Delicious Chocoflan

Ok so as I mentioned in my previous blog I made a lot of new recipes this weekend.  Well I'm here to introduce you to one of them.  This is the amazingly delicious Chocoflan.  Again this recipe comes from my favorite food blog all-things-delicious.  The way she described it I just had to try it, and it did look simple.  I must admit I do have a soft spot in my heart for flan, I had it frequently while I was living in Argentina, and haven't had it very often since being back.

Surprisingly I had most of the ingredients on hand, So I decided since we had a family dinner planned for Monday and we were going to be having homemade cafe rio salads (which if anyone knows me knows I'm more than slightly addicted to cafe rio), this would be a perfect dessert to make.  I've been trying to watch what I eat so I can't make treats as often as I would like because I just need to be careful... all this being careful has helped me lose 15lbs in the last month (WOOT WOOT!!).  Anyways so any excuse I can get to make a treat I jump at it.  Ready for the recipe? Well you need wait no longer:

Chocoflan:

1/2 C dulce de leche (or more I used a whole 13.4oz can by La Lechera)
1 C sugar
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

1 chocolate cake mix (made as directed on the box)
1/2 C sour cream

Spray bundt pan very well with non-stick spray.  In the bottom of the bundt pan, pour your dulce de leche in a random, sporadic way.  In a bowl, beat the sugar, evaporated milk, cream cheese, 4 eggs, and vanilla.  The recipe on the blog I got this from mentioned you could mix these in a blender to make it more smooth, and sense I saw people using blenders a lot while cooking and baking while living in Argentina I decided to do this step in the blender and I would highly recommend it, made it super smooth!  Once this is mixed set it aside.

In another bowl, make the chocolate cake mix according to the package instructions, adding 1/2 cup of sour cream.  Now for those of you who are turning up your noses at sour cream in your chocolate cake, don't knock it until you've tried it.  You can't taste the sour cream, but this makes the cake so moist you will never go back!

Once everything is mixed and in their separate containers it is time to fill the bundt pan. Pour the cake batter into you bundt pan on top of the dulce de leche.  Using a ladle, gently ladle the flan mixture on top of the chocolate cake mixture.  Spray a piece of foil with non-stick spray and cover your bundt pan with the foil, sprayed side down.  Place the bundt pan in a larger roasting pan.  Fill the pan with water until it comes almost 1/2 way up the sides of the bundt pan.  This is called a water bath.

Now comes the hardest part... waiting!  Bake at 350 degrees for one and a half hours or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

This is also called "The Impossible Cake" because the cake and the flan switch places while baking! It's really cool!

Cool in the pan on a cooling rack until it's cool enough to put in the fridge.  Then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight.  After it has fully chilled, invert onto a plate or serving platter.

SERIOUSLY AMAZING!!

Man it was 100% worth the couple extra hours in the gym... trust me!!

Rachel even enjoyed it (just not the flan part so much)

You know you want to try it... go ahead!! You won't regret it!!

I'M BACK!!!

Wow I am not a very good blogger! I'm about as good at blogging as I am at keeping a journal! I'm hoping to start blogging with more regularity, but my most recent excuse is inconvenience.  For those who know me know I have been without a laptop for over a year.  My laptop works with one tiny little flaw, the screen is broken.  So I have done the best I can for now and hooked it up to a monitor, key board and mouse, so it is now currently a desktop. As great as it is to have a working computer, I would much rather have a laptop, and while we are on the subject a Mac... but all in good time!  One day (and hopefully soon) I will have said Mac and all will be better, and I will no longer have an excuse not to blog!

So as not to completely overwhelm my all of one (or maybe two) reader(s) of this blog I will not proceed to explain what has gone down in my life in the last two years since I have consistently blogged... each time I post a new recipe, craft or etc I have worked on perhaps I'll share some little tidbit about myself.  As I mentioned in several entries ago (and in reality over a year ago) all I wanted to do was cook.  I LOVE trying out new recipes and I really enjoy cooking for other people (perhaps I just love hearing people praise my work).  Anyways at the time I was living with 5 other girls sharing a tiny kitchen, and I didn't really have any cooking utensils.  Well I have now graduated to living all by myself... and let me tell you it is FABULOUS, but as much as I like it I may be looking for a roommate when my lease runs up, it is just too dang expensive to live on my own, maybe I can bribe someone with my cooking and baking skills :).

Well now that I am living on my own and not sharing my teeny tiny kitchen (seriously it may be the smallest kitchen ever).  And I now have a few nice cooking utensils (AKA my Kitchen Aide that I cannot live with out)! I am ready to start cooking... only problem is I still don't really have the money for these experiments  But luckily I do have to eat, so I chose a few new recipes every time I'm writing out my shopping list so as to be able to try new ideas.  The recipe I'm going to share with you today I luckily already had all the ingredients on hand, and I had an occasion to make them.  I will be sharing with you the amazing CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH BROWNIES.  Yes they are as good (if not better) than the sound, and NO I did not get the recipe from Pinterest (but if I looked on my desserts board I probably do have some variation of this on there).  I got this recipe from my favorite (and only) food blog I consistently follow... I love her food and regularly make her dishes, it may have helped I've met her and tried some of her dishes first hand, from then on I was hooked. Click HERE for where I got this recipe, no really head on over there she has some amazing stuff!

So without further ado here is the fabulous recipe:

For the brownie layer I simply used a box of brownie mix on hand, if you don’t want to be lazy like me, check out the link above for her brownie recipe.  Once the brownies are mixed bake them as directed on the box and once they are finished let them cool and stick them in the fridge.

While the brownies are cooling whip up the cookie dough, (egg-less by the way so they are safe to eat… not like that would stop me anyway)!!

Cookie Dough:

¾ C unsalted butter, room temp

¾ C white granulated sugar

¾ C packed brown sugar

¼ tsp salt

2 Tbsp milk or cream

1 ½ tsp vanilla

1 C flour

½ C mini chocolate chips

Additional mini chocolate chips, if desired to garnish the top.  Once the cookie dough is all made take the brownies out of the fridge and spread the cookie dough on top, nothing fancy just make sure to cover the brownie.  Once that is done cover and leave in the refrigerator for at least one hour or up to 2 days.  Enjoy with a tall glass of cold milk or ice cream!

Let’s let the pictures do the talking now:

I'm lucky I got a picture when I did, these things were devoured!

I was only able to snap a pic of Gabi enjoying her brownie, but she was a very willing and cute subject! And she loved it, you know it's good when you get the approval of a toddler!

This was soooo good, every one at dinner last night raved about how good it was.  I will be making this recipe again, it is definetly going in the recipe box.  Makes me happy, but I personally couldn’t eat a while piece, too rich and I haven’t had sugar like that in a long time! Now to hit the gym hard tomorrow, gotta work off that cookie dough!

Stay tuned I made 4 new recipes this weekend!!

PS don't mind the random white blocks, I don't know what's up with that but I will try to get that worked out for next post!