Friday, March 18, 2011

Guinness Cupcakes and Bailey's Frosting


Oh St. Patrick's Day, the only day of the year where we are all Irish and encouraged to drink. I found a recipe for this cupcakes over a year ago, and I've wanted to make them for awhile, and I decided that I was going to make them for the holiday.

I'm super glad I did. Not only were they SUPER easy to throw together, but the taste is out of this world. Seriously, there is no substitute for this cupcake. All I can say, is that this is just another Irish thing for me to love.


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Cupcake Ingredients:


1 1/2 cups Guinness (or stout beer)
1 stick of butter, plus 1 Tbsp.
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups dark brown sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. Vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1) Preheat oven to 350 F.

2) Cut butter into cubes and melt on stove-top with beer until the butter has melted. Once melted, remove from heat and whisk in cocoa powder and brown sugar.

3) In a separate bowl, whisk together sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Add to beer mixture.

4) In another bowl, mix together flour and baking soda. Slowly fold into the wet mixture until just mixed.

5) In a lined cupcake pan, pour batter into cups. Bake at 350 F. for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

MAKES 24 CUPCAKES

So about the cupcakes, I could have eaten them without the frosting. They are so rich and chocolatey with just a hint of the Guinness. And as a bonus, getting to drink the remainder of the pint while you bake was pretty awesome. Anyway, I came out 29 cupcakes because I didn't  fill up my first dozen enough. Still, they're just amazingly good.
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Frosting Ingredients
 2-3 cups powdered sugar
1 stick of butter, room temp.
2-3 Tbsp. Bailey's
1 tsp. heavy cream

1) Combine powdered sugar and butter with a fork until a smooth consistency.

2) Add Bailey's, a Tbsp. at a time until smooth.

3) Add heavy cream to even out taste if the Bailey's is too strong.

So this frosting, it's been awhile since I made a buttercream frosting. And I had to add a bit of milk (I had no cream) to take a bit of the edge off. I used 2 1/2 cups of P.S. and I had only a tiny bit leftover. I also added about 3 drops of green food coloring to give it a nice green tint. Totally festive, totally delicious.
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Sunday, March 13, 2011

Nutella Butterscotch Cookies





So, the Chocolate Peppermint Cookies I made on Thursday didn't last long. So last night while watching Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, I busted out these cookies. I found this recipe online, and seeing as how I had a jar of Nutella that needed to get used, so I considered it all perfect timing.




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Nutella Butterscotch Cookies


INGREDIENTS:
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup Nutella or other hazelnut chocolate spread
1 egg
½ tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Cream butter and sugars in a mixer on high speed, until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, then add the Nutella and mix well.

Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix on low speed until all the ingredients are incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and mix just until the dough is smooth. Fold in butterscotch chips.

Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 6-7 minutes. Let cool about 5 minutes and transfer to a rack to cool completely
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 So, I guess I should say that I freaking LOVE Nutella. My absolute favorite way to eat it is on a peanut butter sandwich, but this cookie might change that. It's got nice and crispy edges and a soft and gooey center, and the butterscotch chips give it a nice rich kick. And talk about easy! The dough literally took about 10 minutes to throw together. 

A couple of notes, I let these bake for 8 minutes, at 7 minutes they were just too soft. Also, you don't need to scoop a lot of dough for a cookie. They drop and spread, so the smaller the ball the better. Still, if you have a jar of Nutella in the cupboard but don't know what to do with it, then this is the perfect cookie for you.


Chocolate Peppermint Cookies


Hello again! So I feel I should give a quick explanation as to why I made these cookies.

About a month ago, my Mom and I went to Chick-Fil-A after watching True Grit. They had a chocolate peppermint milkshake that sounded really super amazing. I knew my mission, to look through my books to find a decent chocolate cookie that I could add these peppermint chips I had in my freezer.

The recipe, came from this cookbook:
I picked this up a couple of weeks ago because my local Border's store was going out of business. I also picked up 1 Mix, 100 Cakes so yay for cheap cookbooks!



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INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 egg yolk, slightly beaten
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup peppermint chips

1) Preheat oven to 375 F. Line 2 cookie sheets with baking parchment

2) Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon, then beat in the egg yolk and vanilla extract. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and a pinch of salt into the mixture. Add the chips and stir until thoroughly combined.

3) Scoop up tablespoons of the mixture and shape into balls. Put them on the prepared cookie sheets spaced well apart and flatten slightly.

4) Bake for 12-15 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheets for 5-10 minutes, then using a metal spatula, carefully transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
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These, were so sinfully perfect. The chocolate and peppermint are in perfect balance, neither is too overpowering. And they're the perfect size, all tiny and adorable. These were really easy to make, and were the perfect thing for my chocolate peppermint craving. These may be on my baking list for Christmas this year, but they would look perfect on a gift platter.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Raspberry Chip Cookies


Hello everyone! Sorry about being gone for a couple of weeks, but the sugar cookies I made for Valentine's Day took forever to finish. So this week it was finally time to bust out a favorite of mine, but I kind of have to explain the origins.

So for V-day, my Mom made me a little bag of candy, and in the bag were these Raspberry Hershey's Kisses. I took one bite and I remembered this cookie I haven't made since I was about 19. You see, Hershey's used to make Raspberry baking chips, and they were my favorite cookie to make for a bout a year, but then Hershey's stopped making them. I had completely forgotten about them until I had the candies. I was so excited, that the day after Valentine's I hit up my local Target and bought 3 bags of the Kisses. I figured they were the next best thing to the baking chips.



INGREDIENTS:

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped Raspberry Hershey's Kisses
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

1) Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

2) Beat together butter, sugar and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in one egg at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add in vanilla and mix well. Add flour mixture to wet mixture until just combined.

3) Add in chips and walnuts until just combined.

4) Drop by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets, and bake for 9-11 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
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So, these were a little tricky. This recipe is a variation on your basic Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I broke my chopper chopping the Kisses, and I didn't have 2 cups, so I decided to supplement with walnuts, chocolate & white chocolate chips. The flavor of the raspberry chips isn't that strong, because while chopping I produced mostly shavings. I think next time I try these I'll hand chop in big pieces and supplement with chips & walnuts again. Still, these were a fun blast from the past that totally put a smile on my face. Hopefully if you try them out, they'll do the same for you.

(my new apron, it's so freaking cute!)






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