Chewy and delicious, these gussied-up chocolate chip cookies have a few bonus ingredients thrown in for kicks (oats, coconut, raisins and/or pecans). You can have fun changing up the add-ins each time you make them. Add more chocolate chips if you don't like raisins or pecans. Anyway, you get the picture…just make 'em how you like 'em!

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Tags: chocolate chip, coconut, John's Kitchen Sink Cookies, oats, pecans, raisins

If you've got a few ripe bananas to use up then you should give this recipe a try. It's moist, easy to make and a nice change from plain ol' banana bread. Each bite of this coffee cake is loaded with cinnamon and chocolatey goodness.

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Tags: banana, chocolate chip, coffee cake, struesel

Little Guy had a birthday this week and requested chocolate cake as his special treat. Recently I'd run across a recipe for chocolate mayonnaise cake so I decided to give it a go. For me, my favorite part of the whole condiment-in-cake experience was when I was making it. The kids were watching me mixing the ingredients and started laughing when they saw me dumping mayonnaise into the mixing bowl. I'm not talking a giggle here and there but full-on, doubled-over laughter. I found out later that what made it so funny for my oldest child was that he thought his little brother was going to end up with a gross birthday cake. In his brain, mayonnaise goes on sandwiches not in cake. Fortunately, the cake turned out moist and quite tasty…there weren't any complaints.

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Tags: cake, chocolate, mayonnaise

I like to call these cookies "Little Bites of Chocolatey Heaven". They're moist, delicious and loaded with chocolate. Need I say more?

Instead of using both chocolate chips and chocolate chunks,  I used 1 bag of Guittard Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (my favorite brand). I also used 1/2 teaspoon Nielsen-Massey Coffee Extract instead of the espresso powder because that's what I had on hand. I made three different versions from the same cookie dough: Some plain, some rolled in powdered sugar and some rolled in Wilton Sparkling Sugar (as seen in the photo). Although the sparkling sugar is pretty and adds a slight crunch to the moist cookie, my favorite was the plain version (pure unadulterated chocolate). The cookies are best after they've cooled. Mmmmm, chocolate!

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Tags: chocolate, cookies

Brownies are comfort food, plain and simple. Who can pass up a plate full of freshly baked homemade brownies and not have at least one? Good grief, that's crazy talk!

These brownies are easy to make but the directions are a little different than other brownie recipes. In Step 3, I made the mistake of using a whisk to mix the eggs with the cocoa, vanilla, etc. Because there wasn't enough moisture from the eggs, it all clumped up and stuck to the whisk. Definitely use a wooden spoon for this step. The rest was straight forward…just stir everything together and spoon the batter into the prepared pan. The recipe calls for Dutch-process cocoa, a mellower and less acidic cocoa that is used in batters with baking powder and/or eggs. A fairly common brand to find in the grocery store is Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa. Another option is to mail order Dutch-process cocoa through kingarthurflour.com.

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Tags: Baking, chocolate, fudge brownies

Mmmm, chocolate cupcakes.  I've tried making Devil's Food Cupcakes before but have never been happy with the results. That is until I met this recipe for Chocolate Devil's Food Cupcakes.  These cupcakes were really good…moist and chocolatey with a fine crumb. Although the cupcakes and frosting are from two different sources, I thought they worked great together. I recommend spending the extra money for the cake flour because it is specially milled to create a tender texture in cakes. The creamy vanilla frosting recipe makes enough to spread an ample amount of frosting on each cupcake. You'll want to double it, however, if you want mounds of frosting on each cupcake or you're going to pipe the frosting on with a decorating bag.

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Tags: chocolate, cupcakes, vanilla frosting