Fluffernutter cupcakes for Cupcake Hero :: peanut butter

Fluffernutter Cupcakes

Oh. My. Gosh.  The only people in the house when I was finishing up these cupcakes were Jim and me.  Thank goodness for small favors, because as soon as I had polished off my first fluffernutter cupcake, I must say there were some expletives flying around my kitchen.  Several colorful phrases, all in reference to how incredibly spectacular these cupcakes are.  Jim was teasing me about just posting my exact words on the blog and leaving it at that.  I just couldn’t do it.  This is a G-rated blog, after all.  And besides that… my mom reads it!  {Hi, Mom!}

So now that I’ve properly cleaned up my language, let me tell you about these cupcakes.  The cupcake is a rich peanut butter cupcake from Elinor Klivans’ great book, cupcakes! It’s fabulous all on its own.  But that just wouldn’t be Cupcake Hero worthy, would it?  When the cupcakes came out of the oven, I put some milk chocolate chips on top of each one and let them get all warm and soft.  I spread the chocolate around to cover the top and let it set up a little while I made the frosting.  If I’d have just stopped there, this would have been a delicious cupcake.  But, people, I have to tell you that a pile of fluffernutter frosting on top just makes you weak in the knees.  I’m talking sighs and yummy noises here.  It’s really that good.  Really.

So get your cupcake liners out and be sure to have some milk in the fridge, cause you’re gonna need it.  And you can thank me later.  And you will.  {smile}

Recipe:  Peanut Butter Cupcakes

(slightly adapted from cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans)

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 c. smooth peanut butter

1 c. packed dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/2 c. milk, any fat content

milk chocolate chips or milk chocolate candy bar

fluffernutter frosting – recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners.  Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl; set aside.

In bowl of mixer, on medium speed, beat the butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar until smoothly blended and lightened in color, about 1 minute.  Scrape down bowl and add egg and vanilla.  Beat for 1 minute until batter is smooth.  On low speed, alternately add flour mixture in 3 additions and milk in 2 additions, starting and ending with flour.  Mix until flour is incorporated and batter is smooth.

Fill each paper liner with a generous 1/4 c. of batter.  Bake until the tops feel firm and are lightly browned, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-22 minutes.  There may be a few small cracks on top.

Remove cupcakes from oven and place a piece of a candy bar or several chocolate chips on top of each.  Allow chocolate to soften enough to spread.  Spread to cover top of cupcakes and allow to cool completely.  Frost with fluffernutter frosting.  These cupcakes are at their very tastiest when eaten fresh while the chocolate is slightly soft.

Recipe:  Fluffernutter Frosting

(adapted from The Recipe Link)

1 c. marshmallow fluff

1/2 c. creamy peanut butter

1/3 c. butter, softened

1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/3 c. powdered sugar

1-2 Tbsp. milk

In mixer bowl, on low speed, combine fluff, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt until blended.  Scrape down bowl, and add powdered sugar.  Beat until blended.  Add just enough milk to make frosting the desired consistency.

Chili con cocoa

Chili con Cocoa

The pumpkin chili I made a while ago got me thinking about how much more versatile chili is than you might think.  When I came across this recipe, which adds cocoa to the mix, I wanted to give it a try.  I made a few alterations here and there, but the original recipe comes from Hershey’s Kitchens.  I figure if I’m gonna trust someone when it comes to chocolate, I couldn’t pick a better name than Hershey, right?

But to be honest, this is really just an okay chili.  You don’t actually get the chocolate flavor until the end of each bite.  It’s kind of an afterthought, but when it comes across your palate, it’s a little too much.  A little too bitter.  Maybe if I’d just added the cocoa powder or the dark chocolate, it would have been better.  I was hoping it would just give it a nice deep flavor.  Or maybe it’s just a personal taste thing, but we just weren’t crazy about it.

Recipe:  Chili con Cocoa

(adapted from Hershey’s Kitchens)

2 Tbsp. canola or vegetable oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

2 lbs. ground beef

2 Tbsp. Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa

2 Tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. allspice

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 large can crushed tomatoes

2 Tbsp. tomato paste

1 c. water

2 large cans of chili beans  (I used Bush brand.)

3 oz. dark chocolate

chili toppings:  shredded cheese, sour cream, grated chocolate, optional

Heat oil over medium heat in a large pot; add onion.  Cook, stirring frequently as onion becomes translucent.  Add ground beef, cook until browned and cooked through.  Drain.  Stir in cocoa powder, chili powder, cayenne pepper, salt, allspice, cinnamon, tomatoes, tomato paste, and water.  Heat to boiling.  Reduce heat.  Add beans and dark chocolate.  Simmer 45 minutes.

Upcycled Halloween jewelry… seriously cute

IT’S ECO-FRIENDLY FRIDAY, FOLKS!

What if you could turn THIS

into THIS…

photo credit: ecouterre

Upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and turning it into something of greater use or value.  Turning the wrappers from your kids’ Halloween candy into this cute jewelry is definitely upcycling in my book.  And this is something that your kids can do too, so it’s a win-win.  Check out Ecouterre for a terrific tutorial before all that candy has disappeared!

My favorite chocolate chip cookies

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

My favorite chocolate chip cookie is, without a doubt, the Nestle Toll House cookie.  In my family, we do make one small change to that recipe though, and that is substituting Crisco for the butter.  It’s the only time I do that when I’m baking, but it just makes for the tastiest, chewiest cookie ever.  I also take them out when they are still a tad underbaked, which gives the perfect texture once the cookie has cooled.

Oh baby, do we love these cookies.  And it’s not just us.  You wouldn’t believe the compliments and begging that ensues whenever I take these anywhere.  People clamor to get to them, then they harass me for the recipe.  I always feel really silly telling them that it just comes from the back of the chocolate chip bag, to which I always hear that their cookies never taste like that.  That tells me it’s gotta be the Crisco.  Not the butter flavored kind though…. nope.  It’s gotta be good old fashioned Crisco in the blue container.  Try it.  You won’t be disappointed.

Recipe:  Chocolate Chip Cookies

(source:  Nestle Toll House Cookies)

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 c. Crisco shortening  (original recipe calls for 1 c. softened butter)

3/4 c. granulated sugar

3/4 c. packed light brown sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 c. Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl; set aside.  Beat Crisco, sugars, and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-9 minutes or until edges begin to get golden.  (Original recipe calls for baking 9-11 minutes.)  Cool one minute on cookie sheet and remove to wire rack to cool completely.

 

Kale, white bean, and pasta soup

Kale, White Bean, and Pasta Soup

I’ve been on the lookout for great soups lately.  The weather has been wet and dreary and it’s getting colder, darker.  It kind of seems like we skipped right by all the beauty of Fall.  My little maple tree in the backyard was gorgeous for a day.  The next day the leaves were scattered all over.  Anyway, this all brings me back to wanting some nice warm, satisfying soup recipes.

This one really fits the bill.  It’s hearty and healthy, and is definitely going to be simmering in my kitchen a lot this winter.  It uses the usual vegetables, plus an addition of turnips and kale.  The original recipe calls for a spice called Harissa, which I had never heard of.  I googled for a substitute and found that I could use a combination of spices that I did have and get a similar flavor.  I’ve marked all my changes in green next to the original recipe.

Recipe:  Kale, White Bean, and Pasta Soup

(adapted from a recipe found at Cookbook Catchall)

1 lb+ Kale, thick center stems removed, chopped roughly

1 lb dried cannellini beans (note: for faster cooking time, soak beans overnight)  (I used 2 cans of white northern beans – rinsed and drained slightly.)

1 26 oz can chopped tomatoes  (I used a big can of diced tomatoes.)

1 large onion, diced

3 medium-sized carrots, diced

3 turnips, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus rind  (I didn’t have a rind because I had bought a tub of already grated Parm.)

1 cup small pasta  (My pasta was a whole wheat seashell pasta.)

1 Tbs Harissa  (These are the spices I used as a substitute for Harissa:  1 1/2 tsp. paprika, 1 1/2 tsp. coriander, 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper.  If you want more heat, add more cayenne pepper.)

2 Tbs olive oil

8 cups water (or half water, half vegetable stock)  (I used 4 c. chicken broth and 4 c. water.)

1 small bunch Italian flat leaf parsley, leaves chopped roughly

Salt and pepper, to taste

Sweat carrots, onions and celery in olive oil with a healthy sprinkling of pepper until translucent. Add turnips and saute for a few minutes.

Add water, tomatoes and dried (or canned) beans and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature to a simmer. Add Parmesan, Parmesan rind and Harissa (or spice substitutions) (note: Harissa is very spicy – if you do not enjoy spicy soup, reduce quantity or omit Harissa).

Simmer for 45 – 90 minutes until beans are just tender (timing will depend on whether you soaked the beans overnight). Add additional water, cup by cup if soup is too thick. Add pasta, kale and sprinkle liberally with salt. Add additional Harissa or pepper to taste.

Cook until pasta is barely tender (it will continue to cook once you have removed the soup from the heat). Again, add additional water if thinner soup is desired. Remove and discard parmesan rind. Add Italian parsley. Serve with some nice, rustic bread.

Candy corn cupcakes and mummy hot dogs. Happy Halloween!

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Mummy Hot Dogs

 

True confessions

 

Well, today is what I usually call Eco-Friendly Friday.  I’m afraid I’ve gotta call it True Confession Friday instead.  See, I haven’t been very eco-friendly lately.  In fact, I’ve kind of got a laundry list of things I’ve been doing wrong over the past week or two.  I’m not making any excuses here, but with Claudia being sick with the flu, all my environmental sense kind of went out the window.  Apparently, it hasn’t come back yet, so I’m hoping with this little list of infractions, it’ll jump start me back on the right track.

So.  Here we go:

• I went to Starbuck’s and didn’t take my refillable cup.  Plus, the silly girl behind the counter gave us double cups for some reason so I not only had one cup, but two!
• I used paper towels repeatedly all week because my laundry pile was out of control and I didn’t have a single clean dishcloth.
• I bought and used Lysol disinfecting wipes with great zeal.
• I gave Claudia a different plastic shopping bag every day to fill with used tissues.  Then I promptly tossed them into the trash.
• I bypassed the Borax for Clorox bleach in the laundry when I finally got around to actually doing the laundry.  And I used the hot water cycle.

That’s just a few things.  I know they sound silly and mild, but it really just shows me how far away from my environmentally-friendly habits I’ve slipped.  But everybody falls off the proverbial wagon once in a while, right?  And nobody’s perfect.  So I’m ready to earn back that lovely shade of green I had become.  Next week you’ll get a real post and not just a lousy list.  Promise.

Whole wheat brownies

Whole Wheat Brownies

Yep.  Whole wheat brownies.  Gotta be good for you, right?  Well, if you ignore the cup of butter, I suppose they are.  I was curious if you could really make a good brownie using all whole wheat flour, and it turns out that you can.  These are pretty good.  If you really want to hide the fact that they’re whole wheat, bake them, cover them, and don’t eat them until the next day.  That gives the bran time to soften up and it’s much more disguised.  My kids never knew the difference.

And to help me make these even tastier, I used this coffee extract:

My friend, Ingrid from 3 B’s, was super sweet and sent me these two awesome extracts, so I don’t have to make my own coffee extract anymore!  I was so excited to see coffee and chocolate extracts and spent most of the afternoon they arrived all curled up under a blanket, with a cold rain pelting at the windows, looking for recipes.  Thank you, Ingrid!!!

I found this brownie recipe at King Arthur Flour and based on the reviews it got there, I figured I’d give it a try.  I made an adjustment here and there, and we ate every last crumb.  I’m not sure I’d make them again using all whole wheat flour though, because there was definitely a texture that you don’t find in traditional brownies.  Not that it was bad or anything, but just apparent.  Maybe half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour would have been better.  Or maybe a little patience on our parts would have been better.  After all, the recipe clearly tells you to wait until the next day to eat them, but of course that’s delaying gratification too long for us impatient types.

Recipe:  Whole Wheat Brownies

(adapted from King Arthur Flour)

1 c. unsalted butter, softened

2 c. light brown sugar, packed

3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. coffee extract

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

4 large eggs

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1 c. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

1 c. peanut butter chips

sea salt to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray a 9×13″ pan with cooking spray.  Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.  Add sugar and stir to combine until sugar dissolves.  Transfer mixture to mixing bowl and stir in cocoa, baking soda, salt, baking powder, coffee and vanilla extracts.  Add the eggs, stirring until smooth.  Then add flour and chips, stirring until combined.  Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, until a cake tester reveals only moist crumbs, but not raw batter.  Remove from the oven and cool completely.  Cover and sit overnight before cutting and serving to give the bran a chance to soften and become “invisible” in your mouth.

Pumpkin ice cream

Philadelphia-Style Pumpkin Ice Cream

If you like pumpkin pie, you’re bound to be a fan of pumpkin ice cream.  Picture the pie and the whipped cream all together and you’ve got this recipe.  I wanted a homemade ice cream to go with my cinnamon cream cheese pound cake, but I wanted a Philly-style ice cream so I didn’t have to do anything but mix it up and freeze it.  Even though all the flavors are in here, I wasn’t completely satisfied with the texture.  I had a heck of a time getting a nice scoop of ice cream from this.  It was sort of crumbly, for lack of a better word.  Granted, I wasn’t patient enough to let it soften up first, but if you follow this blog very much, you know I have a hard time waiting.

If I hadn’t been making this ice cream to go along with cake, I would have put some graham cracker pieces in at the last minute too.  That would have mimicked the amazing pumpkin cheesecake flavor that Ben & Jerry’s makes.  If you haven’t tried that, I highly recommend that you go buy yourself a pint as soon as possible!  In the meantime, you might want to give this recipe a try.

Recipe:  Pumpkin Ice Cream

(original recipe here)

15-oz. can of pumpkin puree (1 3/4 cup)

3/4 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

2 c. heavy whipping cream

In a large bowl, mix pumpkin puree, brown sugar, and spices together.  Stir in heavy whipping cream.  Chill in an ice bath or in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.  Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Cinnamon cream cheese pound cake

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Once a month, I host a book discussion at my local library, which means that, once a month, I also make something sweet to share with my fellow bookworms.  I wanted something kind of autumnal this time and decided on pound cake.  The more I looked around for a recipe, the more I realized that I was going to have to make some changes to whatever I found because what I really wanted was a cinnamon pound cake.  I came across two recipes that were very similar and just kept referring back and forth and making a change here and there until I had what I wanted.  A cinnamon cream cheese pound cake.  (Which, by the way, goes perfectly with the pumpkin ice cream I’ll tell you about tomorrow!)

I couldn’t be happier with how this cake turned out.  It’s moist and tender and full of cinnamon flavor.  Exactly what I was looking for.  It got great reviews at the library and from the kids, which is really saying something because they’ve been pickier than usual lately!

For those of you interested in what we’re reading too…  This month was People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.  The plot of the book is a clever idea.  It spans 5 centuries and acquaints the reader with the history of an ancient book by giving us a glimpse at all the lives it has been a part of.  (I think that’s fascinating.  Have you ever wondered how many hands have held a book that you’re reading?)  The main character is a rare book expert and she is able to dissect the smallest things and uncover information about the book’s past.  As the book is analyzed,  the author introduces the reader to all the people from the past who have had interactions with this book.  It’s a bit of a heavy read since there are so many people to keep track of, and it does get rather detailed at times, but overall, it’s an interesting historical fiction novel.

Recipe:  Cinnamon Cream Cheese Pound Cake

(adapted from My Recipes and Smitten Kitchen)

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

8-oz. Philadelphia brand Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Spice Swirl cream cheese, room temperature

3 c. granulated sugar

6 large eggs

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

3 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

Cinnamon Glaze (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and lightly spray a 12-cup bundt pan with baking spray, such as Baker’s Joy.

Place butter and cream cheese in mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until smooth.  Add sugar, increase mixer to high speed, and beat for 5 minutes, until mixture is light and airy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Add vanilla and cinnamon, then flour and salt all at one time.  Beat just until incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared pan and even out the top.  Bake until cake is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean, 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Remove cake from oven to a cooling rack.  Cool in pan for 20 minutes.  Remove from pan and allow to cool completely.  Glaze with cinnamon glaze.

Recipe:  Cinnamon Glaze

1 c. powdered sugar

2 Tbsp. milk

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Mix ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.  Drizzle over cooled cake.