Skip to footer

Decadent recipes for chocolate desserts

From classics such as chewy chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cake with buttercream frosting, to crazy candy creations such as Peanut Butter Cup and Snickers crunch brownies; whatever your guilty pleasure, we've got you covered with more than 50 chocolate recipes.

Chocolate pecan cayenne bars

Kitchen Report
Kentucky Derby bars with chocolate, pecans, cinnamon and a hint of cayenne pepper over a graham cracker crust.

By Kendra Nordin, Kitchen Report

For the crust

1 package graham crackers, crushed (2 cups crumbs)
5 tablespoons of butter 

For the bars

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup shelled pecans (or walnuts), chopped
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Pound the graham crackers  inside their package into crumbs using a rolling pin. Empty into a large bowl, crush any remaining large pieces with the bottom of a jar or mug. Stir in 5 tablespoons of melted butter. Press crumbs into an 8″ x 8″ glass baking dish.

3. In a large bowl mix sugar and flour. Stir in eggs, butter, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and vanilla. Add walnuts and chocolate chips and stir until combined.

4. Spread mixture evenly over graham cracker crust.

5. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until it has set, there should be a slight gloss to the crust. Remove and allow to cool completely. The bars will be soft and chewy but not runny.

6. Cut into squares and serve.

Click here to read the full Stir It Up! blog post

Back to Index

29 of 61
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.