The Treat Thread

[Orwar]

   I was having a think earlier, can't remember how or why I came onto the subject of treats, but I decided that if I were the sort of person to treat myself to something sweet on occasion (my go-to thing for treats tends to be savoury things instead), I'd have to make a habit of making something quick and easy - being the way I am about artificial carp in my foodstuffs, I'd be quite hard pressed to buy something ready made (having studied food science I'm sceptical as it is with food in general, but the treats? My goodness, you might as well snort arsenic).

   That brought me to think of the perfect solution for this hypothetical conundrum, and as I thought hey, isn't the best way of having a treat to share it?

   Twitches.

   .. No, because then you'd have to congregate with actual people. Ew. But, I can share it here without having to suffer the physical presence of anyone. So, here we go.

   The treat, of course, is a Swedish classic. And being a Swedish classic, the Danish of course 'invented' it all over again a quarter of a century later (and people don't 'get' why Danes and Swedes have such a blood spattered history of sibling rivalry!). True to the saying, 'Kärt barn har många namn' ('A dear/beloved child has many names'), this treat has a ton of them - one of which is so politically incorrect these days that there was an absolute storm about it in the media in the early noughties, but these days most people say 'chokladboll' ('chocolate ball'), alternatively 'havreboll' ('oat ball'), or 'kokosboll' ('coconut ball'), though two of those could also refer to a completely different pastry that's a lot less quick and easy to make at home on account of having to make a soft meringue batter, shaping that, and covering it with chocolate - how would you even chocolate dip a flippin' meringue batter? Well, there's a way, but I shan't discuss that here. 

   The recipe is really simple, has plenty of room for modification, and pretty much all the ingredients are things that most people may well have at home. It can also very easily be scaled, so whether you want to make a quarter dozen balls or three hundred balls, adjusting the amounts is super easy.

   You'll need (for 'an amount' of balls, depending on how large you make them):

• 100 grams of butter (and it is important that it is butter, because it is a recipe of very few ingredients and the flavour will shine through - but I suppose if you're a veganite and have forgotten what actual food tastes like, you may go ahead and use whatever plant-based or synthetic lardaceous substitute you wish). 
• 80 grams of sugar (again, with the few ingredients and the flavour, this is one place where you can use different types of sugars - some recipes call for 90-100 grams but not being such a fan of sweet, I'd say 80 g is plenty, might even go lower - let's just say 'to taste'!).
• 5 grams of vanilla sugar (you can do without this, in which case you might want to use a little bit more regular sugar instead - or whichever sugar you're using. But please note that I wrote 'vanilla' sugar and not 'vanillin' sugar. You don't want them to taste like sour cardboard, do you? Also, I hope you don't actually buy vanilla sugar, that'd be awfully silly of you considering how easy and how much you'd save on making your own). 
• 18 grams of cacao (or more, or less, depending on your preference).
• 30 grams of oats (rolled oats, the same kind you make oatmeal with). 
• 1 splash of cold coffee (by 'splash' I mean something like 15-20 grams, but it all depends on whether your coffee tastes of coffee. If you don't like coffee you can skip it and just use water, or you can add a splash of milk or cream instead if you're feeling a little more extravagant - the important part is you want the batter to be of a consistency capable of constructing ball-shaped-- Well, balls. I once put a whole cup of coffee into the mix when I was little and misread the recipe amounts, and ended up with chocolate ball porridge .. Still tasted great, though - you seriously can not screw up this recipe).

   If you suffer from living in a country wherein grams aren't used, just translate a gram into a pound or something, it'll be fine - I've never heard anyone complain about there being 'too many chocolate balls around the house'. 

   Now for the tricky part. Put everything into a bowl and mix well. Done. Almost.

   Okay, once you've made the batter you can eat it as is, or you can sculpt it into little figures, or you can do what most people do and just make them into little balls (a little smaller than a table tennis ball or a bowling ball, depending on your preference - most people go with a little smaller than a golf ball, and yes, it is important that you make them a little smaller than any given ball used in any given sport and not slightly larger than any given ball used in any given sport, that would be plain decadent - also when I say 'ball' I mean a sphere, not a spheroid, but rarely are they made either football-sized or what-do-I-even-have-to-do-with-feet-ball-sized). 

   Once you've made them into little balls or little sculptures of hedgehogs with individually sculpted spines, you can roll them in some shredded coconut (to make a 'kokosboll') or pearled sugar, or sprinkles, or chili flakes - whatever boats your float, or whatever can be found in the far back of your pantry that hasn't yet changed colour. Note that if you did sculpt a lifelike hedgehog with individually sculpted spines, rolling it in anything will probably transform it into .. A ball. There's a reason for the shape, folks.

   Found this pic wherein you have ones rolled in chocolate sprinkles, shredded coconut, and pearled sugar. Such a diverse pastry!

   So that was super easy, and actually making them probably goes faster than reading this post does. So does eating them. But if you for some peculiar reason find yourself with spare ones rather than just eating the entirety of the batter out of the bowl (because that's probably actually what most people do), put them on a plate, pop a bit of plastic over them, and put them in the fridge until next you want one (personally whenever I did that I found I had to snatch one at the time of putting them into the fridge - I probably should warn someone somewhere about how good these things are), or if you absolutely insist on making things more complicated you could put them in a plastic box with a lid. Or a glass box with a lid. In the fridge, is the important part so that the butter doesn't go funny, and covered so that they don't go dry (although I have never personally encountered of one surviving for long enough to go dry though). If you're an absolute mad-person, you could also construct a chocolate Bonbonnière to store them in (unless you have a Bonbonnière laying around the house; I presume by the fact that they exist, that there are in fact people other than my grandfather who do?).

   You also could put them in the freezer for long term storage, but .. Why would you? .. I mean unless you did translate the recipe from grams to pounds and made yourself a lifetime supply in one go.

   You also could put a dash of arrack in them and make it a bastardised pastry of their #1 rival on the fika menu - the dammsugare. Or you know, any liquor really. Oh, I should try Cointreau ones sometime. Or maybe Amaretto. Just don't booze them up too much, you're making fika, not an avec substitute. Or maybe you are. I mean if they can make chocolate ball flavoured sparkling water*, who's to say you can't?

Quote

   * Also yes, that was totally a thing. I almost considered emigrating out of shame - but then I realised I'd either have to put up with people speaking Norwegian, or I'd find myself without sour herring, and as damaged as my national pride may have been at that point, it wasn't quite that damaged. 

   So, what's your go-to treat recipes? 

[Sid Nagy]

1 open the bag of salted cashew nuts.
2 start eating.

[Rowan Amore]

I don't bake or cook.  And I'm lazy so...

[Orwar]

Just now, Rowan Amore said:

I don't bake or cook.

   We actually call these sort of things 'non-baked pastry' due to how simple it is to make. You should try it!

1 minute ago, Rowan Amore said:

And I'm lazy so...

   Or you could try this!

 

 

[Rowan Amore]

Just now, Orwar said:

   We actually call these sort of things 'non-baked pastry' due to how simple it is to make. You should try it!

   Or you could try this!

 

 

The one thing like that I have made includes chocolate, peanut butter and oatmeal.  Roll into a ball and let it sit to firm up or put in the fridge.  Great for on the go breakfast, too.

https://recipeland.com/recipe/v/chocolate-no-bake-oatmeal-peanu-900

Thanks for the video!  Very interesting.

[Silent Mistwalker]

@OrwarThose remind me of my mom's Christmas rum balls. 

 

I won't post my mom's recipes but the one used for the image is a good one and can be found here: https://wishesndishes.com/easy-christmas-rum-balls/

[Finite]

If I wanted to make a treat for myself it would likely be dumplings. In all it's about 20 dollars for a week's worth of appetizer (7-8 dumplings per serving, at least for me). I'm not Chinese or anything but a friend of mind from Guangzhou taught me how to make them and I've been told by others from Beijing that they reminded them of back home. However they may have been just being polite. xD.

I don't make the wraps. I typically buy two packs which range from around 40-45 wraps each. I also buy a 1lb of shredded or ground pork. I use scallion and either bok choy or Chinese celery. And 1 or 2 eggs (depending on how you plan to seal the dumplings.)

The mix is pretty easy. Just chop the scallion, bok choy or Chinese celery and toss into a bowl with the ground or shredded pork. Add an egg and a pinch of salt. How much salt and veggies you mix in is really up to you. It's a trial and error process. I like a lot of scallion personally. Mix everything around and its ready to go.

The wrapping part is what takes the most time. It's taken me 1-2 hours to wrap 80-90 dumplings. You can use water or a scrambled egg to seal them. I usually just use water. I let them dry out for about an hour before packaging them and placing them into the freezer. This way they won't stick together. Takes a bit of time to create, but your belly will be thanking you the rest of the week. They're great for a quick bite (after the initial prep time) or on the go snack. Can cook some off and take them to work for lunch as well. Just add some water to them before placing into a microwave to reheat. I wouldn't nuke them for more than 20-30 seconds.

I usually boil them. They're done when they float. But you could seer them in a pan as well. Sprinkle some scallion on top and add a bit a soy sauce and you're good to go. 

[BiliEyelash]

For me it's a treat if I don't have to make it.

[PixelBerry]

2 hours ago, Orwar said:

   I was having a think earlier, can't remember how or why I came onto the subject of treats, but I decided that if I were the sort of person to treat myself to something sweet on occasion (my go-to thing for treats tends to be savoury things instead), I'd have to make a habit of making something quick and easy - being the way I am about artificial carp in my foodstuffs, I'd be quite hard pressed to buy something ready made (having studied food science I'm sceptical as it is with food in general, but the treats? My goodness, you might as well snort arsenic).

   That brought me to think of the perfect solution for this hypothetical conundrum, and as I thought hey, isn't the best way of having a treat to share it?

   Twitches.

   .. No, because then you'd have to congregate with actual people. Ew. But, I can share it here without having to suffer the physical presence of anyone. So, here we go.

   The treat, of course, is a Swedish classic. And being a Swedish classic, the Danish of course 'invented' it all over again a quarter of a century later (and people don't 'get' why Danes and Swedes have such a blood spattered history of sibling rivalry!). True to the saying, 'Kärt barn har många namn' ('A dear/beloved child has many names'), this treat has a ton of them - one of which is so politically incorrect these days that there was an absolute storm about it in the media in the early noughties, but these days most people say 'chokladboll' ('chocolate ball'), alternatively 'havreboll' ('oat ball'), or 'kokosboll' ('coconut ball'), though two of those could also refer to a completely different pastry that's a lot less quick and easy to make at home on account of having to make a soft meringue batter, shaping that, and covering it with chocolate - how would you even chocolate dip a flippin' meringue batter? Well, there's a way, but I shan't discuss that here. 

   The recipe is really simple, has plenty of room for modification, and pretty much all the ingredients are things that most people may well have at home. It can also very easily be scaled, so whether you want to make a quarter dozen balls or three hundred balls, adjusting the amounts is super easy.

   You'll need (for 'an amount' of balls, depending on how large you make them):

• 100 grams of butter (and it is important that it is butter, because it is a recipe of very few ingredients and the flavour will shine through - but I suppose if you're a veganite and have forgotten what actual food tastes like, you may go ahead and use whatever plant-based or synthetic lardaceous substitute you wish). 
• 80 grams of sugar (again, with the few ingredients and the flavour, this is one place where you can use different types of sugars - some recipes call for 90-100 grams but not being such a fan of sweet, I'd say 80 g is plenty, might even go lower - let's just say 'to taste'!).
• 5 grams of vanilla sugar (you can do without this, in which case you might want to use a little bit more regular sugar instead - or whichever sugar you're using. But please note that I wrote 'vanilla' sugar and not 'vanillin' sugar. You don't want them to taste like sour cardboard, do you? Also, I hope you don't actually buy vanilla sugar, that'd be awfully silly of you considering how easy and how much you'd save on making your own). 
• 18 grams of cacao (or more, or less, depending on your preference).
• 30 grams of oats (rolled oats, the same kind you make oatmeal with). 
• 1 splash of cold coffee (by 'splash' I mean something like 15-20 grams, but it all depends on whether your coffee tastes of coffee. If you don't like coffee you can skip it and just use water, or you can add a splash of milk or cream instead if you're feeling a little more extravagant - the important part is you want the batter to be of a consistency capable of constructing ball-shaped-- Well, balls. I once put a whole cup of coffee into the mix when I was little and misread the recipe amounts, and ended up with chocolate ball porridge .. Still tasted great, though - you seriously can not screw up this recipe).

   If you suffer from living in a country wherein grams aren't used, just translate a gram into a pound or something, it'll be fine - I've never heard anyone complain about there being 'too many chocolate balls around the house'. 

   Now for the tricky part. Put everything into a bowl and mix well. Done. Almost.

   Okay, once you've made the batter you can eat it as is, or you can sculpt it into little figures, or you can do what most people do and just make them into little balls (a little smaller than a table tennis ball or a bowling ball, depending on your preference - most people go with a little smaller than a golf ball, and yes, it is important that you make them a little smaller than any given ball used in any given sport and not slightly larger than any given ball used in any given sport, that would be plain decadent - also when I say 'ball' I mean a sphere, not a spheroid, but rarely are they made either football-sized or what-do-I-even-have-to-do-with-feet-ball-sized). 

   Once you've made them into little balls or little sculptures of hedgehogs with individually sculpted spines, you can roll them in some shredded coconut (to make a 'kokosboll') or pearled sugar, or sprinkles, or chili flakes - whatever boats your float, or whatever can be found in the far back of your pantry that hasn't yet changed colour. Note that if you did sculpt a lifelike hedgehog with individually sculpted spines, rolling it in anything will probably transform it into .. A ball. There's a reason for the shape, folks.

   Found this pic wherein you have ones rolled in chocolate sprinkles, shredded coconut, and pearled sugar. Such a diverse pastry!

   So that was super easy, and actually making them probably goes faster than reading this post does. So does eating them. But if you for some peculiar reason find yourself with spare ones rather than just eating the entirety of the batter out of the bowl (because that's probably actually what most people do), put them on a plate, pop a bit of plastic over them, and put them in the fridge until next you want one (personally whenever I did that I found I had to snatch one at the time of putting them into the fridge - I probably should warn someone somewhere about how good these things are), or if you absolutely insist on making things more complicated you could put them in a plastic box with a lid. Or a glass box with a lid. In the fridge, is the important part so that the butter doesn't go funny, and covered so that they don't go dry (although I have never personally encountered of one surviving for long enough to go dry though). If you're an absolute mad-person, you could also construct a chocolate Bonbonnière to store them in (unless you have a Bonbonnière laying around the house; I presume by the fact that they exist, that there are in fact people other than my grandfather who do?).

   You also could put them in the freezer for long term storage, but .. Why would you? .. I mean unless you did translate the recipe from grams to pounds and made yourself a lifetime supply in one go.

   You also could put a dash of arrack in them and make it a bastardised pastry of their #1 rival on the fika menu - the dammsugare. Or you know, any liquor really. Oh, I should try Cointreau ones sometime. Or maybe Amaretto. Just don't booze them up too much, you're making fika, not an avec substitute. Or maybe you are. I mean if they can make chocolate ball flavoured sparkling water*, who's to say you can't?

   So, what's your go-to treat recipes? 

Oh those are really good! I live in Norway so when I could travel over to Sweden for some shopping I would buy some of those. 😄

[Orwar]

6 minutes ago, PixelBerry said:

I live in Norway so when I could travel over to Sweden for some shopping I would buy some of those. 😄

   Buy them? Make your own! 

[PixelBerry]

Just now, Orwar said:

   Buy them? Make your own! 

I'm like Rowan. 😅

[Annalise Evergarden]

When I perfect my fudge, I'll share the recipe.

[Ceka Cianci]

Any treats I have are usually fruit.

I love just grabbing a branch and snacking on grapes.

Sweets just seem to mess with my tummy too much, like I can feel them just laying in there..

I really just love juicy kinds of fruits for my treats nowadays..

[Doris Johnsky]

Something i love are baked brussel sprouts.

Preheat oven to to 425 (ovens vary).

Take the sprouts and cut them in half, fresh or frozen, it doesn't matter ( to me anyway).

Pour some EVOO in a plastic bag or bowl. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.  Shake or mix until thoroughly coated with oil.

PLace the sprout flat side down on a cookie or baking sheet. 

Bake for 10 minutes then check and flip over. Bake another 10 minutes and check.  You could prolly eat them then but I like mine to blacken on the edges of the sprout leaves so I go at least another 5 minutes  

OMG.   Soooo  good. 

[Eddy Vortex]

The no-bake key lime cheesecake is my go to when I want to whip up something fast.

• 16 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
• 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
• juice and zest of one lime (about 1/4 cup juice)
• Graham crackers or gingersnap cookies

1) mix cream cheese, condensed milk, and juice together in a bowl.

2) line cookies on bottom of small glass dish (mine is 6.5″ x 5″). A loaf pan would work too.

3) spoon half of cheesecake mixture over cookies and smooth it out.

4) add a layer of cookies and spoon remaining half of cheese mixture

5) refrigerate until set

 

Edited May 23, 2021 by Eddy Vortex

[Ajay McDowwll]

My favorite is cream cheese pound cake.  This is the recipe I use  here, although I like to use vanilla bean rather than extract (flecks make me happy).

The key to making sure it bakes through is to ensure all ingredients are fully room temperature, not chilled.

Given time, I'm pretty sure I could plow through a whole one by myself.

[Claireschen Hesten]

8 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

I don't bake or cook.  And I'm lazy so...

Mix with an egg and 80g plain flour, pour in to greased baking tin. bake for 20mins 140℃ and you have a really good 3 ingredient Brownie 

[Bree Giffen]

I have made aebleskiver with pancake dough but lately they have been sticking inside the holes of the pan. Chocoballs look easy to make though.

[Ceka Cianci]

I've been eating some of these today and omg these frozen fruit bars are amazing! \o/

I haven't had this flavor yet, but have been loving the grape and strawberry..

I don't usually eat this kind of thing from the store, but hurt something on my ribs and back and shoulder which has me out of work for most of the week.. So I can't really get in the kitchen and cut things up.. So we found these on kind of accident..

They seem to help with the pain  because it feels better after having one..I think it cools things down some.

[Silent Mistwalker]

2 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

They seem to help with the pain  because it feels better after having one..I think it cools things down some.

Get some Blu Emu. I'm not kidding. People set store by Tiger Balm. It doesn't hold a candle to Blu Emu. You can find it WalMart, Safeway and other national chains.

[Amanda Crisp]

OK…….get ready to “ewwwwwww”…

Home-made kosher dill-pickle spears are my favorite “writing” or “at the computer” snack….

They know I’m “in my creative zone” when they hear pickle-crunching coming from my nook…

 

My REALLY GUILTY pleasure is even more pedestrian….

A garlic Ritz cracker with a pat of freshly-churned butter….

I can let myself have about 4 of those a day 🙂 Teaching my children how to churn butter had absolutely NO practical use in our daily lives (I grew up ranching/farming but those days are past),  but its a fun memory from their childhood and that particular snack always channels it for me.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Amanda Crisp

[Ceka Cianci]

2 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Get some Blu Emu. I'm not kidding. People set store by Tiger Balm. It doesn't hold a candle to Blu Emu. You can find it WalMart, Safeway and other national chains.

It's just until morning when I can get to the pharmacy and pick up my prescriptions the doctor gave me.. They are giving me muscle relaxers and something for the inflammation. 

Today was Sunday and the pharmacy was closed.

I may pick some of that up as well, Thank you.

Although I don't want to cure myself to fast, because even though it hurts a lot , I'm enjoying the break from work.. They've been running everyone ragged lately..

[Orwar]

4 hours ago, Amanda Crisp said:

OK…….get ready to “ewwwwwww”…

Home-made kosher dill-pickle spears are my favorite “writing” or “at the computer” snack….

   Mmm, pickles .. Wait, there are people who don't like pickles? 

[Ted McGregor]

Die Eier von Satan

Eine halbe Tasse Staubzucker

Ein Viertel Teelöffel Salz

Eine Messerspitze türkisches Haschisch

Ein halbes Pfund Butter

Ein Teelöffel Vanillenzucker

Ein halbes Pfund Mehl

Einhundertfünfzig Gramm gemahlene Nüsse

Ein wenig extra Staubzucker

... und keine Eier

 

In eine Schüssel geben

Butter einrühren

Gemahlene Nüsse zugeben und Den Teig verkneten

Augenballgroße Stücke vom Teig formen

Im Staubzucker wälzen und sagt die Zauberwörter Simsalbimbamba Saladu Saladim

Auf ein gefettetes Backblech legen und Bei zweihundert Grad für fünfzehn Minuten backen

und KEINE EIER

 

Bei zweihundert Grad für fünfzehn Minuten backen

 

und keine Eier ..

Edited May 24, 2021 by TDD123

[Marianne Little]

I'm on a diet - again.... but this time it will be different. 😟

And so comes this thread. Now I can only think of homemade caramels. And it is so easy.... only sweetened condensed milk, sugar, syrup and butter. Plus I always add vanilla.

I must forget I have a few cans of sweetened condensed milk now. 😩

Edited May 24, 2021 by Marianne Little
typo