Nutella & Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

So, at some point yesterday afternoon, I got the inspiration to bake.  I'm not sure why, considering when it comes to baking my cakes for decorating, it's really a task I never look forward to.  I'd much rather spend my hours bent over the cake adding color and detail.  But, alas, I was in the mood to bake.  My coworkers will tell you that it was because of the new employee at work.  She bakes.  My coworkers will tell you that since I've been so used to being the one who bakes all the time, and that her cookies just happen to shine over mine 100%, that I felt the need to step it up and bake.  Perhaps I have.  But really.. I was just browsing Pinterest and got inspired.  It was also a Wednesday night and I didn't have to take the girls anywhere after work.  It was also a way to procrastinate cleaning up the tornado of toys in my house.  Besides, I'm glad there's someone else at work now who bakes.  It's a relief really.  That was a lot of pressure.  <smiley face>  And now there's none.  Though they seem to think that putting us against one another is a good thing.  Little do they know, we're starting to collaborate.

So, of course, when I'm in the MOOD to bake, I can't just whip out any old box mix and store bought icing and toss things in a bowl.  No.  That just simply won't do.  I have to go out, over the top, and push limits.

Like I said, I was browsing Pinterest.  There are thousands and thousands of links to all manner of food from the internet on here.  And I tend to pin those that interest me, not for the exact recipe, but for the thought of "what can I do better" with that recipe.  And last night I landed on a cupcake.  I had pinned this some time ago, and it's certainly over the top.  So indeed, I took it to the next level.  And... since I have a lot of coworkers, I doubled the recipe.  This will make just under 4 dozen cupcakes.  Here's how I played.

Cake Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
12 T unsalted butter, soft room temp
1 cup Nutella
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
2 bags (12oz each) semi-sweet chocolate chips (set 1/2 bag aside)

Pre-heat your oven to 350degrees

1. Combine milk and vanilla in a bowl, set aside
2. Combine flour, powder, salt in a bowl, set aside
3. In your mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy
4. Add the eggs and blend until smooth
5. Mix in the Nutella and Peanut butter
6. Add 1/2 of the flour mixture and blend until combined
7. Add 1/2 of the milk and blend until combined
8. Add remaining flour, blend, add remaining milk, blend
9. Remove bowl from mixer and add 1.5 bags of of the chocolate chips and fold in by hand with a spatula

Scoop batter into lined cupcake tins until about 2/3 full
Bake for 20-22 minutes.
You will notice the cupcakes will get nice and puffy, but towards the 20 minute mark they will deflate and start to darken.  At this point they are just about done.  Toothpick the center and make sure it comes out clean (melted chocolate residue does not count)
Remove from the oven and let cool.

Now, it's time for frosting!
The recipe from the original pin was pretty weak and tasted like too much butter, so being a cake decorator I bumped up how much sugar was used in this recipe and not only naturally doubled it, but also made it taste less like butter and more like frosting.  And again, this is doubled from the original I found.
12 ouces unsalted butter, room temp (this is about 2 sticks of butter)
4 cups confectioner sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup creamy peanut butter (this I did NOT double, 'cause simply these things were getting far too sweet)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk

1. Beat the butter and peanut butter in a bowl.  Use your whisk beater so the butter can get whipped and not be clumpy, no one wants to get a lump of butter in their mouth when eating frosting.
2. Add the vanilla to your cup of milk
3. Add the salt into your sugar
4. Add 1 cup of sugar and beat on low until incorporated
5. Add a splash of milk and beat on high
6. Return mixer to low and add more sugar
7. Alternate sugar/milk until it's all incorporated
8. Beat on high to get a nice fluffy frosting.
9. If you want it thicker, add more sugar.

You can frost these with a knife, but I prefer a piping bag, make a nice circle, bring it in the middle and pull up to create a nice little "nipple" of frosting.

Now, decorate it.  Remember that remaining 1/2 bag of chocolate chips?  Put those in a microwave safe bowl and microwave at 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each until they have melted.
Using the same spoon you are stirring with, simply draw it through the chocolate and drizzle over the cupcakes in your desired pattern.

Serve with Milk.  You will need it.

Now... want to kick it up a notch?  Fellow baking coworker and I thought these would be AMAZING with some crispy fresh bacon bits on top.  Salty and sweet.  Oh yes.  Maybe next time.

Copious Cookies and Kahlua too!

I like to bake.  You know this.  Although, I'm not a fan of baking cakes (just decorating them).  But I am a fan of baking pastries, pies, and cookies.  Oh do I love to make cookies.  So anyone who knows me knows that come December, my kitchen is overflowing with copious counts of cookie dough.  You walk into the kitchen during one of my all day cooking marathons and you'll find me covered in flour, standing in sugar and licking a beater or spoon full of dough.

Now, I don't bake just one kind of cookie en masse.  No.  I do it up right.  I bake a minimum of 6 different kinds of cookies, 2 batches each.  A typical batch is 2 to 4 dozen.  You do the math.  Yes, cookies cover the counters, and my kitchen table, and my dining room table.  My husband loves it.

I have a book that I received from my husband several years ago for Christmas and it's 400+ pages or nothing but cookies.  So this cookie cookoff with myself is really his fault.  The first year I had it, I went through page by page and tagged several to try.  Starting off that year I baked 8 different kinds of cookies.  It was a 12 hour day in the kitchen, with one oven and 2 cookie sheets.  Took them all to work in Christmas tins and tupperware.  Huge hit, of course.  Did the same the following year, and again the next, now with more cookie sheets.  Had to take a year off due to pregnancy but came back the following years just as strong.  And here I was again this year with 2 ovens, 8 cookie sheets, 2 Kitchen Aids and one hand mixer.  It was "just" an 8 hour session this year, thanks to two kids at my legs... but followed with two more nights later that week to get to my 8 kinds of cookie.

I vary what I make from year to year.  I have my constants like chocolate chip, white chocolate chip and a peanut butter.  But I still like to try a new one every year.  This recipe is this year"s new one.  It's one I had marked a few years ago and added a post it on with notes.  The original recipe is a butterscotch base with a pecan on top.  I decided to change it up and play.  I have modified the recipe so that the cookie mimics a chocolate trifle.

Now in all fairness I had no idea what chocolate trifle was until I met my husband's family,  This was a dessert they had after holiday meals.  Chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, crushed heath bar, whipped cream...and... Kahlua, ever so lightly drizzled over the cake. A-mazing.  I have of course played with this recipe several times as well, one of my favorite versions include Oreos.  So when I read this cookie recipe that was a butterscotch pudding base, I noted that switch to chocolate and Kahlua drizzle.  This year was the year to do it, and they are stupidly easy!  They are my new go to dough for last minute cookies.

Chocolate Trifle Kahlua Pudding Cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 c sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 margarine, melted
• 1 package of instant chocolate pudding
• 1 bag crushed heath bar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a bowl, mix at high speed sguar and eggs until thick and yellow pale.  Beat in the margarine until smooth.  Stir in the flour and pudding until blended.  Stir in 3/4 the bag of heath bar.  Drop the batter by 2-3 Tablespoons each on to a greased AND floured cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Undercook slightly for more chewy cookie.  Remove from sheets and cool completely on wire rack with wax paper underneath the rack.

Drizzle/Dip on Top

• 1 cup confectioner sugar
• 2-3T of Kahlua

Keep in mind here, that this drizzle on top is really to taste. You want a thicker "frosting" use less Kahlua, more sugar.  You want a gooey feel to it, use more Kahlua.  I'm guessing at the measurement for the Kahula since I literally put 1 cup of sugar in and then poured the Kahlua in and turned on the mixer and adjusted until it was the consistency I wanted.

When your cookies are cool enough, use the drizzle by dipping in a spoon and zig-zagging across the cookie, or just dip the cookie in and put back on the wire racks to set.  While the drizzle is still is still wet, sprinkle just a touch of heath bar on top.

Serve this cookie with the following cocktail:
1 part vodka
1 part Kahlua
1 part Bailey's
2 parts milk or cream
ice into a shaker, shake well, pour into martini glass

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And in case you thought I was kidding about the massive amounts of cookies: