Baked Nutella Ravioli

Let's pick up where we left off, shall we? After leaving Siem Reap, Cambodia the hubby and I headed off to Bangkok, Thailand for 3 days :) On our first day in Bangkok, we spent the day shopping in the famous Pratunam area of Bangkok. Again, known for their wonderful designer rip-offs, which I was not interested in getting, they still had wonderful clothes and jewelry shopping! The hubby and I also enjoyed some wonderful food in their international food square. We enjoyed some authentic Chinese food, followed by dessert. The hubby had his favorite dish of the whole trip there- it was a condensed milk shaved ice with water chestnuts, while I had a Nutella crepe (which since Nutella was on my mind, lead me to this recipe).

They say Bangkok is the Venice of the East- and, not that I have been to Venice-- but it definitely was neat. Our hotel was right on the river, and so on the second day, the hubby and I did a temple tour--traveling from temple to temple by river! Floating on the river (no, not southern style ;) was fun. We saw the famous reclining Buddha and Emerald Buddha, as well as the Grand Palace and other gorgeous temples. Although the temples were amazingly beautiful, I got "templed" out quite quickly, especially since that is all we saw in Siem Reap. Plus it was HOT and so I got cranky pretty quickly. After a long day seeing temples, the hubby and I again, traveled the river to visit a shopping area called Asiatique to enjoy dinner and cupcakes along the river :)

On the final day- I got to pick what we did- and I chose to visit the famous Damnoen Floating Market located about 2 hours outside of Bangkok. This was by far one of my favorite experiences of the whole trip! You can hire a private or group boat and be taken along the river for 2 hours. They take you to a coconut sugar factory and then take you along the river, all while stopping at different vendors. Some vendors are located on piers along the river, so if you want anything, your boat basically "docks" at the store and you can buy things while sitting on the boat. There are also other vendors that are on boats themselves- and basically "pull up" to your boat when you want to buy things- they sell produce (fruits and veggies), appetizers, and meals. I enjoyed some coconut juice out of a coconut on the boat and some pad-thai. This entire experience was fantastic!

Now that we have discussed Nutella, I thought it was only right to share with you this recipe for baked Nutella Ravioli that I found on Pinterest! You heard right! Nutella in a delicious ravioli shell--perfect--well really anything Nutella is absolutely perfect. But the saddest thing, is that I found out not everyone shares the same love of Nutella that I do! In fact, the hubby, is one of those people! I mean how do you not love Nutella! The chocolately, hazelnutty goodness that melts in your mouth....mmmm.... This recipe is super simple and easy! Anyone can whip it together for a get together or just, you know, if you are like me, to just eat all by yourself ;)

BAKED NUTELLA RAVIOLI

From Heart, Mind and Soul

INGREDIENTS

Preheat Oven to 375F Degrees

Round wonton wrappers
Nutella
Cooking spray
Powdered sugar

*No specific amount was provided for the ingredients, as you can make as many as needed. 1 regular (13oz.) jar of Nutella can make approximately 25 pieces. 

DIRECTIONS

This is how I set up: First I filled a small container of water (you will see why). Then, I laid out all my wontons wrappers (I made 15) on a flat service. Place a scoop (~ 1 tbsp) on Nutella in the center of each wonton circle. Then, once all the wontons have a scoop of Nutella, dip your finger in water and outline the edge of the wonton wrapper. Fold the wonton in half and press together tightly. I have a dough presser that I used to seal the wontons and create a designed edge (so if you have one, feel free to use it), if not, after sealing the wonton, use a fork to make a designed edge.

Place the wontons on a lined baking sheet.  Then evenly spray the raviolis with cooking spray so they can get crispy when baked. I sprayed one side, flipped them over, and sprayed again. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges appear golden brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then garnish with powdered sugar. Heart, Mind and Soul suggests that you can serve this with ice cream- though I enjoyed these all by themselves :)

Enjoy,
Chika

Stephanie Cookies

Before I begin- I realized that I never shared anything about my friends in the "About Me" section of this blog. I actually have two best friends, Paulina and Stephanie, who I have been friends with since I was 14 years old (or for the past 12 years). They are like sisters to me and I could not imagine my life without them. With that tangent, I have one more- Paulina recently got engaged (and I realized that I never shared the news)!

Stephanie recently visited my blog and asked that I make something with banana and chocolate becuase she really enjoys that combination (hence the name). One day on Pinterest I saw a recipe for banana and nutella cookies and thought I would try them out for Stephanie. I am not a huge fan of banana in food (though I do enjoy some banana bread). These cookies were similar to cicular pieces of banana bread than cookies. The hubster who liked banana really enjoyed them, and so I thought my reservations are probably due to the fact that they "banana-ey." But be forwarned- on the many things made by For the Love of Dessert- I am not sure this is topping the list.

Fun Fact: baking at room temperature. Some recipes will out right state that ingredients must be at room temperature but most recipes do not. So why room temperature. Well remember when I gave a tip about creaming butter and sugar? Well the creaming process, or sugar aerating the butter cannot occur if the butter is not a room tempertuare. This will allow the mixture to become porous so when adding baking soda/powder, it can fills these pours, helping the baked good to be light and fluffy. In addition, you want your wet ingredients (eggs/milk, etc) to be at room temperature because if they are not, the butter will form little "pellets" and when you bake your goods, they will end up having tons of tiny little holey pockets. Lesson for today- have all your ingredients at room temperature.

STEPHANIE COOKIES: BANANA NUTELLA COOKIES

Adapted from Chef in Training

INGREDIENTS

Preheat oven to 400F Degrees

1 c. shortening

1 c. sugar

1 egg

2 large mashed ripe bananas

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. corn starch

1 3/4 c. oats

1/2 c. Nutella

DIRECTIONS

Cream together shortening and sugar (letting cream for about 6-8 minutes). Add egg- beat until well incorporated and then add mashed bananas. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and corn starch. Combine with wet mixture, until just incorporated. Then add oats. Once mixed- "knife or cut" nutella into batter creating swirls of Nutella throughout. I wanted Nutlla throughout my cookies so I mixed it it completely, but for aesthetics- knifing the Nutella into the batter would be better. Scoop 1 inch round cookies (I use a cookie scoop) onto lined baking sheet and cooking for 8-10 minutes (*I found 8 minutes to be the best).

Cutting the Nutella into the batter would be easiest by cutting half of the nutella into the top layer, then scooping cookies and baking. Then cutting the Nutella into the second half of the batter and scooping out the cookie once more. I suggest this because cutting the nutella (and seeing swirls) will only be evident for the top layer of the batter and less pronounced for the bottom layer, so doing this twice- will ensure nice swirls throughout.

Enjoy,

Chika

Nutella Cupcakes

So since starting this blog, I knew I had to make some nutella cupcakes. My sister and I love to go to cupcakeries and of course try thoes that claim to be "nutella cupcakes." However, we have been sadly disappointed to find that none of them actually taste like nutella. We both soon realized that if we want nutella cupcakes, we are just going to have to make it ourselves. Coincidentally we happened to make it on the same weekend (slightly different recipes)! I realized that the reason why cupcake stores, most likely do not have truly "nutella" cupcakes, is that its quite expensive buying all that nutella to mix in, probably not the most cost effective cupcake, but definitely yummy.

I decided to make these cupcakes,  because two senior graduate students matched on match day for internship! And they got their number one choices- amazing! So what better way to celebrate than cupcakes! I actually tried these since I love chocolate and nutella! I used a corer intead of a spoon to make a hole, and I definitely think the corer made too much Nutella filling than was needed. But I loved it!

Chocolate cake filled with Nutella and topped with Nutella buttercream

I bought these adorable cupcake boxes from Wal-mart that holds four cupcakes and then wrapped them with some ribbon. I think it came out quite cute and hopefully they enjoyed it.

NUTELLA CUPCAKES

Adapted from Your Cup of Cake

INGREDIENTS

CUPCAKES

1 box of devil's food chocolate cake

Nutella

BUTTERCREAM

¾ cup Nutella
¼ cup butter, softened
1 ½ -2 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

DIRECTIONS

Bake the cupcakes according to package. I use an ice cream scoop to have each cupcake be about the same size (make sure each cup is filled no more than 3/4 of the way full). Let cool for several hours or overnight. Once cooled, use a cupcake corer to make holes in the center of the cupcake. Use piping bag to fill holes with Nutella

Beat the Nutella and butter for 5 minutes. Add vanilla, then alternate between adding powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream. Taste the buttercream until you reach your desired sweetness. You may need to refrigerate the buttercream before piping it onto cooled cupcakes. (1) I also added a bit more powdered sugar and (2) I used a wilton large cupcake open start decorating tip to frost and topped with some chocoalte sprinkles.

Enjoy,
Chika