Tribeca Treats: Hot Cocoa Recipe

Easy instructions from Tribeca Treats for hot cocoa on dailycandy.com

Farewell Original Hershey Chocolate Factory

The home of the Hershey's Kiss is closing it's doors after breaking ground in 1903.  Although chocolate production will continue at a newly built modern facility nearby, Milton Hershey's dreams came to life at this iconic location.

Toot, Toot! All a board a Vanilla Steamer!

With all the travel I've been doing lately, it's sad when airport security recognizes me in line.  Every airport has 50 billion Starbucks and I've become one of those sleepy eyed travelers waiting in line for a pick up me up.  However, it is the Vanilla Steamers with whip (whipped cream) I crave, not coffee.  It is eaiser to have these cravings when someone else is footing the bill.  So, when I am no longer traveling, the budget gourmet in me kicks in.

Here is my own spin on Vanilla Steamers:

1 cup Milk
1 tbls Honey
1/2 tbls Vanilla

I've made this two different ways:

Option 1 -

1.  Blend ingredients in a double boiler over low/medium heat until heated through

2.  Pour into a mug 

3.  Use a handeld frother to add volume

Option 2 -

1.  Blend ingredients in a mug

2.  Microwave for 45 seconds and remove from microwave

3.  Use a handheld frother to mix and add volume

4.  Microwave again for 1 minute

5.  Remove from microwave and froth one last time with frother

It's all about the cupcake

Alright chefs-in-the-making.  Scharffen Berger's Chocolate Adventure Contest is back!  This year's theme is chocolate and cupcakes.  An award winning recipe will get you $20,000 prizes.  The contest entry period ends January 2, 2011. 

Instant Crumble Desserts

Everyone knows I love Crumble desserts.  Apple Crumbles, Blueberry Crumbles, Raspberry Crumbles and so on.  All are amazingly delicious and relatively easy to make.  Originally, I was using a pre-made mix with cinnamon, sugar and oatmeal to make my crumbles. 

Howevever, I realized that using a flavored Oatmeals such as Quaker Instant Oatmeal adds a lot of flavor to a Crumble.  So,  I  decided to use one package of an Instant Oatmeal, 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tbls of butter chopped into pieces and blended with a fruit of choice.  For this recipe, I used the French Vanilla Instant Oatmeal and one Granny Smith Apple per bag of oatmeal. Fresh whipping cream sweetened with honey was made to enhance to experience.

One Granny Smith Apple per packet of oatmeal.

Peel and cut the apple into small pieces.

Blend, oatmeal, butter pieces and cinnamon together.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Whipped up heavy cream with honey.

The final product.

Absolutely yummy!