The Fat Girl's Guide to Living

We’re very lucky in our family: no food allergies or other dietary restrictions outside of the occasional self-imposed decree that it’s time to cut back on the coffee . . . or the sweets . . . or the wine. But there are so many people out there who have to carefully watch their diet – not to shed a couple of pounds or break a caffeine habit, but because eating certain foods leaves them physically ill.

With that in mind, this one’s for our readers who are looking to indulge while remaining gluten-fee. Even better, it’s for anyone who appreciates an amazing chocolate cake. It’s like the love child of a chocolate cake, a brownie, and a piece of fudge — all without a trace of flour. And you can whip the whole thing up using your food processor – how easy is that?

Sinfully decadent, this cake is best served in rather conservative slices because a little goes a long way.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
(recipe courtesy of Gluten-Free Goddess)
16 ounces dark chocolate (I used a combination of bittersweet and semi-sweet)
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup very hot strong coffee (or use espresso powder in very hot water)
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
8 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 10-inch Springform pan by lining the bottom with buttered parchment paper.

(Note: Using a smaller cake pan will result in a longer baking time; adjust accordingly and keep an eye on the edges; if it browns too much while the center is still wet, wrap edges in foil; or if you are using a smaller pan, try placing it inside a warm water bath.)

Break up the dark chocolate into pieces and pour the chocolate into the bowl of the food processor. Pulse until the chocolate breaks up into small bits. Add the sugar. Pulse until the chocolate and sugar turns into an even, sandy grain.

Pour the coffee slowly into the feed tube as you pulse again. Continue pulsing until the chocolate is melted.

Add the butter pieces and the cocoa powder, and pulse to combine. Add the eggs and vanilla, and process till smooth. The batter will be liquid and creamy.

Pour the batter into the lined springform pan. Wrap the entire outside of the pan with a big piece of foil. Bake at 350 degrees F in the center of the oven, till puffed, cracked and lovely – about 55 to 65 minutes. Use a wooden toothpick to check the center of the cake; pick should emerge clean, with maybe a crumb adhering.

Place the cake pan on a wire rack to cool. The cake will deflate. When cooled a bit, press down on it gently with a spatula to make it even, if you wish.

When the cake is completely cooled, cover, and chill it for three hours (up to eight hours) until serving. Release the cake from the pan. Slice and serve.

Yield: 12-15 slices

Looking for more great recipes? Visit my blog at
http://culinography.wordpress.com

Last week, Peony shared some tips with us on how to have a lovely, low-pressure Valentine’s Day. As part of the Valentine’s Day fanfare, most of us are looking for a dessert that’s impressive, but won’t find us spending hours in the kitchen. This, my friends, is just the thing — cute little two-bite brownies, filled with cream cheese and topped with a maraschino cherry.  They’re perfect for sharing and, for those of you with a significant other in your life, how sexy would it be to feed these to each other?

Even better, you can whip these cuties up in no time flat. If you don’t feel like making the brownies from scratch, you can substitute brownie mix (look for a fudgy variety). No matter which way you decide to go with these, you’ll end up with an amazing little treat that’s perfect for Valentine’s Day or any other occasion. Enjoy, and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Tuxedo Brownies
(adapted from Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert
and The Pampered Chef Celebrate! cookbook)
Brownies:
8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into several pieces
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
scant 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (1.2 ounces) all-purpose flour

Position oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350˚F. Spray two mini muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray.

Place chocolate and butter in heatproof bowl and set over a pan of almost-simmering water. Stir frequently until mixture is melted and smooth and warm. Remove from the pan and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla with a hand-held mixer on high speed until the eggs are thick and light colored, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the warm chocolate. Fold in the flour.

Using small scoop, place a level scoop of batter in each cup, filling 2/3 full. Bake 12-14 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and edges are set (do not overbake). Remove from oven and immediately press tops of brownies with a mini tart shaper to make indentions (if you don’t have a tart shaper, you can use the back of a measuring spoon or your thumb to gently press down the center of the brownie). Cool in pan briefly and then loosen edges and gently remove brownies from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack while making the filling.

Filling and toppings:
4 squares white chocolate for baking — 1 oz each
4 tablespoons heavy cream
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
48 maraschino cherries
melted semi-sweet chocolate for drizzling(optional)

Microwave white chocolate and milk uncovered on medium power in 20-30 second increments, stirring in between, until melted and smooth. Cool slightly. Combine cream cheese and powdered sugar; mix well. Gradually beat in white chocolate mixture until smooth.

Fill a decorator bag fitted with rosette tip with cream cheese mixture. Pipe mixture into cooled brownie cups. Place cherries on top. Drizzle with melted chocolate. Place in airtight container and refrigerate for 1-3 hours before serving.

Yield: 4 dozen

Looking for more great recipes? Visit my blog at
http://culinography.wordpress.com

“Better than Chocolate” – clitoral vibrator by Nomi Tang

Whew! The first Wednesdays of each month are quickly becoming known as “sexy Wednesdays” around here, with Peony’s hot new monthly column, Sex and the Single Fat Girl, and now a sexy giveaway from brand new FGG sponsor Eden Fantasys.

Popular blogger, FGG reader and sexy Eden Fantasys liaison, Cecily Kellogg, wants to give away a decadent Better than Chocolate clitoral vibrator to one lucky reader. To enter, comment here with a one-liner about your favorite chocolate snack or dessert, be sure to enter a valid email, and you’ll be automatically entered.

Contest closes Saturday, January 9, at 11:59 pm PST. A winner will be chosen at random from the comments, and will be notified by email within 24 hours of contest close. Only one enter per person.

Good luck, ladies!

Did you see the news today? It snowed in south Texas! I don’t live in Texas, but I’m jealous that they got the snow for which I’ve been not-so-patiently waiting. So, in honor of the big snow in the South, I thought today was the perfect occasion to drag out the recipe card for a fantastically decadent drinking chocolate.

What is drinking chocolate? Think ‘hot cocoa taken to a whole new level.’ In its luxurious, rich shadow, regular hot cocoa will seem thin and sort of weak. This recipe can be made with three or four simple ingredients and a little will go a long, long way to satisfying your sweet tooth.

Most of us have powdered hot cocoa mixes hanging out in our pantries — I think I’ve got two boxes stashed away in my kitchen for emergency chocolate fixes. It works in a pinch and even tastes pretty good. But have you looked at the ingredient list for that stuff? Sure, it has your usual suspects: sugar, whey, cocoa, nonfat milk, and sugar. But many of the powdered mixes also contain hydrogenated coconut oil (trans fat alert!), salt (amounts of which you’re unable to control), artificial flavors (such as?), and carrageenan (which has been accused by some of causing intestinal inflammation and possibly inflammatory bowl disease). Not the ingredients I want to build a long-term relationship with. So, if you’re looking for something a little more simple and certainly more tasty, give drinking chocolate a try.

This one’s easy to personalize, too. Add more milk to make it a bit thinner. Omit the peanut butter if it’s not your thing or if you have nut allergies. (If you do, consider adding just a pinch of salt to the recipe.) Try it with dark chocolate, milk chocolate… or any chocolate combination that strikes your fancy!

As written, this recipe makes six to eight small servings (remember – a little goes a long way!). Scale back the recipe to half if you’d like, or you can do what I do and keep any extra covered in the refrigerator for up to a week. Just reheat slowly and re-blend before serving. Perfect for on-demand chocolate therapy!

Peanut Butter Cup Drinking Chocolate
3 cups whole milk
8 ounces good quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (chocolate chips are okay, too)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

Warm 1 1/2 cups of the milk with the chocolate, peanut butter and brown sugar over medium heat, stirring until the chocolate is completely melted. Whisk in the remaining milk and heat until very warm (do not boil). Using a hand-held immersion blender or a whisk, mix the drinking chocolate until completely smooth. Serve warm.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Looking for more great recipes? Visit my blog at
http://culinography.wordpress.com

Some days you just have to celebrate. If you don’t have a reason, find one because life’s too short!

Cake is always a good way to celebrate and you don’t have to have a boxed mix in your pantry to make one. Before you click away because cakes made from scratch are too much work, please give the recipe below a try. It’s seriously just as easy as a cake mix and not only will it taste great, but you’ll be able to control which ingredients go into it. As an added bonus, you can boast that you made it from scratch and let everyone believe that you toiled in the kitchen to bring them such a wonderful treat.

Some great things about this recipe:

It’s egg-free (great not only for those of you – or your friends or family – with egg allergies, but also for those of us who decide we MUST have cake when there are no eggs in the house).

There’s no need to plan ahead to let butter soften – this recipe relies on vegetable oil (but when you’re ready to start baking, put one cup of butter out to reach room temp for the frosting).

You can use a stand mixer, but it’s also easily prepared with a hand-held mixer or even by hand.

To transform it to a regular chocolate cake, omit the espresso powder. You can also substitute some additional vanilla or chocolate (either cocoa or good quality melted chocolate) for a different frosting flavor.

If you make cupcakes instead of a full cake, you’ve got another portion-controlled treat… AND you can freeze the extras to keep temptation out of sight.

This is one of the moistest cakes you’ll ever make!

Chocolate-Mocha Cake
3 cups flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tablespoons espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil (vegetable, canola, etc.)
2 cups water
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and pour into a 9×13 cake pan (or 2 6″ round cake pans and a lined 12-cavity cupcake tin… or 2 lined 12-cavity cupcake tins). Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes (or 15-20 minutes for smaller pans) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Mocha Frosting
1 cup butter, room temperature
1.5 pounds powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon espresso powder

Cream butter until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in powdered sugar and heavy cream. Once incorporated, beat on high for three minutes. Add vanilla and espresso powder and beat for another two minutes. Taste and add additional espresso powder if desired… add a bit more heavy cream if frosting consistency is too heavy or a bit more powdered sugar if consistency is too light.

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Looking for more great recipes? Visit my blog at
http://culinography.wordpress.com

Candy Apples by markus941

From the moment Halloween candy first appears on grocery store shelves, something else wicked this way comes: “holiday survival guides” related to food and dieting lurk around every magazine, newspaper, and web page. Thus begins an entire season of treat avoidance centered around the sensible goal of preventing annual holiday weight gain.

I’d like to propose a different way of viewing the holiday season: sensible indulgence. After all, we’re here to thrive, not just survive, right? This philosophy can be easily adopted no matter where you are on the fat girl spectrum, from “large and in charge” and rockin’ the fat acceptance thing to the most emotionally-scarred chronic dieter.

FGG already advocates the mindful decadence approach via our delectable weekly Foodie Friday column (where Michelle is doing a fabulous job crafting recipes I actually use). I’d like to explain this philosophy a bit more as it applies to holidays where over-indulgence is an annual theme.

The idea is simple: life is short and food is delicious, so why not choose one or two things we truly enjoy and savor them instead of buying into the idea that deprivation is the only path to a balanced life or healthy body?

Have one or two really delicious seasonal treats and let the rest go. Trust yourself. Love pumpkin pie? Order a slice of the good stuff at a bakery instead of picking up a generic pie at the grocery store, enjoy the heck out of that slice, and look forward to having some more next year. I love caramel apples, but I don’t treat myself to those most of the year. Halloween is a great time to indulge in one or two, especially from a specialty shop like Amy’s Gourmet Apples.

Honestly, we’ve all broken into the Halloween candy meant for the neighborhood kids, or picked at our kids’ goodie bags when they’ve gone to bed for the night. But that way of eating isn’t any healthier emotionally or physically at any size, and I think the need to dig in comes as much from feeling deprived as it does from real hunger or craving. Making the conscious choice to treat ourselves allows us to appreciate some of the tastier things in life while also discouraging mindless eating.

What about you? How do you handle the succession of food-oriented holidays this time of year? If you’re looking for some ideas for mindful indulgence, check out this brilliant – if labor-intensive – idea for bite-sized hazelnut creme brulee. Or how about a box of four adorable Halloween truffles?

Share your own ideas by leaving a comment!

All of these posts about knee socks and awesome boots have me fixated on the beautiful fall weather happening outside. I can’t wait for the trees to be flaming with color, and for it to be time to pull out the extra blankets for the bed. In the meantime, I’ve been cranking up the oven. One of the things I truly love about fall is to have the opportunity again to fill the house with the wonderful smell of baked goods (that and wrapping myself up in my favorite flannel shirt and grabbing a cup of steaming hot coffee on a cool morning). What are your favorite parts of fall?

Of all the things that I bake, at the top of my list is anything banana. Why? It’s all about the wonderful aromas that come wafting from the oven. Banana bread, banana muffins, banana cake… and now these Chocolate Banana Bars. I’ve held out against combining cocoa and bananas for quite a long time and now I’m really not sure why. Sure, I’ve added chocolate chips to banana muffins and it turned out great, but there’s always been something keeping me from whipping up a true chocolate-banana combo. Until now. These are wonderful, and they’re especially wonderful warm from the oven. Welcome fall into your house with these soon!

Chocolate Banana Bars
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 medium bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg, vanilla, and bananas, mixing until completely combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add dry mixture to the creamed mixture and mix well, scraping down the bowl once.

Divide batter in half. Add the cocoa to one portion of the batter. Spread the chocolate portion in the bottom of a greased 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Spoon remaining batter on top. Swirl gently with butter knife and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan and then cut.

Yield: 18-24 servings, depending on size

Looking for more great recipes? Visit my blog at
http://culinography.wordpress.com