There are many recipes on the Internet for the holiday season, but some of my favorites can be found on the Williams-Sonoma website.

This year, they’ve curated a list of recipes guaranteed to spice up your love life. The recipe that made it to the holiday edition of Love Potions is the simple ginger cookies. They say these ginger cookies are irresistible.

Ginger is also high in potassium and is known to improve your immune system.

Photo Credit: Williams-Sonoma

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups pecans or macadamia nuts
• 14 Tbs. (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar, plus more for sprinkling
• 1 extra-large egg
• 1/2 cup dark molasses
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 Tbs. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. freshly ground white pepper
• 1/4 cup minced crystallized ginger

Directions:

Did you know that this week,  October 10-15 is Chocolate Week in the U.K.?

Throughout the country, chocolate lovers are attending tasting events and celebrating the holiday.

Here in the U.S., we celebrate National chocolate day in March, perhaps to keep the sweetness of Valentine’s Day alive. Since we live in a global society, I’ve decided we should celebrate from afar.

Chocolate, as you may know, has many benefits. It’s an antioxidant and consumed in moderation, can be good for your health.

Chocolate makes an excellent gift for someone you may have a crush on and to bring on a date.

Sharing chocolate can be romantic as you spoon-feed each other some delicious chocolate mouse. Check out some of our chocolate recipes in our Love Potions for some suggestions for the holiday.

Chocolate is passionate. Heart shaped chocolate can be an aphrodisiac, so I suggest you stop by your local chocolatier, guilt-free, and celebrate the holiday.

Julie Spira is an online dating expert and author of the bestseller, The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online. Visit her at http://CyberDatingExpert.com and follow @JulieSpira on Twitter and on facebook.com/cyberdatingexpert

Getting ready for the warm weather? Our friends at BakeSpace have contributed another luscious recipe for our Love Potions.

Enjoy this creamy rasberry gelato dessert worth serving to your date or sweetheart.

INGREDIENTS

• Servings: 6-8
• Preparation Time: 3 hours
• 12 oz. fresh raspberries
• 2/3 c. sugar (I used half granulated and half vanilla sugar)
• 2 c. whole milk
• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 1 tsp. fresh lemon or lime juice

DIRECTiONS

1. Process berries, sugar, and whole milk in a food processor or blender until smooth. Pour into a nonreactive bowl.

2. Add in the heavy cream and mix just enough to combine. (Do not whip the cream.) Add in the lemon or lime juice. Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours and up to overnight.

3. Transfer the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Serve immediately or freeze up to one month.

***Note: You can substitute the following fruits using the above recipe: bananas, peaches, pears, strawberries, blackberries, apricots, Granny Smith apples, and blueberries.

Love Potions - Any Way You Like It Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Cupcakes have risen to become the #1 dessert of choice these days. We’re delighted to feature Any Way You Like It cream cheese cupcakes in our featured romantic Love Potions recipes.

Ingredients

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese – softened
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 vanilla wafers – and / or Oreos
12 foil cupcake liners

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2)  With an electric mixer, mix cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  Add flour, lemon juice, and eggs – one at a time – mixing between each.

3)  Line a cupcake tin with foil cupcake liners.  Place a vanilla wafer or Oreo cookie in the bottom of each liner.  Pour 1/3 cup of cheesecake batter over each cookie.  Bake for 25 – 30 minutes; until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

*  Any way you like it  toppings: Fresh fruit or berries, Oreo crumbles, Pie filling, Whipped cream.

Love Potions recipe contributed by MenuForTheWeek.com

Love Potions - Luscious Mocha Mud Pie

Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to show your sweetie how you feel with a decadent dessert.  This luscious mud pie is rich, chocolaty, and memorable, yet easy enough for even the most novice cook to make.  It’s best made the day before or at least a few hours before you intend to serve it, so that the layers meld and harden.

Ingredients
4 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, melted
20 Chocolate sandwich cookies, like Newman’s Own or Trader Joe’s O’s
½ cup Toffee bits (like crushed Heath bar)
6 ounces Caramel sauce
1 pint premium coffee ice cream (like Julie’s Organic)
1 ½ pints vanilla ice cream (like Alden’s Organic vanilla)
Directions
1.  Preheat oven to 350. Break cookies into large pieces and place in a food processor. Pulse until cookies are in large crumbs, then pour in melted butter and pulse a few more times to combine. Press crumbs into a pie plate to form a crust and bake for 8 minutes. Let cool completely.

2.  Heat jar of caramel sauce according to package directions. Pour over crust, then sprinkle with toffee pieces. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes or until caramel is firm.

3.  Let coffee ice cream sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Spoon into the pie and spread into an even layer with a spatula or spoon. Return to freezer for 30 minutes or until ice cream is hard.

4.  Let vanilla ice cream sit at room temperature for 10 minutes or until soft enough to spread with a spatula. Remove pie from freezer and spread vanilla ice cream over the coffee ice cream with a spoon or spatula until it’s an even layer. Return to freezer. Let freeze for at least an hour before serving. If not eating immediately, cover with plastic wrap.

This Love Potions recipe was contributed by Amelia Winslow of Eating Made Easy.

Click here for more Love Potions Recipes

Lindt Spiced Chocolate & Orange Pudding

At the recent Taste of Beverly Hills, I stopped by the Lindt chocolate booth and sampled some of their finest chocolates. I’m pleased to share one of their decadent recipes with you, the Spiced Chocolate & Orange Winter Pudding to warm you and your sweetheart up this season.

Ingredients
100g Lindt Excellence 70% Cocoa
50g Lindt Ecuador 85% Cocoa, roughly chopped
Lindor Balls for decoration
185g self raising flour
60g plain flour
3 oranges, segmented
200g unsalted butter, soft
120g sugar
125ml orange juice
1tsp Chinese five spice
4 cardamon pods, crushed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
15ml Grand Marnier

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160 ºC (130 ºC fan assisted)

2. Sift together both flours several times in a large mixing bowl to ensure a light pudding. Toss orange segments in flour.

3. In a medium saucepan combine butter, 100g of chocolate, sugar, reserved orange juice and spices. Gently heat until sugar has dissolved and chocolate is molten. Set aside to cool slightly.

4. Make a well in the centre of the flour and strain chocolate orange mixture in, mixing until well combined. Break eggs and stir through before adding chopped chocolate. Note: It’s important to stir the batter only until it’s just combined, otherwise the pudding may end up rather tough.

5. Spoon mixture into prepared moulds and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

6. Remove from oven and drizzle with some Grand Marnier while still hot. Turn out and serve warm with some chocolate sauce and orange segments.

Serves: 6-8

Cooking time: prep 20mins, baking 30mins

This love potion recipe is courtesy of Lindt Chocolate.  For more chocolate recipes, visit Lindt.com

It’s Thanksgiving week and never to late to add a sweet addition to your holiday menu.

Last Thanksgiving we featured Pecan Pumpkin Butter Pie, which is still one of my favorites.

This latest recipe comes from PecanPieRecipe.com and is a wonderful addition to our Love Potions.

This two-layer pie has a bottom layer of tender sweet potatoes, combined with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cane syrup and vanilla. The pecan pie filling is spread over the top with a garnish of whipped cream and chocolate curls.

Ingredients

1 Prepared Sweet Pie Crust
1 pound Sweet Potatoes, baked until fork tender, peeled and mashed
1/2 cup Pure Cane Syrup
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated Nutmeg
5 Extra Large Eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 cups Pecan pieces
1/4 cup Light Corn Syrup
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed Light Brown Sugar
pinch Salt
Chocolate Curls
Sweetened Whipped Cream, accompaniment

Instructions

1.    Preheat oven to 375 F.
2.    Combine sweet potatoes, cane syrup, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, 1 egg, and 1/2 teaspoon of the vanilla in a large mixing bowl.
3.    Spoon sweet potato mixture into the unbaked pastry shell. Spread smooth.
4.    Sprinkle pecan pieces onto the filling.
5.    Beat 4 eggs in a large bowl. Add 1-teaspoon vanilla, corn syrup, sugar, brown sugar, and salt.
6.    Pour egg mixture over pecans.
7.    Bake 1 hour, or until pastry edges are golden brown, and filling is set.
8.    Cool on wire rack. Allow 1 hour.
9.    Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 1 hour before serving.
10.    Garnish with chocolate and sweetened whipped cream.

All of us at Cyber-Dating Expert wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Click here for more Love Potions>>>

For our Love Potions, romantic recipes, we’ve selected this Candy Corn Sugar Cookie recipe from our friends at Bake Space.

To celebrate Halloween, try this simple and easy recipe that is not only delightful to look at, but you’ll have fun nibbling on them with your next online date or at a Halloween costume party.

Ingredients

• Cooking Time: 9-11″
• Preparation Time: 10″
• 18 oz tube refrigerated sugar cookie dough
• 1/2 c flour
• 2 t lemon zest
• 2 t orange zest
• 1/4 t vanilla
• yellow food coloring
• orange food coloring
• 1/2 c white chocolate chips
• organ and yellow sanding sugar

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Beat flour into cookie dough, then divide into three parts.
• Beat lemon zest and yellow food coloring into 1 part; set aside.
• Beat orange zest and orange food coloring into another part; set aside.
• Beat vanilla into remaining plain part.
• Roll each section into a long rope.
• Lay side-by-side on a lightly-floured surface, with the orange in the middle.
• Use a rolling pin to roll (lengthwise), forming one sheet of dough with three stripes – plain, orange, yellow.
• Use a knife or pastry cutter to cut into triangles.
• Bake 9-11″ and let cool for 1″ before transferring to rack to cool completely.
• Microwave chips for about 1″ to melt, then dunk some of the tips or backs into the chocolate and sprinkle with colored sugar.

Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie

At the recent Taste of Beverly Hills sponsored by Food and Wine magazine, attendees were treated to the famous Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie served in stylish silver purses. Not only did we receive this yummy delight, but along with the tote, they shared their secret recipe for us to try at home.

Ingredients

1/2 cup [1 stick] butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds). Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds. In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips. Using a 1-ounce scoop or 2-tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2-inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispier cookie. Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Hint: Sneak one in his briefcase or leave one on his pillow at nighttime.

At a recent charity event, The Saban Free Clinic’s Extravaganza for the Senses, I walked around a Hollywood Studio Lot filled with some of the finest delicacies and wines for the most discriminating palate.

When I walked past the booth for Francis Ford Coppola’s Winery, a set of hot pink cans filled with sparkling wine caught my eye. It turns out that Coppola promised his daughter Sofia when she was a little girl, that he would someday make a sparkling wine and name it after her. That dream came true on her wedding day.

The vintage, Sofia-Blanc de Blancs from Monterey County is now available in a set of hot pink individual cans with sipping straws perfect for a bachelorette party or a quick night out on the town.

Fruity and refreshing, Sofia Blanc de Blancs is a rare blend of Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscat.  Mellow flavors of apples and pears are topped by a hint of citrus and honeysuckle. Elegant in character, this wine is lightly textured and vibrant through the finish.

Click here to purchase>>>