Chocolate Chip Cookies: The Revelation

You know how sometimes, you didn't know what it was you were looking for until you found it? These cookies are exactly what I want in a chocolate chip cookie, but never knew: soft, pillowy, chewy goodness. These cookies aren't going to satisfy everyone, as they don't have your conventional chocolate chip cookie texture. These are almost muffin like, very puffy, with no crunch. The secret ingredient? Applesauce!

Ingredients
1 1/2  cups  all-purpose flour
1 1/2  teaspoons  baking powder
3/4  teaspoon  salt
1/2  cup  applesauce
1  cup  packed brown sugar
1/4  cup  butter, softened
1  tablespoon  vanilla extract
1  large egg
1  cup  (or more) semisweet chocolate chips

Yields approx. 2 dozen

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl; stir well with a whisk.
3. Combine applesauce, sugar and butter; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes)*. Beat in vanilla and egg. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed until well-blended. Fold in chips.

4. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray**. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes or until almost set. Cool on pan 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pan; cool on wire racks.

*I didn't feel like breaking out my hand mixer, and just combined everything with a good ol' wooden spoon.
**These cookies are STICKY. They even stuck to my wonderful Silpat mats. Trust me, you need the cooking spray.

By request! A printable version of this recipe.

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Irish Cream Frosting

Guinness cupcakes are the perfect cupcakes if you don't like deserts that are overly sweet. The cupcakes are nice and moist, and chocolately without being cloyingly sugary. The frosting is probably my new favorite frosting - irish cream goes really well as a frosting flavor. It's similar to vanilla but with slightly more complex flavor.

Ingredients
For the cupcakes
1 (12-ounce) bottle Guinness stout
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, plus more for garnish
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
A pinch of salt

For the frosting
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
3-4 cups of powdered sugar (as needed)
3-4 tablespoons of Irish Cream (Baileys) and/or milk (as needed)
A pinch of salt
Yields: around 40 cupcakes (a lot!)

Directions

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the Guinness, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the sour cream. Feel free to sip on a spare Guinness.

3.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet Guinness mixture.

4.  Line and grease your muffin tin and divide the batter among the muffin tins. I lay aluminum foil over my tin, then poke holes over the cups and then insert my liners, then spray. This keeps any batter that spills from baking onto my muffin tin.

I also like the use a ladle to distribute my mixture. Keeps things from getting too messy.

5.  Bake 25 minutes, until risen and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out of the tins.

While your cupcakes are cooling, start on the frosting.

Cream your softened butter and irish cream, and gradually add the powdered sugar. I used about 3.5 cups, plus a splash or two of skim milk, to get the consistency I liked. I also recommend a pinch of salt - a little salt helps tone down the toothache sweetness of the frosting.

You should have enough frosting to cover all of your cupcakes generously - no need to skimp! If you want to mail them to a cute redheaded boy, I recommend the shoebox method. Refrigerate overnight so the frosting doesn't stick to everything, then mail.

Sweets for my sweetie

I just made something really delicious for Colin. However, it is a surprise, so I can't reveal what I made yet. I'm mailing them to his office, so I should be able to post about it by the end of the week!

Care to take any guesses? Here's a few ingredients to get you started: sour cream, powdered sugar, and twelve ounces of Guinness!

And now, things to bake!

Here are the sweet treats I've bookmarked recently:

Homemade Peppermint Patties from Serious Eats

Chocolate Wacky Depression Cake from Savory Sweet Life

Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Bites from Savory Sweet Life

 

Chocolate Cake with Orange Chocolate Frosting from Bon Appetit via Epicurious

 

Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Loaf from the Kitchn

Chocolate Mousse with Olive Oil and Sea Salt from the Kitchn

Mocha Silk Pie from the Pioneer Woman

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sugar Cooking

S'mores Cupcakes from Bakerella

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies from Joy The Baker

Culinary Aspirations

I subscribe to many, many food blogs. Twenty-three, to be exact. This leads to a LOT of bookmarked recipes, all of which I swear I'll make one day. Here's a round-up of some of my recent favorites (that I've still yet to try):

Easy Sausage and Peppers from The Kitchn

Scrambled Eggs in Puff Pastry from Serious Eats

Potato Leek Soup with Bacon from Migs, via It's All About the Bacon 

Hot Caramelized Onion Dip from Closet Cooking

 

White Chicken Chili from Closet Cooking

 

Pear and Gorgonazola Omelette from Closet Cooking

Beer-Braised Beef and Onions from Gourmet Magazine, via Epicurious

 

Pretty much Marlboro Man's entire Birthday Dinner from Pioneer Woman

Cheese

I got a wonderful Christmas present from Mama Fink (C's mom). It's beautiful. Glorious even.

A six-sided box grater. Just like Alton Brown has! It''s magnificent. I will never go back to regular plane graters again. This one has four grades of graters, from fine to extra large (which I bet would be great for hashbrowns),  plus two grades of zesters.

My first use of my new grater was to shred eight ounces of cheddar to make a Saturday afternoon snack of Welsh Rarebit.

It was all I could do to stop myself from sticking a fork in and eating it straight.

Here it is piled high in the pot:

As you can see, this is clearly enough cheese sauce to feed an army. I only needed about a quarter of a cup to go over my toast. Luckily, the sauce is easily refrigerated, and goes well with biscuits on Sunday morning.

Banana 'Ice Cream'

This is so simple, yet so tasty, and you won't believe it until you try it.

Ingredient
Bananas

(yep, that's it!)

Directions
Slice up a banana or two, then freeze it.

I've found it's easier to slice then freeze, since cutting a frozen banana isn't easy. It'll take a few hours for your slices to freeze. I usually let mine go overnight.

Whip out your trusty Magic Bullet or blender.

Toss in your bananas and blend.

You can dribble in a tiny bit of milk or vanilla or cream if you want, but your bananas, after a minute or so, will come out looking like this:

Unless, of course, your Magic Bullet dies. Which mine finally did, right in the middle of banana-ice-cream-making magic. The above picture is a screen shot from months ago when I first tried this recipe.

So what's a girl with a broken Magic Bullet and no blender and a serious craving for banana ice cream supposed to do?

She gets creative. And out comes the hand mixer. And guess what? It worked!

A blender is still ideal, to get the ultimate creaminess. Seriously, it gets to the exact texture of soft-serve ice cream.

You can even store it in the freezer, then later serve it to your guests at a dinner party and make them guess the ingredients. Or ingredient.

Or you can add some mini chocolate chips and gobble the whole thing. What? It's just bananas! It's good for you!

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Now that Christmas has come and gone (and then some), I can finally reveal a little project I've been working on: homemade vanilla extract. Back in November, I was searching for easy, homemade gifts to give at Christmas. Cookie mix, limoncello, granola ... vanilla seemed the easiest, the cheapest, and the prettiest.

Ingredients/Supplies

Vanilla Beans

Vodka

Containers

The ratio is 2-3 beans per 6-8 ounces vodka.

I found my beans at Beanilla.com. I ordered the variety pack, and received a bunch of different kinds - Indonesian, Mexican, Indian, etc. Cost: $25.

For the containers, I hit up an old favorite: American Science & Surplus! Cost: $15.

As for the liquor, I wanted something not too expensive but not tasting of gasoline - Skyy Vodka. Cost: $20. I read that you can substitute other liquors as well. I bet rum and bourbon would both work.

Directions

Places two beans in each container, and fill with vodka. Seal and let sit in a cool place for 8 weeks.

That's it!

I made 12 bottles to give away. They make good gifts for moms, aunts, and hostesses. Plus one for me.

(This picture is on day one. You want them to darken up a bit before using.)

Total cost: $60 / 12 bottles =  only $5 each!

I even went one step further and made labels. I went for an old-timey "Dr. Fantastik's Amazing Liquer" look.

I got a lot of compliments on this idea,  but don't know if anyone has used theirs yet (including me). At least they look good!