dorie’s