Chocolate Lover's Nutella and Chocolate Stuffed Croissants

My husband is a chocoholic.  Seriously.  I think if he had a choice between a steak and a chunk of milk chocolate, he'd go for the chocolate nine times out of ten.

I'm starting to think this chocoholic tendency may be genetic.  I've watched my husband polish off a pan of brownies covered in fudge icing in mere minutes!  My mother in law said she used to do the same thing!  You might say this is a learned behavior, but Kyle doesn't eat like that in front of Laela.  He waits until she's asleep (he says it's because he agrees with me not wanting her to eat junk, but I think it's just because he doesn't want to share!)

The only thing that I have always given in on with Laela are chocolate croissants.  It all started at Cake, my all time favorite brunch spot in Philly.  Kyle would order these huge breakfasts with eggs and bacon and potatoes, but he simply couldn't leave there without a chocolate filled croissant.

Once Laela got big enough for solids, and started stealing from our plates, she got wise to the chocolate croissant.  My Mom and Kyle used to give her little bites, with only a little chocolate, and eventually, she was snatching big hunks of chocolate filled croissant from everyone's plates!  Needless to say, if my child so much as smells chocolate, she'll hunt it down.  (Thankfully we don't have it in the house very often!  Otherwise I'd be worried we have a problem!!)

Since Laela asked for a treat for breakfast the other day (and come on, she spelled pumpkin with her leapster! so she deserved an awesome reward!!), I decided to surprise my very sleepy husband with his and Laela's favorite breakfast/dessert!!

Don't be afraid guys, this is one of the most simple, seemingly fancy breakfast treats you'll make in your entire life!

Chocolate Stuffed Croissants
makes 6 small croissants

You'll need:

• 1 sheet puff pastry, defrosted
• Nutella
• 2oz dark chocolate
• 1 egg
• 1Tb cocoa powder (optional)
• Flour (just enough to dust your rolling pin and counter)

Instructions:

• Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
• Cut your puff pastry into three sections (it should already be indented into three sections, so this should be pretty easy to do- just break or cut along the indented lines on th pastry).
• Dust your counter and rolling pin with flour.
• Roll each strip of puff pastry until it's almost doubled in width.  You don't want it too thin.  If it seems thick to you, it's okay.
• Cut each rolled section into 2 triangles.
• Spread a teaspoon or so of Nutella into each triangle.  Try not to spread it to the edges.
• Shave or cut some chocolate.  Sprinkle some on top of the Nutella.
• Roll your pastry from the big end to the little end.  It should look like a tiny croissant (it will puff up in the oven.)  Don't worry about it looking perfect.  It'll taste delicious!
• Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
• Place all of the croissants on the baking sheet.
• In a small bowl, beat your egg with a bit of water. (This is called an egg wash.  It makes pastries that yummy golden color.)
• Using a pastry brush, or a clean paint brush, dip your brush into the egg wash and paint each croissant.  Make sure to paint the entire top of the croissant so that it gets a beautiful golden brown and delectably crispy when you bake it.
• Bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until the croissants are golden brown and puffy.
• For an added touch, sprinkle with a dusting of cocoa powder!

Enjoy!

She's ONE!!!

One.  A little over a year ago, I gave birth to the most perfect little girl in the world.  Well, maybe I can't speak for the whole world, so I'll just say in my world.  And Kyle's world..and our parents, and I'm pretty sure that list goes on a little bit, but I digress..  I gave birth to this perfect, smiling (so what if it was gas?  New parents don't care, it's their baby and she's smiling!!  Whooo!), chubby cheeked little creature that filled me with so much love and emotion that I thought I was going to burst.  Thankfully, I didn't burst and I got to see her grow into this adorable little toddler who loves to jump in the waves at the beach, zoom around the yard while carrying one of her little purses, pat and hug her baby dolls, and pig out on pretty much anything and everything in front of her.  It's amazing how three months ago she was cruising furniture and crawling, still sticking everything in her mouth, and now, she eats off a plate like a little lady (we're still on frisbee watch, don't worry!), drinks with a straw, and likes to eat her food on her own.  As I write this, she's sitting at her little table, playing with her wooden Montessori peg toy, pushing the beads up and down the wires.  It's firsts like this that tug at my heart strings with both pride and sadness as I watch my beautiful little girl become an independent little person.  She amazes me everyday and I just can't believe how quickly the time goes.

Anyway, now that I've totally mushed out, I'm ready to get back to business.  I had big plans for Laela's first birthday, and while I didn't get to do everything I'd planned because of time constraints, visitors, and Kyle leaving on a business trip for a few days following our vacation, I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out.

Ms. Laela had a yummy pumpkin birthday cake with buttercream icing.

I think she enjoyed it, don't you?

I made some basic chocolate and vanilla buttercream cupcakes for the partygoers.

I also made some lemon sugar cookies with royal icing.  I was a bit rushed, so they didn't come out as exciting looking as I'd planned, but everyone seemed to think they were pretty good.

For the favors I made chocolate covered pretzels.

I really tried to keep the decorations more fun and whimsical instead of pink thrown up.  We had butterflies, dragonflies, bees and ladybugs hanging from the trees and plants in our yard.

We even decorated the gift table...

It was a great party.  We had a wonderful time, and it was really fun to see Laela smash her cake and toddle around with her little buddies and our family and friends.

See you Wednesday for Laela and my next foodie adventure!

It's a....Skeletor!

This is a pic of my buddy Dawn at her baby shower.  We all call her impending nugget Skeletor, hence the little skeleton dude in the pirate ship on the cake.  Dawn's also got a thing for sharks, so I had to toss one on there as well.  As simple as they were, the waves were my absolute favorite part of the cake.  Isn't Dawn the cutest pregotini pirate you ever did see?

Here's a close up of the cake:

Happy Birthday Emma!

It's amazing how quickly babies grow! I remember when Emma, my best friend Xana's daughter, was born. She was gorgeous with her chunky little cheeks and her whispy blonde hair. This weekend was her second birthday. Now, instead of a chubby cheeked, waddly little munchkin, she's evolved into a smart, charming, spunky little girl...who's now obsesssed with Yo Gabba Gabba.

When Xana told me that Emma wanted a Yo Gabba Gabba cake, I had no idea what she was talking about, so of course, I googled. To really get the gist of just how creepy, catchy, and well, mind numbing that Yo Gabba Gabba is, you'll have to check it out for yourself. If you're too afraid, let's just call it baby crack.

Here are some pictures from Emma's first birthday (with the cakes that I made), long before she liked super scary kid shows:

It was so fun making her first birthday cake. The theme was pink pink pink (and cupcakes!). My kitchen was dyed purple and pink for a week. Thanks to Yo Gabba Gabba, it's now a smattering of red, black, pink, yellow and green.

If your child is into a creepy kid show like Barney or Yo Gabba Gabba, I salute you for being a fabulously tolerant parent..and I'll keep my fingers crossed that your brains don't fry (especially since I've only watched a few videos and have had "there's a party in my tummy" stuck in my head for two weeks now. Ugh.) I can only hope that whatever Laela gets obsessed with when we let her watch the tube isn't so damn catchy.

Have a happy, non-mind numbing Monday!