The Amherst Student asked us to write another article this week! So, we decided to come up with a new recipe that is specifically tailored to Amherst students, one in which every ingredient can be foraged from our dining hall! 
Just fill up a tupperware with these delicious items, and you can make your own fantastic breakfast bars. They are perfect for those days when you are too tired to run to the dining hall for breakfast before a 9:00 am lecture. 
We hope you relish that extra hour of sleep!
Feel free to customize this with any ingredients that you happen to have on hand, for example- we threw in some chopped walnuts that were left over from our walnut fudge. 
Ingredients:
2/3 cup granola (f)
1/3 cup corn flakes (f)
1/4 cup dried raisins/cranberries (f)
1/4 cup walnuts  (optional)
4 teaspoons butter (f)
4 tablespoons peanut butter (f)
1 tablespoon sugar (f)
Directions:
 1. Mix granola, corn flakes, dried fruit, and chopped walnuts in small bowl
2.  Melt butter in bowl of double boiler
3. Add peanut butter and sugar to melted butter, stir over heat until smooth
4. Mix liquid with dry ingredients until just combined
5. Press firmly into a square Tupperware lined with aluminum foil
6. Refrigerate overnight
7. Separate hardened granola from aluminum foil and cut into bars
Enjoy!

 
Hot chocolate can be made with powder and hot water. But we all know that watery hot cocoa is nothing compared to rich, thick, hot chocolate made with warm milk.
We've been meaning to create a perfect hot chocolate recipe for a while. This recipe would use melted chocolate chips instead of cocoa powder, and we would add condensed milk (a common ingredient in recipes like vietnamese iced coffee and cookie dough truffles) However, we were only motivated to actually write the post after making s'mores bars. Our extra marshmallows were begging to be dumped into a mug of steaming hot cocoa!
The cup of our kettle double boiler is only 1 cup big, so it is impossible to heat up a full mug of coco using the steam. The solution to this predicament was actually rather simple.  We made a concentrated chocolate mixture and heated it to its maximum temperature, then we poured it into a mug half full of plain milk. The cold milk diluted the hot chocolate to the perfect level of richness and brought it down to the ideal temperature for immediate enjoyment! 
Ingredients:
  • A small handfull of Chocolate Chips
  • 1 teaspoon Condensed Milk
  • Small splash of vanilla (optional)
  • 1 1/4 C of Milk

Instructions:
1. Pour 1/2 C of milk into a mug and set it aside.
2. Combine the chocolate chips, condensed milk, vanilla, and a tablespoon of milk in a double boiler and heat until all ingredients combine.
3. Add milk in small increments, stirring completely between each addition. 4. When the full 3/4 C of milk has been added to the chocolate and mixture is too hot to touch, pour the hot milk into the sitting milk in the  mug. 
5. Your resulting mixture will be a nice temperature for drinking, so sprinkle in a few marshmallows and enjoy! 
 
There is something incredible about the magical combination of melted marshmallows, chocolate, and crunch graham crackers. S'mores are classic campfire treat, but many have tried (and failed) to make a comprable indoor version. The gooey perfection that is so vital to a s'more cannot be achieved by simply pouring melted chocolate over a few marshmallows that have been sprinkled on a graham cracker. 
So, how did we make an awesome no-bake, no-fire s'more with our limited equipment? How did we at dorm room delights accomplish what so many others have failed to do? The secret is a combination of 4 layers: a graham cracker base, a chewy chocolate/marshmallow layer, a gooey melted marshmallow layer, and a hard melted chocolate layer topped with crushed graham cracker and marshmallows. The variety of textures mimics an authentic s'more, because the marshmallow/chocolate layer hints of freshly melted chocolate and elevates the entire s'mores bar.
Although the bowl of the double boiler needs to be washed for each layer, the time spent washing equipment is just the right about of time for the freshly poured hot layer cool. All in all, this is an awesome recipe that uses common ingredients on our blog (graham crackers from our no-bake cheesecake, semisweet chocolate chips from all of our various chocolate recipes, and marshmallows- which go perfectly with our fantastic hot chocolate!)
Ingredients:
  • 3/4 C Marshmallows
  • 3/4 C Chocolate Chips
  • 1 Graham Cracker
Instructions:
1. Lay the graham cracker down in tinfoil and fold the foil into a square.
2. In the double boiler, melt 1/4 C of marshmallows.
3. Add 1/4 C of the chocolate chips to the melted marshmallows and continue double boiling until the mixture is combined and has an almost fudgey consistency.
4. Press this mixture onto the graham cracker and let it sit. 
5. Melt the rest of the marshmallows and pour them over the chocolate-marshmallow mixture.
5. Melt the rest of the chocolate and do the same. 
6. Sprinkle some whole marshmallows and crumbled graham crackers over the bar and let it cool in the fridge. 
7. Cut and enjoy!
 
Guess what? Spring is coming! It was 60 degrees and sunny today, and the snow is just starting to melt off the quad.
We've decided to celebrate the weather with a spring-themed recipe: Vietnamese Spring Rolls. 
Unlike deep fried chinese spring rolls, vietnamese spring rolls are served cold and made with a clear rice paper wrapper. (The rice wrappers can be purchased in packs of 100 for around 5$, and come pre-cooked. Just soak in water and they are ready to roll.) As their name suggests, spring rolls are light and crisp: a perfect savory snack for a spring afternoon. 
Spring rolls are generally made with some combination of lettuce, carrots, rice noodles, and chicken/shrimp/tofu. We chose to use make vegetarian spring rolls with tofu, carrots, cucumber, lettuce, and wonton crisps from the salad bar. We paired our spring rolls with our Thai peanut sauce (yes, we mixed ethnic regions), and they tasted fantastic! The peanut sauce added an element of richness to the light vegetables, and the mixture of sweet and savory flavors is always delicious. 
Ingredients (Makes 4 spring rolls)
4 rice paper wrappers*
handful carrots(f)
1/4 cup cucumber(f)
4-5 tofu cubes(f)
A few leaves lettuce(f)
1/4 cup wonton crisps(f)
Directions
1. Slice carrots and cucumbers. Cut tofu into small chunks. Rip lettuce into pieces. 
2. Fill large bowl half way with a mixture of boiling and cool water. Final temp should be warm, but not steaming. 
2. Dip rice paper into water so that half of circle is submerged spin to wet completely. Rice paper should be translucent and stretchy.
3. Put damp rice paper on plate and place a piece of lettuce lengthwise down center of wrapper. Add a few pieces each of: tofu, cucumber, carrots, and wonton crisps, also directed lengthwise.
5. Cover with another piece of lettuce
6. Fold rice paper like a burrito: fold up base width-wise over end of lettuce roll, and then bring one side of paper up lengthwise over the center lettuce. Roll the paper so that it covers the filling. Finally, fold remaining side of paper over the exposed end. 
7. Cut in half and serve with peanut sauce
 
We just had our first snow storm of 2012! The lovely blanket of snow looks great from the common room window, but it much less pleasant when it is dumping on your head as you walk to the dining hall. To save ourselves from the snowstorm, we decided to make a recipe that is hearty enough to be a full meal. Stuffed bell peppers.
Although peppers are traditionally stuffed with meat, tomato sauce, and cheese and then baked in an oven, we found a way to make our peppers completely dorm-room friendly. These peppers are blanched in boiling water, and then stuffed with couscous, cheese, pasta sauce, and walnuts. The peppers are a great serving vessel, and provide a great textural contrast to the couscous filling. 
All in all, these peppers will contribute to a perfectly balanced meal with vegetables from the pepepr, carbs from the couscous, and protein from the nuts/cheese. If you eat them with a few cooked veggies or peanut sauce and noodles, you will have no reason to trek out to the dining hall tonight. Stay warm!
Ingredients:
1/4 cup couscous 
1 regular bell pepper
1/4 cup shredded cheese (f), plus extra for topping
A few raw onion strips (f)
Handful walnuts
Directions:
1. Place bell pepper in bowl, submerge with boiling water, cover and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. While bell pepper is cooking, chop onions and walnuts
3. Remove bell pepper from bowl and dump out water. 
4. Place couscous in bowl and add 1/3 cup boiling water. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes. 
5. While couscous is cooking, heat up pasta sauce in a double boiler
6. When couscous is done, mix in sauce, cheese, onions , and walnuts
7. Spoon mixture into dry bell pepper, layer in extra pasta sauce and cheese.
8. Top with cheese and freshly ground pepper.