TWD - Chocolate Gingerbread!

Gingerbread is not one of my favorite sweets -- but chocolate is! The result is that this week's TWD recipe is one that I would make again. The exact recipe can be found at Sherry Triffle, the blog of Heather who selected the challenge.

I changed the recipe slightly by baking it in smaller pans. I baked it in two 3 inch springform pans and 12 normal sized cupcakes. Following Dorie's note, I filled the pans about 2/3 full which worked out really well. Also, I cut the baking time to about 30 minutes.

TWD - Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream with Chocolate Chunks

Graeter's Ice Cream in Ohio http://www.graeters.com/ makes some of the best ice cream I've ever eaten. My favorite Graeter's flavor is black raspberry with chocolate chunks. As an homage to Graeter's, I decided to add some chocolate chunks to TWD Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream. I couldn't decide wheter to use dark or milk chocolate. My thought being the milk chocolate would balance the sour cream flavor in the ice cream better than the dark chocolate. The chocolate didn't really impact the flavor but added to the texture and "mouth-feel". The key to working with the chocolate was to add it to the ice cream machine just before it's finished.

As others noted in the P&Q, the sour cream flavor was strong, not exactly what you expect in ice cream. Check out http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com/ for the recipe for Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream.

I took my camera with me when I walked my dog on Saturday and snapped some pictures of flowers. I'm definately loving my new macro lens.

TWD - Black and White Banana Loaf

There were ripe bananas on the counter and I always have couverture chocolate so I was all prepared for this week's TWD recipe.

I didn't mash the bananas too finely and the batter came together exactly as described in the recipe. I globbed the two mixtures together but didn't stir them after combining them in the pan so the marbling stayed intact.


This recipe took a lot of bowls to prepare! This wasn't one of my favorite recipes.