The Better Chocolate Cobbler

Today we return to an oldie but goodie.  Yesterday I did a demonstration on how easy it is to cook in a solar oven and this is one of the recipes that I mentioned.  I figured why not bring it back.  Especially now that my youngest, my daughter, is off to pre-K.  It's really just half day kindergarten...but what it gives me is a few hours every afternoon to give back to myself.  I finally get to return to blogging, but as I will soon explain, things are being "rumbled" up a little.  While my love of all things food and cooking will still play a prominent role, my life has changed a lot in the last few years and the blog will reflect that.  But in the meantime...why not enjoy one of my favorite recipes of all time?  One that I even surprised my family with at a recent Saint Paul Saints Game.  I did indeed cook it in the solar oven and even the nay sayers who didn't believe it would work were amazed and gobbled it up.

Chocolate.  Is there anything better? Not to this chocoholic.  A few weeks ago I featured this amazing chocolate cobbler on Field Trip Friday.  It was really good.  But it was really sweet.  Too sweet for my family actually and they didn't gobble it up as I expected.  I reread the recipe and decided to try reducing the sugar a bit.  I made the new reduced sugar recipe a few days later and they all loved it.  And the people who had liked if before asked me what I did different because they liked the new one better!

So The Better Chocolate Cobbler is born.  It's simple, yummy and you really will need all the will power in the world to stop yourself from eating it all yourself.  But play nice and share. Or make a double batch.  Enjoy!

Update, September 2012: I made this recipe again when I cooked a large family dinner to celebrate my cousin Patrick moving from Boulder to Brooklyn to start graduate school at Pratt University (he's going for architecture design).  I wanted something that was easy to make, easy to double and a crowd pleaser. Wow did this hit the mark! I had fresh strawberries, raspberries, vanilla ice cream, whip cream and mint leaves for people to choose how they wanted to garnish it and it went over a little too well.  So well that the cook had to fight to get a serving!  There weren't even that many people there and it was a double batch!  So try it. It's deceptively easy but completely decadent.  I promise.  You can even ask my mom. Enjoy!

We interrupt regular scheduled blogging for chocolate! (Worth it...trust me!)

Today I had planned to put up the solar oven post. The solar oven post will still be going up...just tomorrow instead.  Plus the slight delay will allow me to try yeast bread, which is pretty much the only thing I haven't attempted yet.  But I've been super excited about sharing my experience with everyone about using the solar oven to cook just about anything under the sun. (Pun intended. Hee hee.) So why am I delaying it?  What in the world could be so good that I push aside a whole week's worth or cooking and research?

Two words.  Chocolate Cobbler.

The recipe has been floating around my message board for a few weeks and I've been meaning to try it but never got around to it.  The heat wave this week didn't help either.  But after I made cornbread and rhubarb crumble in the solar oven without a problem I figured I had to give this recipe a try.

It is so super easy to make but the wow factor is over the top.  I shared with my neighbors and all the kids. Across the board everyone agreed that I needed to do a Field Trip Friday for this recipe so that people could make it over the Memorial Day weekend.  So make it.  Now.  Today.  And tomorrow too...because it's that good that you will want more.  You will thank me later.  Go enjoy!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen-blog/2010/05/a-tasty-recipe-my-grannys-chocolate-cobbler/