As this year's Thanksgiving holiday approaches, I'm sharing a fast, no-bake, healthy dessert option for the chocoholics in your life. I tried making these Chocolate-Hazelnut Energy Balls yesterday afternoon, as lovely, mid-60s temperatures preceded today's chilliness.

Loved the results of this recipe! V.O.E./Voice of Experience - However, when it came time to add chopped hazelnuts to these tasty treats, I rolled each one in the bowl (see below) rather than sprinkling and then pressing them onto the balls. 

Equipment

Food processor
Sharp knife if you need to pit these dates
Cutting board (V.O.E.)
Sheet pan
​Baking parchment
​Measuring cup
Spoon for chocolate nut butter
Measuring tablespoon
Small bowl for ground hazelnuts (V.O.E.- Grate the nuts you will use for topping before you combine 'batter' ingredients in the food processor. You'll avoid stickiness or the need to clean your machine while making these balls)

I prefer Medjool dates for recipes (including a generations old recipe from my husband's family called Date Pudding). I also prefer to somewhat 'baby' my decades-old food processor so I chopped these pitted dates a bit before pulverizing them with other ingredients. 

Wondering about that cool cutting board logo? It belongs to the city of Wichita, Kansas and this board is one of my all-time favorite press trip perks. 

Above: See the little pile of powder on the left side of the blade? That's the recommended 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder. V.O.E. - As much as I love chocolate flavor, I will likely increase this amount by 1/2 to 1 additional tablespoon so there's plenty of chocolate hitting my tastebuds. 

Above: Yes, I know - this jar says Hazelnut & Almond Butter. That's because, despite checking several stores, I couldn't find the hazelnut-only variety anywhere. But I will definitely find other uses for the considerable leftovers in this jar (including another round of these balls), which has much less sugar-w/organic ingredients-than several other chocolate-nut butters do. 

Once combined and refrigerated for 15 minutes, this flavorful combo is quite easy to shape as balls. V.O.E. - I suspect the large dates I used contributed to the number of balls on my parchment-covered cookie sheet. My yield was about 16. 

Welcome to a Southern classic, Chocolate Pudding Cake. This is definitely a rich, decadent cake - which is why (V.O.E.) I skipped the caramel sauce suggested in the original recipe, in favor of diced strawberries. And, although we liked the overall flavor, hubby and I agreed any added nuts should be much smaller pieces so as not to detract from the chocolate pudding backdrop. I also agree that pre-measuring individual ingredients (except salt, baking powder & vanilla) as seen in the original recipe is a great idea.

Equipment

8-inch baking pan (V.O.E. - I don't use cooking spray so lightly greased my glass pan with melted butter instead)
Measuring cup
Measuring spoons
Large mixing spoon
Whisk
Rubber/silicone spatula

Above: Adding liquid ingredients to dry ingredients to create the bottom batter. 

Above: This recipe incorporates a thick, dense topping atop the initial batter.

Above: Adding salted water as the final layer, which eventually covered the entire topping. V.O.E. - For our palates, there was too much salt in the finished dessert - even before we decided not to add flaky sea salt as a finishing touch. When I make this again, I will reduce the amount of salt in that salt water by at least a third - if not more - to minimize competition with the dark chocolate in this indulgent dessert. 

UPDATE: After tasting DECADES of my baking my husband, Mark, has declared these the 'best ever' brownies.

During previous Chocolate Seasons, I typically posted a new weekly recipe on each Wednesday. But I'm finding I have more time to bake on weekends this year so why not share the results a little sooner? And after all of the emotional/political upheaval in the U.S. last week, the sooner the better. 

Following the amazingly delicious Chocolate Bark from last week, today's recipe for Double Chocolate Skillet Brownies was another homerun. And having a beautifully aged, generations-old iron skillet to use made this much easier. In fact, iron skillets have been so important in our family that I even wrote an essay about one of them years ago. It appeared in The Christian Science Monitor. 

V.O.E. - As always, I made a few small tweaks to the original recipe. I'm not a big fan of mint so instead topped the ice cream with grated bittersweet. I didn't bother to chop the chocolate chips before melting them via the double boiler as I've previously incorporated chips into butter simply by melting them. And I used 3 tablespoons of olive oil rather than 1/2 a stick of butter - reducing the saturated fat slightly.

Equipment
   10-inch iron skillet
   Double boiler
   Large mixing bowl
   Measuring cup
   Whisk
   Rubber spatula
   Measuring spoons
   Food processor for nuts (optional)   

V.O.E. - Those of you who know me and/or this blog, already realize I always opt for dark chocolate in dessert recipes. So my add-in chips were bittersweet rather than milk chocolate. Also, although I did add a generous handful of chopped nuts to the batter, I don't think I would have missed them.

​Above: Pouring the glossy batter into my prepared skillet and then putting it in the oven.

After just under 40 minutes of baking time, these brownies were soft, decadent, ridiculously satisfying, and well worth repeating. 

​

On Sunday afternoon, I 'played' in my kitchen for several hours. First, I made my Rustic Turkey Soup. Next came a delicious iron skillet meal that incorporated ground chorizo, thin-sliced Brussels sprouts and frozen corn (kernels). Then, as fresh cranberries dried in my oven, I made this Chocolate Nut Bark for the first time. 

​Soooo easy and sooo tasty! And perhaps just the right treat to enjoy while anxiously awaiting election results over the next couple of days.

Equipment

Double boiler (mine is a large saucepan with a small stainless steel bowl)
Mixing spoon
Large mixing bowl
​Rubber or silicone spatula
Baking sheet
Foil

Above: Pecan and walnut pieces await the addition of bittersweet chocolate chips as they melt. V.O.E.: I always have walnuts on hand and, fortunately, had plenty of pecan pieces remaining from last week's blog post for Dark Chocolate Pecan Pie. 

Above: It wasn't easy to avoid eating a large sample of this gooey, decadent combo.

Above: Nor was it easy to avoid eating MANY pieces once they solidified in the refrigerator, before I used them for my final photo. But now I don't have to avoid eating them!

V.O.E. - That's unbleached parchment paper between layers of the finished bark pieces. When I first put them in this container I wanted to be sure the two layers wouldn't stick together. Once the individual pieces had fully solidified I removed the parchment paper.​