True Colours Thursday Chocolate

http://poopsiestruecolours.blogspot.com/ Please visit for more True Colours. This weeks True Colour is Chocolate. I love it! I have this down. I have posted some of these photos before, but they definitely pertain to the theme this week. I do love chocolate.

Happy Thursday!! Anne

ITS RAINING, TIME TO BAKE SOME COOKIES!

THUMBPRINT COOKIES

1/2 cup butter(or margarine)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup finely chopped pecans(optional)

Mix ingredients together well and roll into balls. If the dough seems sticky you can refrigerate for about an hour and then roll into balls. The next is optional, I have a daughter with nut allergies so I only do this if I am giving them as a gift to someone. When I make them for us, I either leave them plain or roll in colored sprinkles . Take each ball and roll it in the chopped nuts and then place about and inch apart on ungreased baking sheet. Gently make a thumbprint in the center. I use the end of a wooden spoon to make the thumbprint. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes until they are nice and golden brown. After they cool you can fill them with your favorite jam or jelly. For my husband I use a sugar-free jelly. At Easter I put a chocolate egg in them as soon as they came out of the oven. You can also put a little frosting in the thumbprint. They taste good with all but the jam tastes the best in my opinion. Sometimes if I want to get fancy I make a thin icing and "spatter" them with it after the thumbprint is filled.

I hope you enjoy them, its fun to bake, it can bring everyone together. I have some great memories of baking with my sisters growing up. Now I bake with my daughter. Nothing brings everyone around like the smell of cookies baking.

Black Forest Cherry Cake

We love black forest cherry cake so I came up with a somewhat "healthier" version so that my whole family could enjoy it. I bake a boxed mix dark chocolate cake. Pillsbury has a reduced sugar cake mix, that is good but you can use any you like. After baking in round cake pans I like to slice each layer to make four layers, it just looks fancier and its not hard to do. For frosting I use cool whip but I add 1 cup shaved chocolate to it. For the cherries I get a can of cherry pie fill but again there is a low sugar version but you can use any. After frosting each layer and then the whole cake I lay the cherries on top and make a cool whip border around it to dress the cherries up a bit. It looks nice and I know its not as impressive as other black forest cakes but this one we can all feel a little less guilty about eating. My family loves it. Because of the cool whip it has to be refrigerated or eaten. I prefer eaten of course!

ANY IDEAS???