Easy Custom-Made Chocolates ~ Romantic Homemaking Series

You don’t need millions of dollars to create a happy home.

just millions of seconds...

to make millions of sweet memories.

(Hot cocoa, steaming coffee and cups of tea, piles of  blankets, homemade desserts, hugs, kisses, books, forts and plenty of prayers.)

“So teach us to number our days,

That we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

~ Psalm 90:12

♥️ 

Sometimes you want to do something special for your family but don't have a lot of time. Here is an easy recipe project that is fun, festive and fairly fast! It can also be customized to everyone's special diets! Plus, it includes chocolate and I personally find that very romantic.

First, you will need to have a mold. I found mine at the thrift shop but you can also use a cupcake tin or even just the cupcake liners. Silicone molds will work beautifully too. I didn't grease mine as when the chocolate solidifies, it just pops out (give a little tap on the pan from upside down).

Place your favorite add-ins such as nuts, seeds, dried fruit, coconut, flavored baking chips, granola or trail mix inside your chosen mold. I used the Lily's butterscotch chips and white chocolate chips which are less sugar -- you can find them in healthy grocery stores or even Walmart. I also used salted nuts and unsweetened coconut flakes.

Pour melted chocolate over each one (again we used the Lily’s stevia sweetened chocolate chips -- affiliate link). Place them in the refrigerator and pop them out once solid to reveal the special treats.

For fun, you can serve them in a tin for that old fashioned feel... but I do recommend refrigerating them to keep the chocolate from deteriorating. I left one batch out on the sink for a few days and it didn't fare too well.

“All you need is love.

But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.” 

~ Charles M. Schulz

Romantic Homemaking Series:

Romantic Homemaking Series Introduction

My List of My Beloved and Beautiful Homemaking Books

The Inspired Home "Junk" Journal ~ Free Printable

DIY Vanilla Rose Room Spray

Embellish Ordinary Kitchen Linens with Lace

Baking Peanut Butter Chocolate S'more Cookies ~ Happy Homemaking Scenes

"As you go forth into the world to begin the prodigious work of life, it is my greatest wish that you find success and happiness in creating your own home.

 

I have no doubt in your ability to accomplish this. For in all of you, I find that the great lesson I have striven to impart to you, is well learned -- 

the most exquisite pleasure in life, is giving pleasure to others. As the good Lord taught us, the finest quality of greatness is service."

~ Mrs. Dunwoody's Excellent Instructions for Homekeeping -

Timeless Wisdom and Practical Advice by Miriam Lukken (affiliate link)

rolling...

melting...

creating...

serving.

There is so much going on in the world that can distract us from our home. And when we are distracted from our duties, we are (sadly) helping to contribute to the problems that cause us grief in the first place. For it is my belief that if there were more true homes, there would be less sorrow in the world. It all begins in the home... or lack of a home. But I digress...

Baking is one such way to serve in a simple sense which brings comfort to the home. It feels safe when something good comes from the oven. Home feels cozy and secure when something smells amazing. Our homes are mini-bakeries and who doesn't love to walk into one!

These "Peanut Butter Chocolate S'more" cookies look nothing like Sally's but they are still beautiful to our household. When something isn't perfect, I call them rustic and suddenly they are perfect! 

It is also enjoyable to put your own creative spin on recipes. My special versions included using graham cracker crumbs as sprinkles and using white chocolate for half of my cookies. What would you do with yours?

(This very fun recipe can be found here.)

Homemakers are artists. Homemakers are comfort-givers. Homemakers are servers. Homemakers are ultimately... love.

"Beloved, let us love one another,

for love is from God,

and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God."

~ 1 John 4:7

Chocolate Banana Crazy Cake (No Butter, Eggs, Milk or Mess) ~ Inspired by the Depression Era Recipe (aka Wacky Cake) w/ GF Option

“But oh, Marilla, will you let me make a cake for the occasion?

I’d love to do something for Mrs. Allan,

and you know I can make a pretty good cake by this time.”

~ L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Welcome to the third edition in our Depression-Era inspired crazy cake series! This recipe is an ode to frugal, "use it up" and from the pantry baking. Need to make a dessert in a hurry but your fridge is empty? Do you need to serve someone with food allergies? Are you trying to learn some basic and inexpensive baking recipes? If so, you will find the remainder of our recipe here at our guest post on Raising Homemakers (P.S. I would love for you to leave a little note there to let me know you "dropped by"!). Happy homemaking, ladies!

Visit HERE to go directly to the PRINTABLE RECIPE!

All the fine print. This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, Awesome Life Friday Link Up and Create, Bake, Grow & Gather. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. This post may contain affiliate links (which are merchant links that help to support this site at no additional cost to you if you purchase an item through them).

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Muffins {Grain Free} ~ Printable Recipe

"With such rivals for the notice of the fair as Mr. Wickham and the officers, Mr. Collins seemed to sink into insignificance... but he had still at intervals a kind listener in Mrs. Phillips, and was by her watchfulness, most abundantly supplied with coffee and muffin."

~ Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice

I never thought I would ever be sharing a grain-free muffin recipe. But with all these new allergies that are presenting themselves, we have done a lot of experimenting in the kitchen lately! These muffins are a nice, satisfying sweet snack, without giving you that heavy feeling. Perhaps you are searching for new ways to eat and could use a recipe like this also?

They may even be acceptable for breakfast with a large glass of cold, raw milk.  They are quite low in sugar too. Just 1/4 of a cup for 16 muffins! The banana puree helps out with the sweetening.

Ingredients ~

• 2 cups peanut butter
• heaping 1 cup mashed bananas (overripe preferred)
• 4 eggs
• 4 tsp. vanilla extract
• ½ tsp. sea salt
• ¼ cup raw sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 2/3 cup dark chocolate chunks, plus some extra if you like

To Make ~

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 16 muffin cups with cupcake liners.

Put the peanut butter, bananas, eggs, vanilla extract, sea salt, and raw sugar in a food processor. Place the baking soda on the top and pour the apple cider vinegar on top of it to create a chemical fizz reaction. Next, puree until smooth and creamy. Lastly, add the dark chocolate chunks. Using a spoon – not the food processor – mix the chunks into the batter. Fill the cupcake liners up nearly to the brim with mixture; there should be the 16 muffins in total. If desired, add some extra dark chocolate chunks on top of each muffin. Bake for 17 – 20 minutes, until puffy, and until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If the toothpick penetrates chocolate, select a different spot.

Note: These muffins freeze well.

I invite you to a plate and a butter-knife and a large slab of creamy butter! You are also welcome to the printable recipe which is shared here! 

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Roses of Inspiration, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, From the Farm Blog Hop, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, Simply Natural Saturdays and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these.

Note: My daughter adapted this recipe from Gluten-Free & Grain-Free Breads, Batters and Doughs by Halle Cottis.

About Chocolate Chip Cookies ~ Our Printable (Revised) Recipe

"I am still convinced that a good, simple, homemade cookie is preferable to all the store-bought cookies one can find."

~ James Beard

Some women look up to Amelia Earhart for her famous flights in the 1930's. However, one of my favorite females in that era happens to be someone of a different caliber. She was a "household arts" major. May I introduce you to Ruth Graves Wakefield? You might say she was an inventor of sorts...

As co-owner of the Toll House Inn (with her husband), she become well known for her tasty desserts. In fact, her resourcefulness changed the way many Americans eat their cookies!

Legend has it that her famous recipe was prepared on mistake when she ran out of baking cocoa. Instead, she added broken pieces of chocolate, hoping that it would melt into the batter. The result was the creation of the "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie". Mrs. Wakefield then sold the recipe to Nestle in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate chips.

During World War II, popularity of the chocolate chip cookie grew as local soldiers from Massachusetts shared their care packages overseas with others. Soon, soldiers from all over were writing letters back home requesting these tasty morsels and the rest is homemaking history...

Here are some tips from our little kitchen on how to make a tasty and chewy chocolate chip cookie. We are also sharing our healthier version of this favorite American treat (below in printable format).

• Use real butter.

• Once the dry ingredients are added into the bowl, do not over mix the final dough. Place in the refrigerator for an hour if you think you over-beated the dough (meaning it resembles a creamy cake mix instead of a thicker paste like it should). 

• Use an ice cream scoop if you want to create cookies of a uniform size.

• Do not grease your baking sheets as this can cause the cookies to spread and flatten.

• Once the corners of your cookies show signs of being golden, remove them from the oven. Let them sit on baking sheets for 4-5 minutes before removing cookies from baking sheets so that they have time to "set". 

• Finish cooling the cookies on cooling racks.

• Chocolate chip cookies freeze well so we prepare a large batch at one time. Our recipe makes approximately 6 dozen.

While I still adore the famous "Toll House Cookie Recipe", I wanted to prepare something a bit more wholesome for our family. We do try to eat healthy but still struggle in this very delicate department of desserts (*sorrowful sigh*).

Here is how we ended up making them a bit more heartier (this is the recipe shown in these photos) by introducing some whole wheat flour, oatmeal, coconut sugar and a splash of coconut oil. You are welcome to download our version HERE and print it out for your recipe book if you like :)

All the fine print. This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, and Shabbilicious Friday. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. This post may contain affiliate links (which are merchant links that help to support this site at no additional cost to you if you purchase an item through them).

The Chocolate Masterpiece ~ Healthier/Tastier "Cup of Gold"

“There is nothing better than a friend,

unless it is a friend with chocolate.”

~ Charles Dickens

I'll never forget the day I read this post, it was love at first sight! Chocolate candy that was considered "good for you"! The moment I saw the recipe, I had one thought in mind, to create my own "Cup of Gold" with it. Please tell me you know what these are?

I like them more than the original because they have a darker chocolate flavor, whereas the original "Cup of Gold" are milk chocolate (hope this statement of "dark chocolate" faith doesn't offend any one) and (except for the marshmallow) they are way healthier (which is hard to believe but you can trust Jacqueline who shares why on her original Bonbons post.) 

Important Note: These don't taste healthy. If they did, I would not eat them (I want to be healthy like the rest of you, but when it comes to chocolate, if it doesn't bring joy to the palate, why bother? This is serious stuff here! The taste of chocolate can not be compromised). 

The first step is to mix up the chocolate (no cooking necessary):

• 1/2 cup coconut oil (try to be precise)
• 1/3 cup "quality" unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 4 dashes of sea salt
• 4 tsp. raw honey

Prepare your add-in's (no set measurement, just a sprinkle for each of the 8 cups):

• two large marshmallows (each cut into 4 thin slices)
• shredded unsweetened coconut
• chopped almonds

Pour a small amount of chocolate into each cup (enough to cover the bottom).

Note: I cut off the top half of my cupcake cups to make them shorter and resemble the size of a candy style cup.

Sprinkle some chopped almonds and unsweetened shredded coconut on top.

Press one slice of marshmallow into your chocolate mixture and chill immediately (place in the freezer for a few minutes). You want your marshmallow to stick to the chocolate mixture so it doesn't float when you add the remaining chocolate.

Once the marshmallow is frozen in place, add more chocolate (enough to completely cover the marshmallow). Chill right away (Put them in the freezer for quick results but you can switch them to the refrigerator once they are solidified. I personally *love* frozen chocolate so I keep them there).

This recipe makes 8 decadent and generous, healthy chocolate confections. And, once they have been removed from the refrigerator, they should be eaten right away. Unlike the preservative filled, M & M's, these will "melt in your hands"... For our free printable recipe, visit here! 

What chocolate-worthy ideas are you coming up with right now to recreate your favorite?

All the fine print. This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, and Shabbilicious Friday. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. This post may contain affiliate links (which are merchant links that help to support this site at no additional cost to you if you purchase an item through them).

Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars ~ Printable Recipe

These preservative-free granola bars made with whole grains are delicious and way healthier than the store bought brands (forgive me Mr. Quaker). They are a snap to make which also adds to their appeal. Here is how we prepare them:

List of ingredients:

• 1 cup raw honey
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 5 cups puffed whole grain rice cereal
• 4 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup un-sweetened shredded coconut
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips 
• optional: 1/4 cup of ground flaxseed or chia seed

On the lowest heat possible (to try and preserve the good enzymes in your honey) melt together until combined (while stirring to expedite the process), in a large cooking pot, the following:

• 1 cup “raw” honey

• 1 cup brown sugar

Once honey and brown sugar are "melted" together, remove from stove immediately.

Now, stir in the following until smooth:

• 1 cup peanut butter 

• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Finally, add the following ingredients to the mixture and mix until thoroughly combined:

• 5 cups whole grain rice puff cereal (if using regular rice crispy cereal, you will need only 3 - 4 cups because they are smaller in size)

• 4 cups rolled oats 

• ½ cup unsweetened, shredded coconut 

• 1 cup of mini chocolate chips (and ground flaxseed or chia seed if using)

Pour ingredients onto large, greased cookie sheet and press down firmly into pan until the mixture is spread evenly and firm.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour before eating to allow them to firm up.

Cut into bars and wrap each one individually in plastic wrap. This should yield approx. 20 "good" granola bars.

The longest part of the recipe is probably the packaging. These should be stored in the refrigerator.

You may also freeze them for future use. They are gone in seconds in this home!

* Here is a printable recipe should you like to add it to your Recipe Book *

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Roses of Inspiration, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, From the Farm Blog Hop, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, Simply Natural Saturdays and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these.