German Chocolate Craving

What is it about a chocolate craving? Sometimes the plain old Hershey bar is plenty good enough; however, there are those times when you can taste the chocolate that you crave. You can close your eyes and almost feel the sweet confection melt in your mouth.

OK, I may have gone a little overboard there, but you get the point.

Well, last week I had a craving for German chocolate cake like no other in my life. Well, maybe when my daughter was on the way; I think I lived on Ho Ho’s and Ding Dongs (oh evil, delicious Hostess). Anyway, the cake … I did not want to make a whole cake. I wanted tastes of the cake, lots of them, and wanted them to last longer and stay fresher than a whole cake. 

So I thought about it. Cupcakes were an obvious choice but I thought cookies would be an interesting twist on the traditional — little popable bites of German chocolate goodness. Now German chocolate cake and its filling is a lot of work and requires patience, which is not a virtue I possess, especially not when I want chocolate. To take away some of the difficulty and time needed to make the recipes I have made them semi-homemade. They are every bit as delicious as if you made them from scratch, plus no one will ever know.

Let’s cook and indulge in decadent desserts made for the biggest of chocolate cravings!

Equipment List

Sauce pan, for the filling
Cupcake pan
Cookie sheets
Parchment paper
Mixer
Several small bowls, microwave safe is best

Ingredient List

For the filling

1 c evaporated milk
1 c white sugar
3 egg yolk, beaten
½ c butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 c chopped pecans
1 ? c coconut

Cook the evaporated milk, eggs, butter and sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and stir in the coconut, vanilla and pecans. Set aside, as it will thicken while standing.

For the cookies

Don’t kill yourself — use a mix. You have enough to do

If you get an oatmeal cookie mix (I did) add to it 1 cup German chocolate chips, a teaspoon of vanilla, and ½ cup of chopped pecans. Bake the cookies according to instructions and set aside to cool completely.

To top the cookies

In a bowl over water, melt the rest of the German chocolate chips with a ½ cup of heavy cream. If you have a double boiler, use it. If you are like me and have to double boil garage-sale-style, just put a few inches of water in a sauce pan and place a bowl on top making sure that the water does not touch the bowl. Put the cream in the bowl and get it hot enough to steam but not boil. Add the chips and stir until smooth and glossy. Set aside on top of the pan with hot water but with no heat on underneath.

Putting It All Together

The cookies will have a top and bottom, like a sandwich. the best method is to lay the bottom cookie down with the top facing out. Place a tablespoon of the German chocolate filling on the cookie. Take the top cookie and dip it in the chocolate and place on the bottom half of the sandwich. Allow to cool completely before storing in the fridge.

If you choose to top the cookies with toasted coconut, do it while the chocolate is warm so that it holds to the cookie. To toast the coconut, spread the desired amount on parchment paper and place into a 350-degree oven. Toast until golden, open the oven every five minutes to move the coconut around to avoid burning the coconut on the edges of the pan.

You will not use all of the filling, not even close. Put it in the fridge for up to a week. Or do what I did and make cupcakes.

To make the cupcakes as I did, semi-homemade, follow the instructions below.

Buy a German chocolate cake mix and make according to instructions for cupcakes. To the mix add a cup of sour cream and a teaspoon of vanilla. This will thin the batter a little but will keep the cakes moist and delicious. Tip: Don’t fill the cupcakes too full. The sour cream will make the batter puff, a lot. Not that this happened to me but you may find yourself scraping cupcake off of the bottom of your oven if you fill them too full.

I also bought a tub of dark chocolate icing. When the cupcakes are cool, take the round end of a wooden spoon or similar tool and poke a hole in the center of each cupcake. work the spoon outward a bit to make room for filling.

Take the German chocolate filling, once it has reached room temperature, and place it into a plastic bag. Cut the tip off of one corner of the bag about an inch in width. This will transform an ordinary zippered or tie plastic bag into a pastry bag for the filling. Insert the cut tip of the bag into the hole in the cupcake and fill each to the top.

Take the tub of icing and scrape it out into a bowl. Add two tablespoons of the leftover heavy cream and heat in the microwave for 45 seconds. Stir and with a large spoon swirl the icing over the top of the cupcakes starting in the middle to cover the filling hole. Top with toasted coconut and serve.

Chocolate with Bill & Sheila

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