Chocolate

Utensils needed: Heatproof bowl; heavy-bottomed saucepan; baking sheet or platter, lightly buttered; wooden spoon.
Boiling time: 6 minutes.
Storage: Keep individually wrapped candies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week; refrigerated, up to 3 weeks.

Tip: Trim chocolate desserts of high-fat, high-cal extras like crust.

These cookies have a low-fat secret. They're full of beans! Idaho State University researchers in Pocatello replaced 75 percent of the butter with beans to create cookies with 105 calories and 3 fat grams (compared with 150 calories and 7 fat grams).

The ultimate chocolate cake.

The all-American soda fountain classic gets a fabulous tropical makeover.

This fun, gooey treat makes a great after-school snack. The marshmallows are slightly charred and the bread is cleverly caramelized for double the toasty flavor.

Because the blackberry coulis flavors the glaze for this dark chocolate cake, it should be made ahead of the cake.

There's one thing better than a warm chocolate cake: a warm chocolate cake served with a rich cream sauce. This 139-calorie dessert only feels like a splurge.

This torte is a masterful mix of textures: The top crust bakes up with a hint of crackly crunch, giving way to a moist, light interior studded with tiny bits of hazelnut.

Baker's sugar, a favorite of pastry chefs, is also called superfine sugar. It measures the same as regular but dissolves more quickly. It's available at some supermarkets. You can also make your own by whizzing granulated sugar in a food processor until powdery. To avoid overbaking the pudding cakes, start checking early for doneness.

Editor's note: This recipe was developed by Shane Philip Coffey, the chef at Alias restaurant on New York City's Lower East Side. This rich and luscious dessert came about because I needed a special dessert for a St. Patrick's Day tasting menu. I was on a mission to use my favorite beer, Guinness, something I consider to be one of Ireland's gifts to the world. As the 17th of March drew closer, I looked for inspiration at my favorite Irish pub in Manhattan. As I savored my pint, I saw a Guinness poster that said, "My Goodness, My Guinness!" It was like an angel sang in my ear: "What if you combined a dark chocolate pudding and Guinness, topped it with whipped cream lightly flavored with Guinness, and then put it in a glass to make it look just like a pint of the black?" After a few failed attempts, I got it just right. Make the effort to find a good dark chocolate (about 70 to 72 percent cacao). The better the chocolate, the creamier the dessert. And, unless you have an Irish pub next door where you can pull it straight from the tap, a 14.9-ounce can of Guinness Draught works best.

Be sure to use regular peanut butter — not old-fashioned or freshly ground — for the best consistency in the cookie batter and the filling.