Double Recipe Test: Nutella French Toast and Nutella Hot Chocolate

Nutella's a big Pinterest favorite, for obvious reasons. I'm a huge fan of Nutella, and have tried a couple of pinned recipes recently.

First, this Nutella French Toast recipe from The Kitchen Life of a Navy Wife.

Second, Nutella Hot Chocolate from The Hungry Housewife.

I didn't make these to serve together - that would be way too much.

For the french toast, I used frozen defrosted raspberries - winter in Alaska means no good fresh strawberries. It was a very easy variation on regular old french toast. Just make a Nutella sandwich before you dip the bread into the egg mixture.  I used the whole grain "white" style bread.

And of course, it was delicious. It was extremely sweet, though - the kind of breakfast where you're hungry again in an hour. I think it would be far better as a dessert, perhaps as part of a brunch buffet. Here's what mine looked like.

The Nutella cocoa recipe is also very easy. Just whisk together Nutella, a tablespoon of cocoa powder, skim milk, and a pinch of salt. Heat on the stove top. The original recipe includes homemade whipped cream, but I skipped that part.

In case you were wondering what a cup of cocoa looks like:

It was good. Of course. But I don't think it was a whole lot better than stovetop cocoa made with cocoa powder/sugar/milk, especially if you spice it up your standard stovetop recipe with some cinnamon, pinch of cayenne, etc.

Verdict: I'd call these successful, but I still think the best use for Nutella is spread on a warm crepe or piece of good French bread.

Bacon and Egg Cups

This easy breakfast recipe for bacon and eggs in a cupcake pan from Fat Girl Trapped In a Skinny Body looked good. Like one of those "why didn't I think of that!" recipes that becomes the new go-to. The pancakes in a cupcake tin recipe I reviewed a while back worked wonderfully, so I thought this was a sure thing.

It's very easy indeed, just beat some eggs with milk, and pour them into the bacon-adorned cupcake tin. Top with cheese and bake.

Here's how mine looked before baking. 

And right after they came out of the oven. The tops looked overdone while the bacon still seemed mushy.

And sure enough, the eggs were undercooked and the bacon was overcooked. There's a suggestion in the comments to pre-cook the bacon. But at that point, it just seems easier to make scrambled eggs and bacon. And look at the cupcake tin - it's a mess! I hate scrubbing those things.

Verdict: Not worth the hassle. Maybe if you're set on these for a brunch dish, you could play around with pre-cooking and either lining or greasing the tins. But I wash my hands of this recipe.

"Great-Grandma's" Pasta Sauce

Apparently, spaghetti sauce is controversial. TableForTwo posted a recipe for Great Grandma's Pasta Sauce, which earned her lots of pins and lots of cranky comments about what is and isn't authentic.

Here's the image that's all over Pinterest:

Dried oregano, garlic powder... Mario Batali it ain't. But I thought it might taste OK, so I gave it a try. It's a pretty basic recipe - saute meat and garlic, add tomato stuff, simmer forever.

I followed it pretty closely, except that I threw in some mushrooms and chopped bell pepper to up the veggie content a bit.

It came out looking pretty good.

The taste, though, was just OK. It was quite sweet, and had a bit of a canned tomato flavor to it. I think I'll stick to my standby Cook's Illustrated recipe for a tomato-based pasta sauce.

Verdict: Not terrible, but there are better recipes out there.