Aloha Luau Cupcakes

My final hurrah at my previous place of employment. We celebrated the end of Summer with a Luau and I got a chance to finally make the cupcakes that had been sitting in my head for a ridiculously long time. I have a list of so many ideas but never seem to have the excuse to make them. And as popular as cupcakes have become, someone usually manages to beat me to the punch. You all are just too damn creative for your own good.

Well I became obsessed with dulce de leche a while back. I found out about cajeta and had to try out the goat's milk version. Next thing I know I was caramelizing everything I could get my hands on including goat's milk yogurt (think caramelized sour cream). The idea of coconut milk was a natural progression and I thought I was oh so clever until I found a recipe right there on Epicurious. gah! There are no original ideas left in my head I guess...


So anyway, I wanted to do a more Asian inspired version of caramel and pears because I love those flavors together and the Luau gave me the perfect excuse to finally bake these puppies. And only I would find a reason to make an Asian- Mexican fusion, right? I have real issues
I know.
But pineapple just seemed too obvious, yeah?


Salted Coconut Milk Dulce de Leche- Lychee Fruit Cupcakes
adapted from Chockylit's Lychee Fruit cupcakes
makes 30 cupcakes

4 cups Cake Flour
2 t Baking Soda
2 cups Turbinado Sugar
4 large Eggs
1 cup Oil
2 t Vanilla
20 oz can Lychee Fruit, drained and chopped
1 1/2 cups Dulce de Leche Coconut Milk (recipe below)

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium sized bowl. In your mixer bowl, combine eggs and oil over low medium speed with paddle attachment. Add vanilla. Slowly add in dry ingredients over low speed in thirds. Fold in chopped lychee fruit then the dulce de leche on slow speed until just combined. Do not overmix.

Scoop cupcake mixture into lined cupcake tins 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.


Salted Coconut Milk Dulce de Leche
adapted from Epicurious

2 14 oz cans Unsweetened Coconut Milk
1 1/1 cups Brown Sugar
1 T Fleur de Sel salt

Whisk coconut milk, sugar, and salt in heavy large skillet over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high and boil until mixture is reduced to 2 1/2 cups, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Transfer sauce to a glass/porcelain dish or small jars. Cool completely, chill any sauce that you will not be using immediately.

Salted Coconut Milk Dulce de Leche Frosting
adapted from Chockylit's Salted Caramel frosting

2 sticks/ 8 oz. unsalted Butter, room temp
8 ounces or 1 package of Cream Cheese, room temp
6 cups Powdered Sugar
1 cup Salted Coconut Milk Dulce de Leche

Mix butter and cream cheese in mixer bowl with paddle attachment on medium speed until creamy. Sift 3 cups of powdered sugar into the butter/cream cheese mixture and mix to combine. Add the salted dulce de leche and mix until just combined. Sift the remaining 3 cups of powder sugar, and add until just combined and smooth. Frosting will be soft.




Coming Clean
I decorated the cupcakes with dried Lychee fruit and chocolate shells that I made just using a simple chocolate shell plastic mold from a craft store and a blend of tempered white and dark chocolate.

The coconut flavored dulce de leche was a really nice surprise. You get definite caramel with coconut milk undertones. People had a hard time figuring it out until I told them and then it seemed obvious. We could have eaten the salted dulce de leche over ice cream, we even dipped the leftover chocolate shells in it, it was so good.

The lychee fruit and coconut milk dulce de leche went together so wonderfully and it certainly made an incredibly moist cupcake. The sweet lychee balanced really well against the salted nutty flavor of the the coconut milk dulce de leche. They were way too addictive so consider yourself warned. I highly recommend them if you are looking to try something different and fun that has unique flavor and makes for a great cupcake.

Tentatively Testing the Tempered Waters...

I know I have fallen off the blogger planet and am going to try to get back into the swing of things. It being October and all... holy crap! when did it get to be October?!?!

And for the record, I am now in Denver. I miss St. Louis a ridiculous amount, tis true. Things didn't go quite as smoothly as we would have liked. In fact, they went pretty dreadfully but it turns out it was all for the best because I may have new *news* Oct. 10th. {sigh} And yeah, I'm sick of me too. heh.

So when I should really be focused on this...


Instead I'm focused on this...


How am I supposed to help myself when my new Farmers' Market has a wonderful organic farm that not only grows a ton of different peppers, they also fire roast them right before my eyes (and celebratory nose). Did I mention the homemade tortillas?? I have amazing choices here and a market every day of the week. I still haven't found eggs though so boo hiss. I'm trying to settle in and now that I have a functioning oven hope to get back on the baking bandwagon.

In fact... I'm typing up the cupcakes I made for my final hurrah before leaving my old job (I'm just now finding the notes). I need you to hold me to it so I don't get sidetracked by dreams of mexican food, lemon cake and the dentist. Blame the weirdness on the alien inside of me. And I'm hoping to get caught up on my blogging friend reading. I'm so far behind on what everyone is up to it's shameful. I've gotten lazy with Twitter.

I've honestly missed you all. Hope everyone out there is happy and looking forward to a beautiful Fall. Now wish me some cooler weather darnit~ 80's be GONE!

No Eggs. No Milk. No Cream.

* uhm yeah, so this post is also here. Cause I'm a big dork and forgot to cut and paste my draft into a more recent date. DOH. back to regularly unscheduled programming...


But I had to have one last Askinosie recipe to celebrate the announcement of Cupcake Hero results...ya know, when slacker finally got around to posting results that is...ahehehehemmm. Ok, this obviously won't be my last recipe using Askinosie cocoa evah, but you get my drift.

This recipe is care of Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich. I am only kept 3 cookbooks out to take to my mom's and all others were packed. This was one of them. Oh yeah, did I happen to mention that I am now officially the cool food blogger who lives with her mom?!? That's not weird or anything, is it? uhm yeah, so back to the recipe. In the introduction it says

"use the best cocoa you can find for this exquisite sorbet. It is packed with intense bittersweet chocolate flavor. I also make it with rasberry vodka instead of rum, or with no liquor at all. For a more 'gently' flavored chocolate-sherbet effect, make the base with only 1 cup of water and 1 cup milk along with the vanilla."

Now you and I know, Alice is just being a lady and her editor prob made her write that whole "or no alcohol at all" garbage cause let's be honest... just reading it sounds silly. So the words 'best cocoa, liquor and I get to use my ice cream machine again' really spoke to me. Did I mention I brought the ice cream maker with me to my mom's as well?!? Yeah, I'm that kind of ultra- cool food blogger who not only lives with her mom but brings cookbooks and the ice cream maker along. The world isn't big enough to handle this amount of cool, right? right?!?!?!?!


Chocolate Sorbet
adapted from Pure Dessert
makes 1 quart

1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 cup Brown Sugar, not packed
2 tiny pinches of Salt
2 cups Boiling Water
1/2 t Vanilla extract
1 1/2 T Kahlua

Combine the cocoa, sugar, and salt in a heavy 3-quart saucepan, and whisk in about 1/2 cup boiling water to form thick paste. Whisk in the remaining water. Stir the mixture over medium heat until tiny bubbles start to appear around the adges of the pan. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours.

Transfer mixture to ice cream machine. Begin mixing and add Kahlua. I use a Cuisinart and mixed for 30 minutes in the freezer bowl. Sorbet was ready to serve but you can put it into a container and freeze to harden if preferred.


Coming Clean
This sorbet needed absolutely nothing- it was rich and perfect. My mom said it best "I have GOT to make brownies with this cocoa!" Girl after your heart, right? Monkey is not one to just idly sit by and settle for perfectly good rich chocolate sorbet~ oh no... I raised this chica after all. She smothered it with some fresh sliced strawberries and topped it off with whipped cream. It was a perfect counterbalance actually. I didn't get any pictures of that tho~ you are stuck with three pictures of the exact same damn thing~ cause this family does not let ice cream sit around once it has been smothered with strawberries and whip cream. No siree...

Big congratulations go out to April of Abby's Sweets for her yummy Cocoa Orange Cupcakes that take home the big prize. And how much does Askinosie totally rock for sponsoring the prize, right? Go show them some love. And check out their BAD@$$ brand new product that you've just been dying waiting for but didn't even know it. I can hardly wait to see April's recipe over there~ just too damn cewl if you ask me!

Knocked Up~ Pass the Prune Juice

That's right, I'm preggos and constipated. And I'm here to kick my classy blog up a notch. But first things first...



Thanks to the well wishes on Twitter. You guys are all really too cool to be reading my tweets. And if you aren't following these folks, you should be cause they were paying attention to me so they can't be all that bad, right? Oh, ehrr, wait. More importantly, if you are reading this right now and you aren't on Twitter, why the hell not?!? Just give in to the peer pressure like the rest of us muckety-mucks, k? And as far as cravings go, Ms. BlogNosh~ uhm, not-so-much. Just the "smell" of water brings on the waves of nausea. It would appear that this baby is going to beat me over the head with every last symptom in its arsenal.

To clear up a few things: No this was not planned. Who in their right mind plans to get pregnant while their hubby is away for 6 months, they are forced to live with their mom because her house sold too quickly and is supposed to be moving to Denver in a month but has no idea where yet and has still not told her job that she's leaving and is totally stressed out beyond belief? Did I mention that my genius 11-y.o. monkey managed to break her foot at summer camp? NOBODY in their right mind, THAT'S WHO.

Yes, hubby is ecstatic and overjoyed and will soon be fixed. But let this be a warning to all of you married couples who get comfortable thinking they are too old to worry about these things anymore, and thinking it's a blessing to have an only child who is spoiled rotten, and who decide to get their freak on way too many times when they mistakenly think they miss their displaced hubby and decide to show him the many ways you've missed him *which shall remain untyped here.* It's been said before, but it's worth repeating~ Sex and marriage just do not go together. Now pay more attention to your married friends who are bitching about their ungrateful spouse who has disgusting habits and how normal married couples only have sex once/year. During a full moon. When she is NOT ovulating for the love of humanity.

By the way, I hope I didn't shatter anyone's world view if you still believe the whole stork thing, but WARNING: Sex makes BABIES. There. My PSA is done. Go about your day. And yes, this blog is likely to to go totally batty because a little something else people conveniently forget about pregnancy... NINE MONTHS OF BEING SOBER. And you know sober and me just do not play nicely together. At this rate, the insanity might drive me to becoming democrat. heh. not. But having my snarky sister call me and ask how much of my wine cellar she has rights to now (cause she is keeping my beloveds for me while our household goods are in storage) might just be the tipping point. So not funny sis. If you don't mind, I'll now go back to reading this fun and engaging article that is just making me feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy inside. Prune Ice Cream & Prune Cupcake recipes to follow. And right now? I just threw up a little in my mouth.

Daring 2 Days with Danish Braids in my mom's kitchen

I haven't done a Daring Baker's challenge in a ridiculous amount of time. I've been a bad baker, I know. But all of the last few have been recipes from cookbooks I own that I've already done in the past. This time however, no excuses allowed. The event was being hosted by two of my very favoritest people in food blogdom and there was no way I wasn't going to suck it up and contribute. The recipe is long so I posted it in a previous post to this one for posterity's sake.



My mom loves mango so I decided to fill one with a mascarpone cream topped with thin mango slices then pineapple slices and then sprinkled with some Ceylon cinnamon. The other was a chocolate cream cheese mixture topped with morelo cherries and some more Ceylon cinnamon. The recipes for the mascarpone/ cream cheese mixtures were adapted from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion and are at the end of the post.



For the record, no wine bottles were actually harmed in this baking experience...my mom doesn't own a rolling pin. I know!! What kind of civilized human being doesn't own a rolling pin?! And more importantly~ I'm related to this person?!? May need to start digging for those adoption papers...



I highly recommend measuring, measuring everything, measuring again. From figuring out the one-third middle to fill to where you should cut the braids. I never got my dough to roll out as big as the measurements in the recipe said it should. I came up short. But I worked with what I had and it seemed to turn out fine.



I decided to get fancy and curve one of the braids. This is what it looked liked before proofing. I'm not showing you what it looked like after cause it's ugly, needed to be baked in a different pan, and still tasted good so I'm in denial. Just don't curve your braid and expect a pretty picture, ok? After 2 hours these guys got HUGE. I was a little worried but shouldn't have been. Have faith {cue George Michaels}




I didn't brush mine with eggs, I didn't want to waste any good eggs on wash. Wash is for sissies. I drizzled Agave Nectar over them before rising and then just kept brushing it as they rose. I personally like the crispy sugary crust it creates for the outside. I wish I had also sprinkled some raw sugar over them before baking for a little more texture to the outside flaky dough. Next time...



Mango- Pineapple Mascarpone Filling
made enough to fill one braid with some leftovers

1/2 Mango, quartered and thinly sliced
1/2 Pineapple, quartered and sliced
8 oz. Mascarpone
2 T softened Butter
1/4 cup Turbinado Sugar
1/8 t Salt
1 t Vanilla extract
2 T AP Flour
1 large Egg
Ceylon Cinnamon

In mixer bowl, beat together over low speed the mascarpone, butter, sugar, salt and vanilla. Scrape down sides and bring up to medium speed to get a fluffy texture with ingredients fully incorporated. Add flour and egg, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl thoroughly.

Spread the mixture evenly over the middle third of the braid then top first with thinly sliced mango and finally pineapple slices. Generously sprinkle entire middle third with Ceylon cinnamon.




Cherry Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling
made enough to fill one braid with some leftovers

1 cup Moreno Cherries, removed from juice and dried well on paper towel
8 oz. Cream Cheese
2 T softened Butter
1/4 cup Turbinado Sugar
1/8 t Salt
1 t Vanilla extract
2 T Cocoa Powder
1 large Egg
Ceylon Cinnamon

In mixer bowl, beat together over low speed the cream cheese, butter, sugar, salt and vanilla. Scrape down sides and bring up to medium speed to get a fluffy texture with ingredients fully incorporated. Add cocoa powder and egg, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl thoroughly.

Spread the mixture evenly over the middle third of the braid then top with the cherries. Generously sprinkle entire middle third with Ceylon cinnamon.

Coming Clean

These turned out incredibly well and I think that once you have the feel for the process it goes much quicker and smoothly. It has been a crazy long time since I've made laminated dough so I found myself constantly going over the directions and reminding myself where I was in the process. It probably would have been a little easier in my own kitchen as well, since I felt a little out of sorts using my mom's kitchen and tools. But if I can pull this off anyone can, honestly... We really enjoyed the filling and the mango/ pineapple combination is a new favorite for me now. Be sure to check out the rest of the Daring Bakers for some much more inventive fillings and I'm sure we'll be wowed by their incredible creativity. And many thanks to the 2 cool for school hosts~ you guys are the best!

Danish Braids Recipe

DANISH BRAID

Makes enough for 2 large braids

Ingredients
1 recipe Danish Dough (see below)
2 cups apple filling, jam, or preserves (see below)

For the egg wash: 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk

1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.
2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.
3. Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.

Egg Wash
Whisk together the whole egg and yolk in a bowl and with a pastry brush, lightly coat the braid.

Proofing and Baking
1. Spray cooking oil (Pam…) onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.
2. Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown. Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.

DANISH DOUGH

Makes 2-1/2 pounds dough

Ingredients
For the dough (Detrempe)
1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
½ cup whole milk (warm enough for yeast)
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
¾ teaspoon ground cardamom
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 large eggs, chilled
¼ cup fresh orange juice
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

For the butter block (Beurrage)
½ pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour

DOUGH
Combine yeast and milk in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Let the mixture rest and make sure the yeast begins to bubble in the milk. Slowly add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice. Mix well. Change to the dough hook and add the salt with the flour, 1 cup at a time, increasing speed to medium as the flour is incorporated. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

BUTTER BLOCK
1. Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature.
2. After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
4. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

APPLE FILLING
Makes enough for two braids

Ingredients
4 Fuji or other apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼-inch pieces
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ vanilla bean, split and scraped
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 - 8 minutes. Then add the apple mixture and sauté until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. If you’ve chosen Fujis, the apples will be caramelized, but have still retained their shape. Pour the cooked apples onto a baking sheet to cool completely before forming the braid. (If making ahead, cool to room temperature, seal, and refrigerate.) They will cool faster when spread in a thin layer over the surface of the sheet. After they have cooled, the filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Left over filling can be used as an ice cream topping, for muffins, cheesecake, or other pastries.

No eggs. No milk. No cream.

But I had to have one last Askinosie recipe to celebrate the announcement of Cupcake Hero results...ya know, when slacker finally got around to posting results that is...ahehehehemmm. Ok, this obviously won't be my last recipe using Askinosie cocoa evah, but you get my drift.

This recipe is care of Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich. I am only kept 3 cookbooks out to take to my mom's and all others were packed. This was one of them. Oh yeah, did I happen to mention that I am now officially the cool food blogger who lives with her mom?!? That's not weird or anything, is it? uhm yeah, so back to the recipe. In the introduction it says

"use the best cocoa you can find for this exquisite sorbet. It is packed with intense bittersweet chocolate flavor. I also make it with rasberry vodka instead of rum, or with no liquor at all. For a more 'gently' flavored chocolate-sherbet effect, make the base with only 1 cup of water and 1 cup milk along with the vanilla."

Now you and I know, Alice is just being a lady and her editor prob made her write that whole "or no alcohol at all" garbage cause let's be honest... just reading it sounds silly. So the words 'best cocoa, liquor and I get to use my ice cream machine again' really spoke to me. Did I mention I brought the ice cream maker with me to my mom's as well?!? Yeah, I'm that kind of ultra- cool food blogger who not only lives with her mom but brings cookbooks and the ice cream maker along. The world isn't big enough to handle this amount of cool, right? right?!?!?!?!


Chocolate Sorbet
adapted from Pure Dessert
makes 1 quart

1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 cup Brown Sugar, not packed
2 tiny pinches of Salt
2 cups Boiling Water
1/2 t Vanilla extract
1 1/2 T Kahlua

Combine the cocoa, sugar, and salt in a heavy 3-quart saucepan, and whisk in about 1/2 cup boiling water to form thick paste. Whisk in the remaining water. Stir the mixture over medium heat until tiny bubbles start to appear around the adges of the pan. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours.

Transfer mixture to ice cream machine. Begin mixing and add Kahlua. I use a Cuisinart and mixed for 30 minutes in the freezer bowl. Sorbet was ready to serve but you can put it into a container and freeze to harden if preferred.


Coming Clean
This sorbet needed absolutely nothing- it was rich and perfect. My mom said it best "I have GOT to make brownies with this cocoa!" Girl after your heart, right? Monkey is not one to just idly sit by and settle for perfectly good rich chocolate sorbet~ oh no... I raised this chica after all. She smothered it with some fresh sliced strawberries and topped it off with whipped cream. It was a perfect counterbalance actually. I didn't get any pictures of that tho~ you are stuck with three pictures of the exact same damn thing~ cause this family does not let ice cream sit around once it has been smothered with strawberries and whip cream. No siree...

Big congratulations go out to April of Abby's Sweets for her yummy Cocoa Orange Cupcakes that take home the big prize. And how much does Askinosie totally rock for sponsoring the prize, right? Go show them some love. And check out their BAD@$$ brand new product that you've just been dying waiting for but didn't even know it. I can hardly wait to see April's recipe over there~ just too damn cewl if you ask me!

And for the finale, Ice Cream Cupcakes

As Stef so insightfully deduced~ I've been working up to an ice cream cupcake for the Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup. I of course waited until the last minute because I was trying to build up the "anticipation." No procrastination to see here folks, move along.


I wanted to use the Chocolate Covered Cherry Ice Cream I had made. The ice cream was already incredibly rich so I wanted the cupcakes to complement the flavor without trying to compete. I needed something simple but hearty enough to make a good base for ice cream. And then it dawned on me I should just carry over the almond flavor in a simple almond cake. I've wanted to use the Citron Honey I found at Trader Joe's for some time now and this recipe was the perfect excuse. It contains Yuzu fruit, think pink grapefruit honey. It added just a touch of zing to the cake. You could honestly substitute any honey in this recipe and get a great flavor I think.

I also debated the name round and round- striped? Tuxedo? Zebra? I decided to go with Chocolate Cherry Amaretto cause truth be told, these cupcakes are a celebration of almond and great chocolate. and I'm so gosh darn clever and creative like that


Chocolate Cherry Amaretto Ice Cream Cupcakes
makes 12 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
5 oz. Almond Paste (1/2 of the can pictured)
1/4 cup Sugar
3 oz. unsalted Butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
2 T Citron Honey
2 large Eggs
2 T Amaretto
1/2 cup AP Flour
1/8 t Salt

Preheat oven 350 degrees. In a mixer bowl with paddle attachment, cream together almond paste and sugar. Let them fully incorporate on medium low setting for a good 2 minutes or more. Add in the butter pieces and continue on medium low, allowing the batter to get light and frothy, 5 minutes. Add honey, eggs, and amaretto one at time. Allowing each ingredient to be fully incorporated before adding the next. Scrape down sides well. Fold in flour and salt until just combined.

Prepare cupcake pan with metal liners (you'll want them easy to remove, you could use a silicone cupcake pan instead if you are into that sort of thing). I only filled the cupcake liners 2/3 full, the cupcakes won't rise a lot but I didn't want them too big as I planned to fill them with an ice cream layer later. If you try to keep them 1/2 to 2/3 full, you'll have a perfect amount of batter for one dozen cupcakes that just rise to the edge of the liner, no more. Bake for 15-18 minutes. The edges of the cake will just begin to turn brown and a toothpick inserted will come out clean. Allow to cool before removing from the pan. Place on to a tray and let them cool completely. Cover and place in freezer for several hours or overnight.

for the frosting:
8 oz. Mascarpone
2 oz. unsalted Butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1 T Amaretto
1/2 cup Cocoa (I used Askinosie again)
3-4 cups Confectioner's Sugar


In mixer bowl with paddle attachment, cream together mascarpone and butter. It should be fluffy and fully incorporated. Add amaretto until well combined. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Sift together cocoa and sugar in separate bowl. Gently fold sugar/ cocoa into creamed butter mixture on low setting one cup at a time until you reach desired consistency.

Assembly:
You'll need approx. 1/2 pint of ice cream for 12 cupcakes.
Take out ice cream to thaw slightly. Remove cupcakes from freezer and take them out of their liners. Place new metal liners in a cupcake tray. With a very sharp knife, cut the cupcakes in half, placing the bottom half in the lined cupcake tray. Place the top half to the side, but keep track of who owns which top half (I arranged them on the counter to mimic the placement in the cupcake tray). I scooped the ice cream into a piping bag and then piped it on the bottom half. This probably isn't necessary and could have just been spooned and smoothed over the bottom half. Place the top halves back on the ice creamed bottom halves and push down gently to seal. Cover with wrap and place into the freezer for at least 2 hours. When frozen hard, remove from the cupcake pan and put on a tray. Frost as desired. Keep covered in freezer until ready to serve.


Coming Clean
By the way...do you have any idea how hard it is to photograph ice cream cupcakes when the only good light you get is outside and this outside happens to be like 90 degrees?!?! Fun times. And by fun times I mean times which involve lots of swearing and running back and forth to the freezer.

While the almond cakes were baking~ I thought I might have to gnaw my arms off they smelled so durn good. Lord gah almighty- it smelled ridiculously good in my kitchen. And I'll admit it. I scrounged every last bit of crumb I could get my hands on to taste them. The cupcakes were incredible! They beg to be soaked in something so I'll be revisiting this recipe again. The ice cream soaked into the cake as they froze and made the most incredible bottom layer.
Warning: Assembly may be hazardous to your health. Scooping ice cream into cupcakes may lead to scooping ice cream into your mouth as well.

And now I've posted enough to not feel guilty anymore this week, right? Cause to be honest I feel like the worst blog friend ever. I am spending my weekend getting caught up with all your wonderful blogs and the posts I've been desperately missing. Right after I go see the Sex and the City movie. And visit my wine bar that I haven't been to in ages (they've probably forgotten my name by now). And go to the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning. But right after that I swear I'm blog-stalking you, and you, and you! Mwauhhh!

Askinosie Cocoa~ Cold School Style

Consider this post a not~so~subtle reminder that Cupcake Hero entries are due May 31st. That's right around the corner cupcake peeps... Oh yeah, did you happen to catch the prize this month? No?!? Well no worries, here's a not~so~subtle prize reminder:
"Prizes this month kick ass, if I do say so myself. Askinosie Chocolate is going to provide a prize for the winner AND feature the winning recipe on their website. Does it get any cooler than that? No, no it does not. Many thanks to Shawn at Askinosie for being such a huge supporter of our cupcake cause."

Uh huh, aren't you glad I reminded you now? In case your creative juices aren't kicking in yet, I thought I'd whip up my own salute to Askinosie Cocoa powder. I didn't want to steal any cupcake thunder though, so I decided to honor the chocolate in the form of my new obsession. I warned you didn't I??



I wanted a recipe that really was full-on chocolate. So for this I actually also used their chocolate bars. As the cocoa is Del Tambo, I went the same way with the chocolate bar. And yeah, you should totally covet my cocoa powder- in case you are wondering it is in fact a whole Kilo. You can hook up with my dealer here. And I'm pretty sure I'm not winning any Mother of the Year awards cause my Monkey never got sick of saying~ "Mom has a Kilo of powder in her bag. *snicker* *snicker* " Uh huh... that's my kid. I'm so proud... You should be jealous tho~ I can just go pick my goods up any time I want. I don't need no stinkin internet drugs... ehrrr, cocoa powder.



Chocolate Covered Cherry Truffle Ice Cream
Makes 1 Quart/ 2 Pints

1- 16 oz. jar Maraschino Cherries
1/2 cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 cup Whole Milk
1/4 cup San Jose Del Tambo Cocoa Powder
1-1/2 cups Heavy Cream
6 oz. San Jose Del Tambo Chocolate, chopped
2 T Amaretto

Prepare the Cherries the night before: Drain the juice from the cherries into a small heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring the juice up to a boil and then reduce to low heat. Let the juice reduce for a good 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat when it has reduced to at least 1/2 of its previous amount. While it is cooling, quarter chop the cherries. Place into a freezer bag that will safely hold liquids. When the juice has completely cooled, carefully pour it into the bag over the chopped cherries. Make sure the bag is completely sealed and roll it into a log to secure the juice and cherries at the bottom of the freezer bag. Freeze overnight.

For the Ice Cream: Whisk together (I used a handheld mixer) sugar and eggs in a bowl until well incorporated and frothy, 3 minutes. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, bring milk to a simmer over low heat. You will just begin to see heat/ steam and should be able to smell the milk cooking. Be careful NOT to boil the milk or overcook, you just want it at simmer. Whisk in the cocoa powder and bring the milk back to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Gently drizzle a small amount of the warm milk into the egg/ sugar mixture while whisking vigorously. You are tempering the eggs without cooking them. It's important to be patient here and just drizzle in small amounts of milk while constantly whisking to bring up the temperature of the eggs. Once the milk is completely incorporated into the eggs, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and continue to simmer over lowest heat setting. Stirring constantly the mixture will thicken slightly, 10 minutes. Put the mixture back into the bowl to cool while you prepare the chocolate.

In the saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a simmer. As soon as it is warm and you can smell it, remove from heat and add chopped chocolate. Stir in the chocolate until it is completely melted and incorporated and resembles a creamy ganache. Mix into the cocoa/ milk mixture and combine. Whisk in Amaretto and make sure everything is well incorporated. Allow to cool for a few minutes so that mixture is closer to room temp. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Can sit overnight if you want to make ahead.

Remove mixture from the refrigerator and pour into prepared ice cream maker. I'm using the Cuisinart which has a bowl you freeze ahead. I let the ice cream churn for 30 minutes. Fold in the frozen cherry mixture. The ice cream was ready to eat but I put it into containers to harden a little more in the freezer.



Coming Clean
This is incredibly rich chocolate ice cream! It tastes like an ice cold truffle. Ridiculously good. If you decide to try this- be sure to use good chocolate because the better the chocolate the more it will shine through in the final product. This ice cream really was all about honoring great chocolate. It tasted just like a rich chocolate covered cherry, the almond flavor bounces off the chocolate perfectly. For those of you tracking the bottom line- uhm yeah, this was rich ice cream in every sense of the word. I wanted something special for the holiday weekend though and everyone definitely could tell this was something special right away. Their loud moans the second their tongue touched the spoon was kind of a dead giveaway. And to be honest, a little bit went a long way with this rich ice cream. I posted the recipe for the chocolate bowls in the picture here. I also used Askinosie Cocoa powder to make those. And for the love of Pete- if you go to the trouble of using good chocolate, please be sure to indulge in good cream and eggs as well. Remember- this stuff is barely cooked and the true flavors of the ingredients will be the defining flavors in the end. Splurge a little~ you are SO worth it!

Homegrown Peanut Butter Style

It's Homegrown Gourmet time and Katie at KBK Bakery is hosting this month's round. Little did she know~ her choice of Peanut Butter was actually an homage to St. Louis... Goodness knows, you can't appreciate a food if you don't know its history. I'm starting to think that the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis is the Bermuda Triangle of Food~


"C.H. Sumner was the first to introduce peanut butter to the world at the Universal Exposition of 1904 in St. Louis. He sold $705.11 of the treat at his concession stand and peanut butter was on its way to becoming an American favorite!" And to keep things in perspective, in 1904 the average U.S. salary was 22 cents an hour; the average annual salary was $200-400 per year. So that's a lot of peanut butter. It was obviously a hit.

I figured the only way to best honor Peanut Butter for Homegrown Gourmet was to incorporate it with some other well known World's Fair food folklore. Everyone has heard the story about ice cream and the ice cream cone, right? Supposedly, ice cream was the big hit of the fair (there were over 50 ice cream vendors selling a total of 5000 gallons of ice cream per day) and a vendor ran out of dishes to serve it in. So he teamed up with a waffle vendor nearby who rolled his waffles into cones. No one knows exactly what happened for sure, but much like peanut butter, it wasn't until the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair that the treat gained widespread popularity.



Confession: I don't have a waffle maker. I'll have to put it on my food toys wish list. I actually made ice cream bowls instead. I thought chocolate would be the perfect pairing for peanut butter so I used our own MO Hometown Chocolate Hero Askinosie Cocoa powder. I also wanted the ice cream to be as rich as possible so I used the most local milk I could get my hands on- Oberweiss who uses glass bottles, low temperature pasteurization and does not to treat their cows with rBGH. I actually prefer Oberweiss to Organic- you can read why at the link. I also used eggs from a local free-range farm. I honestly think quality milk, cream and eggs are the key to great ice cream. And I made my own peanut butter so it doesn't get any more local than that...



Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in Chocolate Bowls
Ice Cream:
makes 1 Quart/ 2 Pints

3/4 cup Brown Sugar
3 large Eggs
1 cup Whole Milk
3/4 cup Peanut Butter* (I used Alton Brown's recipe but definitely use a local fave if you have one!)
1 1/4 cup Heavy Cream
2 t Vanilla
20 miniature Peanut Butter Cups, frozen and quartered (I froze them to make it easier to quarter them and then put them back in the freezer until I was ready to add them to the ice cream)

Whisk together (I used a handheld mixer) sugar and eggs in a bowl until well incorporated and frothy, 3 minutes. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, bring milk to a simmer over low heat. You will just begin to see heat/ steam and should be able to smell the milk cooking. Be careful NOT to boil the milk or overcook, you just want it at simmer. Gently drizzle a small amount of the warm milk into the egg/ sugar mixture while whisking vigorously. You are tempering the eggs without cooking them. It's important to be patient here and just drizzle in small amounts of milk while constantly whisking to bring up the temperature of the eggs. Once the milk is completely incorporated into the eggs, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and continue to simmer over lowest heat setting. Stirring constantly the mixture will thicken slightly, 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and whisk in peanut butter. Allow to cool for a few minutes so that mixture is closer to room temp. Whisk in cream and then vanilla. Mixture should be well incorporated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Can sit overnight if you want to make ahead.

Remove mixture from the refrigerator and pour into prepared ice cream maker. I'm using the Cuisinart which has a bowl you freeze ahead. I let the ice cream churn for 30 minutes. Fold in chopped peanut butter cups. The ice cream was ready to eat but I put it into containers to harden a little more in the freezer.

Chocolate Bowls:
makes 8 bowls

1/3 cup AP Flour
2 T Cocoa Powder
1/4 t Salt
2 large Eggs
1/2 cup Sugar
4 T unsalted Butter, melted and cooled
3 T Milk
1/2 t Vanilla

Preheat oven for 400 degrees. Place a sheet of wax paper on the counter and have small bowls (I used ramekins) turned upside down on it, ready to place the cooked chocolate crepes on. Prepare a sheet pan with a silicone pad/ Silpat.

Sift together flour, cocoa and salt in separate bowl. In mixer bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until well incorporated and frothy, 3 minutes. Add melted butter, milk and vanilla until just incorporated. Gently add in flour mixture, careful not to overmix. The final batter will resemble a thin pancake batter, very similar to crepes. Scoop a conservative 1/4 cup of batter onto the silpat and gently spread out into an approx. 6 inch circle. You want the batter to be very thin but enough to coat so that it isn't translucent anywhere. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes, depending upon how crispy you want your bowl. I baked mine until the edges started to noticeably turn brown. Using a large flat metal spatula, pick up the crepes and place them on the upturned bowls. Gently push them down to form around the sides of the bowl. I put another ramekin on top of the crepe to keep the sides down while they cooled. Think ramekin sandwich. Bowls are best used the same day. If not- place in the refrigerator until ready to use. Reheat at 400 degrees for just 3 minutes.



Coming Clean
I really wanted to make this ice cream for the holiday weekend as the hubby was going to be home to visit. TOBAC, who is considered the authority on all things peanut butter in this household, declared this the best peanut butter ice cream he has ever eaten. Which is actually saying a lot because he is also an ice cream freak. He is always completely honest when it comes to my creations, love it or hate it. I try to love him anyway. He wasn't as big of a fan of the chocolate bowls for the ice cream, but Monkey liked them so I win some, I lose some. I think he would have liked them more if they had the waffle texture and had been fried versus baked. So I may have no-so-subtly hinted at what a great birthday present a waffle maker would make. Ya know, to go with my new ice cream maker. Hint. Hint. And yes, my new obsession is ice cream. Tis the season. Consider yourself warned. This may become an ice cream blog. Yes, I am actually not packing my ice cream maker so I can keep it with me until we move. Obsess much? That's me.

Be sure to check out the final Homegrown Gourmet round-up which will be posted at KBK Bakery!

Yeah, yeah, yeah

as a matter of fact, I DID fall off of the planet. Just when you think life couldn't POSSIBLY get any more crazy...

But this weekend is all about enjoying my last few days in my kitchen. So, how is this for signs of good things to come?







Intriguing, no??