The only thing better than a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie is chocolate chip cookie dough. Who doesn't love a spoonful of raw cookie dough? Now, imagine that spoonful covered in melted chocolate! Win? We think so.
This recipe is designed to be eaten raw, so we eliminated the eggs from traditional cookie dough, and added condensed milk left over from our no-bake cheesecake
Ingredients (makes 16 balls)
  • 1/4 cup softened butter (f)
  • generous 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup condensed milk
  • 1/2 pack (6 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup milk or dark chocolate for dipping balls
Instructions:

 1. Mix butter and sugar.
 2. Add vanilla
 3. Mix in 1/2 cup flour
 4. Add condensed milk
 5. Mix in remaining 1/2 cup flour
 6. Stir in chocolate chips
 7. Spoon into balls and refrigerate 3 hours
 8. Melt dipping chocolate in double boiler
 9. Drop dough ball in chocolate, and cover
10. Cool until chocolate shell hardens

 
Marshmallows and Rice Krispie cereal. Two ingredients that combine to make one of the most nostalgic snacks in the world. Every child loves to mix gooey melted marshmallows with crunchy cereal, and quite a few college students enjoy it, too. 
This is one of the most simple recipes on our blog, so feel free to get creative by adding various ingredients to the melted marshmallows. We tried out  peanut butter-cranberry Rice Krispie treats (the middle treat in the stack shown above) along with the original recipe.
Ingredients (makes a 4' by 4' bar or 9 small cubes)
-1 cup mini marshmallows
-1 cup Rice Krispies (f)
Directions:
 1. Melt half of marshmallows in double boiler
 2. Add remaning marshmallows, and stir until smooth
 3. Mix melted marshmallows into Rice Kirspies
 4. Spoon into square tupperware (lined with aluminum foil)
 5. Let sit 10 mins, until cool
Variation peanut butter-cranberry:
Add 2 tablespoons peanut butter to melted marshmallows, and mix in 1 tablespoon dried cranberry when combining ingredients. 
 

Finals period is an odd time on every college campus. Every day is a 15 hour stretch with nothing to do except study, nap, and worry about the impending doom of finals. But in all honesty, who can really study non-stop all day long? Not us! 

Instead, we are going to take advantage of this finals period to take a shot at some of the more time consuming recipes that we've been thinking about.
This is a recipe for a refrigerator chocolate mousse cake. It is rather involved, because you need to whip eggs, whites, and cream. But the results are well worth the time involved. With shortbread cookies for the crust, and a delicious chocolate filling, this cake is a perfect way to spend your study break :)

Ingredients
  • 6 oz semisweet chocolate chips
  • 3 tbsp coffee (very dark)
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped
  • about 12 short bread cookies
                                                                  Instructions:
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1. Line three round containers with aluminum foil and then line those with the cookies; we used shortbread that was to thick to leave much room for the mouse, so we shaved them down a bit.
2. Place the chocolate in a double boiler and melt.
3. Beat egg yolks until they lighten in color and then beat in sugar.
4. Add the vanilla, coffee, and melted chocolate, beat until combined.

5. Beat the egg-whites until they hold peaks.
6. Fold in the whites until combined.
7. Whip the heavy cream and fold them in.
8. Pour the mouse into the cookie-lined containers and refrigerate.
 
Holidays and truffles go hand in hand. Assorted truffles are the perfect party favor, present, or desert for your dorm mates! Most truffles have a creamy ganache center, and are dipped in a hard layer of chocolate casing, which can be decorated however you choose. Ganache is made by heating heavy cream, and stirring it into finely chopped milk or dark chocolate. The ganache is cooled, then formed into balls and dipped in pure melted chocolate. This recipe is time consuming, but fun. It's a great study break for you and your friends on a holiday night!
Directions:
 1. Chop chocolate very finely. Put in large bowl.
 2.  Bring cream to a boil in the double boiler
 2. Pour cream over chocolate, stir until chocolate is melted.
 3. Refrigerate bowl of ganache about 30 mins
 4. Using two spoons, form ganache into balls 
 5. Refrigerate balls overnight
 6. Melt dark chocolate
 7. Roll ganache balls in melted chocolate, sprinkle with cocoa powder, almonds, or desired topping
 8. Chill truffles until outer shell is hard
Ingredients (makes 12 truffles):
6 oz milk chocolate
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 oz (1/2 cup chopped) dark chocolate
 
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So we made a cheesecake the other day, and it required condensed milk. It is a rather uncommon ingredient, and we bought more than we needed for one small cheesecake. 
We were trying to think of a way to use up this extra condensed milk, and instantly thought of Vietnamese iced coffee. It is a lovely iced coffee sweetened with a splash of condensed milk. 
Ingredients:
  • Coffee (brewed using our coffee method, or a regluar coffee maker)
  • Condensed Milk (two tablespoons)
  • Ice 

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Instructions:
  • Cover the bottom of a glass with the condensed milk and place in fridge for an hour.
  • Prepare a mug of coffee and put that in the fridge as well.
  • When both the coffee and the condensed milk are cooled, pour the coffee into chilled glass, add ice, and stir.

 
Here on Dorm Room Delights, we have a passion for using common dorm ingredients in different, delicious ways. This recipe takes ramen noodles (cooked using the ramen method) and peanut butter to create a fantastic Thai-style noodle dish. 
When you add some cooked green beans, left over from your chicken soup,  this can make a full dinner for those nights when it is just too cold to walk to the dining hall. 
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Ingredients:
  • 1/4 C Peanut Butter (f)
  • 2/3 Tablespoons of sugar
  • 2/3 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce (f)
  • 1/4 C Hot Water
Instructions:

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  1. Combine the peanut butter, sugar, and soy sauce and mix.
  2. Pour in the water slowly while stirring until it reaches the appropriate consistency.
  3. Mix with plain, cooked Ramen Noodles and enjoy!

(This dish works well with green beans that are cooked using our frozen vegetables method.)

 
Instant oatmeal is almost a necessity for college. It is the perfect breakfast food or midnight snack, and comes in convenient variety packs at every grocery store. Unfortunately, most variety packs include the plain, unsweetened, and completely boring "regular flavor" of oatmeal. Even though it is a waste, it is just so hard to eat those "regular flavor" packs. Wasting food is not ok, so we found a recipe to finally make use of those packets of unsweetened instant oatmeal...Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies!
These are a delicious snack, and ridiculously easy to make! The ingredients are also very easy to acquire; just grab an extra pack of peanut butter from the dining hall and use some half and half from your coffee bar (ok- joking! Not everyone has a fully functioning coffee bar in their dorm room- but half and half is a great investment; it can really take coffee over the edge!) 
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Ingredients (for 8 small cookies):
  • 1/4 cup (or about 4 packets) sugar
  • 1 tablespoon butter (f)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons half and half
  • 1 pack of instant oatmeal (regular)
  • 2 tablespoons peanut butter (f)

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Instructions:
 1. Melt butter, sugar, and cream together in double boiler
 2. Mix hot liquids in a bowl with oatmeal and peanut butter
 3. Form into small balls and place on wax paper/ aluminum foil
 4. Refrigerate 1 hour

 
There are tons of no-bake cheesecake recipes online. The theory is simple: make a cream cheese filling, put it in a standard cheesecake crust, then refrigerate. The filling for regular cheesecake is made with eggs that help the cream cheese set up and become firm. However, the no-bake filling is made without eggs and is therefore much less dense. 
The flavors match a traditional cheesecake taste, but the texture is more like a pudding. So, this is the ultimate desert when you are craving something sweet and special, without the super-rich feeling of regular cheesecake. 
Ingredients:
Crust:
  • 4 old-fashioned graham crackers (or 2 full sheets of the regular brand variety)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons butter (f)
Filling:
  • 2 oz cream cheese (softened) (f)
  • 1/8 cup sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 tsp lemon juice (from about 2 lemon slices) (f)
  • 1 tbs powdered sugar
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Directions:
For crust:
 1. Crush graham crackers in a plastic bag (use flat edge of spoon)
 2. Melt butter in bowl of double boiler 
 3. Mix butter and crushed graham crackers in bowl unti crumbs stick together
 

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 4. Pour crumbs into prepared aluminum foil (we shaped the foil using a small cylindrical tupperware) and press crumbs into sides of foil. Refrigerate at least 15mins. 

Filling:

  1. Put cream cheese in a metal bowl and stir with a fork (try and fluff it up as much as possible)
  2. Add the powdered sugar and mix it in.
  3. Pour in the condensed milk and lemon juice and then stir it all together until it has a cheesecake consistency.

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4.    Pour the filling into the base and refrigerate/freeze until it hardens.



The consistency of the filling is closer to that of pudding. If frozen, it will be more firm and easier to cut. 

 
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Let's face it. When everyone around you is coughing and sneezing, you have no hope of escaping the illness of the season. The best thing you can do is stock up on tea, get a pair of fuzzy socks, and grab a cup of soup. I don't mean pre-packaged cup noodles or ramen. I'm talking about a fresh chicken soup loaded with veggies and real chicken breast.
This soup recipe is very simple and adaptable to your tastes. It starts with a chicken bullion broth, then  vegetables, noodles, and chicken can be added however you want. For this batch, I grabbed a variety of veggies from my dining hall salad bar. 

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Ingredients:

  • 2 chicken bullion cubes 
  • 4 small celery stalks (f)
  • 1/4 cup raw onion (f)
  • 1/3 cup green beans (cooked) (f)
  • 1/4 cup chicken breast (cooked) (f)
  • thermos

Sweat onions and celery
Directions:
 1. Chop vegetables and chicken
 2. Combine celery and onion in double boiler bowl. Sweat onions (aka- heat until onions start to lose their juices)
 3. Add chicken to celery and onions. Heat until chicken is warm to the touch.
 4. Pour 2 cups boiling water into thermos with 2 bullion cubes. Stir to mix flavoring.
 5. Add green beans and double boiler ingredients to chicken broth. 
 6. Cover thermos with lid. Let flavors combine while soup cools.
Sip your soup, and get well soon!

 
Nachos are easily made in the microwave. Sprinkle some tortilla chips with your favorite kind of cheese, heat for 30 seconds, and sprinkle with salsa. But what happens when it is 11:00 at night, and you are craving nachos in your dorm room? 
We have the answer: melt cheese using your kettle!
Here's how:
Ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup cheese, cut into small cubes, or shredded (f)
  • 1/4 cup of milk (whatever you  have, we used 1%) (f)
  • tortilla chips
  • salsa, any variety (f)
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Directions:
 1. Combine 1/4 cup cheese and 1/4 cup milk in bowl of double boiler
 2. Stir constantly until cheese melts into milk
 3. Add remaining 1/4 cup cheese
 4. Immediately after rest of cheese has melted, pour over tortilla chips
 5. Add salsa and eat quickly (while the cheese is still hot!)