Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything but the beginning of a new school year is always crazy.  Things are starting to level out and I have a wonderful group of third graders this year.  James and I were invited to a Spaghetti Dinner for this evening and we needed to bring dessert plus my third grade team has been amazing and I thought they needed a special treat so I found this recipe on the internet.  These cupcakes are simply delicious.  The cupcake itself has a little more of a muffin consistency... but it is still fabulous.  Don't be deterred by the three separate parts either.  These were super easy to make.  I made the cookie dough filling while the cupcakes baked, and then made the frosting while they cooled.  I would definitely recommend this recipe to anyone and would have to say these are my second favorite cupcakes after the chocolate peanut butter ones I made about a month ago...

Since I made these after a crazy day with the kids I forgot to take pictures of each step but I have included an inside look at the finished product so you can see all the delicious details!  Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

From Annie's Eats
For the cupcakes:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

For the filling:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

For the frosting:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
3½ cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
2½ tsp. vanilla extract

For decoration:
Mini chocolate chips

Directions:

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners (24 total). In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar. Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir together to blend. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated. Blend in the vanilla. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the cookie dough filling, combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a bit, about an hour.

To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped portion out of the center of each cupcake. Fill each hole with a chunk of the chilled cookie dough mixture.

To make the frosting, beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy. Mix in the confectioners' sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.
Frost the filled cupcakes as desired, sprinkling with mini chocolate chips.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

First, let me promise I will take a break from the peanut butter and chocolate combination in the baked goods... it is just one of my favorite combinations that I couldn't help but make them for my last weekend off before school starts.  I started with a recipe from Annie's Eats and modified it to fit my kind of flavor profile (mainly I took out the nutmeg because I do not really care for nutmeg and I added some vanilla extract).  It was also James' brother's last weekend in town before leaving for college so we added some yellow and green m&m's to the top for him (and USF). 

I divided this recipe into two smaller ones, one for the cookie and one for the filling.  If you just want to make the cookie on its own then go for it, you won't hurt my feelings!

The ingredients!

Peanut Butter Cookies
Adapted from Annie's Eats

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup peanut butter (I went crunchy because that's what we had)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ cups chopped salted peanuts
about ½ cup sugar, for rolling

Directions:
Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
Working with a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for a minute or two, until smooth and creamy. Add the peanut butter and beat for another minute.

The peanut butter and butter mixed together

Add the sugars and vanilla and beat for 3 minutes more.

With the sugars and vanilla added

Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl and, on low speed, add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they just disappear.

With the eggs and dry ingredients

Mix in the chopped peanuts. You’ll have a soft, pliable (mushable, actually) dough.

And finally with the chopped peanuts!

Pour the ½ cup of sugar into a small bowl. Working with a level tablespoonful of dough for each cookie, roll the dough between your palms into balls and drop the balls, a couple at a time, into the sugar. Roll the balls around in the sugar to coat them, then place on the baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between them. Flatten the balls of dough with the palm of your hand. 

The dough in the sugar and on the trays

Bake for about 12 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. When done, the cookies will be lightly colored and still a little soft. Let the cookies sit on the sheets for a minute before transferring them to cooling racks with a wide metal spatula. Cool to room temperature.

The cooling cookies!!!

Chocolate Ganache Filling

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp. butter
9 oz. semisweet chocolate

To make the ganache, heat the heavy cream and the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil. Place the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes.

The boiling cream and chocolate

Stir until smooth.

The finished, smooth chocolate ganache

Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour, or until the ganache has thickened enough to be piped onto a cookie.

To finish, match the cooled cookies up into pairs by size. Turn one cookie of each pair over so that the flat side is facing up. Place the chilled ganache into a plastic bag with a corner snipped off. Pipe a swirl of ganache onto the flat face of each pair. Top with the other cookie of each pair and press it onto the ganache, so that it is pushed to the edges of the sandwich. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until set. Bring to room temperature to serve.

Champagne Grape and Pecan Chicken Salad

A few weeks ago we bought a package of champagne grapes at the grocery store.  They are super tiny and pack a sweet, tart, juicy punch when you bite into them.  These are by far my favorite grape now and a great afternoon snack. The first time I bought them I thought these would be great grapes for making chicken salad.  My love for chicken salad comes from when I lived in Atlanta.  Most, if not all, restaurants in Atlanta that I have had chicken salad at has always been delicious... finding good chicken salad in Orlando is another matter entirely. I am almost always disappointed by chicken salad I find in Orlando.  In my quest for the best chicken salad I have come up with the following rules:

1.  The chicken must be fresh and chunky (no canned chicken for me... it usually has the consistency of catfood and that is not good)

2.  The chicken salad can't be too mayonaisey or saucy (I have tried plenty of chicken salads that you would make you think the chef owned stock in Helmann's)

3.  I prefer chicken salad that has some other textures to it by way of fruits and nuts. 

I decided to use the champagne grapes we had to make chicken salad sandwiches for lunch today.  I didn't have a recipe in mind when I started so I don't have a picture of the ingredients that I used.  This was sort of a trial and error recipe and I added to it as I went.  The finished product and recipe is below!  Enjoy!

Champagne Grape and Pecan Chicken Salad
(makes 2 sandwiches)

1/2 lb chicken breast, cooked (I poached mine in chicken stock for 20 minutes)
1/4 cup mayonaisse
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 champagne grapes
2 tbsp scallions (1 tbsp white part, 1 tbsp green part)
salt and pepper to taste

Cut up the chicken into small pieces.  Add the mayonaisse, mustard, and pecans and mix well.  Add the scallions, salt, and pepper.  Add champagne grapes and mix together carefully, you don't want to crush the grapes!  Serve on a bread of your choice with whatever toppings you desire (I prefer just tomatoes). 

Changes coming to this blog...

Dear Readers,

Summer is coming to an end and school will start on Monday.  This year will be particularly busy because I will be teaching third grade at a new school, finishing grad school, and completing my national boards. I want to keep up this blog but know that posts will have to be more infrequent.  Right now the plan is to post on Sundays and Wednesdays.  Don't be alarmed if I miss a few days here and there though.  The national boards will be over in March and grad school will be in May.  Then life should get back to normal and I will be able to post more frequently.

Thank you to everyone that takes the time to read this blog, it means alot to have an outlet for my culinary experiences!

Sincerely,

Jessica
(The Kamikaze Gourmet)

Meatball Sub Paninis

I don't know if I mentioned in the Spaghetti and Meatball post but the recipe made 18 meatballs!  That is/was/forever will be too much for two people to eat which is another good reasons why I should always invite people over when cooking.  We ended up with about 12 leftover meatballs and James suggested making meatball subs the next night. 

I have a problem with meatball subs and it's the same problem I tend to have with burritos and other hand-held foods where there is an art to the amount of pressure you apply to the food so that half of it doesn't come out the other end and land in your lap.  I don't know anyone else has this problem but it's something that I am well aware that I have.  I decided that I would make paninis with the leftover meatballs.  I scoured in the internet for another person who has tried this and haven't found anyone so far.  They turned out pretty well although I would add more cheese next time.  

The finished paninis... the big one is for James and the little one is mine!

Ingredients:
leftover meatballs in sauce
mozzarella cheese (to your liking)
hoagie rolls
butter

Preheat the panini press to medium heat. 
Slice the hoagie rolls in half and butter the insides of the bread.  I used some leftover garlic butter we had to add a little zip to it.  Place the bread, butter side down on the press and let the butter melt. Remove the rolls from the press and place them butter side up on a cutting board.

Meanwhile, cut the meatballs in half and place the meatballs and sauce in a microwavable bowl.  Heat for 90 seconds or so until the are heated all the way through.  This might change depending on your microwave... ours doesn't seem to be particularly powerful especially compared to the one at our old place. This part comes from a trick I learned when making Cuban sandwiches, you want to heat the meat up seperately to ensure that it is the proper temperature when you are done pressing the sandwich.  If you put cold meatballs into the panini press you will be eating warm, crispy, crunchy, bread with warm/cold meatballs in the middle!

Building the subs!

Place the heated meatball halves on the bread and top with sauce and cheese to your liking.  Place the finished sandwich in the panini press and heat about 5-7 minutes until the roll gets to your desired level of crunchiness.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Saturday ended up being rather rainy so I thought I would attempt making Spaghetti and Meatballs.  This is the first time I ever made them and the second time ever having them (the first was when James' parents made them for Sunday dinner one week).  When I was growing up we just always had meat sauce with our spaghetti... which is infinitely easier and quicker than making meatballs I have learned.   The meatballs turned out deliciously but the sauce was a little thin so I cheated and added some store bought sauce to thicken it up.  I used Mid's Marinara Sauce because of all the store bought sauces I have tried so far it is my favorite and tastes the freshest in my opinion.  I served the spaghetti and meatballs with a ceasar salad and garlic bread.  I also cheated on the garlic bread because sometimes I really enjoy the too-greasy-for-you-to-eat frozen garlic bread.  I know it's bad for me but it's a guilty pleasure every now and then. 

Without further ado here is the recipe with the modifications I made and the measurements I would use next time (mainly just the addition of the store bought sauce)...

Spaghetti and Meatballs
adapted from The Pioneer Woman

The ingredients minus the jar of sauce (I didn't know I'd need it when starting)

Meatballs:

1 pound ground beef
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp bread crumbs (I used plain, store-bought crumbs)
2 eggs
3/4 cup grated parmesan (I bought the fresh, pre-shredded kind)
1/4 cup flat-leaf  (aka Italian) parsley, minced
1/4  teaspoons salt
freshly ground black pepper
splash of milk ( I used skim)
½ cups Olive Oil

Sauce:
1 whole Yellow Onion, Diced
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (14-Ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1/2 jar of Mid's marinara sauce
1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, Minced
 8 whole Fresh Basil Leaves, Chiffonade (optional)
1/2 pound spaghetti, cooked according to package directions or your liking

To make the meatballs, combine meat, garlic, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, eggs, salt, pepper, parsley, and a splash of milk in a mixing bowl. Mix together well with hands.

This is what the meat should look like when mixed

 Roll into 16-20 1 1/2-inch balls and place on a cookie sheet or pan. Place into the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes to firm up.

The meatballs ready for the freezer

To brown the meatballs, heat olive oil in a heavy pot or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add meatballs 8 at a time, turning to brown. Remove and drain on a paper towel after each batch. Set meatballs aside.

The meatballs cooking!

In the same pot, add the onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes, or until translucent. Pour in dhole tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and 1/2 jar of sauce (or more if you would like). Add salt, pepper, sugar, and parsley. Stir to combine and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes.
Add meatballs to pot and stir in gently. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, stirring very gently a couple of times during the simmer.

The finished sauce

Just before serving, stir in basil if using.
Serve over cooked spaghetti. Sprinkle with extra Parmesan.

When life gives you free tequila make margarita cupcakes!

A couple of weekends ago we went to the Margarita Festival with Liz and Mike and ended up with a free bottle Lunazul tequila.  It's actually a fairly decent tequila and that makes me happy.  Our friend Caroline was having a game night and I thought that was the perfect opportunity to try out a new cupcake.  The margarita cupcake recipe turned out fairly well although I am a chocolate cupcake fan at heart so they seemed a little plain to me.  James thought they tasted really good though and he loves vanilla cupcakes.  I really liked the frosting though!  It was definitely light and fluffy and delicous!  I found this recipe on Annie's Eats and have already decided I will have to try the chocolate khalua cupcakes next!

I am going to try something new with this post and add photos of the various steps.  I have found this helpful on some other blogs.  Since this is my first attempt I know I didn't take as many pictures as I should have but I'm learning.  This blog is also making me want to learn more about photography and web design... this may end up being a much more expensive hobby than I had originally planned!  I hope you enjoy!

Margarita cupakes with Tequila Lime Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients for the cupcakes:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
3 limes, zested and juiced
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Ingredients for the frosting:
2 cups sugar

8 large egg whites
Pinch of coarse salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
2-4 tbsp. tequila

The Ingredients

Let's start with the cupcakes

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line two muffin pans with cupcake liners.

2.  Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. (I didn't include a picture of this because it really just looks like a bowl of flour... not very exciting)
3.  Cream together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.

The butter and sugar mixture

4.  Add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

After the addition of the eggs!

5.  Add in the lime juice, lime zest and vanilla and beat well.

6.  Beat in the flour mixture in three additions, starting with the flour mixture and adding the buttermilk after the first and second flour additions.

The finished batter.

7.  Fill the cupcake liners about half-full with the batter.

8.  Bake 20-24 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

9.  Cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

And now for the frosting...

1.  Combine sugar, egg whites and salt in a medium sauce pan and heat until it reaches 160 degrees F and the sugar has completely dissolved.

2.  Transfer to a stand mixer and beat on medium-high until stiff peaks form and it has cooled to room temperature.
3.  Add in the butter, two tablespoons at a time -- mixing well after each addition.

The frosting being whipped!

4.  Stir in the lime juice and tequila and squeeze on top of the cooled cupcakes.


And here is the finished product packed up for their trip to Caroline's