Tag: chocolate

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Olive Oil Brownies

one and a half slices chocolate cacao bean to bar bean-to-bar beantobar local recipe
one and a half slices local simple recipes food

Olive Oil Brownies

one and a half slices chocolate cacao bean to bar bean-to-bar beantobar local recipe

I don’t really like brownies. But once a year, I’ve got to have them. 

I’ve made these twice so far this year and, I’ve got to say, the recipe is narrowing in on perfect. Chewy but not gooey. Crispy on the edges. Not too oily. Not too buttery. Maybe just slightly too sweet. And, ofc, no seed oils.

It’s got olive oil for skin and health, and tahini for the luteal phase. Texture 10/10

I mean, just look at that crumb.

For those chocolate-y days, you can have this in 45 minutes (you know, the days where your mother buys you a chocolate book for Christmas that makes you crave chocolate things every time you pick it up and you’re the slowest reader ever so it takes you four months to finish it and by the time you’re finished you’ve eaten more chocolate in those four months than you typically do in a year but hey at least it’s better quality chocolate)?

Book recommendation below. Then, the recipe.

one and a half slices chocolate cacao bean to bar bean-to-bar beantobar local recipe

what you need

*note: for baking chocolate and cacao powder,  my go-tos are Guittard and Navitas

2 large eggs, at room temp

1/2 cup (75oz) dark or semi-sweet chocolate

1/2 cup coconut sugar (can sub brown sugar)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons almond flour

1/2 cup cacao powder 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup tahini

1/4 cup good olive oil (that you would eat)

(optional) flaky sea salt, fresh nutmeg, and whipping cream

how to make it

Method: stovetop

Heat oven to 350.

In a saucepan, combine your tahini, olive oil, and chocolate over medium heat. Stir until smooth and glossy (do not let it get too hot), and remove from heat.

In separate bowl, mix cacao powder, almond flour, and salt together. Set aside. 

In yet another separate bowl, beat both sugars, vanilla, and eggs together with a hand mixer for 5 minutes until very fluffy. Pour in the cooled chocolate mixture and stir until combined. Fold in the dry mixture until just combined.

Do not overmix.

Pour into a parchment-lined baking dish of choice (an 8×8 works great. mine was a little smaller, so the brownies a little thicker, so the cooking time +5 mins).

Top with flaky sea salt. Cook in a warm oven for ~24 minutes or until top is cracking. Let cool for 30 minutes before cutting. 

pro tip: like this needs leveling up but do it anyway. take some heavy whipping cream and whip it with some coconut sugar or maple syrup until soft peaks form. spoon it over your brownie and, HERE’S THE HOT TAKE, grate some fresh nutmeg on top. this is a game changer. a flavor changer. an all around good idea.

after all, few things are made worse by freshly grated nutmeg. 

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Sweet Coconut Cookie Snacks

one and a half slices valentine's day
one and a half slices local simple recipes food

Sweet Coconut Cookie Snacks

Yo, LOVE is in the freaking AIR! It’s Valentine’s Day (or thereabouts) and I made treats / used it as an excuse to be a little extra (remember when I sprinkled the lemonade???). For✌🏼Day this year, I made homemade cereal (yes, you read that correctly), homemade peanut butter cups (because I have issued a blanket moratorium on seed oils in my house), and these adorable four ingredient cookie snacks that are kind of like those samosa Girl Scout cookies. Now before you go off on a V Day tangent, I would like to stress that these cookie snacks are my new go-to, Valentine’s Day aside. They are the perfect dessert. I mean perfect.✨ And they are super easy to make. If you have kids, I ultra recommend these as a dessert option. There is zero sugar as they are sweetened with dates.

💖💖💖

Now, on the homemade cereal side, I forget about once every three years that I do not enjoy self-torture and make the cutest homemade cereal, a la Molly Yeh (champion of all things cute and sprinkles). Is it worth it? Probably not. Do I forget this periodically? Absolutely I do. This year it made for great mailing gifts but, man, is it a lot of work. Hundreds of hand-cut, 1/4 inch hazelnut cookies. In the words of Charlie Brown, good grief.

what you need

(this makes 6-8 cookies)

1 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut <– these words matter

1 cup (~8) pitted, soft Medjool dates

1 tablespoon smooth almond butter

1 cup semisweet or dark chocolate chips + 1 tablespoon coconut oil

(optional) 1 tablespoon honey

how to make it

  1. In the oven, toast the coconut shreds for ~5 minutes on 350, or until beautifully golden brown. 
  2. Use the food processor to process the dates until they are in smaller chunks. Add in the coconut and the honey, if using, and mix until a grainy “dough” forms. Using your hands, form 6-8 little discs, ~1/2 inch high, with the dough. Use a chopstick to poke a hole through the middle. 
  3. Plop the discs in the freezer. Yes, plop.
  4. On the stove, melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a small saucepan or small double boiler (truth: I totally set a bowl on top of a pot with water in it.) 
  5. Once the chocolate is melted, remove cookies from freezer and dip the underside of each cookie in the chocolate, returning it to the plate with the chocolate side up.
  6. Return to freezer for ~30 minutes or until chocolate hardens completely. 

P.S. The homemade cereal contains: homemade hazelnut cookies, tiny amaretto meringues, toasted coconut flakes, mini chocolate chips, and dried tart cherries. 

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Simple Chocolate Cake

french chocolate cake recipe one and a half slices
OneandahalfSlices food blog recipes One and a half Slices Virginia eat local

Simple Chocolate Cake

french chocolate cake recipe one and a half slices

Now is the moment where we ask ourselves if we really needed another chocolate cake recipe. The answer (much like chocolate chip cookies) is always yes. Specifically, we can put this one in the category of #minimalistbaking and #frenchsimplicity right up there with the French ‘Chocolat’ Cake and the Little Lemon Cake. I’ll say this: there is a reason French cooking is king in the world of the culinary, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the decadence of the pastries or the massive amounts of butter, and everything to do with its simplicity. The Five Mother Sauces, the peasant food-turned-elegant. Anyway, this cake is slightly denser than the French ‘Chocolat’ Cake as it is truly flourless. My neighbor and I are in a debate over which one is better. Soon we will settle that debate by making a third (creating a tie breaker, am I right?). All to say that, yes, there will be yet another chocolate cake recipe coming. Stay tuned and, in the interim, throw on Chocolat and whip this one up for the ‘Would you like some chocolate cake?’ scene! 

what you need

5 eggs, yolks separated from whites

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup unsalted butter

1 1/4 cup (6oz) dark chocolate

1 1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

(optional) dash of cayenne pepper

To serve: fresh whipped cinnamon cream

how to make it

Preheat oven to 350.

Fit parchment to the bottom of a springform pan. 

Melt butter, chocolate, and cayenne pepper (if using) in small saucepan stovetop over low heat. Once melted, remove and allow to cool slightly. 

Beat egg yolks, vanilla, and sugar together until the yolks turn pale yellow. Slowly, gently (so as not to scramble the egg), pour the yolks into the chocolate, stirring consistently. Add the almond flour and mix until combined. 

In a clean bowl (with clean beaters), beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Mix in half the egg whites to the batter, folding in gently but completely. Then do the same with the remaining half. (Yes, doing it in two stages helps keep the cake lighter). 

Pour the batter into the baking pan and cook for 40-45 minutes until set and a toothpick comes out clean. Serve topped with fresh cream and a dash of cinnamon. 
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JT Chocolate Chip Cookies

chocolate chip cookie recipe oneandahalfslices
OneandahalfSlices food blog recipes One and a half Slices Virginia eat local

Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies

chocolate chip cookie recipe oneandahalfslices

This is the quintessential chocolate chip cookie (yeah, I know, OneandahalfSlices probably doesn’t need another chocolate chip cookie recipe but this is unlikely to be the last…).

A few years back, thanks in large part to the New York Times, the baking world coalesced around Manhattan-based Chocolatier Jacques Torres’ chocolate chip cookie recipe, with its large, angular baking chips and its flat, disc-like appearance. And they were not wrong. Jacques Torres cookies are everything a cookie should be – large, crispy, with a perfectly balanced flavor and excellent chip-to-dough ratio. No complaints. Well, one complaint. Two flours are required, neither of which you are already likely to own. But if you make these a few times a year to freeze single-serving-style, it’s worth it to go the extra mile on the flour front. Bottom line, this is a reliable cookie that will not disappoint.

 🍪🍪🍪

what you need

2 scant cups cake flour

1 2/3 cups bread flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 dash cinnamon

12 oz chocolate chips of choice – the look and feel of these cookies is best with the thin Ghirardelli 60% baking bars chipped into chunks. I used 1 Ghirardelli bar and 1 cup of Ghirardelli semi-sweet baking chips (gold package).  

how to make it

Heat oven to 350.

Mix flours, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon together with a whisk (plus some salt if using unsalted butter). In separate bowl, cream butter and sugars with hand mixer until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, and mix again until combined. 

Using a spoon, mix the flor mixture into the sugar mixture until just combined. Add chocolate chips of choice and fold into the dough. 

Chill dough overnight (ideally – I made them straight away and they are still good!). The flavors blend a bit more when the dough is allowed to rest chilled. 

To make these cookies, you want your dough balls to be on the larger side: 3″-3.5″. Bake ~15 minutes until golden brown. If they are large, you may need to go up to 18 minutes.  
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vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe one and a half slices

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ah, the elusive and controversial – almost biblical – chocolate chip cookie. There are sure to be several chocolate chip cookie posts on this blog before we are through. For a while there, I was captivated by the dueling flours of Jacques Torres chocolate chips cookies, popularized by the New York Times. I still maintain that the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever had is found in central Manhattan on the counters of Culture Espresso. But I am happy to say that my current favorite chocolate chip cookie is vegan! Accidentally, as it turns out. I did not make this recipe because it was vegan, but it turned out to be one of the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted.

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May 2, 2021 1 Comment
french madeleine cake recipe proust one and a half slices

French Madeleines

“And once I had recognized the taste of the crumb of madeleine soaked in her decoction of lime-flowers which my aunt used to give me…immediately the old grey house upon the street, where her room was, rose up like the scenery of a theatre to attach itself to the little pavilion, opening on to the garden, which had been built out behind it for my parents (the isolated panel which until that moment had been all that I could see); and with the house the town, from morning to night and in all weathers, the Square where I was sent before luncheon, the streets along which I used to run errands, the country roads we took when it was fine…all from my cup of tea.”

– Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time, Swann’s Way

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December 18, 2021 2 Comments
brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe oneandahalfslices

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Brown butter? What’s it for and is it worth it? The short answer is yes. Browning your butter gives your dough or batter this deep earthy, nutty quality that is… delicious. Okay, so is it difficult? Absolutely not. So why wouldn’t you brown your butter? At this point, I’m not sure. I’ll be browning my butter until further notice. This recipe yields a crispy cookie that is extra sweet and super flavorful.

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January 9, 2022 1 Comment
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French ‘Chocolat’ Cake

One and a half Slices chocolate cake recipe Chocolat movie
OneandahalfSlices food blog recipes One and a half Slices Virginia eat local

French 'Chocolat' Cake

One and a half Slices chocolate cake recipe Chocolat movie

You guys know I’ll take pie over cake any day, but if I’m going to indulge in cake, it can’t be the big, billowy, blustery American cake layered with frosting and unnecessary sweetness. Over and over again I gravitate towards French cakes because they are just more delicate, using minimal flour, relying instead of almond meal, and frequently topped with cream instead of icing. This one is on par with my little lemon cake but it’s chocolate… with just a few tablespoons of almond meal, it has a dense but delicate consistency. You could whip it up in under an hour for a last minute dessert and it’s beautiful with a coffee or a bourbon. #minimalistcooking

This is also the cake recipe used in the movie Chocolat (for those who are following my cinema-inspired recipe line…). Vianne serves this cake dusted with cocoa powder and slivered, toasted almonds. I can easily envision a variation that incorporates finely shredded, unsweetened coconut as well. But we’ll leave that for another time. For now, enjoy brilliant, original, French simplicity. 

what you need

12 oz dark bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

10 tablespoons of butter

2/3 cup sugar

5 tablespoons finely ground almond flour

5 large eggs, separated 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

salt

One and a half Slices chocolate cake recipe Chocolat movie

how to make it

Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare a springform pan by dusting it with cocoa powder and placing a round of parchment paper in the bottom.

Use a double boiler or set a bowl in a saucepan half full of simmering water on the stovetop. Melt the chocolate and the butter in this way, stirring to incorporate. Sprinkle the cayenne pepper in with the chocolate.

*Note: you never want to melt chocolate directly in a pot on the stove as it will burn. Take care not to get ANY water in your chocolate while melting it as this will cause the chocolate to separate and  harden. 

Remove from the heat and whisk in half of the sugar, the egg yolks (slowly, so as not to scramble them), the almond flour, and the vanilla until smooth. 

In separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they start to hold their shape. At this point, add the salt and gradually add the sugar until stiff peaks form and the egg whites become silky and shiny. 

Fold the egg whites gradually into the chocolate mixture just until no streaks remain. Overmixing will cause the cake to be denser than you want it.

Pour into the springform pan and bake until just set, somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with several crumbs on it. 

Let cake cool completely, run a knife around the edge, release the springform pan, and serve with hot coffee. 

🎂

Thin, delicate cake
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Tiramisu

oneandahalfslices tiramisu recipe authentic dessert recipe
one and a half slices local simple recipes food

Traditional Tiramisu

oneandahalfslices tiramisu recipe authentic dessert recipe

❤

Valentine’s Day is almost upon us and for those looking for an authentic, elegant dessert, you might want to give this one a try. Last year I developed an interest in tiramisu and started trying it out at restaurants. The best are light and fluffy, with spongy lady fingers, a hint but not an overwhelming touch of liquor, and extremely silky, light cream. There are so many different components to the tiramisu flavor profile I thought surely it would be difficult to make. Not so! It is actually pretty simple. Authentic tiramisu does have raw eggs, though, which I consume readily in mom’s eggnog – doesn’t bother me. But many Americans make tiramisu with whipped cream or other substitutes. This recipe uses the egg. Just rinse the outsides well in steaming hot water and there shouldn’t be an issue. Also, the fresher the eggs, the better. You can make this in virtually any container. The recipe is intended for one large tiramisu but I made mine in several tiny glass Tupperware containers for easy storage and gifting.  

❤

what you need

2 cups Mascarpone

24-36 lady finger biscuits (I chose to buy mine at Whole Foods instead of make from scratch)

1 cup strong brewed coffee or espresso

1/3 cup Cognac or liquor of choice 

3 egg yolks

3 eggs whites

6 tablespoons granulated sugar

Cocoa powder for dusting

oneandahalfslices tiramisu recipe valentine's day

how to make it

Note: You’re going to want to make your tiramisu one day before you need it and let it sit in the fridge overnight

Combine coffee (room temperature) and Cognac in a bowl and set aside. You are welcome to sprinkle in some cinnamon if desired.

Separate the egg whites and egg yolks into two separate mixing bowls. Add 3 tablespoons of sugar to each and beat with a hand mixer on high. The egg yolks should become lighter yellow and shiny. The egg whites should froth up, then become shiny, and finally form stiff peaks.

Add the Mascarpone to the egg yolks and beat until thoroughly combined. Then, using a spatula, fold the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture until a silky cream forms. 

Retrieve your tiramisu vessel. You’re going to want to dip each lady finger, one at a time, one side at a time, in the coffee mixture. You should not spend more than 1-2 seconds on each side. Then place the lady fingers along the bottom of the container. 

Layer with some of the cream until all the lady fingers are covered. Then dip and add another layer of lady fingers. You can do this as many times as desired depending on how tall you want your tiramisu to be. I usually end up with lady fingers – cream – lady fingers – cream, and that’s it. 

To complete, dust with cocoa powder and situated in the fridge for at least 12 hours. Tiramisu gets better the longer it sits, so leave it alone until you’re ready for it.

❤
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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe oneandahalfslices
OneandahalfSlices food blog recipes One and a half Slices Virginia eat local

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe oneandahalfslices

OneandahalfSlices has no shortage of chocolate chip cookie recipes – we’ve got your vegan chocolate chip cookies, your authoritative chocolate chip cookies (coming soon), and now what? Brown butter? What’s it for and is it worth it?

The short answer is yes. Browning your butter gives your dough or batter this deep earthy, nutty quality that is… delicious.

Okay, so is it difficult?

Absolutely not. Turns out the whole “brown butter” craze simply requires melting your butter stovetop until it begins to bubble, reduce, and turn – you guessed it – brown. 

So why wouldn’t you brown your butter?

At this point, I’m not sure. I’ll be browning my butter until further notice. In some recipes, like my French Madeleines, it is integral to the flavor of the batter, but in other cases (like chocolate chip cookies), it’s just plain tasty. This recipe yields about a dozen crispy cookie that is extra sweet and super flavorful.

what you need

1 stick of butter

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips of choice 

how to make it

Brown your butter. Place butter in a small saucepan stovetop over medium-high heat. Once it begins to bubble and chirp, stir it occasionally to ensure it does not burn. Remove butter from stove and place in separate container to cool once it turns caramel brown in color.

Mix the sugars into the melted butter with a whisk. Add the egg and the vanilla extract, and whisk another ~3 minutes. 

Add all the dry ingredients and combine with a rubber spatula until just mixed through. Do not overwork your dough or mix everything to death. There is no need. You’ll only give yourself a hand cramp.  

Finally, add the chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or whatever cacao varietal you have chosen. Scoop the cookies into 12 or so balls (don’t flatten these – they will spread out on their own) and cook on 350 for 11-12 minutes, cool on wire rack, and enjoy whilst warm!
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One and a half Slices cookies

Oatmeal Everything Cookies

This is a super versatile, unique, hearty cookie recipe with very low sugar. They’ve got just about everything you could want in a cookie – coconut, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, chocolate chips. You can swap in and out things you may prefer – like pecans or chopped hazelnuts, different kinds of chocolate chips, etc. You could probably cut the sugar more if you used, say, golden raisins or dried blueberries, which are quite a bit sweeter than the cranberries. The higher the cacao percentage of your chocolate, also, the less sweet the cookies will be. I’ve made them with 100% bars before all chipped up and the rich, cacao-forward flavor is incredible. In short, get fancy. Play around. Make these your weeknight go-to cookie. And keep some in the freezer for late night cravings or, idk, breakfast… 🍪

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March 26, 2022 No Comments
vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe one and a half slices

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ah, the elusive and controversial – almost biblical – chocolate chip cookie. There are sure to be several chocolate chip cookie posts on this blog before we are through. For a while there, I was captivated by the dueling flours of Jacques Torres chocolate chips cookies, popularized by the New York Times. I still maintain that the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever had is found in central Manhattan on the counters of Culture Espresso. But I am happy to say that my current favorite chocolate chip cookie is vegan! Accidentally, as it turns out. I did not make this recipe because it was vegan, but it turned out to be one of the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted.

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May 2, 2021 1 Comment
chocolate chip cookie recipe oneandahalfslices

JT Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few years back, thanks in large part to the New York Times, the baking world coalesced around Manhattan-based Chocolatier Jacques Torres’ chocolate chip cookie recipe, with its large, angular baking chips and its flat, disc-like appearance. And they were not wrong. Jacques Torres cookies are everything a cookie should be – large, crispy, with a perfectly balanced flavor and excellent chip-to-dough ratio. No complaints. Well, one complaint. Two flours are required, neither of which you are already likely to own. But if you make these a few times a year to freeze single-serving-style, it’s worth it to go the extra mile on the flour front. Bottom line, this is a reliable cookie that will not disappoint.

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May 15, 2022 No Comments
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WFD Bars

chocolate recipe on one and a half slices
OneandahalfSlices food blog recipes One and a half Slices Virginia eat local

Whipplescrumptious Fundgemallow Delight Bars

one and a half slices best chocolate bar

Okay, what?! What are those words? What is this chocolat-y gooeyness? And why?? I mean, yes!, but why?!

When I was a kid, I was a huge sugar fiend. My mother had a sort of unwritten rule in the house about no processed sugar anywhere – no soda, breakfast cereal, candies, gummies, or Hostess cakes. If we were to have dessert, we were to make it from scratch – banana bread (recipe coming soon), lemon cake, peach melba, chocolate chip cookies. While I agree 100% with this philosophy, it may have exacerbated my particular problem as I would go to friends’ houses and pour Coca Cola into Cocoa Pebbles and eat Oatmeal Cream Pies and Fruit Rollups by the box, taking advantage of my friends’ parents lack of attentiveness to our sugar intake. 

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was never my favorite movie but I was fascinated by the sugar-laced fantasy world the film brought to life. I can still picture Gene Wilder dancing through a field of sugary grass and daisies around a stream of milk chocolate, plucking a yellow tulip from its stem, using it as a teacup, then crunching into the cup itself like brittle, lemon hard candy. 🍋🌷 To me, the best part of any movie – especially a fantasy movie – is the scene setting. The Great Hall scenes in Harry Potter where the feast is served or the candy selection on the train. The Medieval fare (turkey legs, whole roasted pigs, red grapes, unleavened bread loaves, hard cheese wheels) scattered around Viking halls. The same is true for videogames. It is these little details that bring a world to life. In the case of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the world was a saccharine, glazed, and sprinkled childhood wonder – like an Old Fashioned Soda Shoppe spilled out into the world for the taking. Brown cows and milkshakes, licorice laces and hard candies. Taffy.

I always liked the concept of a chocolate bar more than the chocolate bar itself. Something about the tinfoil waiting to be torn off. Something about the pristine molding. It was art. I almost didn’t want to eat it. 🍫🍫🍫 So when Charlie Bucket tore the tinfoil from a Willy Wonka chocolate bar, I was captivated. Then Johnny Depp got involved and I was even more captivated. That golden ticket Whipplescrumptious Fundgemallow Delight Bar became a symbol of the impossible – the intoxicating world where sugar was everywhere for the taking. Where it formed the very structure of the world from mountains to streams. Where it did not make one sick but cured all ills, like chocolate frogs in Harry Potter. 

🚗🚙🚛

Fast forward to 2021. The Piemaker and I are on a road trip. An exceptionally long road trip. 13 hours in the car with anyone will leave you wanting for conversation topics especially when the journey begins between the witching hours of midnight and 3am. The final stint between Fredericksburg and Northern Virginia found us arguing full tilt over the identity of Willy Wonka’s Whipplescrumptious Fudegmallow Delight Bar. What was it? What did “whipplescrumptious” mean? “Fudgemallow” was simple enough to unpack but what innovation, what variation on the theme of a Milky Way or a chocolate-covered graham, did “whipplescrumptious” imply? I had my thoughts as did the Piemaker. So silicone molds were purchased en route (on Amazon) and plans were made for a Whipplescrumptious competition. But then we got home, got busy, and forgot about the punchdrunk roadtrip rivalry until this weekend when I found the molds in the bottom of a kitchen drawer and decided to make good on the planned experimentation. After two failed batches of Sponge Candy – a candy with which I am intimately familiar given my two year residence in Erie, Pennsylvania – I arrived at a decent interpretation of the Whipplescrumptious Fudgemallow Delight Bar. Another variation may yet await us but the Piemaker is strongly in favor of this version. He did comment that the sponge candy is too sticky and slightly burnt on its own but integrates into the bar beautifully. For my part, I was just excited to revisit a childhood fantasy. And of course, I wrapped the bars in foil. 

what you need

2 packages (20 oz) milk, semisweet, or dark chocolate baking chips or wafers. I prefer Ghirardelli Milk Baking Chips for chocolate bars

2 trays of silicone chocolate bar molds with ~1/2″ depth (I used these)

2 cups miniature marshmallows

1/2 tablespoon salted butter

1 cup crumbled honeycomb candy (or graham crackers in a pinch)

For honeycomb candy:

1 1/8 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup honey

Dash of cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 tablespoon baking soda

how to make it

1. Chocolate. Melt 1 package of the chocolate in a double boiler (for me, this is a metal mixing bowl floating in a small saucepan filled with water. Elegant, I know). Once melted, spoon the chocolate evenly into each chocolate bar in the molds (~1 generous tablespoon per bar). Toss and catch the chocolate molds lightly in your hands so the chocolate settles to the bottom, then place in refrigerator to chill.

chocolate bar molds for one and a half slices

2. Honeycomb Candy. Place sugar, honey, vanilla, and cinnamon in saucepan over high heat and stir continuously as it begins to melt. Heat the mixture to 300 degrees (I used my meat thermometer as I do not own a candy thermometer. Make sure it gets hot enough or it won’t set!). Over high heat, this should take approximately 3-5 minutes. The mixture will smell fantastic and become a deep amber color. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the baking soda, noting that the mixture will froth, foam, and triple in size as you do so. Quickly pour the mixture onto a cutting board covered in wax paper and let it cool. It should be hard, crunchy, and ready for you to hit with something to break apart in 5-10 minutes. 

3. Marshmallow. Melt the two cups of marshmallows with 1/2 tablespoon of salted butter in a saucepan until just a few small lumps remain. Turn off heat.

4. Chocolate Bar. Remove chilled chocolate bars from the fridge. Carefully. use a butter knife or small silicone spatula (and your finger) to smear a small swath of marshmallow over the chocolate. Don’t swirl it around too much as the hot marshmallow will melt the chocolate. Do this for all bars in the molds. Sprinkle small, cracked pieces of honeycomb candy over the marshmallow for each bar. Chill molds. This step is messy. There was marshmallow in my hair. There was marshmallow on Aspen. There was marshmallow in the coffee maker the next morning.

marshmallow chocolate bars on one and a half slices

5. Finish. Melt the remaining batch of chocolate just like before. Remove molds from the fridge and spoon chocolate over each bar, spreading out to cover the majority of the filling, and repeating the toss-and-catch technique to settle the chocolate in the mold before chilling. Chill until set, ~30-60 minutes, wrap individually in tinfoil, and serve/gift! 🍫🍫🍫
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one and a half slices banana bread recipe mom

Banana Bread

This delicious and simple banana bread is the timeless treat you want with your morning coffee, your afternoon tea, or just after dinner. It has a rightful place on my food blog because my mother made this recipe nearly every other Sunday growing up. There would always be a fresh loaf of banana bread in the house – her version has the golden raisins which is how I make it to this day. And it even freezes well! That’s right, throw a fresh (cooled) loaf in some plastic wrap and put it in the freezer to enjoy a few weeks later. That is, assuming there is any left. 😉

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August 15, 2024 2 Comments

Crispy Waffles

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I like crispy waffles. The fluffy, puffy, overly-leavened Belgian waffle never did it for me. As it turns out, there are many different kinds of waffles: Brussels waffles (puffy), American waffles (think Holiday Inn breakfast), Liege waffles (half-formed super sweet waffle-cookies), Galette or Stroop Waffles (the thin, crispy, sometimes caramel-filled cookies). Until the X French Toast experience, adventures in waffling was my favorite morningtime breakfast activity. Oddly enough, my preferred waffle is a crispy version of a Norwegian or Scandinavian waffle.

A Norwegian waffle is typically made in a heart-shaped iron and is thinner than most waffles. Upon discovering my preference, I was overjoyed to poshly note my predilection for a Scandavian culinary experience. Until the Piemaker informed me that my waffle preference mapped to the all-American Waffle House waffle. I’ve still never been to a Waffle House (don’t want to get mugged), but Googling has confirmed that, indeed, I like Waffle House waffles. Without further ado, I give you my recipe for perfectly crispy, Norwegian, Scandinavian, or Waffle House waffles (made in a heart-shaped, diamond-laden waffle iron from the 1970s, courtesy of the parents).

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January 10, 2025 4 Comments
chocolate recipe on one and a half slices

WFD Bars

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was never my favorite movie but the final stint of an exceptionally long road trip left the Piemaker and I arguing full tilt over the identity of Willy Wonka’s Whipplescrumptious Fudegmallow Delight Bar. What was it? What did “whipplescrumptious” mean? “Fudgemallow” was simple enough to unpack but what innovation, what variation on the theme of a Milky Way or a chocolate-covered graham, did “whipplescrumptious” imply? After two failed batches of Sponge Candy – a candy with which I am intimately familiar given my two year residence in Erie, Pennsylvania – I arrived at a decent interpretation of the Whipplescrumptious Fudgemallow Delight Bar. You don’t have to have experience with candies to make this work (I didn’t!).

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September 25, 2021 2 Comments
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Sweet

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe one and a half slices
OneandahalfSlices food blog recipes One and a half Slices Virginia eat local

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe one and a half slices

Ah, the elusive and controversial – almost biblical – chocolate chip cookie. There are sure to be several chocolate chip cookie posts on this blog before we are through. For a while there, I was captivated by the dueling flours of Jacques Torres chocolate chips cookies, popularized by the New York Times.  I still maintain that the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever had is found in central Manhattan on the counters of Culture Espresso. But I am happy to say that my current favorite chocolate chip cookie is vegan! Accidentally, as it turns out. I did not make this recipe because it was vegan, but it turned out to be one of the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted. When it comes to cookies, I am not personally concerned with thickness, but I do err on the side of crispy as opposed to chewy. These came out piled a bit higher than I might have liked but the texture is perfect – crispy on the outside with a traditional baked goods interior. And… the best part is…no butter!

what you need

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (see note below)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use safflower)

1/4 cup water

Note on chocolate chips: Chocolate chips can fundamentally change a cookie. I prefer different types depending on my mood – from teeny, tiny miniature chips to oversized, large chocolate baking disks. These were made with your average-sized chip. In any case, 50% cacao or more is recommended. I usually buy Guittard chips (with Ghirardelli chips coming in a close second). These are made with Guittard Semisweets (orange package), but I am also quite fond of Guittard Akomas (pink package) and Guittard Extra Darks (red package). There is always the option to use closer to 85% cacao bars and chip them up yourself. 

how to make it

Preheat oven to 350. Whisk dry ingredients (excluding both sugars) together in small mixing bowl and mix in the chocolate chips. 

In large bowl, whisk together the oil and sugars or beat with a hand mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy, ~3-5 minutes.

Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and stir until just combined, careful not to overwork the dough. Form dough into 1-1 1/2 inch balls.  

Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes (mine take a little longer after freezing). 

Cookie hack!: If you’re like me, you a) want a cookie every single night of the week, and b) will by all means eat an entire tray (or package) of cookies if such an option is provided. Cookie hack: Make one (1) batch of cookies, freeze all cookies, and take them out, one at a time, one day at a time. Bottom line is you are supposed to chill the cookies for 12 hours before baking.  I tend to make one or two right out of the shoot and they are great. They cook in 10-12 minutes. When you do freeze them, however, they will take more on the order of 15-20 minutes to cook through. You want them light brown on top. 

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Hot Chocolate

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Mexican Hot Chocolate

Valentine’s Day is so controversial. Dinner reservations are made and flowers are purchased. Anti-Valentine’s Day parties are planned among groups of single women. Me, I like the concept of a day to stop and acknowledge the uniqueness of your partner and the things you love about them. But I’ve always thought the day best celebrated with something representative of the couple, whether that’s a meal, an activity, or a favorite movie. My Valentine’s days have been filled with videogames and pizza, homemade dinners, and elaborate chocolate selections (because any excuse to buy gourmet assorted chocolates, even if purchased by yourself, for yourself, amiright?). 

If you are making a dinner at home and are worried about dessert, I’ve got a solution for that. Making full dinners is time consuming, so the last thing you want to do is have to worry about making dessert on top of a full spread. Dessert should be something easy or something you can make in advance. The magic of this dessert is its simplicity. And while it makes for a beautifully elegant Valentine’s Day nightcap, it serves just as well on a Tuesday night. This is all-purpose, every day, delicate, creamy, spicy, chocolate deliciousness. And yes, we’re going to follow the chili in chocolate and chocolate in chili rule. However or whenever you choose to test drive this unique conceptualization of cocoa, I promise it will be among the best cups of hot chocolate you’ve ever tasted. Whipped cream or marshmallows… you choose. 

Afterthought: Allow me to take a moment to highlight three of my favorite chocolatiers in case you are looking for last-minute gift ideas. SOMA Chocolatemaker is top of that list, headquartered in Toronto. Check out their cherries tumbled in dark chocolate, their truly artful chocolate bars, or some gingerbread ninja cat cookies (because whynot?).  For chef-quality chocolatemaking, check out NYC-based Kreuther Handcrafted Chocolates.  The pricetag is exorbitant on the Valentine’s Day Chef Selection but the chocolate connoisseur will not be disappointed.  They also have macarons (see below). Finally, the Swiss Teuscher Chocolates has several US-based locations (I discovered it in San Francisco).  The assorted truffles (emphasis on the champagne truffles) are extremely fresh. 

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what you need

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (or 1 cup mini marshmallows)

2 cups whole milk or dairy-free milk of choice (cashew or macadamia work pretty well)

2 generous tablespoons fresh, local honey

Ground cinnamon

Ground chili pepper or cayenne pepper 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon sugar or maple syrup

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chocolate chips of choice (I prefer 60% or more cocoa content… 100% makes the hot chocolate a little too thick)

how to make it

Makes two small cups of hot chocolate.

Before you begin, whip the cream into soft peaks adding the maple syrup or sugar to sweeten and a dash of cinnamon at the end. 

Place a small pot stovetop over medium-high heat. Make two dollops of honey on the base of the pot. Add the vanilla and healthy dashes of cinnamon and chili pepper. You will use a larger quantity of chili pepper or a smaller quantity if using cayenne; either way, adjust to your desired level of spiciness. 

Using a fork, blend the spices into the honey until just combined. Add the chocolate chips and stir as they begin to melt, being careful not to let them stick to the base of the pot. Add the milk.

Using the fork as a whisk, whisk the chocolate continually making sure to get all the chocolate off the base of the pot blended into the milk. Whisk continually as the milk heats until you see steam rising off the top of the chocolate. At sign of the first bubble, remove from heat. Do not boil. If the hot chocolate boils, the chocolate will separate from the milk and the chocolate will acquire a frothy (in a bad way) texture. 

Pour into mugs, top with a dollop of whipped cream, and a dash of chili and/or cinnamon. If using marshmallows, place mallows in cup first and pour hot chocolate over top. Serve with a truffle, a cherry, or a particularly good walnut on the side and you’re golden.