Instant Pot Lava Cake

Oooey.  Gooey.  Chocolate.

Lava Cake in the Instant Pot is a snap!  This recipe originates from Adventures of a Nurse.  The original recipe called for 4 ramekins--I had enough batter for 5.

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

1 cup semi-sweet choco chips

1 cup powdered sugar

3 eggs

1 egg yolk

1 Tbsp vanilla

6 Tbsp flour

Combine butter with choco chips and microwave for 2 minutes.  Stir until combined.  Add powdered sugar and stir until smooth.  Stir in eggs and egg yolk until combined. Add vanilla and flour and wisk until smooth.

Spray each ramekin with cooking spray.  Pour batter to nearly the top of each. 

Pour 1 cup water in the instant pot.  Add the trivet.  Place filled ramekins in two layers--just carefully stack/stagger.  Use Manual high pressure for 8 minutes.  Quick release.

Turn ramekins over onto a plate and serve with ice cream, fudge sauce, caramel sauce, etc.

Homemade Scones & Honey Butter

Warm, soft, melt in your mouth scones with fresh honey butter.  Heaven.  Super simple and makes plenty to share with a neighbor!  I usually make the honey butter right after I mix up the dough, then I refrigerate it to thicken while the dough raises.

Ingredients

3 cups hot water

1/2 stick melted butter

1/2 cup sugar

6 ounces (3/4 cup) evaporated milk 

2 heaping Tbsp yeast

3 tsp salt

8 1/2 cups flour

In a large kitchenaid, bosch, or mixing bowl combine ingredients and mix until well blended. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for a minute until smooth.  Place in a greased bowl and cover for 45 minutes.  Punch dough down, cover and let raise again.

In a dutch oven or heavy duty pan, pour oil until 1 inch deep.  Heat oil on medium heat for 5-7 minutes.  Tear pieces of dough (any size you'd like) and shape into discs.  My flattened discs were about the size of my hand.  Place gently into the oil and cook for 1-2 minutes on each side until golden brown.  Remove from oil and place on paper towel.  Serve while warm with honey butter.

Recipes makes approx. 25 hand-sized scones. 

Honey Butter Ingredients

1 stick butter

1 cup honey 

Melt butter in a saucepan and wisk in honey.  Heat thoroughly and wisk until combined.  Pour into a container and refrigerate until ready to use.

Oreo Pizza

We tried a new recipe for the Super Bowl.  Pizza Pie Cafe makes an Oreo dessert pizza that my whole family loves.  We gave this recipe a whirl and it was pretty close to the original.

Oreo Dessert Pizza

Makes 2 pizzas

Pizza Dough

2 cups warm water

1 Tbsp yeast

1/2 Tbsp salt

3 Tbsp sugar

5 cups flour, divided

2 Tbsp olive oil

Mix warm water with yeast and let sit for 5 minutes.  Add 2 1/2 cups flour and mix well with a dough hook.  Add salt, sugar, and remaining flour and knead until combined into dough.  Let dough rest for 10-20 minutes.  Spread 1 Tbsp olive oil onto each pizza pan.  Divide dough in half and roll out into large circles to fit pan.

Oreo Topping

1 package Oreo cookies

1 stick butter, softened

Crush Oreos finely in a food processor.   Spread 4 Tbsp butter on top of each rolled out dough.  Top each with 1/2 Oreo crumbs.  Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

Cream Cheese Glaze

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup heavy cream

Cream butter and cream cheese together.  Beat in powdered sugar, then add vanilla, salt, and heavy cream and beat until well combined.  Add frosting to a quart size ziploc bag and snip off the corner to easily pipe onto the hot pizza.  Frosting will soften and spread a bit.

In addition, drizzle carmel sauce over top of the frosting.

Cream Puffs

A yummy treat, no matter what the season!  These are beautiful, a bit decadent, and so delish.  This recipe comes from my sister-in-law, Heidi.  And I think it came from her mother-in-law.  Thanks for sharing! 

Cream Puffs

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1 cup flour

4 eggs

Filling

2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding

2 cups milk

1 8-oz cool whip

Chocolate Drizzle

1/2 cup chocolate chips

3-4 Tbsp heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a saucepan, heat water and butter until butter is melted and the mixture comes to a rolling boil.  Add flour, and turn heat to low.  Stir mixture for 1 minute or until it forms a ball.  Remove from heat and wisk in 4 eggs all at once.  Wisk until combined, then stir with a wooden spoon until the dough shines--about 2 minutes.  

With a small spoon, scoop the dough and drop onto an ungreased cooking sheet--about 1 Tbsp of dough.  I space these just as I would do cookies, but I can fit about 15 on a baking sheet if I'm doing them small.  It makes about 28 small/medium cream puffs, or 14 larger cream puffs.  You can make them any size you'd like.

Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes for the small size and 30-40 minutes for the larger size.  Bake until they're puffed and golden.  IMPORTANT:  They will look done about 15 minutes before they're actually done.  They turn golden pretty quickly, but stay that way for a long time while the inside finishes cooking.  Don't take them out too early, but don't let them get too dark either.

Remove from oven and let them completely cool.  Slice off the tops and remove any extra filaments:

Fill with vanilla mixture.  Replace top and decorate with chocolate drizzle, or powdered sugar, or both!

For the filling, combine pudding with milk and wisk to combine.  Rule here is to use 1/2 the amount of milk the pudding recipe calls for.  Then wisk in the cool whip and refrigerate.  It will be thick, creamy, and lovely!

For the chocolate drizzle, melt the chips with the milk in a small saucepan or the microwave.  I spoon it into a ziploc bag and cut off the tip to drizzle.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Shooters

I recently purchased these little shooter cups from IKEA.  Shooters are crazy quick to whip up and make a lovely presentation.  You could also layer these kinds of desserts in regular cups, in wine glasses, or anything else you have.

I baked my chocolate cake in a large bun pan so it was thin enough to cut into circles.  I cut circles out of the entire cake then froze the extras so they're easy to pop into cups next time I want to make a layered beauty.  I am baking a white cake this afternoon (and maybe a lemon one too), to cut and freeze.

Possibilities are endless--lemon cake with raspberries and whipped cream, cookies & cream, peanut butter mousse with chocolate cake and whipped cream, strawberry short cake, yogurt with fruit and granola, etc etc!

Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake Shooter

1 small box instant cheesecake pudding mix

2 cups milk

1 8-oz cool whip

chocolate cake circles

caramel topping

2 Heath or Skor candy bars, crushed

Mix pudding with milk and let set up for 5 minutes in fridge.  Beat cool whip into pudding until blended.  Pour into a gallon size ziploc bag and cut off the corner.

In a cup, layer one piece of cake.  Pipe a circle of cheesecake pudding mix on top of the cake.  Drizzle caramel and a few pieces of the candybar.  Repeat.

This made 12 desserts, but it all depends on the size of your serving glasses.

Black Tie Mousse Cake

I love decadent, rich desserts.  One of my favorites is the Black Tie Mousse Cake from Olive Garden.  I googled it one day to see if I could find a copycat recipe . . . and I did!  Not gonna lie, this recipe is a bit labor intensive--nothing difficult, it just takes some time.   In the end it's worth it--so beautiful and so yum.  It's made in a 9" springform pan and I cut this into 14 slices and it was just the right size serving.  Olive Garden version has mini chocolate chips all around the outside, but I don't care for the waxy, hard bits with the smooth cake.

Here's a view of the whole cake right after I made it 

Black Tie Mousse Cake

 Bottom Layer:

1 devils food cake mix

1 small box chocolate pudding mix

2nd Layer:

4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 tsp knox unflavored gelatin

1 Tbsp cold water

2 Tbsp boiling water

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 tsp granulated sugar

Third Layer:

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 Tbsp flour

1 tsp knox unflavored gelatin

1 3/4 cups heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

Fourth Layer:

1 cup heavy cream

1 Tbsp butter

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Bottom Layer: Mix cake mix according to directions and stir in dry pudding mix until well blended.  Bake in greased springform pan as directed on box.  Let cool.  Remove springform band and cut top of cake off to make the cake an even layer.  Replace springform band around cake and refrigerate.

2nd Layer: In a small saucepan, combine chocolate chips and cream cheese and heat until melted and combined.  Set aside and let cool.  Combine gelatin with cold water and mix well.  Then add boiling water to gelatin mix and stir until mixed well and clear.  In a bowl with mixer, beat cream and sugar together until it starts to thicken.  Add gelatin and mix until stiff peaks form.  Add 1/4 cream mixture to the chocolate mixture and mix until completely combined.  Then fold in the rest of the cream to the chocolate mixture.  Spread over the cake layer in the springform pan.  Refrigerate.

Third Layer: In a small saucepan heat cream and vanilla until it comes to a boil, then remove from heat. In a bowl with mixer, beat egg yolks until pale.  Add sugar, flour, gelatin and beat until mixed well.  Add a small amount of the hot cream to the egg mixture and stir together.  Then slowly pour the rest of the cream into the egg mixture until all blended.  Pour mixture through a fine strainer back into saucepan and heat until custard begins to thicken.  Immediately remove from heat, cool slightly, then pour on top of chocolate mousse in the springform pan.  Place in FREEZER while making the fourth layer.

Fourth Layer: Place chocolate chips in a medium size bowl.  In a small saucepan, bring butter and cream to a boil, then pour over chocolate chips.  Let sit for 5 minutes, then stir together until smooth.  Let it cool until it starts to thicken.  Remove cake from freezer and pour half the chocolate mixture on top of the cake.  Cover the chocolate icing with plastic wrap to keep it from hardening.

Microwave the white chocolate chips in 30 second increments until melted.  Place in a ziploc bag with a small tip cut off.  Squeeze on top of the chocolate frosted layer in long stripe lines top to bottom.  Then take a butter knife and run the it the opposite direction of the white lines, cutting right to left the first cut, left to right the second cut, right to left, etc.

Place cake in fridge for at least one hour until set up.  Carefully remove the springform band and spread the rest of the icing around the edges of the cake.  Refrigerate, then serve cold.