Month-of-Few Ingredients: Nutty Chocolate-Nutella Croissants

Yum! Chocolate and Nutella and nuts. What could be better? If you’d only known, you could have served this at the end of your Valentine’s Day dinner.

Sandy Bremser, one of my writing critique partners is a fan of chocolate croissants. And one of my on-line writing friends, Martha Reynolds wrote a series in which the main character indulges her love of chocolate croissants. And why not? Oozy, gooey chocolate on flaky layers. I repeat. Yum!

I adapted this chocolate croissant recipe from one with two ingredients to make it into four.

And I think the two additional ingredients up the wow factor. You will notice that one of the ingredients is one on my “scared of” list: puff pastry. But since the earlier recipe worked out swell, I decided to give it another go! Besides, the stuff comes two to a box.

To make it easier, these are not rolled up from a triangle, but from a rectangle. The non-conventional shape just adds to the charm, don’t you think?

Nutty Chocolate-Nutella Croissants (makes 4 croissants)

1 frozen puff pastry sheet, thawed per directions

1/3 cup mini-chocolate chips

2 tablespoons Nutella

¼ cup chopped pecans (or walnuts or other nut)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line your baking pan with parchment paper or Silpat sheet.

Open the puff pastry sheet on a floured cutting board and divide into four rectangles.

On the bottom third of each rectangle, place ¼ of the mixture. Fold over the bottom third, then bring the top third down to cover the edge.

Place the croissants on the prepared baking sheet, seam-side down. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Check the oven after 12 minutes to monitor.

Serve warm or at room temperature, or quickly heat them up the next day for an extra gooey, chocolate croissant.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up  I like chocolate. DH LOVES chocolate. This was right up his alley!

If you liked this recipe, I’d really appreciate you spreading the word on your social media outlets. Here are some pre-made Twitter and Facebook posts you can use or modify.

Tweet: What’s better than chocolate croissants? This #recipe for EASY Nutty Chocolate-Nutella Croissants by @good2tweat at http://bit.ly/2lKAIcH

Facebook: On Sharon Arthur Moore’s blog, Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time, see her easy Nutty Chocolate-Nutella Croissants at http://bit.ly/2lKAIcH

A reminder:

House rules for what counts as an ingredient:

Salt and pepper are not ingredients.

Oil is not an ingredient when it’s for the cooking pan, not the recipe.

Water is not an ingredient.

26+ Ways to Kill: J is for Jambiya or Joug

Welcome! Since I write culinary mysteries, “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” deals with food topics and with mysteries. This month I am sharing ways to kill people—in your mysteries, of course—and some tips on getting away with it! To avoid the pronoun problem, I’ll use heesh (he or she), shis (his or hers), and shim (him or her) throughout the entries. Tune in for murder and mayhem.

There are several options for killing with J. A jib (sail or projecting arm of crane) was essentially dealt with as blunt force trauma when I wrote about boom. Jibs are related to boom.

Another blunt force object is a jimmy, a burglar’s short crowbar. That would hurt! But I can see a murder if the crook were interrupted in the midst of a burglary. I wouldn’t use it for Murder One, but you certainly could with the right plot.

But consider two other options.

I was introduced to the Jambiya by my critique partner, Sandra Bremser. She prominently features a jambiya in her soon-to-be published historical fiction, Crimson Veils, set in the mid-east. A jambiya is a nasty piece of work, though beautiful in its deadliness. A jambiya is a thick, double-edged, curved-blade knife.

A slice in the right place, would do great damage to the victim’s innards. This is an up close and personal kind of killing. Expect your killer to get bloody. While we may think of the jambiya as an old-timey weapon, it is still carried today in Yemen.

A Joug is an iron collar attached to a post and put around the neck as punishment in Medieval Scotland. In my scenario, I would have the screws tightened each day so that breathing is so obstructed death occurs. This method has the advantage (for the killer) of seeing shis victim suffer more each day. I’ll deal more with death this way on Q day.

Jougs are very fit for an historical mystery. However, you could set your mystery in a modern-day castle with its old torture chamber intact. How much fun could that be, killing one of the tourists while others look on thinking it's an historical re-enactment?

Have you had enough fun with this blog series? If so, DON’T come by to see ways to kill with K.

If you take time to share this post on social media, I would be most grateful. 

Twitter share:

#Mystery writer need ideas to kill? J is for Jambiya or Joug. Many killer tips this month #atozchallenge http://bit.ly/1MqwOxH

 

Facebook share:

Blogging from A to Z Challenge offers a wide range of topics. If you want to kill someone (in books of course), check out killing by Jambiya or Joug on “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” at http://bit.ly/1MqwOxH

Check out Sharon Arthur Moore’s culinary mystery, Mission Impastable