Elegant Chocolate and Vanilla Recipes

By Photographs by Robert Jacobs
June 01, 2012
Our love affair with chocolate and vanilla keeps growing as we discover new ways to enjoy them in recipes like these from Midwest chefs and our Test Kitchen.
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Vanilla Vodka Creamtini

This elegant drink is a mixture of vanilla vodka, Irish cream liqueur and orange liqueur or orange juice, garnished with orange slices and chocolate shavings. Before you start mixing, dip the rims of your chilled martini glasses in vanilla sugar for a festive look.Vanilla Vodka Creamtini recipe

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Chocolate Mocha Gooey Butter Cake

We used a cake mix in the crust for this creamy chocolate dessert from the former Chocolate Cafe and Coffee House in Missouri. The recipe makes a generous 24 bars, so it's perfect for a potluck.Chocolate Mocha Gooey Butter Cake recipe

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Vanilla Cake Batter Ice Cream

Cake and ice cream go together like peanut butter and jelly-so why not combine them in one sweet scoop?Vanilla Cake Batter Ice Cream

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Chocolate Crepes with Nutmeg Vanilla Sauce

To make these thin dessert pancakes even more indulgent, top with whipped cream.Chocolate Crepes with Nutmeg Vanilla Sauce

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Black Tie Cupcakes

You can get creative with these cupcakes, which are topped with seedless red raspberry or blackberry preserves, then chocolate ganache, decorative icing and small decorative candies.Black Tie Cupcakes recipe

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Vanilla Bean Souffle

Top this souffle with a quick vanilla custard sauce. If you'd prefer individual servings, bake the souffle in custard cups.Vanilla Bean Souffle recipe

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Vanilla Cafe Latte

Here's our version of vanilla coffee served at a Missouri coffee house. It takes just a few minutes to whip up this vanilla-flavored coffee with steamed and frothed milk.Vanilla Cafe Latte recipe

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Wisconsin Honey Bee and Vanilla Bean Pudding

Jill Prescott, a Midwest cooking-school teacher, shared this dessert named for her home state.Wisconsin Honey Bee and Vanilla Bean Pudding recipe

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Mocha Panna Cotta

Chicago pastry chef Gale Gand tops this rich panna cotta with salted caramel.Mocha Panna Cotta

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Fudge Brownie Hearts

These brownies combine bittersweet and semisweet chocolate with plenty of butter, eggs, granulated sugar and brown sugar for a moist and rich dessert. After the brownies have cooked and cooled, you can cut them into bars or use 3-inch heart-shape cutters to make pretty treats. Drizzle with a vanilla glaze.Fudge Brownie Hearts recipe

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Vanilla Bean-Infused Hot Chocolate

Jill Prescott of Wisconsin's former Ecole de Cuisine cooking school created this heavenly take on hot chocolate.Vanilla Bean-Infused Hot Chocolate recipe

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Chocolate tips

Chocolate ratios: Wondering which chocolate to buy? Some semisweet/bittersweet chocolate bars come labeled with percentages revealing the proportion of cacao (pure chocolate) to sugar. On average, semisweet/bittersweet contains 50-55 percent cacao to sugar.Chocolate with a higher cacao percentage looks darker and tastes less sweet and more chocolatey. Keep in mind that ratios above 70 percent can give different results in recipes. These chocolates may cause a cake to be dry and, predictably, less sweet. Experiment to see what you like best. For a good reference on cooking with these chocolates, we recommend Alice Medrich's Bittersweet.Powders: Dutch-process is regular cocoa treated with alkali to neutralize its acid and give it a mellow taste. Use either unsweetened cocoa powder or Dutch-process cocoa in recipes calling for unsweetened cocoa powder.

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Vanilla tips

Sweet vanilla: Spiced vanilla sugar (in the large pot at left of photo) and plain vanilla sugar with specks of vanilla bean (in cupcake wrapper) wake up your cinnamon toast or oatmeal with flavor. They add a vanilla finish to butter cookies or shortbread, too.Substitutions: Nielsen Massey Vanillas of Waukegan, Illinois, suggests these substitutions in its book A Century of Flavor:1 vanilla bean = 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste (made from vanilla bean seeds and extract)1 tablespoon vanilla extract = 1 tablespoon vanilla powderTo buy vanilla products from Midwest purveyors, visit the following websites:The Spice HousePenzeys SpicesNielsen Massey Vanillas

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By Photographs by Robert Jacobs