Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

My husband loves chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.  I love cupcakes.  It's a win-win combination in my opinion.  So, I know this cupcake idea has been around for a while, it isn't new.  I have made this combo before.  But I thought I would post it on my baking blog.

For the cupcake, use your favorite vanilla cake recipe, or a box mix, whatever you fancy.  I used my favorite recipe which is as follows:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp.

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla.

Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake pan with paper cups. In a mixer, mix the butter alone for about 1 to 2 minutes, let it get light and airy. Add the sugar and this important, beat the sugar and butter together for 2-3 minutes. This will seriously help your cupcake out! (trial and error) Add the eggs one at a time, allowing the egg to mix for 30 seconds each time...again, this is an important step you don't want to miss! Add in the baking powder, and then gradually add in the flour and last, the milk. Seems a little weird..usually you alternate..but trust me, this recipe works! Add the vanilla, and mix until just blended...be careful not to over mix! (at this point, you could add chopped chocolate pieces in with this if you want a more intense chocolate flavor to your cookie dough palate.) Fill each cupcake paper with about 2 tablespoons of batter, or if you have a ice cream scoop, use that. I tend to under fill the liners, unless I have the large nut cup size Bake for 20 minutes or until the cake bounces back up if touched with your finger..let cool mean while....

Cookie Dough Filling:

4 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temp

6 tablespoons brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoon all purpose flour

7 ounces sweetened condensed milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips..and sense I didn't have those on hand, I just chopped the chips I had into smaller bits..

Cream together the sugar and butter. Add in the flour and then the condensed milk with the vanilla. Mix in the chocolate. You can let the dough chill if you want too...I did not and am glad I went with my gut on this one...I will explain later....

Brown Sugar Buttercream

2 sticks of unsalted butter

1/4 cup or so of brown sugar

mix these together until the sugar is dissolved in the butter and then add:

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk or whip cream

1 tsp vanilla

mix until smooth, add more milk or cream if needed.  You want the frosting to be spreadable.  

To assemble your cupcakes, Cut a hole in each cupcake using a paring knife, I have also used the back end of a frosting tip..cut the excess cake off the top of your piece of cake you just cut. Fill a piping bag with the cookie dough filling..see, if it was chilled, it would be harder to work with, and I am all for easy steps! Place the top part of the piece of cake you cut back on the cupcake, hiding your filling, and then pipe on the buttercream, sprinkle with chocolate chips...sit back with a glass of milk and bite into heaven!!! :) Oh yeah, repeat the first couple of steps until all the cupcakes are done!

Butterscotch cupcakes

I have seen this idea on a couple of the websits I visit on a frequent basis, okay, so maybe I visit some of these blogs more often than that..say every day.  I love food blogs, I am a little obsessed okay?  Anyway, people keep hinting that it is fall.  Now, if you live where I do, fall doesn't rear it's head until around Thanksgiving, or sometimes not till after Christmas, so I have a while to go before thinking about my favorite time of the year.  Having said that, I wanted to try out these cupcakes and today was the perfect day to do so.  It is cloudy today, and it looks like it might just rain sometime as well, so I can pretend that it is fall, and butterscotch reminds me of fall..and Harry Potter..so i thought, why not make these lovely's?  So, I did.  And you will be glad that I did!  I found this idea over at the Curvy Carrot, which is a great blog, you should check it out if you haven't already.  I didn't use her recipes provided, but made my own.  They were so good.  I am limited to one, and I savored every single bite!

Pictures will be posted as soon as I can load them in the near future!  Revamping the computer, and I am very slow at it...

Butterscotch Cupcakes.

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp.
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp butter extract
2 3/4 cup flour

In a mixer, whip the butter until light and fluffy, add the sugars slowly, and mix until fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time.  Alternate between the flour/baking powder,salt with the milk/butter extract, ending with the flour.  Fill your cupcake liners and bake 350 for 20-24 minutes, or until the cake bounces bake up when lightly pressed by your finger.  Let them cool.

Butterscotch Frosting

1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter
1 tsp butter extract
2-3 cups powder sugar

In a pan, heat the heave cream until foam forms on the edges, pour heavy cream over the butterscotch chips.  let sit for 1 minute, stir with a wooden spoon until all the chips are melted and the frosting is smooth. Add the butter and extract.  Place in the freezer to cool for about five minutes or so.  Take out and with a mixer, slowly mix the powder sugar into the frosting and mix until the frosting in smooth and a little stiff.  Frost your cupcakes, and enjoy!  People have putting a butterscotch sauce on top..but after tasting these, I don't think I would add it.  This cupcake is very sweet!  And the added bonus?  Adding the brown sugar to the recipe made these cupcakes moist and delightful!

You should try this Chicken Salad

So whenever my family gets together for a big event, like a baby shower, baby blessing, baptism and wedding we all ask my Dad to make his chicken salad.  It is yummy and slightly addicting.  I love it.  Usually, this salad is served on buttery croissants, but I have lately sworn off refined sugary foods..(which never fear, does not mean I will not be making anything with sugar or flour..I just won't be eating them..lucky neighbors) Anyway, I have tried to stay away from meat, and have been doing pretty well with that, but every once in a while I want a nice juicy hamburger, or some chicken.  And since I have been training..um, for my first half marathon, I have been craving protein like crazy.  So, while I eat a mostly vegetarian diet, there are times when my body is telling me that I need something more.  Here comes Dad's chicken salad.  It is divine with or without the croissant and it tastes better the next day, and the next day.  Especially if you are the only one in your household who likes Mayo.  I don't know the exact recipe, so adapt the amounts for how many people you wish to feed this scrumptious salad to.  I also added the parsley, because I thought it would compliment the other flavors and I was right!

Paul's Chicken Salad (serves around four people)
3 frozen chicken breast
1 scallion, chopped
finely diced parsley
1/2 red bell pepper, small dices
slivered almonds
about 10-15 red seedless grapes, cut in half
2-4 tbsp mayo..just enough to bind the salad

Preheat oven to 350 and place the frozen chicken breast in a baking sheet, pour water into the pan, just to cover the bottom of the pan, season the chicken with Season Salt, salt and pepper and bake for 1-2 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through.  when the chicken is cooked, dice into bite size pieces and place in a large bowl.  Add the chopped vegetables and the mayo and stir until coated.  Taste. It might need more salt and pepper.  Place, covered, in the refrigerator for at least two hours, or overnight, and then enjoy!  (sorry no pictures, my camera's battery is dead and I need to charge it. Story of this blog, right?)

Roasted Tomato Sauce

It's summer time, and with it comes our garden.  We have tried almost every year we have lived in our home to have a garden.  This is the first year that everything out there seems to be thriving...and let's be honest, I am not use to having a garden I can actually harvest.  We have an over abundance of tomatoes.  They are called Lemon Boys.  They are sweet and almost resemble lemons in shape.  They are begging to be eaten, but I have no clue what to do with them.  So, I thought..UM, sauce is good and I can freeze whatever i don't use!  BRILLIANT! Oh, wait..sauce to me means opening up a jar of Rague, and pouring it over my pasta.  But I think this homemade sauce trumps the jar, just my personal opinion.

I found this recipe over at the Food Network site.  Good old Alton Brown saved my behindy again.

I used about twenty lemon boys, which fit into a standard baking sheet.  This made about a cup of sauce.  So, really, I could have picked my whole garden of tomatoes..

Preheat oven 325.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Slice your tomatoes in half..unless they are larger, and then slice them three ways.  Places slices on the baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle pepper and salt and bake in the oven for 1 hour.  Check the tomatoes, they shouldn't be done yet. :) Bake for another hour.  Take out of the oven and let cool slightly.  Place in a blender and blend until smooth.  Adjust the seasonings.  I found that the flavor of the tomatoes was enough and didn't add more.  YUM.  Have this over pasta, or use it on toasted bread and mozzarella and basil, enjoy the taste of sun-dried tomatoes without the price!

Granola..take 1

Homemade Granola..adapted from Phemomenon.
In a large bowl, stir together
3 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup raw almonds chopped
1 cup pecans ( I excluded these)
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp light brown sugar
3 Tbsp wheat germ
1 Tbsp flax seeds
2 tsp cinnamon

In a microwave safe bowl combine
1/4 cup honey ( I used a little more, and I used the local honey we get at Dixie Nutrition)
3 Tbsp vegetable oil (I used extra virgin olive oil instead)
2 tsp vanilla
Microwave ingredients for about 1 to 2 minutes, until heated lightly.  Pour over the dry ingredients and stir to coat.  Place on a baking sheet and make sure the granola is spread evenly and in a single layer.  Bake in a preheated oven 300, for 15 minutes.  Take out and stir, bake for another 15 minutes  take out of the oven and let cool  The more you stir the cooling down granola, the more it will separate so if you want a chunkier granola, don't stir it so much! :)  When it is cool you can eat it, or store in a air tight container for about a week.  It won't last that long!

Because of You..

I love when a friend is willing to share a recipe.  I happened to notice that miss Mindy had a lovely idea on her blog about peanut butter cupcakes.  I had to try it.  I have been thinking about making peanut butter cupcakes for a while, I am not a huge fan of peanut butter, so I haven't been too excited about making them..until I saw Mindy's post.  Oh my goodness.  My daughter loved me today, because of these cupcakes.  Mindy put Reese's peanut butter cups in her cupcakes..BRILLIANT lady that she is. (you can find her recipe and the post that inspired me..right here!)

I found a chocolate cake recipe that sounded really promising, (you can find it here) Instead of sour cream I used plain Greek Yogurt.  A handy tip that would have been awesome to know about five years ago..make sure that all your ingredients are at room temperature.  This will help A LOT.  I didn't even know this until um, today?   Ha. So, make your choice of chocolate cake, and when you have filled your cupcake liners, plop a Reese's cup into that.  see, brilliant.   

The peanut butter frosting.  I don't really like cream cheese based frosting.  Mainly because I don't like the tang of the cheese, it's just a personal thing for me.  Plus, I am married to a man who doesn't like cream cheese, sour cream, salad dressing, mayo...so, I just used my buttercream recipe, but did some things different.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

2 cups butter

1 cup peanut butter (Not really sure about this, I just added what was left in the jar)

Powder sugar

Whip Cream

Notice, I didn't put the amounts of powder sugar or whip cream.  Mainly because I went by taste with the sugar, and I used the whip cream to make the frosting spreadable and smooth, so go by looks...(you really can tell a book by it's cover..or rather, a frosting by it's smoothness)  

Fudge Frosting..yep, folks, two frosting...why?  Why NOT?  So yummy, do divine..and it kept with the peanut butter cup theme. Plus, Mindy used peanut butter with chocolate..which dear old Wally did not have, so I had to improvise, right? 

Fudge Frosting: (found at the same sight that I found the chocolate cake..)

1 stick of butter, melted

4 tbsp cocoa powder

powder sugar

whip cream

whisk together the melted butter and cocoa until smooth.  Start adding the powder sugar and whip cream.  I just kept adding both until the frosting looked more like milk chocolate and less like dark.  

Look into my eyes and tell me you love these!   You will.  Unless you don't like Reese's, or chocolate..or in the case of my cute nephew, are deathly allergic.  :)

Sometimes, I suck at baking

I had this glorious idea for a cupcake. It was going to be beautiful, and delicious. It wasn't. I am usually my biggest fan, I have loved almost every cupcake I have made, until yesterday. These cupcakes had the promise of being something great. Not so much. The batter was actually one of the prettiest batters I have made. The color was a deep lavender, I was excited. First pan in the oven had the looks of light fluffy cakes..and they over flowed. My mistake, each batter acts differently in the oven, some fluff and dome, others raise and then spread..this one, well, it was going all over the place! So, I made sure not to overfill the cupcakes,they were alright. I was going to make a goat cheese frosting, instead of cream cheese..never been a huge cream cheese frosting fan. But the way these  cupcakes were going, they were not deserving of a new frosting. I mean, we all know the frosting is the best part, right? I made buttercream, and tried one. Eh. They weren't the best cupcake out there, the recipe could use some tweaking. The original recipe found at smitten kitchen, used frozen strawberries. I didn't have any, so I used blackberries. They are not very sweet, and the seeds ruined the light crumb of the cake. They were okay. Seriously, but they need some revamping.  Here is the recipe, I would try the strawberry one first. It was actually a fun batter to make, seriously, it had the promise of a truly great cupcake..I don't know if I'll revisit blackberry cupcakes..maybe when my very own bush has produced some, we'll see.  

Pink lady cake..or in my case, the purple oops

4 1/2 cup cake flour
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups puréed blackberries
8 egg whites
2/3 cup milk

Preheat oven 350. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, combine flour, sugar baking powder and salt. Add the butter and berries and mix. In a bowl, add the egg whites, milk and some vanilla (I added vanilla because the berries were really tart) whisk together and slowly add the milk mixture into the flour mixture, scraping down the sides as you go. Fill your cupcake liners. I would use less than you normally would. Bake in the oven for 20-24 minutes. Let Cool and frost. These actually would go well with cream cheese frosting..