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Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Vanilla Buttermilk Pound Cakes with Kahlua Fudge Sauce


This is part of our New Year's Eve dinner.  Why am I posting it before the actual NYE dinner? Because we made it early and served it to our friend Kirsten, our faithful cat sitter.  Without Kirsten we would not be able to visit our families over the holidays or to have taken a two week honeymoon.  So we made her a delicious dinner of the previous two postings (fruit and walnut-stuffed pork loin with new potatoes and roasted garlic vinaigrette) and this for dessert, to thank her.

The pound cake is one of those recipes that I've wanted to make as long as I could remember.  I'm not usually a huge pound cake person, it's just a bit dense for me.  But this one spoke to me for some reason so I figured this was as good a time as any to make it.  We've made the Kahlua fudge sauce before (and I think we may have even served it with a store-bought pound cake) and it is delicious.

The result? AWESOME.  This is the best pound cake I've ever had.  The buttermilk makes it so moist and chewy that you will want more.  The best part is that this makes a lot, but you can freeze it for up to a few months if wrapped well.

As of this post, 15 people gave the pound cakes an average rating of 4 out of 5.  I think it's a five.  Two reviewers gave the Kahlua fudge sauce a 5 out of 5. 

Vanilla Buttermilk Pound Cakes

Recipe by Marcia Whyte Smart, Cooking Light, November 2008


Yield: 5 loaves, 6 servings per loaf (serving size: 1 slice)

Ingredients

  • 13.5  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 3 cups)
  • 1  teaspoon  baking powder
  • 1/2  teaspoon  baking soda
  • 1/2  teaspoon  salt
  • 2  cups  sugar
  • 3/4  cup  butter, softened
  • 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
  • 3  large eggs
  • 1 1/3  cups  low-fat buttermilk
  • Cooking spray

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt); stir with a whisk. Place sugar, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and buttermilk to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
3. Spoon batter into 5 (5 3/4 x 3 3/4–inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove from pans. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 144 (32% from fat)
Fat: 5.1g (sat 3.1g,mono 1.4g,poly 0.2g)
Protein: 2.2g
Carbohydrate: 22.3g
Fiber: 0.3g
Cholesterol: 34mg
Iron: 0.7mg
Sodium: 95mg
Calcium: 25mg
 
Kahlua Fudge Sauce
Recipe by Cooking Light, July 1999


Yield: 1 3/4 cups (serving size: 1 tablespoon)

Ingredients

  • 1  (14-ounce) can low-fat sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/2  cup  boiling water
  • 6  tablespoons  unsweetened cocoa
  • 1  teaspoon  instant espresso or 2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
  • 3  tablespoons  KahlĂșa (coffee-flavored liqueur)

Preparation

Place milk in a small saucepan; cook 5 minutes over low heat. Combine water, cocoa, and espresso in a small bowl, stirring until granules dissolve. Stir cocoa mixture into milk; cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in liqueur; cook 1 minute. Remove from heat. Serve warm or chilled.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 52 (12% from fat)
Fat: 0.7g (sat 0.5g,mono 0.2g,poly 0.0g)
Protein: 1.4g
Carbohydrate: 9.7g
Fiber: 0.0g
Cholesterol: 2mg
Iron: 0.2mg
Sodium: 15mg
Calcium: 38mg

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Marbled-Chocolate Banana Bread

The in-laws (I think it's probably safe to call them that at this point since neither of us are planning to back out of the wedding) are in town this week for my fiance's graduation from business school (woot!).  It has been a long three years with him working full time and we are all so proud of him!  So during their stay, I decided to make this delicious Marbled-Chocolate Banana Bread for us to have at breakfast.  We're planning to go to Leesburg to show them the wedding venue, do some wine tasting, and probably have lunch at the rehersal dinner site, so breakfast needed to be light and easy since we will be eating a lot.  

I've made this before and it is so moist and delicious I can't even tell you!  I made it one weekend and brought the leftovers into work so they wouldn't be around the house. The leftovers were gobbled up by noon with everyone raving for the recipe.

The only change I made was to use vanilla low-fat yogurt. I stumbled on this the first time when Wegman's didn't have plain yogurt so I subbed vanilla. I've read other reviews who recommend this change as well.

As of today's post 98 (YES NINETY EIGHT PEOPLE) rated this a 5 out of 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So in other words you need to stop looking at the computer, go out and get the ingredients, now!

I hope you enjoy this in your home as much as we do in ours!

Recipe by Cooking Light, September 2003

Yield: 1 loaf, 16 slices (serving size: 1 slice)

Ingredients

  • 2  cups  all-purpose flour
  • 3/4  teaspoon  baking soda
  • 1/2  teaspoon  salt
  • 1  cup  sugar
  • 1/4  cup  butter, softened
  • 1 1/2  cups  mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
  • 1/2  cup  egg substitute
  • 1/3  cup  plain low-fat yogurt
  • 1/2  cup  semisweet chocolate chips
  • Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.
Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add banana, egg substitute, and yogurt; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist.
Place chocolate chips in a medium microwave-safe bowl, and microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 cup batter to chocolate, stirring until well combined. Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Swirl batters together using a knife. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 183 (23% from fat)
Fat: 4.7g (sat 2.8g,mono 1.4g,poly 0.2g)
Protein: 3.1g
Carbohydrate: 33.4g
Fiber: 1.3g
Cholesterol: 8mg
Iron: 1.1mg
Sodium: 180mg
Calcium: 18mg