Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Here’s something you might not have picked up on.  We have a very teeny, tiny, slight tendency to get just a wee bit carried away.

How?  Well, for our New Year’s Eve party we curled 24 spools of ribbon to decorate the chandelier (we were feeling very festive).  And that was just one light fixture. 

We won’t mention the food we prepared for the 10 people who came over (there may have been 36 cupcakes, 2 pans of brownies, a charcuterie platter and 3 specialty cocktails).

But wait.  Please don’t think we are those people who are always bustling about doing insanely over the top, crafty things that leave the rest of us wondering where they find the time. 

Um, seriously, no, we don’t have that much energy. 

Actually, we’re kind of lazy a lot of the time (really how can we be expected to change the channel without a remote control?).  But if it’s something we’re passionate about, like food (and apparently December 31st), then we hit the gas and go full speed, guns a-blazin’. 

Yes, cookies, guns a-BLAZIN’.

So of course baking, being one of those passions of ours, gets the full speed, all or nothing, go big or go home treatment. 

Exhibit A – these cupcakes.  With chocolate chips.  And chocolate chip cookie dough.  Inside the cupcake.  Because really, when you’re torn between baking cupcakes or cookies you might as well just combine the two, right?

Oh and there’s frosting.  Chocolate peanut butter frosting.  Because we are also passionate about peanut butter.

We know, we know, we got carried away again.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Makes 24 cupcakes
Inspired by Molly's Cupcakes

Print Recipe

For Cookie Dough:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons milk
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips 

For Cupcakes:
3 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites, room temperature
2 cups mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

For Frosting:
3 cups powdered sugar
16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup chocolate peanut butter (we used Peanut Butter & Co Dark Chocolate Dreams)

Make the Cookie Dough:
Combine the butter and sugars in a mixing bowl and cream on medium high speed for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add in the milk and vanilla and blend until fully incorporated.  Add in the flour and salt and stir until just combined.  Add in the peanut butter chips and chocolate chips.  Using a tablespoon, scoop out the cookie dough and form into logs, about 1 1/2 inches by an inch.  Place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and freeze for at least 4 hours.

Make the Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners. Combine 3 1/4 cups of cake flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and set aside.  Stir the vanilla into the milk.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter on medium high speed until smooth.  Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. With mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk mixture.  Beat until just combined after each flour or milk addition.  

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Fold gently into the batter.  Coat chocolate chips in remaining 1 tablespoon of flour and fold into batter.  Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.  Place a frozen cookie dough tube in the center of each cupcake.  Bake cupcakes for 18-22 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks.

Make the Frosting:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter, and chocolate peanut butter and beat mixture until smooth. Spread frosting over top of cooled cupcakes, topping with additional chocolate chips if desired.

Turtle Tart

We have been watching The Big Chill.

Not that it has anything to do with anything other than it's a fantastic movie. And, the kitchen is amazingly 80's chic. We want to live in a house with a huge kitchen when we get older.

 

Then we remembered. Kitchen. Fridge. Turtle Tart in the fridge!

Typically, we don't like making things that we can't eat IMMEDIATELY after it gets out of the oven. We're patient like that.

So, when we figured out mid-bake that this Turtle Tart needs to sit in the fridge for 8 hours to set, it was a huge bummer. 

I mean, we licked the bowls, obviously, but it's not the same thing. 

BTW, this movie has the most incredible soundtrack. 

Where were we? Yes, so approximately 49 minutes into the movie, we paused, jumped (er, perhaps a better action verb is catapulted) off the couch and into the kitchen in order to cut and eat some Turtle Tart as quickly as humanly possible.

People, we'd waited 8 hours!!

And, we kid you not, this dessert is the most delicious, decadent and divine thing you have ever eaten and is totally, totally worth waiting for 8 hours.

Especially if you have some Big Chill to pass the time.

Turtle Tart
Serves 12 to 14
Adapted from Bon Appetit

Print Recipe

For the Crust:
9 whole graham crackers, broken into pieces
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
pinch of salt

For the Layers:
4 ounces good bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups chopped pecans, toasted
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whipping cream
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
6 ounces milk chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Toast pecans until fragrant and deep golden colored. Set aside to cool.

In a food processor, blend graham crackers and sugar until they are in fine crumbs. Add the softened butter and process until it resembles wet sand. Lovely image, huh?

Press the mixture firmly into the bottoms and sides of a tart pan with a removable bottom. We used a 9-inch square pan, but a 9-inch round tart pan is fine as well. Bake the crust in the oven until golden and firm, about 7-10 minutes. Cool completely.

Put the bittersweet chocolate pieces into a glass bowl. Slowly microwave the chocolate, stirring in 15 second increments until smooth. Just a note, whenever a recipe calls for a double-boiler to melt chocolate, we always use the microwave. Just go slowly and stir. The residual heat from the chocolate melts any clumps you might see so be careful and learn what it looks like when the chocolate is melted. It can easily go from perfect to burnt.  Anyhoo...once melted, spread the bittersweet chocolate over the bottom of the crust. Arrange 1 1/2 cups of the pecan pieces in a single layer over the chocolate. Allow to cool completely.

Mix together 3/4 cups of the whipping cream, vanilla, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

Mix 1/4 water and 1 cup of sugar in a heavy saucepan with high sides. Stir over medium heat until the sugar is mostly dissolved.  Then, increase the heat to medium-high and, without stirring, boil the sugar until the syrup is a medium-dark amber color. This takes almost exactly 6 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Quickly stir in the 2 1/2 tablespoons of butter and the cream mixture into the sugar syrup (now caramel). Be careful, the syrup will boil up violently. Stir vigorously back on a low-heat until the caramel is smooth. This will take about 1 minute.

Pour the caramel over the pecan layer of the tart. Chill the tart, until set, about 45 minutes.

Place the milk chocolate (you could also use dark chocolate instead if you fancied) and the cream in a glass bowl. Using the microwave method, melt the chocolate until smooth. Pour the milk chocolate over the cooled caramel layer and then sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of pecans. 

Chill at least 8 hours and up to 1 day before serving. Delish!

PS- You could easily replace the graham cracker crust with the sweet tart dough from our Fruit n' Nut bars, if you happened to double the dough recipe like we did.

Spiced Apple Sauce Crumb Muffins

You all know that we were raised by a darling, little baker named Mummy.  Of course you do - we assume you've memorized our about us page. 

So you know all about our delicious, treat-filled childhood.  Cappucino brownies, chocolate peanut butter pizza - you're familiar with that tiny (no seriously, she's really short) baker's kitchen expertise.

And here's one more for you cookies, spiced apple sauce crumb muffins.

We know we know...they kind of sound like a "dessert."  You know, like a "here, have this apple for dessert" dessert, or "what about this popsicle made from orange juice" dessert. 

We promise, this isn't one of those desserts.  Don't let the apple sauce fool you...

Apple sauce, friends, is what makes these muffins rather spectacular. We KNOW, apple sauce.

But trust us.  If these muffins weren't complete and utter deliciousness we young things would have rebelled when Mummy made them...every. single.  week. 

We were charming little things but could certainly get rather rowdy if baked goods didn't meet our high 7 year-old expectations.

Even adults might doubt the apple sauce.  There may have been some dubious co-workers who questioned the holy apple sauce muffin when a certain blue-eyed baker so kindly brought them in for a birthday breakfast.

Until they tasted the lovely little treats.  And then asked for the recipe.

Spiced Apple Sauce Crumb Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

Print Recipe

For Muffins:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup chunky apple sauce
1 teaspoon baking soda

For Crumb Topping:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Line a muffin pan with paper liners.

Make topping:
Combine butter, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl.  Using your fingers, break up the butter and blend with sugar and flour until the mixture is crumbly.  Stir in nuts.  Set aside. 

Make muffins:
Sift flour together with cloves, allspice and cinnamon.  Set aside.

In a bowl or an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and blend until fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.  Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients.

In a separate bowl, mix apple sauce and baking soda together.  Add to muffin mixture until barely just combined (the batter will be slightly chunky).  Divide batter evenly among muffin cups and top with crumb topping.  Bake until puffed and golden, 15-18 minutes.  Cool muffins in pan for 5 minutes, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.  Store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Fleur de Sel Caramels

You guys.

We made homemade caramels!!!

We're feeling pretty chuffed.

It all started last week when the foodie blogosphere exploded with Fall treats, many of which included some element of caramel deliciousness.

And, ever fearless bakers, we're all "we could totes make our own caramels, boo-yah!" 

And, we thought back, where did we last have the most divine caramels ever made?

Duh. Betsy. Who is Betsy, you ask? Essentially our second mummy. Our mummy-once-removed.

She brings her secret-family-recipe homemade caramels to Christmas dinner every year and every year we polish the lot off in, oh, about 1 day.

And then we feel sick.

But not because of the caramels, it's just that no human should ever consume more than 22 caramels in one day or they risk going into a severe sugar coma.

We've done research.

So, we emailed Betsy and we followed her recipe exactly (her words are transcribed below...you get why we love her), with the minor addition of fleur del sel at the end...you know, because we're fancy.

Um, they are pretty freaking awesome. 

Boo-yah, indeed.

Betsy's Caramels
Makes more than anyone could ever need
Adapted from Betsy, obvy

Print Recipe

2 cups brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups whipping cream
2/3 cup butter, cut into 1 tablespoon chunks
pinch of salt
fleur de sel for sprinkling 

I like making this in a pan with sharp corners instead of rounded ones like pyrex, just personal pickiness.  I also place a greased, heavy duty piece of foil in the pan to prevent sticking. You could use greased parchment paper as well.

Mix milk and cream together and set aside. 

Add sugars, syrup, and salt to a heavy bottomed pot, stirring until mixture comes to a boil over medium-high heat. 

When boiling hard, add butter chunks slowly.  Then, add milk and cream mixture to sugar mixture very slowly (the hot sugar will really boil up at this point so be careful) so that the pan mixture never stops boiling.  

Add the vanilla.

Cook, stirring almost continuously (as can burn easily) to firm ball stage (245F) on candy thermometer.  It takes about 20-30 minutes of stirring, you should probably pour yourself a glass of wine, and watch the temperature. It seems like it takes forever and then will suddenly creep up on you.  Make sure the bottom of the thermometer is in the mixture but not touching the bottom of the pan.

Once at firm ball stage, pour into greased pan and cool for 5 minutes. Then, sprinkle the caramel pan with fleur de sel. Once sprinkled, you can put the pan in the fridge to harden further.

When hardened, you can lift the whole piece of candy out onto a cutting board (thank you, foil), peel off the foil backing and cut into nice rectangles several times. Work quickly. As the caramels comes to room temperature it softens and sticks to the knife.

Wrap the caramels in cut wax paper rectangles and twist ends to close. 

Note: We doubled Betsy's original recipe...perhaps you don't need quite as many...if not, just use an 8- by 8-inch square pan instead of the 9- by 13-inch pan that we used and halve the ingredients above.

Carrot Cake with Maple Mascarpone Icing

Well would you look at us!  Baking with carrots.  Which are vegetables.  And vegetables are healthy.  That's a fact. 

Therefore, this cake is healthy.

Don't question.

Just go with it cookies. 

This is the Blue-Eyed Bakers turn at healthy baking.  Healthy baking in the form of carrot cake. 

Carrots are super for you aren't they?  Sure they are.  They're full of vitamins.  Er and minerals.  And they help you see in the dark!  Which is helpful if you're ever in a place with no lights, we suppose.

And they're orange, which is rather seasonally appropriate.

Just look at all those lovely veggies.

But all those carrots with their remarkable night vision benefits and vitamins and minerals had to be balanced out somehow.  We couldn't let the carrots steal the show.  No no, we're fair.  It's just our nature.

Soooo we went ahead and slathered on some maple mascarpone icing.  Because like those carrots and their festive fall coloring, there's something rather autumnal about maple syrup. 

And we're at the fall party now.  Come on!  Come to the fall party. 

We're bringing this healthy cake.

Carrot Cake with Maple Mascarpone Icing
Serves 10

Print Recipe

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups light brown sugar
5 large eggs, separated
1 1/4 teaspoon baking power
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup ground almonds
4 ounces walnuts, chopped, plus more for garnish
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
10 ounces carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
Salt

For Icing:
4 ounces mascarpone cheese, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a loaf pan (or a 9 x 2 square baking pan) and line with parchment paper. Set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine butter and brown sugar.  Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, pulsing after each addition.  Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger and pulse until combined.  Transfer mixture to a large bowl and add the ground almonds, walnuts and grated carrot and mix together.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then gently fold them into the cake batter. Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for about 50 minutes and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out on to a rack and cool completely.

For the icing, beat the mascarpone and cream cheese together until well combined.  Add the cinnamon, vanilla and maple syrup.  Spread generously over cooled cake and top with additional chopped walnut if desired.