Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cream Filling (or dip {or garnish [or late night decadence]})

This past Tuesday afternoon, on the flat coastal plain road of Highway 59 in Baldwin County, Alabama, the gray matter was wrapping itself around an idea for a new cake filling made from a local favorite sweet dip.  There's no tutorial here, the excitement of an idea working out having put all thoughts of documenting the procedure out of mind.  It's the combination of the chocolate chip cookie dough dip and sweetened whipped cream into a very rich (but light?) creamy recipe that's easily spread.  Chocolate chip cookie dough cream filling, to be exact.

I did away with the diet for this one:  the chocolate

chips mesmerized the will power right out of me.

Chocolate chip cookie dough dip, if you're not familiar with it, it everything lovable about chocolate chip cookie dough, minus the eggs.  It's an excellent selection for incorporating fruit arrangements and cookie bars into one, along with two or three other sweet dips.

This was a baby (boy) shower.  I'd used white chocolate chips

   in the dip for it.A double batch is almost always made to 

assure plenty arrives at the event it was intended for.

I'd thought about using it for a cake filling several times before, but it's so thick, more like a spread and less like a dip.  How could the consistency be made creamier?  WWwwwwell.  By adding cream -- whipped cream, of course.  

By rearranging the way the dip is put together, the filling was made quickly and easily.  Here's what you'll need:

One cup butter

One-half cup brown sugar

Two teaspoons vanilla

Two eight ounce cream cheeses

Two cups thick whipping cream

Two cups confectioner's sugar

One cup mini chocolate chips (or the whole bag {why not?})

Put mixer bowl and whisk attachment for whipped cream in refrigerator to get cold.

Melt butter and brown sugar together for three or four minutes on medium setting in microwave (or until the sugar is thoroughly smooth).  Let cool slightly until just warm.  Beat the cream cheese (still cool and not at room temperature) into the butter and sugar until a smooth mixture is achieved.  Add vanilla and beat again.

Put the whipping cream in cold bowl with wire whisk attachment and whip until folds begin to form in cream and soft peaks form.  Slowly add confectioner's sugar to blend and proceed to whip until stiff peaks form.

With speed at lowest setting, whisk brown sugar/butter/cream cheese to whipped sweetened cream a spoonful at a time until all is added in.  Stir once from the bottom and process only long enough to mix in the stuff from the bottom of the bowl.

Gently fold in chocolate chips, cover, and chill.

That's it!

The filling will firm up only slightly, retaining a spreading consistency after it's cooled.

It debuted in this chocolate cake with chocolate truffle butter cream icing.

The client tells me the cake and filling were

very well received.  Very well.

I like that...

This is a recipe that can be tweaked a hundred ways to become a pie filling, a lighter version of the dip, an incredible garnish for a slice of cake, a tad of rum or bourbon or Kahlua added instead of vanilla for a cool topping for a bread pudding... so many things.  Y'all make it yours (figuratively speakings) and enjoy!

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Ever time I think a climactic plateau of chocolate cake garnishing has been reached, another one appears.  Sharing with y'all the chocolate cake that went out this morning:

Mayree's Unprecedented Second Post in a WEEK! **whispering** But it's chocolate...

Two recipe posts?  In one week?  What can I say?  I was excited this morning thinking about how to kick up the chocolate butter cream icing a notch or two and even more excited to come up with a way to do it..  I know someone else has probably already done something very similar but they didn't tell me about it so it doesn't count, riiight?  I'd like to think I've come up with something original so y'all don't bust my bubble if it's not, okay?  I need to be in the kitchen cleaning up this mess but it'll wait the thirty minutes while I get this out of my head, off of the data card, and onto your screens.

I've made an incredibly dark and smooth and rich dark chocolate fudge icing today.  It's for a groom's cake:  a fellow chocoholic that kind of got the bad end of the stick with the prior significant other.  He's to be wed Saturday to the softest-spoken and intelligent Alabama sweetie I think I've ever met.  I'm happy for them.  He's a chocoholic, says he doesn't care about the intensity, as long as it's chocolate.  I've changed my mind three times about the filling (that'd be chocolate mousse, chocolate Bavarian cream, or chocolate custard) before opting with the custard filling.  He doesn't care.  Chocolate.

See that big cake on top?  That's his, six chocolate layers of cake with chocolate custard and crumb coated with chocolate butter cream.

Annnyways, this morning I had already made the butter cream icing for the bride's cake and two batches of chocolate butter cream.  I didn't need more chocolate butter cream, having approximately that same amount left over from last week -- refrigerated, of course.  Even butter cream icings won't keep from one week to the  next in this kind of Deep South heat and humidity, regardless of whether you have air conditioning or not.  That's 24 pounds of butter cream...

Meghan was visiting and I remembered the Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder.  There is almost always Hershey's syrup in the house.  Hmmmmmm... Voila!  Eureka!  SHAZZAM!  I knew how to pimp out the chocolate butter cream... I'd use the Special Dark cocoa powder and chocolate syrup to thin the icing.  I was so excited 'bout it, a decent photo couldn't be taken of all the ingredients.

Nuh unh.  Can't see the ingredients in this one either.  I blame Meghan (which is not to say it's her fault - just that I blame her).  She had come in the back door from running, training for the half marathon later on in the fall.  The heat and humidity had almost gotten the best of her - even though she IS from Louisiana.  She's down for a day or two visiting her sweetie.  I cooked her breakfast:  pan-braised bananas with a sprinkling of coarse salt served atop spiced banana nut bread.  We were chatting the whole time I was taking photos and making this.

The ingredients you don't see are:

Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa powder

Hershey's chocolate syrup

2 pounds confectioner's sugar

1 cup of butter

1 cup of shortening 

2 teaspoons of vanilla

I had the butternal icing twins, Kitch and Aid busy making the butter cream and then the chocolate butter cream.  They work hard for their money.  

You know the procedure:  Start by creaming butter and shortening thoroughly and adding vanilla 'til incorporated well.  Add the cocoa powder.  OHhh nom!  This smell.... And believe it or not, this is the way I love chocolate!  Chocolate-y and buttery without any complications from milk or too much sugar.  It coats the tongue and leaves an impression -- a taste memory, if you will.   

Stop and scrape the sides at least once, making sure you go all the way down to the hump in the bottom of the bowl.  Stuff gets stuck there if you're not diligent about the scraping.  After the cocoa powder is mixed in well add 2 pounds of confectioner's sugar.

Can you guess what's going in next?  Yep.  A whole cup of chocolate syrup!  A cup full!

Pour the cup of syrup into the thick special dark cocoa icing that's so stiff the arm of the mixer will hardly lift up and mix well, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl down a time or two.  I've had help in the kitchen that would crank the mixer up almost wide open making icing.  Yikes.  It results in a really light textured icing -- with more air holes than an hour of smooth work can get out.  I start the mixer out on the lowest setting, only turning it a notch or two.  The faster and the more it's mixed, the more air bubbles are incorporated in it to be contended with.  Save the air for yourself, you're going to need it after tasting this.

NOM!  I'll be using this on the groom's cake for the borders and Cornelli lace.  The darkness and flavor will be a nice contrast against the chocolate butter cream.  Photo of the cake will come Saturday, after delivery and the chocolate curls are on.

If you love chocolate cake and chocolate icing or yellow cake and chocolate icing or heaven forbid strawberry cake with chocolate icing, do a very nice thing for yourself and make this Special Dark Fudge icing.  Not for the faint of heart, the complex flavor and thick smoothness will take you to another dimension of experiencing chocolate.

Those ingredients again for Special Dark Fudge Icing are:

1 cup butter

1 cup shortening

2 teaspoons vanilla

2/3 cup Special Dark Cocoa powder

2 pounds confectioner's sugar

1 cup chocolate syrup

You sort of kind of saw it getting put together but I'll remind you, just in case you don't remember.  Cream butter and shortening.  Add vanilla (yep - you saw right - I use Mexican).  When incorporated add cocoa powder until smooth and creamy.  Add confectioner's sugar 'til mixed and chocolate syrup.  Mix until spreading consistency.

I know there are more premium cocoa powders and syrups on the market;  given enough warning I'll order Cadbury's but I'll remind you this is a one grocery store town - and the Pig just doesn't carry anything more premium than Hershey's...and when you taste this, it'll be good enough!

Y'all enjoy!

Marshmallow Fondant and Late Night Silliness

Starting to WORK work has definitely cut a chunk out of StumbleUpon and Facebook time!  Yikes.  I may actually go into withdrawl (<- that's a Southern withdrawal) in another few days if I don't have some decent set-down-in-front-of-the-computer time.  Perhaps I can sweet talk my employers into letting me use the restaurant computer in their office to feed the addiction?  Nnnnaw.  Best just to get on over it, right?  Right!  It's silly to be dependent upon something that can't reciprocate dependency, isn't it?   No good - no matter which way the situation is looked at.

I have to share with you a funny thing said at church when we were cleaning up after the Family Dinner this past Sunday.  The pastor was whistling "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."  It was the Hymn of Response i.e. closing hymn to the service and kind of has a way of getting stuck in your head if you're a church going hymn singing sort of person (if you're not, that's strictly between you and the Almighty).  I had been humming it and he was whistling it.  Mama and Mrs. Sally were covering the food on the table to be transported home.  Mrs. Sally starts trying to remember some phrase her mama used to say about a whistling girl.  Well!  Don't you know?   Mama knew exactly what it was.  She said she hadn't thought of it in years, but her grandmother used to say it too:  A whistling girl and a crowing hen are both two things with no good end.  I lol'd a lot!  The preacher was amused, too.  Mama said her grandmother used to kill the odd hens that tried to crow;  they were unnatural and evil.  She also said they always ate them.  Hmmmmm... I think somebody's grandmother was henophobic!

The fondant.  Marshmallow fondant.  I'm so distracted right now.  You can add any sort of flavoring you'd like in whatever quantities and concentrations after the marshmallows are melted.  Or that seems like the logical place to add it.  This marshmallow fondant tastes much better than the store bought packages and I don't use a flavoring in it.  I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to how much to use, although I think 1/2 teaspoon or 1 teaspoon might be sufficient.

You'll need a bag of marshmallows.  Miniature marshmallows work just fine, too.  I had these on the rack.  I didn't count how many were in here to start.  It's roughly 3/4 of a bag of marshmallows.  It's not rocket science.  Confectioner's sugar, you'll need that too.  The only difficult thing in the making of this stuff is kneading the confectioner's sugar in when it won't stir in any more.

There's my big Pampered Chef measuring/mixing bowl.  Oh.  And two tablespoons of water!

Put the marshmallows in the microwave safe bowl and pour the water over them, stirring to coat the marshmallows.

Oh yeahhhh... I also have TWO plastic bags there.  The one thing you'll want to pay extra attention to is the storing of your fondant.  Air, moisture, and heat are its worst enemies.  I always double bag the fondant to take care of the first two items on the fondant hit list after it's made.

Microwave on high setting, set for 2 and a half minutes.

Stir halfway through.  The marshmallows will still be a little lumpy.

OOoooooo... I love cobalt glass.  I found this lemon juicer with measuring cup at First Monday Trade Day and Flea Market in Ripley, Mississippi years and years ago.  That's where my watch stays, Monday thru Saturday.  I only wear it on Sundays.  Go figure!

DING!  It should look like this.

That glass cutting board/heat pad has been there ever since day one of living here.  I don't know what I'd do without it to set the hot things on coming out of the microwave RIGHT there. They're not pricey at all and work a charm saving the counter top.



Add a good half a bag of confectioner's sugar to the melted marshmallows.  I might mention that was a TWO pound bag of confectioner's sugar.  At first it's easy to stir in, becoming more and more resistant until it gets downright belligerent to deal with.  This is while it's still stir-able.

 
Quicker than you're willing to admit you're not prepared to, this goes to the counter to have more sugar kneaded in until it's the fondant consistency.

It's late in the evening at this point in the process.  If you go back up to the watch photo, you'll see it was 11:20 then, and this is another ten minutes or so later.  I amused myself trying to take that photo with melted marshmallow goop all over both hands.

GGGgggrrrrrrrrr!!!!  Did I scare you with that hand?  No?  I scared myself for sure! 

There was no way to photograph the process of continually adding and turning and kneading the constantly-firming-up fondant without wasting a bunch of it by sloughing it off and washing my hands. 

I didn't measure anything to start with but if you needed measurements on the sugar I would say I used five cups total in the making of the fondant, based on what was left (which I didn't measure either {like I said, it's not rocket science - trust your judgment on it and if that's no good, readjust and do over}).

This is what the fondant will look like. 

I double bag mine and leave it out.  If it's going to be a while (like weeks) before use, pop it in the refrigerator.   Tadadaaaaaaaa! 

Those ingredients again were:
Marshmallows
Confectioner's sugar
2 Tablespoons water

Y'all have fun with this.  And thanks for not paying me any mind when the hour is late (or is that early), silliness sets in and bed time is yet to come.  I appreciate it!