Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

I finally discovered Food Gawker! And thank God! I found this recipe while feasting my eyes on other peoples much more complicated recipes and MUCH  MUCH better pictures. But hey we all start somewhere right?! Anyway, I love oreos, I mean who doesn't? So when this cupcake recipe I knew I had to make it immediately.

Oreo Cupcakes
(Adapted from Bakergirl)

Cupcakes 
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
3/4 cup hot, strong-brewed coffee
3/4 cup bread flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
15 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached

Frosting 
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons whipping cream
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
15 Oreo cookie halves, finely crushed (Use all of the leftover halves from the cookies you put in the bottom of the cupcake pans, or more or less to taste)
15 Oreos for the top of each cupcake

 

 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. 

 

 

 

Twist Oreos in half and set aside the extra cookies for later. Place the side with cream filling in the bottom of each cupcake liner, cream-side facing up.

 

 

 Place chocolate and cocoa in a medium bowl and pour the hot coffee over the mixture. Whisk until smooth and transfer to the refrigerator to cool completely, 20-30 minutes.

Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl; set aside. 

 

Whisk oil, eggs, vanilla, and vinegar into the cooled chocolate mixture until smooth. Add flour mixture and whisk until batter is smooth.

Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups, filling each 3/4 full. 

 

 

 

Bake until cupcakes are set and firm to the touch, 17-20 minutes. Allow to cool in pans 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. 

For the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high speed until the whipped cream holds stiff peaks. Gently fold in the cookie crumbs with a spatula.

Scoop the mixture into a pastry bag and pipe on top of the cupcakes. Garnish with Oreo cookies.

Makes about 15 cupcakes.

 

 

Carrot Cake

My husband loves carrot cake so of course that is what I made for him for his birthday... back in October. Geeze I have been a bad blogger.

I used a recipe from Epicurious for Carrot Cake with Maple-Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups canola oil
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups grated peeled carrots
• 1 1/4 cups coarsely chopped walnuts
• 2 tablespoons minced peeled ginger

Icing

• 10 ounces cream cheese (such as Philadelphia), room temperature
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 12 walnut halves (for garnish)

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Butter and flour paper; tap out excess flour. 

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in medium bowl to blend. 

Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. 

Stir in carrots, walnuts (I leave the walnuts out, we aren't big fans) and ginger. 

Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks. Peel off waxed paper; cool cakes completely.

 

For icing:
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and beat at low speed until well blended. Beat in maple syrup. Chill until just firm enough to spread, 30 minutes. 

Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread with 3/4 cup icing. Top with second layer. Spread remaining icing over entire cake. Arrange walnut halves around top edge. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome; chill. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before serving.  

I made this cake the day before and then froze it in saran wrap. This let all the flavors get happy overnight and it made it much easier to cut into more layers for a taller more impressive looking cake slice.

 After filling between the layers with frosting I put the cake in the freezer to harden it up a little bit so it would be easier to frost the outside layer.

 Too bad when I took the cake out before dinner it melted. OOPS. I guess next time I'll need to adjust my frosting or leave it in the refrigerator until closer to dessert time.

It's a good thing I cook better than I blog!

As the title suggests I am one lame blogger. I have made a few things that I haven't blogged about but I never remember to put the pictures on the computer and then I go to blog and remember, dang I'm at work and my camera is at home. What a blogging failure!

So in lieu of a new recipe I will share with you some of my recent food related outings and future food related plans.


Epcot's Food and Wine Festival

My husband and I went to the Food and Wine Festival for the first time last year. The hubs is lucky because Food and Wine always falls over his birthday and after having such a grand time last year (both times we went) we decided to do it all again this year. Of course I didn't take any pictures of the food, because it was dark and I only had the camera on my phone, we are super light travelers when we go to Disney... don't want anything getting in the way of fun, not even a camera. So I will just tell you a little about my favorite parts.

In Ireland they had the most delicious chocolate lava cake and my husband loved the fisherman's pie, which had a stew of lobster, scallops and veggies topped with mashed potatoes.

In France the short ribs topped in mashed potatoes are amazing. Along with the cosmo slush they always have and the kir, which is a drink with champing and a fruit flavored liquor.

In Belgium... the waffles. Need I say more?! They also had an iced coffee with Godiva Chocolate Liquor, Yum!

I am a really picky eater so those are my favorites. I also love a good Riesling and could drink my way around Epcot every weekend from now until I die. There is just nothing more magical than good food, good wine and kids on a leash.

Pumpkin, Pumpkin Everywhere!!!

Jeremiah's Italian Ice in Orlando has Pumpkin Pie Ice and when you get it mixed with vanilla soft serve, it is by far one of the best things in the world. They have Pumpkin Pie ice mid October through the end of the year usually and right before they stop carrying it for the season I always get a quart of it to keep in the freezer because I love pumpkin so much.

Cheesecake Factory pumpkin cheesecake is also a fall staple in my diet. I could eat an entire pumpkin cheesecake, it's too good for just one piece.

First Watch, a breakfast/brunch place we have around here, has pumpkin pancakes on the weekends. Unfortunately I work on Saturdays and go to church on Sundays and I am NOT a morning person so there is no way I would wake up and go get pumpkin pancakes before work or church so I haven't had them yet. My mom and grandpa love them and I went with them on a Friday hoping they would have them only to be disappointed when they didn't and I had to settle for french toast, which was really good.

Dunkin' Donuts has a pumpkin donut. It's pumpkin spice cake and glazed. It was OK. I wouldn't get one again, but my husband loved it.

Oh the planning!

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I have a large family. We always have "dinner" at my parents house at 2:00. I bring southern style green beans that I make in a croc pot with bacon and onions and pies, sometimes even cake, some combination of pumpkin pie, pumpkin bundt cake and pecan pie. I love Thanksgiving. I love the food, I usually love spending time with my family and oh yeah the food, especially left overs.


I have also started planning my Christmas baking. I have a few family members that either have everything or I wouldn't know what to get them, so I've decided to make baked goods baskets for some of those people. I have a list of cookies, treats and other munchies I plan to make but I will post pictures of those so you will just have to wonder until then.


Hopefully I'll get my act together and upload some pictures this weekend so I can post some more cooking posts, seeing as how this is supposed to be documenting my cooking adventures both delicious and unfortunate. Until then, get yourself something pumpkin and enjoy Fall while it lasts.

Bread

I have been wanting to make bread for a long time, but I have always been intimidated by the rising and waiting and smushing and waiting some more all before baking and waiting. I'm not very patient. So after seeing a very simple recipe for white bread on This blog, I decided to give it a try. She found the recipe in a cook book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I plan on checking the bookstore for this book this weekend because I just can't wait for it to be shipped to me. Anyway here way go, Homemade bread!

The Nice people at this blog have typed out the recipe so I don't have to! Check it out.


Here are the pictures from my break making experience.



Mixing the yeast with warm water.



The dough!

I forgot to take pictures of the dough rising. Ooops.



The refrigerated dough.



Two formed loaves on a pizza peel covered with cornmeal. Rising one last time.

I forgot to take a picture of them after flouring the tops and slashing the pattern. Again Ooops.



The finished product. So Yummy! Not to mention bread baking is about the best smell ever. It makes you feel all cozy inside.



Yum.

Zesty Lemon Pie

This recipe was on the cover of Southern Living Magazine in August I think.



Lemon Ice Box Pie
Southern Living, August 2010


Total: 6 hours 20 minutes
Yield: Makes 8 servings
Ingredients

* 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
* 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
* 3 tablespoons butter, melted
* 6 egg yolks
* 2 (14-oz.) cans sweetened condensed milk
* 1 cup fresh lemon juice
* 1 cup whipping cream
* 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
* Garnishes: lemon slices, fresh mint leaves

Preparation (with pictures of my pie)

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Stir together first 2 ingredients; add butter, stirring until blended. Press mixture on bottom and up sides of a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. Bake 10 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack (about 30 minutes).





While the pie crust cooled I juiced my lemons.




2. Whisk together egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and lemon juice. Pour into prepared crust.







3. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack (about 1 hour). Cover and chill 4 hours.

Apparently I don't believe in wire racks because my pictures say I didn't use one.



4. Beat whipping cream at high speed with an electric mixer until foamy; gradually add powdered sugar, beating until soft peaks form; dollop over chilled pie. Garnish, if desired.

*I made this pie just for my husband and myself so I made whipped cream in my ISI cream whipper and stored it in the refrigerator so we could have fresh whipped cream with every slice. I knew if I put it all on top when I made it it would go flat by the time we ate the whole pie. So if I make this to serve to more than two people I would prepare the cream and dollop as instructed, however for the two of us making it in the cream whipper made more sense.

A cheesecake project pt. 2

Over the weekend the hubs and I tasted two more of The Cheesecake Factory's offerings.

Chocolate Coconut Cream Cheesecake - YUCK! Now I don't like coconut so I figured I wouldn't be too thrilled with this cheesecake, but the hubs loves coconut and he threw almost half of it away because he said it just wasn't very good. It was creamy and had a nice texture, until you got some coconut shavings stuck in your teeth. It was just bad. Definitely the worst flavor yet.


Tiramisu Cheesecake - This was good. If I am ever at The Cheesecake Factory and feeling Italian, I'd get this again. I love Tiramisu so I was excited about trying this. It was a great balance between the creamy cheesecake and traditional espresso soaked plateful of delicious.

Only 16 flavors left.

Taco Salad

My husband and I love Mexican food, from barely Mexican texmex to the more authentic mom and pop places that claim to have the real deal. This dish leans pretty far into the texmex court.

My fake it till you make it Taco Salad:

Ingredients:

Ground Beef
Taco Bell Seasoning Packet
Lettuce
Fritos Original Corn Chips
Salsa
Tomato, chopped
Mexican blend cheese
Sour Cream
Any other taco topping you like.

Brown ground beef, season with Taco Bell taco seasoning packet as directed.

Put lettuce into bowl or on a plate, top with salsa, tomatoes, taco meat, cheese sour cream and any other toppings you like. Add Fritos on top like croutons. And done!