Tea with Bea | Ryland, Peters & Small, 2011 | Serves 8 to 12

This chocolate cake is vegan but we don’t tell people it is, and they love it. That’s how good it is.–Bea Vo

We’ll Second That…: We second the author’s sentiment. That is, we don’t tell people this is a vegan chocolate cake, either. And yet folks tend to go back for seconds…and thirds…

Active time: 20 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe

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Baking Basics and Beyond | Agate Surrey, 2011 | Makes 32 jumbo or 96 standard cookies

We call these “dishpan cookies” at my house because if you make the whole recipe, you need a dishpan to mix all the ingredients (or a very large bowl). These cookies traveled with my kids on many team trips and were always “winners.”–Pat Sinclair

We Interrupt This Recipe…: Put down that wooden spoon. The New York Times just reported that this Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVI will introduce yet another animated M&Ms character: Ms. Brown. The sixth member of the melts-in-your-hands-not-in-your-mouth cast, Brown will join Yellow, Orange, Red, Green, and Blue. Look for her during the first quarter commericals. (Are we the only ones who’re a little giddy about this?!)

Active time: 20 minutes | Total time: 60 minutes

Chocolate M&M Cookies Recipe

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Alice Medrich | Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies | Artisan, 2010 | Makes fifteen 5-inch cookies

A theatrical departure from mainstream chocolate chip cookies, these ultra-thin cookies are large and decidedly flat. They shatter dramatically when you bite them, releasing loads of caramel brown sugar goodness and bursts of bittersweet chocolate.– Alice Medrich

LC Fancy Pants but Not Fussy Cookies Note: Those of you who like your chocolate chip cookies cakey and chewy, you may as well stop reading now…unless you doubt your devotion. Crispy cookie junkies, once you experience these brittle, caramelized ultra-thin cookies that seem heaven sent, you may find yourself falling to your knees in reverence. The only trick to these fancy-pants but not fussy cookies? Squashing the dough flat, but not too flat, before baking and keep careful watch over the cookies so the sugars caramelize but not scorch. What can we say, practice makes perfect. And oh, what palatable practice!

Active time: 20 minutes | Total time: 45 minutes (not including time for the dough to rest).

Ultra-Thin Chocolate Chunk Cookies Recipe

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Christie Matheson | Cake Simple | Chronicle, 2011 | Makes about 2 cups

For some people, Nutella—a smooth chocolate-hazelnut spread found in the peanut butter aisle in most supermarkets—is a nostalgic childhood treat. But I didn’t taste it until college, when a friend who’d been living in Europe introduced me to it, so I may always think of it as a more sophisticated sweet. The stuff from the jar is pretty darn good, although the fabulous pastry chef Gale Gand taught me how to make it from scratch, and that’s now my favorite version. You can really taste the hazelnuts and feel some of their texture. I’ve been known to eat it with a spoon, as anyone else who’s honest will admit to doing.–Christie Matheson

LC Deliver Me From Temptation… Note: No longer can you consider yourself safe from temptation just by mustering the wherewithal to pass the Nutella aisle at the grocery store. With this made-from-scratch recipe, temptation lurks in your very own pantry every second of the day. Should you succumb to the craving and find yourself standing at the counter, spoon in hand, not quite certain how to stop spooning it up, author Christie Matheson has a novel way to put the rest of it to use: the most lust-inducing frosting that cake has ever known. Just grab your stand mixer and beat 1/2 cup of homemade Nutella, 3 tablespoons room-temperature butter, and 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar until creamy. Jack up the speed to medium-high and slowly, slowly drizzle in 2 tablespoons heavy cream, beating just until smooth and fluffy and irresistible. Then slather it all over the cake you baked for your new neighbors and get it out of the house as soon as humanly possible. There. Delivered from temptation.

Active time: 20 minutes | Total time: 30 minutes (not including time for cooling).

Homemade Nutella Recipe

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Sam Mogannam | Bi-Rite Market’s Eat Good Food | Ten Speed Press, 2011 | Serves 10

This rich chocolate sour cream Bundt cake is one of the all-time best-sellers from the Creamery. We use this recipe to make cakes of all different shapes and sizes, from cupcakes to tea cakes to ice cream cake bases. The cocoa powder gives the caek a more intense chocolatey flavor. Be sure to use a high-quality cocoa powder; it makes a huge difference in the final product.

This bullet-proof recipe translates easily to the home kichen. Unlike many cakes, this one is mixed entirely by hand. No electric mixer needed. And the cake stays most for days.–Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough

LC Moan of Unabashed Glee Note: Easy. Failproof. Decadent. That’s all we’ve got time to share. We gotta go get us another slice of this cake–and moan in unabashed glee–before it’s gone.

Special Equipment: 10- or 12-cup Bundt pan

Active time: 25 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes, not including cooling.

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake Recipe

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Micah Carr-Hill | Green & Black’s Organic Ultimate Chocolate Recipes | Kyle, 2010 | Serves 6 to 8

A bûche de Noël is the traditional dessert the French serve at Christmas and, like so much of their pâtisserie, it has potential for other celebratory occasions throughout the year. Annie Bell gave us her recipe for this very chocolatey, very festive yule log.— Micah Carr-Hill

LC Let’s Be Clear About One Thing… Note: We’re all for festive, although we’re not so into the traditional–and woodsy–embellishments for this edible yule log, among them marzipan mushrooms and faux bois flourishes. We’re into Christmas cakes strictly for the chocolate, pure and simple. So as far as we’re concerned, no need to fuss over decorative devices. Besides, one bite of this decadent cake and its inherent and chocolate-y goodness will steal all the attention. We guarantee it.

Active time: 45 minutes | Total time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Bûche de Noël Recipe

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Elizabeth Mayhew | Serves 1

That drivel about necessity being the mother of invention? Phooey. We all know moms are the actual mothers of invention–at least uber savvy inventions like Witches Brew, a morning-after-Halloween hot chocolate recipe brouhaha’d up by Elizabeth Mayhew, a Manhattan mom of two, contributing editor to the “Today Show,” and editor-in-chief of Woman’s Day Magazine. Mayhew–who, mind you, doesn’t resemble the Wicked Witch of the West in the least– just sort of conjured the sweet notion one morning after trick-or-treating maybe six or so Halloweens ago. “I’d always done different things with the leftover Halloween candy, like chop it up and put it in cookies. But this was a sneaky way to get them to drink milk,” she explains. Sneaky, indeed. And it couldn’t be easier. She just warmed some milk, poured it into mugs, then let the kids plop the candy in. She even had the wherewithal to dub it something irresistible.

Hershey’s Miniatures work really well, notes Mayhew, who also found that Kit Kat and Twix bars make really excellent stirrers. (See? There’s that mother of invention again.) While Mom Mayhew is partial to peppermint patties, her kids are a little less discerning. “My son would put everything in there and it would be a disgusting mess,” she adds, with an audible grimace. Though it doesn’t sound so terrible to us, actually. Anyone else wishing they were a kid again? –Renee Schettler Rossi

LC Better Than Christmas Morning Note: Forget Christmas! Never was the morning after Halloween so enticing. Were we to indulge in this potation, which candy would we dunk in our moo juice? Depends on our Halloween haul, natch. But what we’re seeing in our crystal ball–well, actually, the shiny bottom of our large sauté pan, but close enough–is a gooey, nougaty, satisfying Snickers-flavored Witches’ Brew. We’re getting giddy just thinking about it. Although in all the excitement, don’t forget, if you’ll be sharing with wee ones in the house, just to be safe, strain your Baby Witches’ Brew before letting anyone take a sip, just to stave off any unpleasant surprises involving nuts or other choke-inducing chunks.

Active time: 5 minutes | Total time: 5 minutes.

Witch’s Brew Hot Chocolate Recipe

Directions

Italian, My Way | Simon & Schuster, 2011 | Serves 10

I’ve had this recipe in my repertoire for ages. I wanted to emulate the flourless chocolate cakes so popular a few years ago, but with my own twist. The crust is a mixture of ground almonds and pine nuts. The pine nuts are extraordinary with the bittersweet chocolate. The dough is light, fluffy and sinuous, easy to make and freeze. I like this with chocolate sorbetto.–Jonathan Waxman

LC How Do You Say “Oooooh, That’s So Good!” In Italian? Note: Clearly we don’t know enough Italian, as we can’t summon the words to convey the depth of our appreciation for this molten, bittersweet chocolate filling and its crust that’s intensely chocolate-y, nutty, brownie-like communion of ground pine nuts and almonds. Suffice it to say, grazie, Jonathan Waxman.

Active time: 40 minutes | Total time: 3 hours, 20 minutes

Chocolate Tart with Pine Nuts Recipe

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Charity Ferreira | Perfect Pops | Chronicle, 2011 | Makes 6 to 8 pops

These luscious dark chocolate pops have a hint of texture and spice similar to Mexican ground chocolate.–Charity Ferreira

LC Much Ballyhooed Bittersweet Chocolate Note: Yes, the complexity of bittersweet is an inspired backdrop to the warmth of cinnamon and cayenne. Still, we think those who take their chocolate on the lighter side may also partake of this recipe using milk chocolate rather than dark. Regardless of your preference, if you don’t have pop molds, you can use paper cups. Easy.

Active time: 15 minutes | Total time: 15 minutes, not including chilling.

Mexican Chocolate Pops Recipe

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Matt Armendariz | On a Stick! | Quirk, 2011 | Serves 4 to 8

It’s hard to choose a favorite sandwich. When I first tasted the Elvis–peanut butter, bananas, and crispy bacon on toasty grilled bread–I knew I hit the jackpot. This recipe is a riff on that classic sandwich that makes an irresistible and easy-to-eat snack, and I dedicate it to all the bacon lovers out there.–Matt Armendariz

LC A Big Hunk o’ Love Note: Some like their hunk of burning love big…oh, forget it. We’re not going there. Suffice it to say, you can make the portions of chocolate-dipped, peanut-smothered, bacon-sprinkled bananas smaller, if you please, simply by cutting each banana in half.

Active time: 35 minutes | Total time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.

Frozen Chocolate-Covered Bananas Recipe

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