1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 c. all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 325F and line a muffin tin with liners.
Make the Filling: Combine all ingredients, stirring until smooth.
Make the Cupcakes:
Melt chocolates and butter together over a double broiler (or in the microwave). Stir until smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk sugar into the cooled chocolate mixture. Add eggs and whisk to combine. Whisk in vanilla.
Sift salt, baking powder, and flour into chocolate mixture. Stir to combine. Dough will feel heavy and will be very wet.
Spoon 2 tbs. of chocolate batter into each of the prepared muffin cups. Add 1 tbs. of the peanut butter filling, and top with 1 tbs. of the chocolate batter. For a marbled look (skipped here), take a toothpick and swirl the batter.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
So rich and decadent, this was the ideal cap to our Valentine’s celebration. The lave cakes were surprisingly easy to make, and both sauce and cakes can be made up to one day in advance.
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 large egg yolks
1 large egg
2 tsp. all-purpose flour
Ingredients for the Sauce:
1 16-ounce bag frozen pitted dark sweet cherries, halved, thawed, undrained
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup kirsch (clear cherry brandy) or regular brandy
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Confectioners sugar, for dusting
Make the Sauce:
Note: Make the sauce before the cakes, as you’ll need to pull out some cherries to include in the cake. Also, you will have extra sauce. Try serving it over ice cream!
In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, combine cherries and cherry juices, 1/2 c. sugar, kirsch or brandy, and cinnamon. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens and reduces, about 10 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, take out 1/4 c. cherries. Drain and coarsely chop. Set aside chopped cherries for the cakes.
If making in advance, cover and refrigerate sauce.
Make the Cakes:
Butter two 3/4-cup ramekins or custard cups and set aside.
In a small saucepan over low heat, stir chocolate and butter until melted and combined. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together cocoa and 1/4 c. sugar. When chocolate-butter mixture is combined and smooth, remove from heat and whisk in cocoa mixture. Whisk in egg yolks, whole egg, and flour. With a rubber spatula, fold in chopped cherries.
Divide batter between buttered ramekins. If making ahead of time, cover and chill.
Bake:
When ready to cook, preheat oven to 350°F and begin warming sauce over low heat.
Bake until edges are set but center is shiny, about 22 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center will still have some wet batter attached to it.
Serve Warm:
Using a butter knife, cut around cakes to loosen. Turn out onto plates – it’ll fall right out. Spoon sauce over cakes and sprinkle with confectioners sugar.
This is another Barefoot Bloggers recipe chosen by Jamie, of Jaime’s Green Kitchen. While I’ve never made these cupcakes from scratch, I was given the boxed mix, available at Crate & Barrel, in my Christmas stocking one year. They were wonderful then, and I was looking forward to making them from scratch. In fact, these ended up being the perfect sweet treat to make for my week snowed in, as they remind me of little snowballs.
I made a few ingredient changes to this recipe, since I didn’t have everything on hand. I also halved the recipe, since we’re trying to eat better, and I don’t need lots of cupcakes around the house. I have no idea how this happened, but instead of the 10 cupcakes I should have gotten when I halved the recipe (full recipe would have made 18-20 cupcakes), I ended up with a dozen cupcakes and 10 mini-cupcakes. If you tend to use very little frosting, as I do, you can even half the frosting recipe below – I did and I had plenty for all of these tasty treats.
* Note: Instead of buttermilk, I used 1/2 tbs. white vinegar and then filled the measuring cup to the 1/2 cup line with milk. Also, since I had large eggs on hand instead of extra-large, I used 3 large eggs, instead of trying to halve them.
Ingredients for the Frosting:
1/2 lb. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
3/4 lb confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Make the Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 325F and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Lower speed and add eggs one at a time. Scrape down the bowl, and add vanilla and almond extract, beating until combined.
With the mixer on low, add in baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add in 3/4 c. flour and half the buttermilk. Repeat. Turn off the mixer when flour and buttermilk has been just combined.
Fold in half the coconut, about 1 cup.
Fill each of the cupcake liners in the prepared pan with batter, to the top of the liner.
Bake 25-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes before moving cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the Frosting:
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream all ingredients except the confectioners’ sugar. Add the sugar and mix until smooth.
Frost the cupcakes, and sprinkle remaining coconut on top of the frosted cupcakes.
When I saw this recipe from Elly Says Opa earlier in the year, I knew I had to try it. I love nutella and can eat it by the spoonful, but have done very little baking with it. These bars were wonderful. While I loved the nutella and blackberry jam, for me, the start of the show was actually the cookie part. It was a bit sweet and tasted nutty (I had to think about whether I put peanut butter in them!). Enjoy!
Preheat the oven to 350F and butter a 9×9 baking dish (I used my Pyrex).
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and both sugars. Add egg and vanilla, beating until combined. Add in baking powder and salt, again beating to combine. Add flour a little at a time. Add 1 1/4 c. of oats (reserving 1/4 c. on the side) to the mixture and combine.
Remove bowl from stand mixer and check to make sure you don’t have lots of oats at the bottom of the bowl.
Spoon about 2/3-3/4 of the mixture into the buttered baking dish. Using your hands (or a wooden spoon or strong rubber spatula), press down dough.
Microwave nutella for about 20 seconds, just to make it easier to spread. With a butter knife, spread on top of dough. The spread jam over nutella.
Put your KA bowl back into mixer and add remaining 1/4 c. oats and the chopped hazelnuts, beating to combine. Crumble over nutella and jam.
Bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Wait until completely cooled to cut and serve, as the bars will be very soft until they cool.
Bananas are one of those foods that have grown on me over time. I used to hate bananas. Now, I like them just slightly under-ripe, although I still don’t like banana bread. The smell of the ripe bananas, even cooked into banana bread, just turns me off. (I know, I’m weird!). Anyway, I needed to use up a couple bananas that were a bit too ripe for my taste and was looking for an alternative to banana bread. These cookies were great. Just a hint of banana, and are super-soft.
In the future, I’d like to make these again with a little less shortening and with some nuts. These would also be great with a whole wheat flour, to healthify them even more.
PS – I know I’ve got to work on my cookie photos! If you have any suggestions for me, I’d love to hear them!
Preheat oven to 350F and line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat both sugars, shortening, and apple sauce. When combined, add egg, vanilla, and mashed bananas.
Add salt, cinnamon, and baking soda and combine.
Add all-purpose flour. Stir to combine.
Add oats. Again, stir to combine.
If you want to add nuts or chocolate chips, stir in by hand.
Batter will be super wet! Drop batter by the tablespoon on prepared cookie sheets. Bake 12-14 minutes, until edges are browned and center looks set. The cookies will be very soft.
