Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Cocoa Cake Squares

Last night after dinner, I had a sweet-tooth. I looked around in the pantry and cupboards to see what I had on hand, then surfed online to find recipes. I found this recipe online and modified it a little. It actually came out very moist, light. fluffy, and surprisingly not too sweet. It was a perfect cure to my sweet tooth, and Mr. Berry liked them too.


Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup nonfat milk (I used 2%)
2 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray a square Pyrex dish or baking pan with a thin coat of Pam.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda in large bowl. Add milk, eggs, oil and vanilla. ("always pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients"- I can hear my mom saying that in my head :)





3. Beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Add water; stirring with spoon until well blended. 4. Pour batter into prepared pan.
5. Bake 18-20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.



6. With a spatula, loosen cake from edges of pan.

7. Place square baking dish upside down over a cake plate. Cool completely. Cut cake into squares.

Optional: Sprinke with powdered sugar and/or garnish with whipped topping infused with grated orange peel.

(I apologize for the photo below being sideways; You get the picture, I'm sure.) Thanks for viewing! Feel free to comment here.





Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Doc's Spinach Artichoke Dip

Happy 2010 folks! Hope you all had safe and happy holidays! This next recipe is also cause for a celebration. I've served it at parties (okay, well...two so far) and for intimate get-togethers.
I appropriated the recipe from a friend several years ago, and have used it ever since. Mr. Berry and I actually try spinach dips at restaurants in an attempt to compare them to this recipe, and some have some close, but most have failed. Try it, and you'll see what I mean. Comments welcome :)


Ingredients:

2 10 oz. packages of chopped spinach
8 oz sour cream
8 oz monterrey jack shredded cheese
1 jar marinated artichoke hearts
1/2 onion (chopped fine)
1 stick of butter
4 oz of philadelphia cream cheese (fat free or light will do)
2/3 c fresh parmesean cheese
garlic to taste (I used two cloves)
Tortilla chips

optional : ground cayenne pepper for garnishing

Directions: (see pictures below)

  • Gather all ingredients from the list above.
  • In a large pan, slowly melt the stick of butter as shown below.
  • As butter is melting, chop onions.
  • Chop garlic. Add onions and garlic to pan. Saute for a few minutes.
  • Remove spinach from package(s) and place in small, microwaveable bowl.
  • Place spinach in microwave for a minute on high power or until no longer frozen. It should still be bright green in color.Set aside.
  • Remove artichoke hearts from jar. Chop artichoke hearts finely (or cheat like I did and use the food processor.)
  • Onions and garlic should be well sauteed in butter.
  • Add spinach, stir, and cook for ten minutes on medium heat.
  • Add cream cheese and mix well.Add sour cream and mix well.Add artichoke.
  • Remove from heat;
  • Add parmesean cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Add to casserole dish; Add Monterrrey jack on top.Heat in oven on 350 degrees until cheese is melted on top.
  • Once cheese is melted (I like mine to have a tinge of brown crust on top--but that's just me :)
  • Let cool for five minutes and serve with tortilla chips. *I also like to add a sprinkle of ground cayenne pepper on top of my serving for an extra KICK.