Chocolate Negroni

April 18, 2021 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

If Willy Wonka did exist and had a chocolate factory, it’s fair to say that we would be first in line to try to win the golden tickets. The Blind Pig Blog family loves chocolate. If you have been an avid reader of our blog for any amount of time, you probably have noticed the reoccurring theme. If there is a recipe with chocolate, we love to try it out and post about it. This week is no different, we are sharing a recipe that we found that has a twist on the typical negroni with some hints of chocolate.

We make our Chocolate Negroni with gin, Punt e Mes, Carpano Botanic Bitter, Crème de Cacao and some chocolate bitters. We shared Punt e Mes with you in some of our past posts, such as, Punt e Mes Margarita, Punt e Mes Sangria, and Punt e Mes and Soda. We also highlighted Carpano Botanic Bitter in several cocktails, such as, Carpano Botanic Bitter Fizz, Holiday Margarita, and the yummy Hibiscus Mule.

Craig is the Negroni aficionado in our household, so he gave this delicious cocktail a try and a thumbs up. If you are looking for something a little different than your typical negroni, stir up this cocktail and let us know what you think.

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at www.theblindpig.blog for a printable version of the recipe for the Chocolate Negroni.

Does this post have you craving for some chocolate? Here are some past posts that just might help you with your craving.

Spirited Chocolate Orange Bars

A Little Tiramisu for You

Borghetti Brownie Caramel Bites

Twisted Mississippi Mud Brownies

TBPB Cannonball!

Espresso Oreo Shake

Mint Brownie Ice Cream Dessert

PBIF Pie

Easy Espresso Cake

Espresso Fudge

Disclaimer: Beverages on this site are meant for adults 21 years of age and older. We do not condone underage drinking. Drink responsibly.

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Caffe’ Mocha Frozen Dessert

July 24, 2020 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

This past Sunday was National Ice Cream Day, and any loyal Blind Pig reader can tell you that ice cream is definitely one of our weaknesses! How can it not be? This week we have a delicious frozen dessert with a boozy bite to share with you: Caffe’ Mocha Frozen Dessert.

This dessert is a low prep dessert for an impressive return on your investment. Aside from the taste and the instant visual appeal, this dessert can be made hours or days ahead of your social event. It is the perfect summer dessert, because you do not need to heat up the oven and risk making your kitchen hot.

The Caffe’ Mocha Frozen Dessert is made with brandy, Creme de Cacao, and Caffe’ Borghetti Espresso Liqueur. The boozy flavor of this dessert can be attributed to the combination of the trio of liqueurs with ice cream.

To create this yummy treat, you will need to place 5-6 scoops of ice cream in a blender along with a portion of the 3 liqueurs. Blend the ice cream and then pour the mixture into a large bowl. You will do this step 3-4 times until all of the ice cream has been blended with the liqueur. Next stir the ice cream mixture well to make sure that the liqueur is well blended with the ice cream. After mixing, ladle the ice cream mixture into serving glasses.

Place in the freezer until ready to serve (about an hour or two). Garnish with whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles and Pirouette cookies. Because of the alcohol content in this dessert, we recommend it for adults only.

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at www.theblindpig.blog for a complete downloadable recipe for Caffe’ Mocha Frozen Dessert.

Try Caffe’ Mocha Frozen Dessert this weekend or check out some of our other great frozen treats!

Butterfinger Bourbon Pie

Caffe’ Borghetti PBIF Pie

TBPB Cannonball!

Choco Menta Shake

Espresso Ice Cream

Kerrygold Caramel Shake

Oreo Menta Shake

Tequila Strawberry Lime Ice Cream Pie

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Borghetti Mochaccino

August 7, 2019 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

Hey friends, sorry we are a few days late on our first post for August. We’ve been busy trying to wrap up the summer and spend time with family from out of town. We didn’t forget about you, though. This week we have a super easy, creamy and smooth delish treat that you will be dying to try — Borghetti Mochaccino!

What’s a Mochaccino? A mochaccino is typically an espresso shot (double) with a combination of steamed milk and cocoa powder or chocolate milk. Often mochaccinos have chocolate syrup, whipped cream and added toppings such as cinnamon, nutmeg or chocolate sprinkles. Our mochaccino recipe is served frozen and best enjoyed with a straw and spoon.

First you need to make the chocolate espresso syrup. Place sugar, Cafe’ Borghetti and water in a small saucepan and bring to a slow boil. This takes about 2 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat and add in chocolate chips and Irish cream (We used Kerrygold) stirring until melted and the syrup is smooth. Place the syrup in the blender and blend for about 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile in a medium bowl beat the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture. Pour into 8 ounce glasses or serving bowls. Cover with plastic wrap. Freeze for 8 hours. Let sit for 15 minutes prior to serving. Top with chocolate sprinkles when ready to serve. Yummo!

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at www.theblindpig.blog for a full downloadable recipe for Borghetti Mochaccino.

Borghetti Mochaccinos make an elegant dessert for dinner with friends. The flavor of the espresso liqueur shines through. This dessert is so smooth and creamy, you will fall in love with it immediately.

Try it this weekend and let us know what you think!

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Cannonball!

May 31, 2019 / theblindpig11 / 1 Comment

The cry of, “Cannonball!” echoes across the nation to announce the dawning of summer. After trying this delicious treat, you will be screaming, “Cannonball!” with every ten-year-old on the block! This yummy summer dessert is a fun twist on the typical ice cream sundae. Mix together three different kinds of ice cream, some brownie bits, twist it up and you are ready to enjoy your summer.

The best thing about this dessert is that there is no need to heat up the oven. You will be cool as ice cream while preparing this treat. Although this dessert is easy even for the novice bakers and cooks, you do need to plan ahead. It take about 2 hours of adding one layer at a time and a final 4 hours to freeze completely. You can’t decide to serve this 10 minutes before the guests arrive.

You will need three different kinds of ice cream to make this fun treat. We used Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla, Coffee, and Dutch Chocolate. You also need some freshly baked brownies. We used a brownie mix for ours, but store bought would work, as well. If you like, add some peanuts or pecans to the mix. The last ingredient you need is a batch of our delicious Kerrygold Chocolate Sauce.

Take the vanilla ice cream from the freezer and soften for about 5 minutes. Choose a medium size glass bowl. Pour about 1/4 cup of Kerrygold Chocolate Sauce in the bottom of the bowl. Sprinkle in about 1/4 cup of nuts. Spoon vanilla ice cream into the bowl covering the chocolate sauce and nuts. With the back of a spoon spread the softened ice cream over the sauce and up the sides of the bowl. Place the bowl in the freezer for about 45 minutes.

Next take the coffee ice cream from the freezer and soften for about five minutes. At this point you will want to check on your first layer of vanilla. Ours started to slide down the sides some. The ice cream was still soft enough that we could use the back of the spoon to hollow out the middle some more and bank it up the sides of the bowl. Now add a layer of brownie bits. Be generous on this part. Rhonda was a little stingy with the brownies, and our cannonball could have used more. This is also a step where you could substitute something other than brownies. Like cookie dough? Chocolate chips? Nuts? Sprinkles? We would advise you to avoid anything that would get too hard when frozen. Brownies are perfect, because they serve as a soft texture surprise in the cannonball.

After adding the layer of brownies, spoon a layer of coffee ice cream over the top. Smooth out the coffee ice cream with the back of a spoon trying to leave a slight dip in the middle of the bowl. Place in the freezer for another 45 minutes.

Take out the chocolate ice cream from the freezer to soften for 5 minutes. Pour a layer of Kerrygold Chocolate Sauce over the hardened coffee ice cream. Add the chocolate ice cream to the small dip in the middle of the bowl. Place in the freezer for 4 hours.

When ready to serve, take the bowl from the freezer and place in a bath of lukewarm water in the sink for about 5 minutes.

Invert the bowl on a serving plate. Top with more Kerrygold Chocolate Sauce and nuts if preferred. If you are not ready to serve your cannonball quite yet, you can return it to the freezer until ready. Once you have cut slices, serve immediately. WARNING: this dessert did not last long around our house. Be fully prepared for it to disappear quickly.

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at www.theblindpig.blog for a printable recipe of TBPB Cannonball.

You can see the interesting layered marble look of the ice cream, chocolate sauce and brownies. This treat is so delicious and incredibly easy to make. There are so many different variations that can be made from this recipe. Don’t be surprised if you see a rum caramel cannonball or a Branca Menta mint variation in the near future! Try it for your next swim party and let us know what you think! Happy Summer!

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24 Kt. Cheesecake

March 16, 2019March 16, 2019 / theblindpig11 / 2 Comments

Through the course of the past three years,(yes it has almost been three years since we started our blog) we have tried and concocted many recipes for cocktails, desserts and various food items. Many of them have been very tasty, and some of them have been better than delicious, but every once in a while we feel like we have struck gold. The recipe that we are going to share with you this week definitely feels like we have found a major vein of gold running through the hills. Thus, we aptly named this wonderful find: 24 Kt. Cheesecake. Once you get a taste of this rich, decadent dessert, it will have you feeling like you are eating like the rich and famous. Move over Kardashians, we don’t need gold plated toilets. We’ve got cheesecake!

We shared with you in our March Bonus Post this week, that Grandma Ruth was in town. You know that great things happen when Grandma Ruth joins Rhonda in the kitchen. We attribute the great find of this cheesecake to Grandma Ruth’s divine kitchen intervention! Twenty-Four Karat Cheesecake is a mouthwatering combination of two layers of chocolate cheesecake with a layer of peanut butter cheesecake in the middle surrounded by a chocolate graham cracker crust.

To make this decadent dessert, you will need some basic ingredients: chocolate graham crackers, melted butter, sugar, 2 packages of cream cheese, creamy peanut butter, eggs, semisweet chocolate chips, Kerrygold Irish Cream, vanilla, and a few peanuts for garnish.

For the crust , you will need to finely chop the graham crackers in a food processor or blender. Mix together with melted butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Press into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of a spring form pan.

For the peanut butter cheesecake layer, beat together 1 package of softened cream cheese, peanut butter and 1/4 cup of sugar in a bowl. Lightly beat one egg and fold into the mixture. Set aside.

For the chocolate cheesecake layers, stir chocolate chips in a saucepan over low heat until melted. Remove from heat. Cut remaining package of cream cheese into cubes and stir in to melted chocolate until well combined. Next add Kerrygold Irish Cream, vanilla and two lightly beaten eggs.

Spread half of the chocolate cheesecake mixture over the graham crust.

Spread the peanut butter cheesecake mixture over the chocolate.

Then follow with a final layer of chocolate cheesecake mixture.

Bake the cheesecake 45 minutes or until top is set. The outer inches of the top will be slightly puffed and dry. The center should appear darker and wet.

Remove from oven and cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. The secret to a great cheesecake is to make sure that it cools very slowly. You do not want to speed up the cooling process by adding it to the refrigerator. Some cheesecake recipes suggest you bake your cheesecake in a water bath. We did not do the water bath for this recipe and we did not have any cracking or over cooling.

After 15 minutes, loosen the pan from the cake by using a small knife around the inside edge of the pan. Continue to cool for 30 minutes. Remove the sides of the pan and continue to let cake cool completely.

Cover and chill for 4 hours. Sprinkle with peanuts.

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at http://www.theblindpig.blog for a complete downloadable recipe of 24 Kt. Cheesecake.

Here is another helpful tip for serving cheesecake. You know how you try to cut cheesecake and your knife gets all gunked up and then it destroys the look of your beautiful cheese cake? So frustrating… right? We have two words for you… dental floss! To create smooth professional cuts on your cheesecake use unflavored dental floss. Pull out a piece of floss long enough to stretch the diameter of your cheesecake with a little extra to comfortably hold on to with each hand. Press down on the cake and with a gentle sawing motion move the floss back and forth until you feel you have cut through the crust. Pull the floss out of the bottom of the cake, and repeat making even diameter cuts through the center of the cake. You will have flawless pieces of cheesecake ready to serve.

If you like peanut butter and chocolate and you like cheesecake, this dessert will not disappoint. This dessert will definitely make its way to the top of “Desserts to Impress Guests” list at The Blind Pig household. We would love to have you stop by and have a piece ;).

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you. We will leave you with an Irish toast:

May you always have a clean shirt, a clear conscience, and enough coins in your pocket to buy a pint!

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Snowed In?

January 12, 2019 / theblindpig11 / 1 Comment

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Let us just start by saying that we planned this post a few weeks ago. At that time we had noooo idea that the Midwest would be under a winter storm warning. Currently there is close to a foot of snow on the ground for many of our Midwest followers. When we created this recipe and came up with the name, we did not realize that the universe was listening so closely. We apologize. However, we are sharing a delicious, chocolaty drink with you that we aptly named Snowed In. We felt that reflected the weather in much of the country for this time of year. (Yes, parts of Texas did receive some snow two weeks ago.) It has a little chocolaty goodness, a little bit of coffee and a lot of yum!

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There are three main ingredients in Snowed In: Crystal Head Vodka, Cafe Borghetti, and Kerrygold Irish Cream. Put them together and shake with a little ice, and presto you have a fabulous cocktail to drink next to the warm fire.

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We used chocolate syrup, semi-sweet chocolate shavings and a few espresso beans for garnish. We showed you our trick for garnishing with chocolate syrup last year when we made Who Needs Half Price Shakes Before 8?

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We’ve made this tasty little drink a couple of times now, and we think we like it more and more every time we make it. It would be perfect to serve to guests as a dessert drink. We would love to hear what you think!

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If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at http://www.theblindpig.blog for a full printable recipe.

snowed in

The next time you are snowed in or not, shake up this cocktail to keep you warm on the inside as you cuddle up next to the fire with your honey.

Disclaimer: Beverages on this site are meant for adults 21 years of age and older. We do not condone underage drinking, and never drink and drive.

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Christmas Morning Bread

December 16, 2018December 29, 2018 / theblindpig11 / 1 Comment

One of the best things about Christmas is jumping out of bed early in the morning in anticipation of unwrapping presents under the tree. Since our family usually has a big meal planned for Christmas, we don’t tend to eat a huge breakfast. If you have guests staying with you, it’s nice to put your best foot forward at breakfast — especially on Christmas morning. We are sharing an easy, tasty and fresh recipe with you that will delight all of the members of your family on that joyous holiday morning. Your house guests will think that you went all out just for them. You can smile graciously. No need to tell them how easy this delectable breakfast was to make.

This recipe was a combination of a few recipes that we had found over the years. One recipe was from Taste of Home December 2017 issue and the other was from Southern Living December 2009, and then we added in a little twist of our own. This great recipe can be prepped a day ahead and baked fresh in the morning or warmed in the oven. To make Christmas Morning Bread you will need, sugar, cinnamon, frozen bread roll dough, Kerrygold butter, chopped pecans, brown sugar, Templeton Rye whiskey and semisweet baking chocolate bar.

First we started to thaw out our frozen rolls. They were not completely thawed by the time we started to work with the dough, but we think it helped to have the dough slightly thawed. You can make your bread from scratch like Grandma Ruth likes to do, but we opted for the frozen dough which was easier.

Next we combined the sugar and cinnamon. We melted our Kerrygold butter in the microwave. We sprinkled a few of our chopped pecans in the bottom of a sprayed bunt pan. Next we made our whiskey caramel sauce. We placed brown sugar, butter, and whiskey in a small saucepan; brought it to a boil; cooked and stirred for 3 minutes. Then removed from heat to cool.

After about 5 minutes, we poured about 1/3 of caramel in the bottom of the bundt pan with the pecans. This gave the top of our bread a nice sweet glaze.

We prepped our area by having the rolls handy, along with the butter, sugar cinnamon mixture and bundt pan. Next we took a roll. Dipped it in the butter, and then rolled the top 1/2 of the roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture. We placed the roll in the bottom of the pan. We continued until we had a fairly even layer of rolls on the bottom of the pan. We drizzled caramel mixture and pecans over the first layer of rolls. Then we continued layering the rolls and adding pecans and caramel drizzle over each layer until we had 3-4 layers. Our package of rolls was 3 lbs. We thought, “What the heck. The more the merrier, right?” Wrong. It was too much dough and our rolls overflowed in the oven. Stop at about 2 pounds of dough. (wink)

Next we covered with plastic wrap and placed in a warm toasty spot in our kitchen to rise for about 45 minutes. If you want to bake these Christmas morning, you can cover and chill them in the fridge. We would suggest taking them out and letting them rise slightly before placing in the oven.

When you are ready to bake, place them in an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees. Make sure to place a baking sheet covered in foil on the bottom oven rack. (Believe us, you do not want to skip this part. We saved ourselves from cleaning up a huge mess by doing this!) Bake bread for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, and then invert on a serving plate.

To make the chocolate whiskey glaze you will need to melt the chocolate in a small microwave safe bowl. We melted ours in small bursts of 30 seconds, so we didn’t over cook. When chocolate is melted, stir in 1/4 cup of whiskey and stir until smooth. Drizzle the chocolate whiskey glaze over the top of the bread.

If you are viewing this post in your email, visit us at http://www.theblindpig.blog for a full printable recipe of Christmas Morning Bread.

When we made our bread in our test kitchen, it did not last long. Blind Piglets #2 and #3 and their friends finished it off pretty quickly. We had a few left overs for the next day, and we think it tasted better on day 2.

Are you going to treat your family Christmas morning? Do you need to impress your mother-in-law? Whether you are staying in or headed out, Christmas Morning Bread will be sure to become one of your family’s holiday favs. Let us know if you try it out. We love hearing what you think!

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Saucy Gift Ideas for the Holidays

December 9, 2018December 9, 2018 / theblindpig11 / 1 Comment

We are so glad to see many of you sharing and commenting our latest posts: Golden Mint Crinkles and Yum Rum Balls. ‘Tis the season to share and give, so keep on sharing. This week we have another great idea for giving and sharing this season.

If you are looking for an easy treat to share in a goody bag, with your child’s teacher, the mail man, or just a little something special to add to a gift, Kerrygold Hot Fudge Sauce is a great place to start.

Kerrygold Hot Fudge Sauce is a great addition to a holiday gift basket.

This sauce is a great topping for a variety of treats and desserts. Drizzle some over a sponge cake for a little extra pizzazz. Serve over a bowl of fresh berries. Use it for a yummy ice cream sundae. Warm it up and place in a fondue pot with lots of fun fruit, brownies, marshmallows, or angel food cake dippers. Drizzle some over a pile of pancakes or french toast on Christmas morning. Get creative, and let us know how you used the sauce.

Getting organized took longer than actually making the sauce. First decide how you want to package the sauce. Rhonda went to Hobby Lobby and found a variety of cute little jars and bottles. We have also seen bottles similar to this at World Market, or you can purchase small canning jars at the grocery store. Make sure that the bottles are safe for food, and not just made for decoration. Bring the bottles home and wash them thoroughly. We put ours through the dishwasher on high heat to make sure they were well sanitized. We (Rhonda) found some fun tags, bows and ribbons at Hobby Lobby to dress up the bottles and jars for a festive flair.

You can find a variety of jars and bottles at Hobby Lobby. Make sure they have been thoroughly washed.

Next start the process of making the sauce. You will need a package of unsweetened chocolate baking squares, butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, salt and Kerrygold Irish Cream. We have a variety of variations to this recipe that we will share with you below.

Place the chocolate and butter (We used Kerrygold butter, of course.) in a small saucepan over low heat stirring constantly. Add the sugar and cook for an additional 30 seconds. Add the milk stirring constantly and cook for an addition 3-5 minutes until the chocolate sauce is smooth and creamy. You want to keep the heat on low and do not let the sauce boil. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, salt and Kerrygold Irish Cream. Yes, it’s that quick and easy!

Kerrygold Hot Fudge Sauce

Ingredients:
1 -8 oz package of unsweetened chocolate baking squares
1/2 cup of Kerrygold butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup milk
1 ounce of Kerrygold Irish Cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt

Melt unsweetened chocolate baking squares and butter in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Add 2 cups of sugar and continue to stir for about 30 seconds. Add milk to saucepan and continue to stir until sauce is smooth and creamy. Make sure sugar is dissolved, but do not allow the sauce to boil. Remove from heat and add vanilla, salt and Kerrygold. Cool before placing in container.

Can be refrigerated for up to two weeks. Reheat sauce in microwave prior to serving.

Makes approximately 3 cups.

The sauce is good for up to two weeks when stored in the refrigerator. It is best served warm, so you will want to include that information on your instruction tags to your friends. We made sure to remind our friends to place the sauce in a different container before placing in the microwave.

We love choices and variety, and there are several variations you may choose from for your sauce depending on your taste. For a coffee flavor with your chocolate sauce, substitute the Kerrygold Irish Cream with Cafe Bourghetti Espresso Liqueur. Want a little mint and chocolate? Add Branca Menta in place of the Kerrygold. Caution: Branca Menta is strong, so we would only include half as much Branca Menta as Kerrygold. Feeling a little frisky and want some whiskey? Replace the Kerrygold with Templeton Rye Whiskey. Zaya Rum and chocolate complement each other nicely, as well. So now you have choices to satisfy the range of the taste buds in your rainbow of friends and family.

Try it out this week and let us know if you will be in the spirit of giving some Kerrygold Hot Fudge Sauce this season! It’s time for our December Bonus post this week, so be on the lookout for our Merry Margarita!

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Yum Rum Balls

December 2, 2018December 29, 2018 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

Cheers, Friends! You know how we told you that if you get one of our holiday goody bags from us that you were going to get some Golden Mint Crinkles? Well… we kind of ate all of them. Rhonda made an effort. She quickly scooped up extras and put them in the freezer for safe keeping. Unfortunately, the Blind Piglets, and both of us kept sneaking one here and two there, so now there are none left. We told you that was a winning recipe! No worries. We will make more and try to get them in the goody bags before we inhale all of them again.

Today we are sharing another great holiday goody bag treat. Yum Rum Balls! (stop snickering) We’ve made rum balls before, but this recipe seems to have more flavor and flair than other rum ball recipes we’ve tried. We hope that you like it as much as we do. This recipe requires some prep on collecting the ingredients, but is easy to pull together once you are ready to get started.

There are a couple tricky ingredients. The first tricky ingredient is Nabisco Wafer Cookies. We first introduced these to you with the Spirited Chocolate Orange Bars. You don’t find these on the cookie aisle. They are usually placed with the ice cream toppings. The second tricky ingredient is almond paste. We had not used almond paste before, but the cashier at Whole Foods told us that it was baking’s best kept secret. So apparently the secret is now out! Use almond paste for cookies and pie crusts. You can find it on the baking aisle. We bought ours from Whole Foods. When we googled it, we noticed that other grocery stores carry it.

Other ingredients that you need for Yum Rum Balls are: dark chocolate chips, sour cream, vanilla wafer cookies, powdered sugar, cocoa, Zaya Rum, melted butter and lots of sprinkles!

Place chocolate chips in a microwavable bowl, and cook in short bursts of no more than 45 seconds at a time. In between cooking stir until chips are melted with a creamy consistency. It is better to be patient and take this step slow instead of overcooking the chips.

Place the whole box of vanilla wafers in a food processor or blender and blend until you have fine crumbs. Do the same for the box of chocolate wafer cookies.

In a mixer combine the melted chocolate with sour cream and almond paste. Mix on medium until well combined.

In a large bowl combine both cookie crumbs, powdered sugar, cocoa, rum and melted butter. Stir with a large spoon until well combined.

Next add the crumb mixture to the chocolate chip mixture in the mixer. Mix on medium until all ingredients are well blended. The mixture will have a paste-like texture.

Refrigerate the dough for a minimum of an hour and up to 24 hours.

Place sprinkles in a bowl. Using a small scoop, scoop balls of mixture. Remember our trick from our Thin Mentas and Golden Mint Crinkles? Spray your hands with cooking spray to make the handling of the dough easy. Roll dough in your hands to smooth out edges.

Drop balls into the sprinkles. Roll in sprinkles to cover completely. Use hands to press sprinkles into dough and to make sure balls are coated. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Makes approximately 4 dozen.

If you want to get creative, you can coat the Yum Rum Balls in different colored sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, Heath Bar Crumbs, nuts and more!

If you are viewing this post in email, visit us at http://www.theblindpig.blog for the full printable recipe.

The flavor of the rum rings through in these rum balls that are sweet, but not overly rich. They make a great addition to a holiday tray at a holiday party or added to a goody basket. We promise to save some of these for our goody basket friends. Christmas needs to come quick!

Share this recipe and more with your friends, by telling them about our blog and following us on Instagram and Pinterest!

We are just getting started with the holiday fun around here! Check in with us next week for more great holiday and entertaining ideas.

Yum Rum Balls are a fun and festive way to kick off the holiday season.

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Spirited Chocolate Orange Bars

June 23, 2018June 22, 2018 / theblindpig11 / 1 Comment

This week was the summer solstice which officially ushered in Summer. There are many reasons that we love Summer. One reason is that it is filled with countless cookouts, family reunions, and casual get-togethers with friends. We never want to show up empty-handed for these casual occasions. Of course, Craig is always popular because he can supply a beverage or two, but we like to show our appreciation to the host and hostess with other treats, too.

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Rhonda snipped this recipe from the Dallas Morning News about a year ago during their annual bake off competition. We adapted the recipe submitted by Rex Poland of Dallas, and just recently had time to try it. When you show up at the family reunion with this sweet treat, you will be the favorite cousin for sure!

The ingredients are mostly basic things that you have in your pantry or fridge – unsalted butter, semi-sweet baking chocolate bars (we used Ghirardelli chocolate) , eggs, sugar, cream cheese, freshly grated orange zest, and heavy cream. You will need some Kerrygold Irish Cream and Cointreau for the spirit in the Spirited Chocolate Orange Bars. There is one ingredient that was a bit tricky for us to find – plain chocolate cookies, such as Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers. We did not find these on the cookie aisle. With some help from our handy dandy Kroger manager, we discovered that they are kept near the ice cream sundae supplies on the baking aisle.

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The recipe is easy to follow but has several steps. First you crush the cookies and melted butter in a food processor. Then you press the crust in a 8 X 12 inch baking pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Next melt the chocolate in a microwave and set aside.

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Beat eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl beat cream cheese. Then beat the egg mixture into the cream cheese. Divide the cream cheese mixture in two bowls.

Stir in melted chocolate into the one bowl of cream cheese mixture. In the other bowl of cream cheese add orange zest and Cointreau.

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Gently pour each mixture over the cookie base and swirl gently with a spatula. Bake about 25 minutes. Turn off the oven and cool with the door ajar to room temperature.

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While the bars are cooling, prepare the ganache. Melt semi-sweet chocolate in the microwave. Heat heavy cream to a hot temperature. Combine the cream and melted chocolate, and 1 ounce of Kerrygold Irish Cream stirring until smooth.

Spread ganache over the top of the cooled bars and refrigerate for 3 hours. When ready to serve cut the bars into squares and serve.

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If you are viewing this post in an email, visit our site for a printable version of the recipe.

This recipe has a few extra steps, but the final outcome is definitely worth it. The chocolate and orange flavors compliment each other nicely for a tasty treat. Will you bring Spirited Chocolate Orange Bars to your next casual gathering?

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