Chocolicious

Y'all, every week I try to have something fun and delicious for y'all

Well, I've got him here today. Stratton Leopold's with me, y'all. And today, Stratton and I are serving up our favorite chocolicious dishes

Yum, yum, yum, yum. First up, it's the perfect sweet treat. Y'all, it will knock you into next week

It's so good. A chocolate chip cheese ball. And then it's fresh baked chocolate bread that is out of this world

The kids are going to love this one. and tender chicken breast smothered in a mouth-watering cocoa tomato sauce

Oh, Stratton likes that part. And finally, Stratton sharing his sinfully sweet chocolate sauce

Uh-oh. You should be arrested. Stratton and his wife Mary have an ice cream parlor on Broughton Street here in Savannah

His family started this ice cream business about 90 years ago. Because Stratton represents everything sweet in our town, we're doing some sweet dishes

And we're going to start off, y'all, with a chocolate chip cheese bowl

Can't wait. And so what are you doing over here, Stratton, to get us started

I have eight ounces of cream cheese, which we've softened. Uh-huh. And I'm going to put that right in there

There we go. Let's add some butter. Okay. Yeah. May I? You may

A half a cup of softened butter. Half a cup of softened butter. A whole stick, y'all

Yeah. It's going to go in there. Now, we're going to need some sugar here

Yes. And I'll start mixing this up. Okay. Two tablespoons of brown sugar

Brown sugar. Probably even if we added more butter, it would be okay, but we won't do it right now

All right. Now, I'm going to give you two tablespoons of cocoa

Okay. Because this is a chocolate cheese ball. There we go. This is a yummy little snack for the kids

In fact, you can even bring them in the kitchen, and they can make this when it's that simple, isn't it, Strat

And it's mixing up really nicely. It's looking good. Now, I'm going to give you a half a teaspoon

Oops, it ran over a little bit. That's okay, too. It's good for you. Half a teaspoon of vanilla extract

Now, I'm going to give you a half a cup of powdered sugar

Now, you might want to slow it down when I add your powdered sugar Unless you want to get powdered sugar all over your face

It's looking pretty good. It looks great. And if you'll slow... Oops

I about got my fingers in this beater. Pretty good, isn't it

Very good. There you go. Okay. All right. Now we're going to fold in one cup of miniature marshmallows

And now we're going to put in three-fourths a cup of a semi-sweet chocolate chip, y'all

So how fun is this ball? Looking great. Looking great, honey. Now we're just going to put it in the refrigerator and let it get hard

and then we'll be able to form it into that ball, and then we're going to roll it in some nuts

How about it? Good, ain't it? I'm going to put this in the fridge

Yes, put it over there in the drawer. And the next thing we're going to work on, y'all, is a chocolate bread stratton

This is very similar stratton to, like, banana bread, only it's got no bananas

It's got chocolate chips. If you will start down there with the sugar, I will man the flour

and I'm going to do two and a fourths cup of all-purpose flour

I'm doing two cups of sugar here. Okay. Takes teamwork, y'all. I'll start whisking this together

I owe you one more cup of flour. So there you go

There you go. Now I'm going to put in three-fourths of a cup of cocoa powder

And this is a quarter cup measure, y'all, so I will do this three times

There we go. We have to add some baking powder. And that's going to be one and a half

One and a half. Yes. And then the salt. Look at this cute little hand

It's holding our salt stratton. So just the whole little container. There we go

Okay. Should we start putting the wet ingredients in? Yes, I'll go ahead and pour in the oil

One cup of vegetable oil, y'all. One and a half cups of regular milk

I'm going to give you just like half your milk, okay? Okay. And we're only three eggs

All right, I managed to crack that one. Here we go. Okay

Here we go. It's getting blended in. Get to whipping baby I whipping it as hard as I keep whipping it up And I go ahead and add the rest of our milk Stratton Looking good Yes Honey why don you switch to this

I think you've struggled enough with that whisk. I'm going to add about a cup and a half of chopped pecans

And Stratton's got one teaspoon of vanilla extract. And I'm going to do two cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips

So here we go. Our bread is... I'm going to switch to this

Yes. I just love wooden spoons. I adore my wooden spoons. And while you're doing that, I'm going to just skip right over here

I'm just going to spray our pans real good with a nonstick

And I'm going to spray them really good because I want our bread to come out nice and whole

Now we'll just divide up our batter. And I like to use measuring cups so I can keep up with just how much is going in there

This is going to be yummy. All right, Stratton, if you'd get these in the oven, dear

Put them right in. Y'all, we're going to cook these for an hour and 15 minutes at 325 degrees

so y'all don't go anywhere because Stratton's gonna show us something using ice cream

We sure will. Coming up next, y'all. Look at that, y'all. Chicken breasts go swimming

in a yummy cocoa tomato sauce. Then it's time to sample some of our chocolicious goods

You like it? It's really rough. And later, it's Stratton's heavenly chocolate sauce

I think our chocolate bread is ready. I just checked it a minute ago

It looks fantastic. So look at this. It looks like a big fat brownie

It looks delicious. Is that not outrageous looking? I just want to show you what this looks like

Look at that. Fantastic. Yummy looking. The kids are going to love this one

All right, so I'm going to put this back here, Stratton, and let it cool for a minute

and then we'll take it out of the pan and hopefully they'll come out whole

Well, today is all about, it involves chocolate in some form because you can't be with stratton and..

Not have chocolate. Not have chocolate. So we are cooking up, y'all, chicken breast with a tomato chocolate sauce

I've been chopping up an onion here. Yes. Just getting it in pretty good shape. Good

Well, I'm going to take out our chicken breast. My chicken breast, y'all, were just salt and peppered

and I sauteed them off. And now we're going to put our sauce together

And Stratton's going to put the onion in there and he's got a garlic clove

and he's got basil and oregano that we're going to add to this

And we're going to let this saute for just a few minutes. That's perfect, Stratton

Here comes the garlic clove. Okay. There's the garlic. Okay. Now a teaspoon of basil

Yes. Here we go. And the oregano, one teaspoon of each. Of each

Smell that basil. And you know what I'm going to do, Stratton? I'm going to add just a couple of more tablespoons of the olive oil just so they can bathe in that while they're sauteing

And look, I'm going to scrape that brown. That's the good part. That's the good part

That's where all of our flavor is, y'all. Those little brown specks from those chicken breasts cooking in there

All righty. We've got some chicken stock here, and I'm going to go ahead and measure out while that's cooking. Okay

A half a cup, and thank goodness they got that in big numbers

So I can see that. And when we get all this cooked down, we're going to put the lid on it

We're going to let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Okay. Let that basil and oregano come to life in there with the cocoa

So look, that's starting to come to life now, isn't it, Stratton? Yeah. That's smelling fantastic

Yes. A little cocoa now, you think? Yum, yum. Okay, and just a tablespoon of cocoa

It's an unsweetened cocoa, y'all. Now, I'm going to put just a little bit of sugar, about a teaspoon of sugar

That'll help just break down the acid in the tomatoes without making it, you know, too sweet, y'all

I'm going to add one pint of tomato sauce. now i'm going in with a pint of diced tomatoes and that's going to give it a little body and a

little chunk so what we're going to do is just nestle our breast back down oh stratton likes that

part you're talking about language and we're just going to let that saturate our chicken breast with

all that wonderful sauce oh i forgot to put the stock in there didn i that fine and y can see where that cocoa just browned up our sauce just a little bit So we just going to cover that up We going to let it cook for about 15 more minutes

And while we're doing that, we're going to finish up our chocolate cheese ball

Oh, the cheese ball, definitely. Yes, earlier, y'all, we were making a chocolate cheese ball

And I'm, too, going to try to take these out, Stratton, because I don't want to let them sit too long

Oh, it's hot, Stratton. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I think I'll just sit those right there

Looks pretty good, doesn't it, y'all? All right, well, let's get our cheese ball out

Now, we have some walnuts. Stratton and I put these in the food processor, y'all

So I'll do this messy job so you won't get your hands messed up, Stratton

All right, so I'm just going to use this plastic wrap. To shape it

To shape it. All right, there we go. But that really helped me be able to work

All right, now you've got our chopped walnuts over there. So we're just going to roll it in our nuts just like that

So how does that feel like perfect? All right, so we're just going to transfer this now to our platter right down here

And we have a few things to eat with our chocolate cheese ball

Okay. We've got some little chocolate cookies, just a plain little thin wafer, honey crackers, and then we've got pineapple

So I'm just going to kind of pile this around our cheese ball, put some chocolate ones on, and then over here I'll put our pineapple

This is going to be just delicious. I'm going to slice us a little piece of our bread

Mmm. I mean, it's still so hot, Stratton. It looks fantastic. Is that not fabulous

Mmm. It tastes just like a brownie, doesn't it? It does. It tastes great. Mmm

Yum. All right, now there's you a spreader. Okay. Mmm. Mm-hmm. Well, I think I'm going to have to start with the brownie. Mmm

Or the chocolate bread. Look at that, y'all. Mmm. You like it

I don't know what. Good, I'm so glad. Oh, yeah. I'm going to try some of your bread with it as well

This chocolate bread is fabulous. It'll be great with a chocolate bread

Chocolate fudge sauce. I'll follow you anywhere, Stratton. I'll teach you how to make some as soon as we get back

Don't go anywhere. Stratton Leopold's fudge sauce. Coming up next, our chicken is looking perfect

Doesn't that look delicious? And the smell is incredible. And later, Stratton's sharing his divine chocolate sauce

Mmm! I'm so glad that y'all came back. Y'all are some smart cookies out there

because I told them, you told them, that you were going to be sharing your hot fudge sauce with us

that his dad originated 90 years ago. But in the meantime, we were making a savory dish, which is our chicken breast in the cocoa tomato sauce

So we've got some yellow rice. If you want to put us a little rice stratton in our bowl, then we will put our chicken breast

Look at that. Doesn't it smell? Smells fantastic. Yummy. Uh-huh. Now let me get a spoon, because we've got to have some of the extra sauce and all those beautiful onions

Oops. I'm a sloppy cook. I always have been, though, y'all. I've been told that I'll use up six pots to make a hot dog

which I'm guilty. It's the truth. A little garnish on it. Oh, by all means

That yellow rice looks... Oh, you're a genius. So I want to know what you think

The leaf is... I think the rat's a little sharp. It's really good

It really is delicious. It is delicious. And I love the yellow and the red together with a little touch of green

Yum. It's good, but Stratton, I've only got one thing on my mind right now

Chocolate? Chocolate fudge sauce, please. Over some ice cream? Yes. And maybe some of that cake under it? Yes

All right. Let's go. Okay. I'm going to measure out one and three quarters cup

Of heavy cream. Of heavy cream. Okay. And was your daddy's name Pete

My daddy was Peter, and all of his friends, he was Mr. Pete to all of his friends

Mr. Pete. So which is why this is Mr. Pete's chocolate sauce. So we pour that in here

Isn't that cute, Mr. Pete? My father made this in these huge copper cauldrons which I still have Wonderful Wonderful I think they use these down on River Street do The candy stores Yes they do Yes they do I need three quarters of a cup of the brown sugar there

Okay. Now, I don't think I've ever made a chocolate sauce using brown sugar

I usually use a white granulated sugar. This cane sugar? Yes. This adds a little something to it

All right. There's a half a cup. And now a quarter of a cup

Now, we're going to put some butter in a quarter. Oh, you got butter up. We got some butter here

Half a stick. Half a stick, but cut it in little pieces if you could. Y'all, you can see what that brown sugar is starting to do to that heavy cream

It's starting to just give it a little, little bit of a tan color

There it is. Let's add some more butter. Yes, sir, Mr. Beat

I'll stand here and I'll add your butter all day long. Now this is almost ready to add the chocolate chips

Okay. The semi-sweet chocolate chips. Okay, that just looks like I could pour that in a mug and drink it right now

Butter and cream and brown sugar. There you go. Now we're going to add two and three quarters cups

Quarters. Okay, I'll slip around here and measure that. Okay. Starting to thicken up some. Yes

All right, now what is this? We're going to add a dash of that because when I eat... What is it

It's sea salt. Oh. I thought it was some kind of crystallized sugar

I'm going to do this. Okay. There. A little bit of the salt and it kicks up the flavor

Just enhances that chocolate, doesn't it? All right, now you've got some vanilla extract

Are you ready? I'm ready. Put in a teaspoon of that. This looks wonderful

Now we blend this all together. And we have to let it sit for 15 minutes

Okay. So we're just going to serve it like warm over the ice cream, not boiling hot

I have stood this as long as I can, Stratton. It's better than the chocolate sauce I make

That's, thank you. I mean, that's... And I thought mine was good

Well, thank you so much. That's delicious, Stratton. Don't go anywhere, y'all, because we're going to pull out the ice cream

We're going to let this cool for a minute. And then we're going to dip some cherries

Yes, we are. Coming up next is a sinfully sweet combination. Leopold's ice cream smothered in Mr. Pete's chocolate sauce

I've only got one word for you, honey. What's that? Jail. Uh-oh

We're back. Yes, we are back, honey. And we've got to make some chocolate-covered chips

Look at that. Look, look, look down here. Ooh. Stratton. Doesn't that look good? I've only got one word for you, honey

What's that? Jail. Uh-oh. You should be arrested. Oh, my goodness. Let's make some chocolate-covered cherries right here first

Let's do it. We have some maraschino cherries. We drain them. We're going to mix them in here, like a little bit of that

Now, what we did, y'all, was just melt some semi-sweet chocolate chips over boiling water

and just a jar of maraschino cherries. That's it. And you don't have to cover them with nuts if you don't want to

because you know what, Stratton, I think they're very pretty like this

Probably very tasty like that, too. I'll tell you where they're going to be the prettiest

Ah. Stratton, here. You get the cherry, babe. Well, here, I'll give you one, too

Yum. Yum, yum, yum. Now, I bet you want some butter pecan, don't you

Is this coffee? That is coffee. This looks a little blue, like it might have a little blue in it

That's lavender. Lavender. Leopold makes dadgum good ice cream, y'all. Yeah, I know

We're coming to that. And this is what your daddy... That's peppermint

That's peppermint. Yum. Here, we'll put some of that in. I just put some butter pecan in

Okay. Now I'm putting peppermint in. Okay. We should have put the cake on the bottom

We'll put it on the side. No, honey, look. Oh, perfect. And our chocolate bread goes right there

That's perfect. Now we're going to add some sauce to that, and then we're going to have some..

Mr. Pete's chocolate sauce. Maybe put a cherry on top. Okay. Mmm. Mmm

Mmm. Oh, my gosh. I'll give you a nutty one. Okay. And I'll give me the red, because I just like the way the red looks

And there's your spoon. Okay. And here's our dessert. Let's go. I really kind of started without your..

Oh, straight. Mm-hmm. Mm. I should be eating this alone