MSC: Peanut Butter (No Jelly!) Cupcakes

I'm so happy to be back blogging along with the Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club again this month! I skipped out last month but now I'm back and ready to talk about some Peanut Butter Cupcakes! The original recipe was for Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes, but I just decided to leave out the jelly. I dunno, maybe it's un-American of me or something, but I just don't eat the peanut butter/jelly combo. I know, what a weirdo! If you give me anything peanut butter/chocolate, I'm yours, but for some reason I just don't really love jelly all that much.

I halved this recipe and made 10 cupcakes. I came across some reduced-fat natural peanut butter, so I used that in place of standard natural peanut butter in the batter. I don't know if my reduced-fat pb was the culprit for this, but my cupcakes turned out super dense. Like, must grab a big glass of milk to wash this cake down with dense! Also, I left out the chopped peanuts. It was good, peanut buttery cake, it just felt thick in your mouth.

For the frosting, I wanted to reduce some of the fat there, too. Sooo, I used fat-free cream cheese. Again, not the most perfect frosting in the world. It was a bit grainy in texture, and not very sweet. That was okay with me, but I don't think I would have served it to company or anything. I think putting the dollop of jelly on top could have masked the frosting's texture a bit, but obviously I will never know.

My verdict on these? They are good, especially if you're a die-hard peanut butter fan (which I am). But they do need a little something else. They need a contrasting flavor/texture to balance out all that pb. I ate these with a little splotch of chocolate sauce on the top, and that really did help out. Some ice cream alongside would probably improve these, too.

Thanks to Karen of Karen's Cookies, Cakes, and More for the selection! Check out the MSC blogroll to see how the others fared with these cupcakes!

MSC: Yogurt-Lemon Cupcakes (With Lemon Curd)

For this month's Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club, we were supposed to make Yogurt-Lemon Cupcakes with Raspberry Jam. I say "supposed" to because, in typical fashion, I just had to deviate from the script!

This one was chosen by Jenny of Give Cupcakes, and I was happy to see it on the schedule because, quite honestly, this is one cupcake that I probably would have always overlooked in favor of fancier, flashier cupcakes! The beauty of this cupcake is in its simplicity; there's no special bells or whistles or crazy swirls of frosting here. It's basically just a dense, lemony cupcake that has been cut two times lengthwise and filled with raspberry jam. You can sprinkle some powdered sugar on top if you'd like. And that's it. No frills necessary.

So, what did I do differently from Martha? Well, for starters, I didn't actually have any yogurt, but I did have some sour cream! So I subbed that in for the yogurt, and I think it worked out just fine. In addition, I decided to make mine super-lemony by filling them with a homemade lemon curd, rather than the recommended raspberry jam. I just got a new cookbook for my birthday that I wanted to make something from, and the lemon curd jumped out at me. I figured it would be perfect for this.

Though the lemon curd did turn out a bit runny (which I am sure was a result of me not cooking the curd to a thick enough consistency), it tasted completely wonderful. It was very tart; the curd is sweetened with some agave nectar, and nothing else. I love citrusy desserts, so this one really worked for me. A bit of fresh whipped cream on top would have sent this over the top, but I still enjoyed it. Thanks to Jenny for the pick!

I am sharing the lemon curd recipe below, in case anybody was interested in trying out this combo. The book the recipe is from is Sugarbaby by Gesine Bullock-Prado (Sandra Bullock's sister), and I can't wait to keep making treats from it! Everything looks amazing.

Lemon Curd
adapted from Sugarbaby
makes 2 1/2 cups

Ingredients
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, divided (from about 3 large lemons)
Zest from the above lemons
1 cup organic agave nectar
6 egg yolks
1 tsp. unflavored gelatin
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Directions
1. In a heatproof metal bowl, combine the 1/2 cup lemon juice, the agave nectar, and the egg yolks. In a separate bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the remaining 2 Tbsp. lemon juice until it blooms, or in other words, looks soggy. Set aside.

2. Place the bowl with the egg mixture over a pot of simmering water and whisk until it has thickened enough that it ribbons when you pull out the whisk. Remove from the heat; immediately add in the gelatin mixture and whisk until it is completely melted.

3. Add the butter and the lemon zest, and whisk until fully incorporated. Transfer the curd to a different bowl. Take a piece of plastic wrap that is larger in diameter than the bowl, and place it directly on the surface of the curd. Make sure the plastic touches the entire surface of the exposed curd; otherwise a skin will form. Refrigerate for a few hours until it is completely cool. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

MSC: Father's Day Tee-Time Cupcakes

This month's Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club pick was the Father's Day Tee-Time Cupcakes, chosen by Julie of Little Bit of Everything. I was eager to try my hand at something a bit different for this group: a project that focused on the cupcake's appearance, rather than the cupcake's taste or fun flavor. I knew my kids would be on board with this one, too!



For the cupcakes themselves, I tried a recipe that I've really been wanting to make for a long time. I found it a couple years ago in an issue of Cooking Light. It's a Coconut Cupcake with Lime Buttercream; yum! I just thought that sounded so summery and refreshing; plus, anything with lime automatically catches my eye. I tinted the lime buttercream frosting green, and decided to use that shade as my putting green surface, rather than covering the frosting in green sprinkles. I guess I figured my kids and I didn't really need a mouthful of sanding sugar in every bite!

My five year-old actually is frosting-averse, so he opted to decorate his with just some ground-up graham cracker crumbs (for the sand traps), some mini M&Ms (for the golf balls), and just a bit of green sanding sugar (to make some grass). I made my little flags by affixing some trimmed, bright orange Post-It notes to toothpicks; I thought it worked pretty well, although I did have to apply a bit of transparent tape to each to secure it.

This was a great way for me to spend an afternoon with my boys; they enjoyed the decorating, and eating the leftover decorations! As for the cupcakes themselves, it was a mixed bag. My husband and I thought they were delicious; I was so impressed with the texture of the cupcakes in particular. These are a lower fat version of a dessert, but they really don't taste like it. I think my substitution of coconut milk for skim milk in the recipe made the cakes a bit fluffier and lighter. Considering that some of the recipes from Martha's cupcake book have turned out denser and drier than I would have liked, this was a very nice surprise. If you like the lime/coconut flavor combination, I highly recommend these cupcakes. And I recommend the decorating idea if you need a tasty, fun way to spend an afternoon with kids! Thanks, Julie!

Coconut Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream Frosting
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
Cooking spray
4.5 oz. all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
3 Tbsp. potato starch (not potato flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 large egg white
2/3 cup light, unsweetened coconut milk
2 Tbsp. sweetened, flaked coconut
1/2 tsp. coconut extract

For the frosting:
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp. fresh lime zest
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp. light, unsweetened coconut milk
4.75 oz. confectioners' sugar, sifted (about 1 1/3 cups)


Directions
Make the cupcakes: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with muffin liners, then spray the liners with nonstick cooking spray. Set tin aside. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour and the next 3 ingredients (through salt) in a small bowl; stir with a whisk.

2. Combine the 2/3 sugar and the 2 Tbsp. butter in a large bowl; mix at medium speed until well-blended; mixture should be the consistency of damp sand. Add egg and egg white, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and the coconut milk in three batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Fold in coconut and coconut extract.

3. Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin cups. Bake at 350 for 18 minutes, or until cupcakes spring back when lightly touched in the center. Cool in pan for 5 minutes; remove from tins onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the frosting: 1. Combine the 3 Tbsp. butter, the lime zest and juice, and the coconut milk in a medium bowl; mix until well-blended and smooth. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar, beating just until smooth. Frost each cupcake with about 2 1/2 tsp. frosting.

MSC: Tiramisu Cupcakes

This month's selection for the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club was the Tiramisu Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting. These were chosen by Jennifer of The Rookie Baker, whom I am in both this group and the Craving Ellie group with. I was intrigued by these cupcakes, because while I am not too familiar with tiramisu in general, I did wonder how it would translate into cupcake form.



My understanding of tiramisu is that it is a dessert composed of ladyfinger cookies that have been soaked in wine and/or coffee. The dessert is topped with a whipped cream (I think; see, my knowledge of actual tiramisu is limited!) frosting and then dusted with cocoa powder. Since I am not usually a fan of desserts that taste like booze, I wasn't sure if I'd like these, though I was certainly open to trying it!

The cupcakes themselves are not too difficult to make; they just require a bunch of different steps. You infuse milk with vanilla bean flavor by heating it up on the stovetop with a vanilla bean pod. Some butter is stirred into this at the end of the heating process. Meanwhile, you beat together some eggs, egg yolks, and sugar until combined, then heat that up on the stove, as well. You just want the sugar to dissolve, and for the mixture to become warm. Next, you beat the eggs/sugar on high speed until the mixture becomes very thick and the batter is almost ribbon-like when drizzled from a spoon.

You blend in cake flour, baking powder, and salt next to form a cake batter. Once everything is combined, you divide it into cupcake tins and bake. Once the cupcakes have baked and cooled completely, you brush each with a simple mixture of brewed coffee or espresso, marsala wine, and a bit of sugar. I was concerned that these would become too soggy, so I stuck the baked cupcakes inside a second cupcake liner each to minimize the possibility of them leaking all over. As it turned out, it wasn't really a problem, but at least I was prepared!

You allow this mixture to soak in for a while, and then your cupcakes are ready to be frosted. I was eager to taste this frosting, because last week I made a different mascarpone frosting for the Tomato Soup Cupcakes that I didn't care for too much. This one's made with whipped heavy cream, mascarpone cheese, and some confectioners' sugar. Just those three ingredients. And I have to say, this one really worked for me! True, I did not really taste the mascarpone when all was said and done, but it did add some body to the otherwise light and airy frosting. It was smooth and divine. A sprinkling of cocoa powder over the top of this, and these are ready.

I'm still glad I tried these, but I have to admit that they are not my absolute favorite. There's just something about the soggy, soaked cupcake tops that jut does not appeal to me. However, my husband took these in to his office and they received rave reviews, so clearly I am in the minority here. That said, they were a lot of fun to make and were very impressive.

Thank you, Jennifer, for giving me the opportunity to branch out and try something new. I wonder how everybody else liked these? Click on over to the MSC blogroll to see all the other results, here!

MSC: Chai Tea Cupcakes

This month, for the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club, our assignment was to make the Chai Tea Mini Cupcakes with Condensed Milk Glaze. This month's cupcake is being hosted by Rachel of Simple Girl, since the blogger who originally chose for us to make these had to take some time off from her blog. I decided to make half mini cupcakes, and half regular-sized cupcakes this time. I just wanted to have both options available, and my first plan had been to do two different frostings (although that ended up changing).



So my husband loves to drink chai lattes from Starbucks, but he adds a twist to his. He orders them with two shots of espresso added in, and the slang for this is a "dirty chai." So in the spirit of experimentation, I thought it would be fun to make a frosting that sort of paid homage to his "dirty chai" habit. Plus, it was a great excuse to use up some heavy whipping cream I had hanging out in my fridge! So, I threw together some Espresso Whipped Cream to top my cupcakes.

I gotta say, this stuff was outstanding! I found it over on Epicurious; it's super easy and takes only minutes to make. You whip your cream to soft peaks, add in a touch of powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon of instant espresso powder, and continue whipping until stiff peaks form. There you go! I was so impressed with the whipped cream frosting that I wound up abandoning the condensed milk frosting that accompanies these cupcakes in Martha's book. I know it was probably delicious, but I don't think we really missed it. I topped the frosted cupcakes with just a dash of ground cinnamon, which I thought made the cupcakes look more latte-ish.

These ended up being loved by everybody who tried them; the pairing of cupcake and frosting worked very well! I loved the method of steeping the tea bags in milk and then using that milk as the liquid in the cake recipe. This would really be a fun thing to experiment a little bit more with. I dug the spices in the cake, as well. It truly was reminiscent of chai, but a little bit like a pumpkin-spiced cake, too. Not that I'm complaining!

Be sure to see what the other MSCers did with this month's cupcake recipe, by checking out the blogroll, here. Oh, and there's a bonus cupcake recipe this month, Martha's Easter Egg Cupcakes, but I made and blogged about those last year! So if you'd like to see how they turned out, you can see them here.

MSC: Candied Hazelnut Cupcakes

I'm finally posting another Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club entry this month! I skipped last month's selection because I had already made the assigned cupcakes and blogged about them in the past. But now I'm back and ready to talk about Candied Hazelnut Cupcakes!

These nutty little gems were chosen by Jeannette of The Whimsical Cupcake. The cupcakes themselves are a tasty mix of flours (all-purpose flour and cake flour), along with finely ground almonds and hazelnuts. This cake recipe also incorporates the use of egg whites whipped to soft peaks and then folded into the batter, which aids in preventing the cupcakes from being dense and heavy. I was excited about these cupcakes, particularly the cake part because I love nuts and had just recently bought almond flour. I couldn't wait to use it in these. The cake turned out wonderfully, with great flavor, texture, and a surprising nuttiness (well, it's only surprising if you're not the baker, I guess, but I still found it pleasant!). They were a snap to make and I prepared them the day before I worked on the candied nut and the frosting.



Everything was going along just swimmingly until I attempted to make the caramel for the candied hazelnuts. I say "attempted" because I never actually succeeded in making my caramel. I'm not quite sure what happened here. I tried making the caramel twice. Both times, the sugar syrup never quite turned the medium amber color indicated in the book. The first batch actually transformed from clear sugar syrup back into solid sugar, right before my very eyes, and hardened and crystallized onto the bottom of my pot and became an impenetrable mass. I had to fill the pot up with water, put it on the stove to boil, and then basically chisel the mass off the pot.

Once that mess was cleared up, I tried again. I was getting a bit frustrated at this point but I just thought I had cooked it too long or something. I watched it very, very carefully the second time, and this time I took the pot from the heat earlier than the previous try. I plunged it into the ice water bath as the directions indicate. About two minutes later, I noticed that the sugar syrup had crystallized again! I tried to start dipping the hazelnuts into it before it got too hard, but within moments the mass had re-formed, and I was out of luck. It was incredibly frustrating, especially because I have made caramel in the past and had success. I'm still not too sure what went wrong. My best guess is that there wasn't enough water in proportion to the sugar. I'm dying to see how everyone else made out with this; maybe it'll give me a clue as to what happened to mine.

What I finally did was I added extra water to my crystallized mass, put it back on the stove, and heated it back up until it was syrupy. Then, I dipped the hazelnuts into the syrup and let them sit for a while. They never hardened up, but at that point I didn't even care anymore. The nuts had a nice, shiny coat on them, and they still looked pretty on top of the cupcakes. They weren't the showstoppers I had hoped they would be, but I can live with that.

The frosting is an Italian meringue buttercream with chocolate. I could have made the dark chocolate frosting Martha suggests to use, but frankly I was a little wary of using that one because of all the butter and chocolate that goes into it. I know someday I will eventually make that frosting, because it sounds amazing. My original plan was to make an IMB and then turn it into caramel IMB by pouring in the leftover caramel. Obviously, my plans were thwarted when the caramel never turned out. It all worked out okay, though. I really enjoy making IMB and was eager to try a chocolate version. It turned out light, like mousse, not too sweet, and just perfect on these cupcakes, I thought.

Head on over to the MSC blogroll to see if the other bakers had better luck with those candied hazelnuts. I'm dying to see everyone's cupcakes! Hopefully nobody had the kinds of problems I did. If anyone's got any suggestions about my kitchen disaster, I'd be happy to hear them!

MSC: Black Forest Cupcakes

It feels so good to be participating in the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club again this month! I've been MIA for the last two assignments, for various reasons, but this time I'm back and ready to bake! This time around, we were to make Martha's Black Forest Cupcakes, chosen by Janine of Janine's Crazy World. I almost did not participate this time, either, because I'm not really a fan of cherries. However, I decided to go for it and to take on the challenge of adapting this to better fit my personal taste.



The cupcake part was made exactly as the recipe was written. Well, I did cut the recipe in half, and I used low-fat sour cream, but other than that it was very faithful to Martha's original take. I didn't want to mess with the cupcake; it sounded so good just the way it was! But then I got to the filling part, and I just had to start tampering with it.

You see, even though I am not a fan of eating whole cherries, I could totally see myself eating some yummy frosting that tasted like cherries. So I decided I would slice my cupcakes in half, through the middle like Martha indicates. However, instead of filling them with pastry cream and cherries, I thought I would make a cherry buttercream filling for this. Then, instead of brushing the cut cupcake sides with the cherry liquor/syrup, I just brushed some cherry preserves on each side. The buttercream was a delicious combination of butter, confectioners' sugar, and cherry preserves. The preserves contained pieces of cherry, but once they joined the butter and sugar in my stand mixer they got all chopped up. They were able to leave the frosting mostly smooth, with streaky bits of cherry throughout.

Finally, I topped the cupcakes with the indicated chocolate ganache glaze. Yum! That is all I have to say about the topping. I sent these to work with my husband and he returned home with just one left (which was for him since he did not get a chance to eat one at the office), so I am assuming that these were well-received by everybody! I thought they were delicious, and I really enjoyed my variation. It made the cherry flavor way more palatable for me, and I loved the way they looked. They almost reminded me of a chocolate parfait or something; lovely layers of goodness!

I'm glad these were chosen for this month because if I hadn't been assigned to make these, I probably never would have. Now I've discovered a new flavor combo that I previously would have been skeptical to try. Thanks, Janine, for the great choice! The full recipe (Martha's way) can be found on Martha's website, here. And to see how the other bakers in the group did, check out the Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club blogroll, here.

Maple Pecan Shortbread

It's rare that I bake something multiple times, if only because I'm always so excited to move on to the next big thing! So many of the things I've baked are worth revisiting, though, so I thought I would share with you a cookie recipe that I actually do revisit, every Christmas season. Much to my surprise, these Maple Pecan Shortbread Cookies are among my five year-old son's very favorites. He requests them every Christmas, and I even get a few gentle suggestions throughout the rest of the year that I make them again. I agree with him, course; these cookies are a fresh, original take on the same old shortbread.




The rich, buttery dough is embellished with chopped pecans, as well as a healthy dose of pure maple syrup and maple extract. After chilling the dough, you shape your cookies and then top with an egg wash, then a pecan half, and then some turbinado sugar (otherwise known as raw sugar). The egg wash/sugar combo really give the finished cookies a great shine, as well as lending a slight crunch that works so well texturally. The cookie itself is nice and crumbly and buttery, like any self-respecting shortbread cookie should be. That pecan on top is the perfect counterpoint to all the sweetness from the maple flavor. In short, these cookies are pretty genius; they just work on every level. Plus, they seem sophisticated, and I just love being able to tell people that my kindergartner has a sophisticated palate! He can definitely tell a good cookie from a leaden, storebought one, as well he should!






Maple Pecan Shortbread
from Martha Stewart's Cookies
makes 24 cookies

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1/2 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup pecan halves (about 2 1/4 oz.), finely chopped, plus 24 whole pecan halves, for decorating
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup, preferably Grade B
1 large egg yolk
1/4 tsp. pure maple extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

Directions
1. Sift flours and salt into a bowl. Whisk in chopped pecans. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until smooth and light, about 1 minute. Add maple syrup, egg yolk, and extract; beat on medium speed until well combined. On low speed, gradually add flour mixture, beating until just combined. Dough should be smooth and pliable. Flatten into a disk (I opt to roll the dough into a log, because I use a different method of portioning out my dough; see Step 2). Wrap in plastic; refrigerate until firm, 1 1/2 hours or overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out rounds using a 2-inch cookie cutter; place 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet (At this point, I just sliced 24 rounds from my dough log, which I thought was so much easier than rolling it out!).

3. Brush tops of cookies with beaten egg; place a pecan half in the center of each cookie. Sprinkle the entire surface with turbinado sugar.

4. Bake cookies, rotating sheet halfway through, until golden around the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 4 days.

Stained Glass Cookies

These festive cookies are what I would classify as fun for the whole family. Not only are they cool and pretty to look at, but they make a great collaborative activity for you to do with kids. I found these Stained Glass Cookies in my handy dandy Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook and knew I wanted to challenge myself with them this holiday season. Normally, I consider rolling out sugar cookies to be a very painful experience, but I wanted to at least try my hand at this. If it worked out well, I knew it would be worth it.



It sounds so simple in the directions in the book. Simply mix together an easy sugar cookie recipe, then roll out the dough to cut shapes. Once you have transferred the shapes to a baking sheet, you can cut out small triangles, rectangles, whatever you want inside each shape. Once you have cutouts in each cookie, you fill it with finely chopped Jolly Rancher candies. You bake the cookies in the oven, and the candies in the centers get melted and fill out the entire cutout. Once the baking is complete, the cookies cool and the candies get hard again. But now, you have cool "windows" in your cookies, with pretty stained glass effects inside!

Maybe I was just fearing the worst, but I actually found that this dough was very manageable to work with! True, you need to do plenty of chilling of the dough in between steps to ensure that it doesn't get too soft, but as long as you follow the directions carefully it really isn't so bad. I enlisted the help of my five year-old son for these, and he loved making them. The faces on the cookies above are courtesty of him!

The funny part, though, is that he really didn't enjoy eating them. They look adorable, but they are a bit difficult to handle. The Jolly Rancher centers do eventually resume their sort of unwieldy texture within the cookies, so it's sort of like eating a cookie with a hard candy in the middle. Not the easiest thing to do. Still, I love the way these cookies look! They're going to look fantastic on cookie trays this year. And hey, the five year-old may not love them, but the two year-old does! I tell you, if it contains sugar, you really can't go wrong with making the little guy happy.

Stained Glass Cookies

adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies

makes about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/4 tsp. coarse salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

7 ounces (about 30) assorted colored hard candies, such as Jolly Rancher, colors separated, and finely chopped with a chef's knife

Directions
1. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg; mix until smooth, 1 minute. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and mix until combined. Stir in vanilla. Wrap dough in plastic, and refrigerate until cold, about 45 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F with racks in upper and lower thirds. Roll out chilled dough on a well-floured surface to a little more than 1/8 inch thick. Cut out shapes using an assortment of cookie cutters. Using a metal spatula, transfer shapes to baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Using the tip of a paring knife, make a triangular shape (or any shape that you like) cutout in center of each cookie for candy filling. Reroll scraps, and cut.

3. Sprinkle candy in a single layer in hole of each cookie, avoiding edges of the cutout. Refrigerate until dough is firm, about 15 minutes.

4. Bake cookies until candy has melted and completely filled cutout and cookie edges are just starting to turn pale golden brown, 11 to 12 minutes. Do not let the cookies brown, or the candy centers may become bubbly. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks. Use a metal spatula to remove cookies from parchment. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Chewy Chocolate GIngerbread Cookies

Just as soon as Thanksgiving is over, I start my holiday baking. It's a real project for me. I have it down to a science, though, I think. Each day, I'll make up one or two types of cookie dough, which I will then chill in my fridge. Then, each day I will bake off whatever dough I already have chilling in the fridge. It's a great system. Then, I haul out my Sam's Club industrial-size roll of saran wrap, and I wrap my cooled cookies, two or three at a time, and place them into large freezer bags. To date, I have yet to find a cookie that did not freeze well. So I stack my freezer bags as high as I can, filled with many different varieties of cookies. It's awesome, because I can bake them all way ahead of time. Then, when it comes time to dole them out, I can remove only what I need from the freezer, and the rest stay safely inside until it's their time to be eaten. Only problem I have now is that I'm running out of room! Something tells me Santa should be thinking about bringing me a second freezer!

But this post today is actually about these Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies, not my lack of storage space. I discovered these cookies last holiday season, although they were gobbled up so fast they never made it onto my cookie trays. They are the cover model on the Martha Stewart's Cookies book, and they're quite extraordinary.



At first, they seem like just an average gingersnap or molasses cookie. Then, you add in a sprinkle of cocoa powder, a healthy grating of fresh ginger in addition to ground ginger, and some chopped semisweet chocolate. Finally, you roll each ball of dough in sugar before baking. The result is a cross between a molasses cookie and a chocolate crinkle cookie, but really it tastes like something all its own.

I love the pairing of ginger and chocolate, although I guess I never realized it until I tried this cookie. There's just something about the sharp bite of ginger up against the smooth, darkly sweet chocolate that is just so indescribably delicious. If you want to get people talking about your cookies this holiday season, making them a batch of these is a great way to do so!





Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies
from Martha Stewart's Cookies
makes 24-36 cookies

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plus 1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1 Tbsp. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 Tbsp. freshly grated peeled ginger
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. boiling water
7 oz. best-quality semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch chunks
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Directions
1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and fresh ginger on medium speed until lightened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.

2. In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate; turn onto plastic wrap. Pat out to a 1-inch thickness; seal with wrap. Refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or overnight.

3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Chill 20 minutes. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake until surfaces just begin to crack, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let cool 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Cookies are best the day they are made, but can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 5 days.

Chocolate Chip Sesame Street Cupcakes

Usually, on the 15th of each month, I will post a cupcake that has been chosen by a member of the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club. This month, I just had too much going on, what with throwing my youngest son and his cousin a birthday party this past weekend. I decided to skip the MSCC for this month, as much as it pained me to do so. However, it just wouldn't be the 15th without a new cupcake recipe to post here! So I'm going to tell you about the cupcakes I made for my son's birthday.



Since the birthday boys were turning 2 and 1 this year, I decided to throw a Sesame Street-themed party, and to decorate some cupcakes to look like a few Sesame Street characters. In honor of the Cookie Monster (my son's favorite), I made some of Martha Stewart's Chocolate Chip Cupcakes. I'd been itching to try them anyway, and now I finally had a bona fide excuse to do so! I browsed the internet briefly, just to see what other creative souls had done to design Sesame Street character cupcakes. In this post, you see the results of my searches, adapted to represent my own style. I'm pretty proud of these little guys, because when it came time to actually decorate them, I did it all freehand, without a picture in front of me as a guide.

Here's the lowdown: I whipped up 2 dozen regular-sized cupcakes and 3 cupcakes that were baked in oversized muffin cups (because the recipe yield was 30 cupcakes, and each jumbo cupcake was the equivalent of 2 regulars). Meanwhile, I had tinted some of Martha's Fluffy Vanilla Frosting (which I love, and have posted about before, here) in various colors, to represent Elmo, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, and Ernie. I sliced some large marshmallows in half, and these served as eyeballs for Elmo and Cookie, as well as for jumbo Oscar. I would use mini marshmallows for Oscar's and Ernie's eyes, and jumbo marshmallows, sliced thinly, to represent the eyes of jumbo Elmo and jumbo Cookie.

When it came time to decorate, I used a Wilton piping tip that is used to create "hair" (tip 233) for Elmo, Cookie, and Oscar. For Ernie, I just piped medium-sized dots for his skin, but I used the hair tip again to give him his black patch of hair on top of his head. Then came eyes, noses, and mouths. Instead of a mouth on Cookie Monster, I inserted half a chocolate chip cookie into the cupcake, to make it look like he was in the middle of eating a cookie. Those ended up being the biggest hit, and were the first to disappear. I can see why; you get a cupcake and half a cookie, all in one fell swoop!

I gave the giant Elmo cupcake to my one year-old nephew, and the giant Cookie Monster to my two year-old son. I wish I had a picture of him actually sticking his face right down into the cupcake (because he totally did that) but this picture of his blue mug will have to suffice. He loved the cupcakes, but I think he loved the cookie more!

I know they're not perfect, and I have a long way to go before my cupcakes look bakery-ready, but I was happy with these. More importantly, the birthday boys enjoyed the whole experience, so my goal was accomplished. Oh, and the cupcakes were pretty delicious, although I have to say that they almost reminded me more of chocolate chip muffins than cupcakes. That was fine with me, but just be warned about Martha's recipe. Good, but not super light and fluffy.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Fluffy Vanilla Frosting
from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
makes 30 cupcakes (or in my case, 24 cupcakes and 3 jumbo cupcakes)


Ingredients
3 1/4 cups plus 1 Tbsp. sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
4 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. milk
1/2 cup plus 6 Tbsp. (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites, room temperature
2 cups (12 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips
Fluffy Vanilla Frosting (recipe found here)
Gel-paste food coloring
Various-sized marshmallows (mini, large, jumbo)
3 small chocolate chip cookies, halved (or more, if you want to make more Cookie Monsters)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together 3 1/4 cups cake flour, the baking powder, and salt. Stir the vanilla into the milk to combine.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter until smooth. Adding the sugar in a steady stream, beat until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk mixture, and beating until just combined after each.

3. In another bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form (do not overmix). Fold one-third of the egg whites into the batter to lighten. Gently fold in the remaining whites until just combined. Toss chocolate chips with remaining tablespoon cake flour, and gently fold into batter.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean and the tops are springy to the touch, about 22-24 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes (although I removed mine after 10 minutes). Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

5. Prepare Fluffy Vanilla Frosting. Divide the frosting into 1/2 cup black, 1/4 cup brown, 3/4 cup orange, 1 cup red, 3/4 cup blue, and 3/4 cup green. Using a Wilton 233 tip (or hair/grass tip), pipe fur onto 6 cupcakes in green, 6 cupcakes in blue, and 6 cupcakes in red. Using a Wilton 21 tip, pipe skin onto 6 cupcakes in orange. (I then piped fur onto 3 jumbo cupcakes to make one Elmo, one Cookie, and one Oscar.)

6. Using the Wilton 3 or 4 tip in black, pipe smiles onto the red, green, and orange cupcakes. Place halved large marshmallows on the red and blue, and mini marshmallows (whole) on the green and orange for eyes. Pipe small black dots onto the marshmallows for pupils. (When I did my jumbo cupcake characters, Elmo and Cookie had jumbo marshmallows, sliced thin, for their eyes. Oscar had large halved marshmallow eyes.)

7. Complete Elmo by placing an orange nose underneath the eyes. Complete Cookie Monster by placing half a chocolate chip cookie towards the bottom of the cupcake, to look as though it is sticking out of his mouth. Complete Oscar by piping his brown eyebrows over his eyes with a Wilton 16 tip. Complete Ernie by piping his nose with a Wilton 21 tip in red, and give him some black hair with the Wilton 233 tip. There you have it: Sesame Street cupcakes!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes with Apple Cider Caramel Sauce

These cupcakes were the product of my imagination, running wild, and trying to come up with the perfect way to use a really awesome caramel sauce that I made recently. Funny how something as multi-step as a cupcake could be born from something so simple as caramel, but that's exactly what happened. Of course, there are many, many things you could do with this caramel sauce; it's actually quite versatile. But for my blogging purposes today, we're just going to talk about it in this recipe.

So what is this magical caramel I speak of, anyway? Well, it's Apple Cider Caramel Sauce, and it is heaven. Instead of making this caramel with lots of butter or cream, or both, you add lots of fresh apple cider. Then, to make it even more apple-y, you throw in a bunch of diced apple pieces and allow them to get all soft and mushy in there. Once the caramel has had a chance to come together, you puree the mixture, so the apple pieces actually become part of the sauce. Oh, my, is it good! After it's had a chance to chill in your fridge, it thickens up nicely, almost becoming a cross between a caramel sauce and an applesauce. Then, you're ready to use it!

The cupcakes I decided to make were from Cooking Light. I found a special issue that I snatched right up at the bookstore; it was a Fall Baking edition! I flipped through it before purchasing and realized I could see myself making over half of the recipes; I thought it would be a good investment! (Okay, that's what I told myself so I'd feel better about buying the more expensive special edition.) I'd probably have to put these cupcakes in the sorta cupcake/sorta muffin category. I mean, they're delicious and everything. They're moist, with nice chunks of apple throughout, but they did remind me of a muffin more so than a cupcake. Still, I suppose that's to be expected when it's a "light" recipe. And, besides, the frosting would more than make up for the healthiness! So I forged on.

I whipped up a Swiss Meringue Buttercream for the cupcakes, using Martha Stewart's basic recipe as my guide. I did have a little bit of trouble with the buttercream, as is usually the case when I make this tricky frosting. But I managed to get everything under control, and the frosting came together quite nicely.

So now it was time to add my Apple Cider Caramel Sauce! I wanted to transform my ordinary, muffin-y apple cupcakes into Caramel Apple Cupcakes, and I knew that adding the caramel to the frosting would be divine. I wasn't sure how much caramel to add to the buttercream at first, so I started out with about 2/3 cup and kept checking the flavor. It took a little over 3/4 cup caramel total before you could really taste the sauce in the frosting. Once I had enough caramel in there, the frosting turned a lovely light caramel color. It was silky and smooth, and you could detect the hint of apple flavor in the caramel sauce. It was pretty amazing.

Just to take these over the top, I finished them off with a drizzle of the caramel sauce over the buttercream. The piping on some of these were really weird, sorry about that (I was trying a thing. It didn't work), but I think for the most part these were a rousing success. I love it when a crazy notion in my head turns into delicious reality!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

cupcakes adapted from Cooking Light (the original recipe had a streusel topping and a glaze, which I omitted due to my addition of buttercream frosting)

makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

6.75 oz. all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup (2 oz.) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 Tbsp. amaretto (you can use 2% milk, which I did)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream

1/4 cup 2% reduced-fat milk

3/4 cup finely chopped Gala apple

1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place muffin cup liners in 12 muffin cups; coat with cooking spray. Weigh or lightly spoon 6.75 oz. flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine this flour with baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl; stir with a whisk.

2. Combine granulated sugar, cream cheese, and 1/4 cup butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended. Add amaretto or 2 T. milk, vanilla, and egg to sugar mixture, and beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended. Combine sour cream and 1/4 cup milk in a small bowl, and stir with a whisk until well blended. Combine apple and 1 T. flour in a small bowl, and toss well.

3. Add flour mixture and sour cream mixture alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until blended. Fold in apple mixture. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake at 350 for 27 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes on a wire rack; remove the cupcakes from pan and allow to cool on racks.

Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream

adapted from Martha Stewart (I made just half the recipe)

makes about 2.5-3 cups

Ingredients

1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp. sugar

3 large egg whites

Pinch of salt

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened and cut into tablespoon-sized pieces

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3/4 (or more as needed) Apple Cider Caramel Sauce, recipe follows

Directions

1. Whisk together the sugar, egg whites, and salt in the heatproof bowl of a standing mixer. Set bowl over a pan of simmering water, whisk until sugar is dissolved and mixture registers 140 degrees on an instant read thermometer.

2. Return bowl to mixer; fit mixer with whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until stiff. Reduce speed to medium-low; add butter, a few tablespoons at a time. Continue whisking until smooth.

3. Switch to paddle attachment. Add caramel and vanilla; beat on lowest speed until combined, 3 to 5 minutes. The buttercream can be made several days ahead and stored in the refrigerator. Before using, bring buttercream back to room temperature; return to mixer and beat with the paddle attachment until smooth.

4. To assemble cupcakes, pipe the frosting onto each cupcake in the desired pattern. Drizzle with leftover caramel sauce and serve. (The frosted cupcakes do keep well in the fridge; just bring to room temperature before serving.)

Apple Cider Caramel Sauce

from The Craft of Baking

makes about 2 cups

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/4 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped out, bean and seeds reserved

2 small tart baking apples, such as Mutsu, Cortland, or Granny Smith, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces

3/4 cup apple cider

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

Directions

1. Combine the sugar, corn syrup, 1/2 cup water, and the vanilla bean and seeds in a medium saucepan. Cook over high heat until the sugar becomes a medium golden caramel, about 15 minutes. Add the apples and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the apples have softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Carefully add the cider and stir to combine. Continue to cook until the sauce is sticky, about 5 minutes more.

2. Remove the pan from the heat and remove the vanilla bean. Rinse and recycle the vanilla bean for another use. Whisk the salt into the mixture.

3. Transfer the mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Serve immediately, or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Reheat the sauce in a saucepan over low heat.

MSC: Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

It's that time again; time to post another selection from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club! This one, Snickerdoodle Cupcakes, was chosen by Katie of Katiecakes. I'm really glad this one was picked, as anything with cinnamon is always a hit here at my house. I'd been wanting to try these out but never really had an excuse to make them. Now was my opportunity, finally!

As I'm sure you can tell from my pictures, I decided to simplify this recipe by making just the cupcake, and not the frosting. There were several reasons for this. For one thing, my kids aren't the biggest frosting fans, so I knew it would not be missed by them. For another, I knew the 7- minute frosting would not be doable here because I would not be able to serve these immediately after assembling, as Martha's instructions tell you to do. I would like to try her 7-minute frosting recipe sometime, but it just wasn't meant to be this time. So, I considered making a different type of frosting for these, such as cinnamon cream cheese frosting or just a buttercream of some kind. But in the end, I decided to just make a half-recipe of the cupcakes and leave them as is.

This turned out to be a wise decision, because my frosting-hating 5 year-old son is absolutely addicted to these! What I did when putting these together was to sprinkle a cinnamon/sugar mixture over the top of each cupcake, then I put them in the oven to bake. I was hoping that this would give each cupcake a nice, sugary crust, but that didn't quite happen. The tops of the cupcakes were very moist, not that this is a bad thing. As for the cake itself, it was....well, it was good. It was pretty standard, as far as cakes go. The addition of a hefty amount of cinnamon was very nice, but otherwise it was just a basic yellow cake recipe. I am willing to bet, though, that frosting would definitely have made this much, much better! If I ever have an occasion to serve these right away, I will try these with the recommended frosting, promise!

Thanks to Katie for the pick this month! And if you'd like to check out the other MSCers' results, be sure to visit the blogroll.

MSC: Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

This month's Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club recipe is Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes, chosen by Nina of Nina's Cupcakes. This was the second time I've made these mini cheesecakes. I made them back in January for my father in-law's birthday (and you can find the full recipe in my post about them), and they went over very well. So when I realized I had an opportunity to make them again with the group, I was pretty excited. However, I decided to switch things up a bit, and use inside-out Oreos! The cookies I chose to use were vanilla cookies on the outside, chocolate filling on the inside. Yum.



One cookie is placed in the bottom of each cupcake liner, serving as the tasty crust to the mini cheesecake. Then, a very simple filling is mixed together and dispersed among the cupcake cups.



There's even more cookie goodness contained inside the cupcake batter, which really adds some great texture to the creamy cheesecake. These were loved by everyone who tried them (my husband brought them to work with him). It's always fun to surprise people with the Oreo cookie crust, and the fact that they had the chocolate in the center certainly didn't hurt, either!



Thank you so much, Nina, for choosing these cupcakes this month! It was great to revisit such a fantastic recipe. I'm even thinking about how good these would be with peanut butter-filled Oreos, or mint-filled Oreos at Christmastime. You've got options with this one. No matter what flavor Oreo you use, these are awesome! Make sure to check out the blogroll to see how the other MSC members fared.