The obvious use for this product is to make ice cream sundaes at home. But you can also use the bottle (with a perfect squeeze top) to drizzle over the plate of a dessert at home for a very elegant effect. Here is a recipe from a previous post about fruit desserts: Chocolate Shortcakes with Bananas and Caramel. It calls for homemade caramel, but I have never gotten to this step–I just use the Smucker’s. Sometimes when I want to fool people, I transfer it into my own bottle. It depends on the crowd.

My son loves to “dip” his food, but he doesn’t love to eat fruit. However, if I squirt a couple of tablespoons of caramel into a tiny bowl and slice a green apple, he’ll dunk away. He eats the apple, so I can live with the additional sugar intake from the caramel dip.

I’m the only coffee drinker in my house, and every morning I make a 4 to 6 cup pot just for me. In the warmer months, I toss the dregs of the coffee into a pitcher in the fridge so that I can enjoy an iced coffee later in the day. Add a squirt of caramel syrup and milk and I’ve got a much more wallet-friendly (and dareisay, more delicious) version of the iced caramel lattes sold at various places in my suburban town.

Sometimes when I am feeling more ambitious with my leftover coffee, I might pour it into an ice cube tray to make coffee cubes. Not only are these great for cooling down iced coffee (the flavor does not get diluted), but you can also toss them into a blender with milk (and sugar to taste) and make a frozen coffee drink. Add a squirt of whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel and you will have really cut the budget of your afternoon pick-me-up. If you’re addicted to these things like I am, making your own drinks at home saves a lot of calories and cents.

Read more by Robin Horrigan

Robin Horrigan writes the column Cooking from the Carpool Lane. She lives on Boston’s south shore and is a stay at home Mom to Ryan, seven, and Maegan, three. Her fascination with cooking sprouted from watching Julia Child cook on a little black and white TV; Robin helped her Mom in the kitchen until she was old enough to ask Santa for her very own copy of The Joy of Cooking. She experiments with all kinds of cooking and baking, from quick weeknight dinners and easy cookies to long simmering weekend stews and complicated, fancy desserts. Ryan thinks if his Mom will ever be famous, it will be “for her awesome cookies.” Her friends say it will be for the cocktails. Either way, if she’s not doing volunteer work or shopping for shoes, you’ll probably find her in the kitchen. Robin’s favorite recipe.

And then fall swept in just as we flipped the calendar, like it knew we were turning the page on summer. I was ready to heat up my kitchen again after several weeks of warm weather. I was ready for socks again, too.

And then–back to the dinner menu–I came across the Unfussy Apple Cake (101 Cookbooks), and worked backwards from there. It was going to be the perfect dessert centerpiece for an unfussy evening.

After the apple cake was finished baking (the quickest thing ever!), I wrapped the pork tenderloins snugly (like tucking my daughter in for the night) for the Prosciutto Wrapped Pork with Sweet Potatoes and Pears (Real Simple). This is the unfussiest recipe of them all. It literally takes about four flicks of the wrist, eight swift chops, and a creatively messy arrangement of sweet potatoes, pears, and thyme on a baking sheet–then you add the pork bundles.

I whipped up a quick spinach salad with chopped walnuts, pomegranate seeds, and a dribble of oil and balsamic–dinner was done.

The kitchen smelled divine. It smelled like fall.

Fall might just be my favorite cooking season. What’s yours? Do you have a favorite fall menu?

Sarah Fullerton, content marketing & editing. Armed with a masters in journalism from Northwestern, a passion for all things cooking, and a perpetual oven mitt, Sarah loves nothing more than to camp out in the kitchen with a new recipe, interpret it creatively (a dash of this, a dash of that), and then surprise her husband and daughter, her friends, and herself with the results. Sarah’s favorite recipe. She can be contacted at sarah [at] plummelo [dot] com.

The photo of this Buckeye Pie called to me all summer as I sifted through my pages of recipes saved on Plummelo. I just had to try it. I love recipes that can be made in stages; you can make the crust for this dessert a day or two in advance and keep it tightly covered. Then after you fill the crust, the concoction needs to sit in the freezer for 4-6 hours (or even overnight). This is not a good choice to start at the last minute, but it has its place in a well thought out meal or party plan.

About the origin of the name Buckeye Pie… methinks it comes from the more common Buckeye candies, which are also a peanut butter and chocolate confection made, according to the ever-so-reliable Wikipedia, to resemble the nut of a buckeye tree. Personally I’ll refer to this as an icebox peanut butter pie before I’ll start casually referring to Buckeye Pie. But that’s just me.

Mmm, the ganache. Cook’s treat to lick the spoon after the pie is covered with this rich, silky chocolate glaze. Enjoy.

Chocolate Recipe #2. I’ll start by saying that these Chocolate Chip Brownie Pillows are a fantastic, unexpected treat. But the recipe needs work. This is not one of Pioneer Woman’s signature recipes–it is something posted in her own online community by her fans.

The ingredients are mostly fine. If you are skeeved by the thought of using shortening, I think you can safely go with all butter (but not margarine). Three cups of chocolate chips are a tad excessive–an 11-ounce bag is plenty.

These are giant cookies. The recipe says it will yield 15, but I got 18 huge cookies. You basically need 18 teaspoons of baked brownie. Feel confident that you’ll be able to cut a half dozen good sized brownies out of that part of the project that you can set aside, freeze, or serve alongside the cookies.

The instructions with the two spoons on how to assemble the cookies are a little too fussy for my taste. Use the best tools in your arsenal–your hands and fingers. I do use a one-ounce ice cream scoop to drop most cookies. Set up three cookie sheets covered with parchment paper and drop the dough by rounded tablespoon, six cookies per sheet. They spread a fair amount. Wet your hands and flatten out the dough a bit. Wash your hands and then scoop the brownie part. Drop a teaspoon of brownie on top of each flattened mound of cookie dough. Then scoop and drop 18 more portions of cookie dough. Wet your hands again to shape the dough over to cover the brownie. You should have a bit of cookie dough left in the bowl to seal up any “holes.”

Bake 10 minutes. Rotate all the trays and bake 8-10 additional minutes. Chocolate heaven.

Chocolate Recipe #3. If there was a button on Plummelo to “love” a recipe, I would click it for this one: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough + Cupcake = The Best Cupcake. Ever.

What a fantastic idea! Biting into a soft cupcake to discover a center of freshly baked chocolate chip cookie–what could be more decadent? This is almost the reverse of the Pioneer Woman’s chocolate chip brownie pillow cookies–I think they’d be terrific to serve side by side.

From the multiple reviews posted on Allrecipes, folks say they have had good success using premade cookie dough; the key is to freeze the cookie dough first. As always, be sure to read the instructions completely before you begin any recipe.

Now that I have been through the process, I know I can alter all the flavors, such as changing to chocolate cake or peanut butter cookie dough. Swirled with a cap of chocolate butter cream, this dessert contains all of the three major C’s: chocolate, cookies, and cupcakes.

Read more by Robin Horrigan

Photos: (top) Myrecipes.com and (bottom) Allrecipes.com

Robin Horrigan writes the column Cooking from the Carpool Lane. She lives on Boston’s south shore and is a stay at home Mom to Ryan, seven, and Maegan, three. Her fascination with cooking sprouted from watching Julia Child cook on a little black and white TV; Robin helped her Mom in the kitchen until she was old enough to ask Santa for her very own copy of The Joy of Cooking. She experiments with all kinds of cooking and baking, from quick weeknight dinners and easy cookies to long simmering weekend stews and complicated, fancy desserts. Ryan thinks if his Mom will ever be famous, it will be “for her awesome cookies.” Her friends say it will be for the cocktails. Either way, if she’s not doing volunteer work or shopping for shoes, you’ll probably find her in the kitchen. Robin’s favorite recipe.

What to do with all those apples? Here are some terrific ideas that go beyond the all American apple pie–some classic, some very fresh and inventive, all delicious.

Oh, and p.s.: There are no actual apples in a Caramel Apple Martini, but they sure do taste good after a day at the orchard!

Read more by Robin Horrigan

Robin Horrigan writes the column Cooking from the Carpool Lane. She lives on Boston’s south shore and is a stay at home Mom to Ryan, seven, and Maegan, three. Her fascination with cooking sprouted from watching Julia Child cook on a little black and white TV; Robin helped her Mom in the kitchen until she was old enough to ask Santa for her very own copy of The Joy of Cooking. She experiments with all kinds of cooking and baking, from quick weeknight dinners and easy cookies to long simmering weekend stews and complicated, fancy desserts. Ryan thinks if his Mom will ever be famous, it will be “for her awesome cookies.” Her friends say it will be for the cocktails. Either way, if she’s not doing volunteer work or shopping for shoes, you’ll probably find her in the kitchen. Robin’s favorite recipe.

I plied my guests with sugar. We drank a pitcher of a delicious, pretty drink I recently tried in Bermuda, called the Rum Swizzle. Made in advance so the flavors can meld and then served over ice, it is a perfect recipe for entertaining. Slightly more labor-intensive per drink were the Drunken Floats. One of the ladies said she has always been adverse to the “ice cream and soda” concoctions like root beer floats… until now. It makes a perfect creamy blend, and a touch of vanilla vodka poured over the ice cream cuts the sweetness enough to make it a welcome indulgence.

What’s a girls’ night without chocolate? Earlier in the summer I encouraged making cool treats ahead for the hot days, and Triple Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches have been a favorite among the kids. But when rolled in toasted crushed nuts along the sides instead of mini chocolate chips, they appeal to crowds of all ages. (Can I admit to you all that we had so much fun with the Rum Swizzles and the Root Beer Floats that we never even made it to these? My son jumped up and down to hear that all 12 sandwiches were still safely tucked in the freezer the following day.)

Last, but not least, we noshed on Chocolate Chip Brownie Pillows. Imagine biting into a chocolate chip cookie to find a fudgy brownie center… heavenly! Everyone was amazed that they were homemade cookies because they came out so professional looking. The brownie middle was such a great surprise.

True to fabulous form, my girlfriends came armed with cranberry-maple brie and baguettes and a wonderful hummus and feta dip with cucumbers sprinkled over the top. A little salty to balance the sweet.

Since I keep a well-stocked bar and baking pantry, I barely spent more money than I would on a couple of drinks out at a bar. We had a lot more elbow room and many more laughs this way. Before the weather cools down, try your next girls’ night out at home–out on the deck.

Read more by Robin Horrigan

Robin Horrigan writes the column Cooking from the Carpool Lane. She lives on Boston’s south shore and is a stay at home Mom to Ryan, seven, and Maegan, three. Her fascination with cooking sprouted from watching Julia Child cook on a little black and white TV; Robin helped her Mom in the kitchen until she was old enough to ask Santa for her very own copy of The Joy of Cooking. She experiments with all kinds of cooking and baking, from quick weeknight dinners and easy cookies to long simmering weekend stews and complicated, fancy desserts. Ryan thinks if his Mom will ever be famous, it will be “for her awesome cookies.” Her friends say it will be for the cocktails. Either way, if she’s not doing volunteer work or shopping for shoes, you’ll probably find her in the kitchen.

Photo by Food Network

I can’t get through summer without a few rounds of these delightful little marshmallow-chocolate-cracker sandwiches, and this summer I have had the pleasure to introduce my toddler to her first s’mores as well. S’mores are one of life’s most delicious treats.

But this summer I wanted to see how far I could push the limits of the traditional s’more. It started with an innocuous swap of Hershey’s Special Dark for the standard milk chocolate, because my husband has a minor addiction to the fruit of the cacao seed… and I can’t say I’m not addicted either. But for now we’ll blame it on him.

And then we decided to take it a step further. I rallied my testing troops (which included two young boys with discerning palates) on a hot summer night last week. We put together a s’morgasbord of indulgent treats to smash with graham crackers and toasted marshmallows. One variation was the traditional graham and marshmallow, but with a mini Reese’s peanut butter cup in place of the Hershey’s. The second was the traditional chocolate and marshmallow, but with two ‘Nilla wafers as the sandwich.

The results?

Traditional S’Mores: Always the winner. Among other reasons, because the chocolate fits perfectly on the graham cracker, and the marshmallow ratio is perfect. One of the kids proclaimed, “Regular is my favorite!”

Peanut Butter Cup S’Mores: “Very, very good! Really liked the peanut butter cup filling more than the plain chocolate.” Overall, people loved the flavor of the peanut butter cup and most would choose this as a close second. One of the kids thought it tasted like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and another thought it resembled a chocolate chip cookie. One taster complained that the peanut butter cup didn’t adequately cover the graham cracker; another more inventive taster solved the problem of the candy-to-cookie ratio by breaking the graham cracker in half (“I’ll have half a sandwich, please.”).

‘Nilla Wafer S’Mores: Most tasters found the marshmallow-to-cookie ratio too high, but loved the crunchiness of the cookie. The kids found it to be a perfect size for holding. ”Also very good; I like the crunchiness and flavor of the ‘Nilla wafer, but overall I think I would choose graham cracker.” “Surprisingly good! The firm ‘Nilla wafer is a nice change; it is very marshmallow heavy.”

More S’Mores recipes on Plummelo

Have you ever tinkered with the traditional s’mores recipe? Give it a try and let us know what you think.

After a long, harsh winter in New England, there is little I look forward to as much as the overabundance of beautiful, inexpensive fruit that pops up everywhere I look. Farm stands, specialty produce markets, even my boring regular grocery store all of a sudden seem as exciting as Disneyworld. Peaches and berries and melons, oh my!

Let me at that drop-down list of “things to bring” on an electronic invitation to a summer party. Fruit salad, side salad, fruit dessert? Count me in!

I am dying to try this new recipe for Raw Berry Crisp for dessert on a day when I can’t be bothered to turn on the oven. But a tried-and-true “no cook” fruit dessert option is Barefoot Contessa’s Fruit Salad with Limoncello. My two-year-old daughter likes this so much that she actually goes back to serve herself seconds from the bowl. (She picks the bananas out and flings them on the grass–classy, eh?)

Do you hate making pastry, but long for beautiful blueberry confections like I do? This lovely Blueberry Tart is for you and me both.

Last summer I brought home empty dish after empty dish scraped absolutely clean of Oatmeal Cookie Peach Cobbler. If you can peal and slice peaches, you can make this dessert. This is best served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I’ll let you in on my secret weapon for summer desserts: set up a shortcake bar at your next cookout. The recipes included here are specifically for Chocolate Shortcakes with Bananas and Caramel and Peach Raspberry Shortcakes. I just bake both the chocolate and plain shortcakes and line them up next to mountains of freshly whipped cream and bowls of beautiful seasonal fruit choices. Toss berries or stone fruits with sugar and lemon juice, slice bananas just before serving and leave them plain. Every guest will find something to love – even the calorie-counters, who can just enjoy a bowl of fruit if they choose. You’ll see one person choosing chocolate shortcakes with strawberries and whipped cream alongside another person piling up blueberries and blackberries on traditional shortcakes. It’s a very simple dessert, but I guarantee people will make a fuss over this clever idea.

Read more by Robin Horrigan

Robin Horrigan writes the column Cooking from the Carpool Lane. She lives on Boston’s south shore and is a stay at home Mom to Ryan, seven, and Maegan, three. Her fascination with cooking sprouted from watching Julia Child cook on a little black and white TV; Robin helped her Mom in the kitchen until she was old enough to ask Santa for her very own copy of The Joy of Cooking. She experiments with all kinds of cooking and baking, from quick weeknight dinners and easy cookies to long simmering weekend stews and complicated, fancy desserts. Ryan thinks if his Mom will ever be famous, it will be “for her awesome cookies.” Her friends say it will be for the cocktails. Either way, if she’s not doing volunteer work or shopping for shoes, you’ll probably find her in the kitchen.

A little bit of forethought and planning eradicates the sweaty, sandy scramble for snacks and drinks. An hour in the kitchen in the cool evening is a load of frustration saved the following day. I like to be a guest at my own party, so I try to do as much as I possibly can ahead of time. This even makes my guests feel more at ease, because they’re not watching me run around like slave labor.

First challenge: the morning play date that spills over into lunch. I might be inspired to fire up the grill and do some quick burgers and hot dogs with a salad and chips, but usually I just want to take something out of the fridge and put it on the table. Club Sandwich Kabobs please kids and Moms alike. Pair them with simple fruit skewers and everyone will be smiling.

Sometimes we have mid-afternoon guests, and then we need completely different kinds of refreshments. While the kids play in the sand or under the sprinklers, I might pull Skewered Greek Salads out of the fridge and serve my girlfriends a chilled glass of white wine. Have you noticed a theme? Food on sticks = happy eaters.

Of course, the kids are not interested in Skewered Greek Salads. But no matter the age of your audience: who wouldn’t want to be offered a handmade Triple Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich in the middle of a hot afternoon? Homemade ice cream sandwiches are so easy to make even with simple waffle cookies and ice cream or sorbet, but I have yet to find a group of people that doesn’t find them extra special. Frozen Choco Scotch Banana Bites are another make-ahead icebox treat that sneak fruit into unsuspecting kids. They are yet another fabulous food on a stick!

Occasionally I over-buy fruit in the summertime. I can’t help myself–it’s all gorgeous, delicious and so much cheaper than at other times of the year. My kids and their friends all love watermelon, but sometimes my planning is off and we end up with a surplus. Then we might just have to whip up some Slushy Watermelon Mojitos (see photo)! You can make a non-alcoholic version using frozen watermelon and seltzer or lemon-lime soda for the kids. Another option: Frozen Lemonade is a perfect afternoon pick-me-up for sun-weary guests of all ages, or try the Junebug instead.

Another way to marinate, uh, I mean, mellow out the adults is to serve White Sangria. You need to make it a bit ahead of time to allow the flavors to meld properly, so it’s perfect for entertaining any size crowd. (Also, see above: over-buying of summer fruits.) Pull it out, pour, and garnish with extra fruit, and collect accolades while you act modest. Really, it was nothing.

Opening a box of popsicles and handing out juice boxes are much easier tasks than the ideas I’ve suggested here. And your guests will feel no less welcome in your home if you choose to do so (and I certainly do when I’m really fried!) But with a little bit of planning and some stellar make-ahead treat ideas, your summer guests will always leave your home feeling cool, happy, and like you’ve done something special for them. And for you the host/ess? No sweat!

Robin Horrigan is a stay at home mom to a 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. She is the cruise director for her busy family, keeping the calendar full of the stuff that makes life worth living, but leaves plenty of time to shop for shoes. When they’re all at home, you’ll find the Horrigans knee-deep in chocolate chips and cookie racks, baking treats together that celebrate the four seasons and even the silliest of holidays.

A few years ago my husband and I ventured to Chile for an August vacation. To go skiing. Like he had read about in the ski magazines. Skiing in the summer, you ask? Yes, after all, the seasons are reversed in South America. We stayed at a resort called Portillo, a bright yellow hotel that reflects the sun and the white mountains at 10,000 feet. Have you ever had a moment that seemed to defy reality? It was here at Portillo that I tasted a bit of heaven.

This vacation was unlike any other we’ve taken–for many reasons. It was like summer camp in that all of the guests arrived on the same day and departed a week later–somewhat like a cruise, but in the Andes mountains, two hours from Santiago, and standing solitary at the top of a long and winding road with switchbacks that will send even the toughest stomach twirling. But where it departed from the summer camp theme was the food. Portillo served three full meals a day, in addition to 5pm afternoon tea (called once).

I remember eating sea bass, and ostrich, and abalone. But the night tres leches cake was presented before us was the highlight of the week. The three milks blended together to yield a rich and creamy almost caramel-like sauce, and the light and fluffy cake became so soft with the liquid that it melted in my mouth. I let my taste buds hang onto the flavor, avoiding at all costs washing it down with wine.

The night after the tres leches presentation, there was some other inferior dessert. Somehow, without knowing a lick of Spanish, I persuaded our kind young Chilean waiter to hunt down another slice of the previous night’s tres leches in the hotel kitchen. I am forever indebted to him, for he did find one and brought it out to me, somewhat surreptitiously.

Three years later, I haven’t forgotten that place, and that cake. And it was The Pioneer Woman who inspired me to attempt a recreation.

A few weeks ago, I had the occasion to bake something for my grandmother, my aunt, and my one-year-old daughter–so I chose the tres leches cake. It was much simpler than I had anticipated, which made me wonder why I had never attempted it before. I topped each piece with a “tipsy” cherry (soaked in bourbon). The dessert was met with rave reviews by all four of us. This is a memory and a recipe worth hanging on to.

Sarah Fullerton, Editor. Armed with a masters in journalism from Northwestern, a passion for all things cooking, and a perpetual oven mitt, Sarah loves nothing more than to camp out in the kitchen with a new recipe, interpret it creatively (a dash of this, a dash of that), and then surprise her husband and daughter, her friends, and herself with the results. She can be contacted at sarah [at] plummelo [dot] com.

And now I find I’m unable to get through the day without inhaling some chocolate.

Admittedly, the addiction metaphor is a bit disturbing. So call me a chocophile. Ah, that’s better. I’m just one of the countless Americans who loves chocolate beyond reason… beyond budget… and worst of all, beyond calorie counting.

So many of us chocolate lovers would gladly wed the object of our affection—if only we could find someone willing to officiate.

But irrational food cravings aren’t entirely to blame. Chemistry is also at work to make us smitten with cocoa. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine, a compound that may be responsible for some of the pleasurable feelings you get after eating chocolate; phenylethylamine releases endorphins in your brain. Similarly, the brain releases that compound when you’re falling in love. In other words, chocolate loves you back.

Our love affair with the sweet stuff has a lengthy history. Cacao, the tree that produces cacao beans, has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central, and South America. Chocolate is processed food produced from the cacao seeds of the cacao tree, whose scientific name is Theobroma cacao. Interestingly, Theobroma means “food of the gods.” No argument here.

And if you’re feeling guilty, just keep in mind that dark chocolate contains antioxidants that help lower blood pressure.

So when considering an ingredient to try two ways, chocolate was a no-brainer. First off, here’s a spicy Chicken Chili that gets its richness from unsweetened chocolate. It seems like an unusual combination at first, but this spicy chili is sure to please—especially if you like chicken with mole sauce. The recipe is adapted from the classic Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook, and calls for black olives, which I usually swap out for one or two cans of dark red kidney beans (drained).

This Chocolate Dump It Cake is a ridiculously easy and delectable dessert. The recipe comes from Amanda Hesser’s book Cooking for Mr. Latte, a humorous memoir (with wonderful recipes!) about her courtship with The New Yorker writer Tad Friend. The cake is completely delicious, especially given that it doesn’t require any specialty ingredients. And even bakers with intermediate skills can recreate this cake successfully.

So next time you need a chocolate fix, you know where to go.

Are you addicted to chocolate? What are your favorite ways to use chocolate?

Magda Hernandez has been a serious baker since her teens and a serious cook since… what day is today? Magda lives in Boston with her husband and two sons, and enjoys working in marketing and communications for a local university. Her goal is to get more adventurous about cooking main dishes. Plummelo readers are sure to reap the benefits of all her trial and error.