Pepper Design Blog

Good Eats: Chocolate Dipped Coffee Spoons

Remember when I made these guys a couple of weeks ago? Well I ended up overdoing it on the amount of deliciously melted chocolate in my double boiler and wanted to find an easy way to scoop up the remaining goodness, lest it be wasted or eaten in an entire sitting by myself.

The easy solution was dipped spoons! I’ve actually made these before with plastic spoons for a hot chocolate bar at a friend’s nesting baby shower, but it’s been a couple of years so I thought I’d revisit and share how easy, yummy and practical (can’t let that last bit of chocolate go to waste!) this is. These dipped coffee spoons would also would make great gifts if sealed up in a little cellophane and ribbon.

So easy and so quick, and they look so pretty when set out with coffee, hot chocolate, chai… you name it.

They could be covered in any pretty sprinkle or sugar for a customized look for a shower theme or party, or swagger with alternative chocolate colors (white over the dark, for example) for a fancier design.

The left over spoons went onto the coffee shelf in my kitchen – so tempting!

They won’t last longer than a couple of weeks before the chocolate begins to crack, but I really haven’t had to worry about an ‘extended stay’ problem .

Making them is easy peasy, see this post for a better overview but the basics are: chocolate chips, double boiler, spoons (if using plastic as favors or gifts, make sure your chocolate isn’t hot hot hot or the spoons will melt during the dipping process), toppings.

 Yum.

PS More recipes and good eats can be found right here.

Good Eats: White Chocolate Pretzel Stir Sticks

Update: Hmmmm, something is definitely up with the buttons not showing on the left side of the blog. Hopefully that little glitch will be fixed soon!

Sweet and salty is an amazing combination. And white chocolate dipped pretzels? Trader Joe’s was on to something when they started selling those mini coated pretzels by the bag full.

I have always thought that the shape of pretzel rods would make for an excellent party something… and then it occurred to me that they would make deliciously tasting stir sticks to serve with tea or coffee!

Liv and I whipped up a dozen or so before a book club meeting to serve with tea.

One double boiler full of white chocolate chips, a half of a container of silver sugar (found in my pantry but originally from Michaels) and a canister of pretzel rods later and we had a super yummy snack (and probably ate half of the finished stir sticks before the ladies even arrived).

The toughest part was figuring out how to let them cool after being freshly coated in warm chocolate. I tried standing them upright in a cup (but as predicted they dripped downward), and the best solution ended up being a cookie rack sprayed with a non stick cooking spray and lined with wax paper underneath. The pretzel sticks did have little indentations along the bottom after the chocolate had hardened, but it wasn’t terribly noticeable.

These would be great for a shower (cover them in blue or pink sugar/sprinkles), a coffee bar (with swirled milk chocolate on top), packaged as thank you gifts for teachers or friends, or even perhaps made as favors with a little bow for a wedding or party.

We covered a few in rainbow sprinkles just for Liv. I know… not the healthiest snack, but I can think of worse .

Happy, happy weekend!! 

PS more good eats recipes sorted right here.

Ombre Scalloped Tissue Paper Lantern

Liv and I worked on this little project back when we were planning for her 2nd birthday. But then we didn’t get a chance to make more than one and we forgot to hang it at the party! So it’s been in our garage ever since.

We pulled it out for a little piñata fun, even though it was really meant to hang over one of the string lights in our backyard (you can see the undecorated paper lanterns on the string lights in the party pics here).

A standard paper lantern, ombre layers of scalloped tissue paper and a long pink ribbon to hang it with – an easy and fun pom project.

I turned to Etsy to find the perfect ombre tissue paper (every color of tissue paper known to man is available in various stores!) and bought four pretty shades of pink from PomLove.

Rather than cut out circles, I cut out 3″ scalloped strands of half circles, and then slowly wrapped them around the lantern using double sided tape to adhere.

I’ve seen versions of this idea that are sealed off at the bottom and filled with candy, seems like an easy non-paper-mache way to make a fun piñata.

I had planned on hanging it in Liv’s big girl room, but the tissue paper may have seen its day by the end of today. Too fragile to keep!

Far too fun to play with.