BOSTON CREAM CUPCAKES

I do a lot of volunteer work at my daughter's school. In a few weeks, the parent council board is throwing an end-of-the-school-year BBQ - a perfect time and way to sell up any purchased food items that have accumulated over the last few months.

As we went through the items we have to sell, we noticed one box of popcorn out six had just expired. We weren't sure if they were okay to sell, so we opened a few bags; some were stale, some could fine. Since we couldn't expect parents or kiddies to buy a possibly passable bag, I got to take them home and get creative. YAY!

14 bags of popcorn from the box were good to go. The others I fed to the birds, mainly to annoy the neighbor behind me who HATES when I feed the 'wildlife' and is not afraid to tell me so. Ppphhttt to you.

What can I make with 14 bags of popcorn besides eat it? I hit the internet and found this gem. Oh, and it's a delicious gem.

It's sweet. It's chocolatey. It's gooey. It's heaven. It's like the BEST popcorn you will ever eat! This is a lock-your-doors-close-the-blinds-and-hide-from-your-husband-and-children kind of snack.

Feel free to indulge.

I so did.

GERMAN CHOCOLATE POPCORN

Recipe adapted from Cookies and Cups

5 cups popcorn - if popping yourself via microwave or stovetop method, be SURE to take out any unpopped kernels.

2 cups light brown sugar

½ cup light corn syrup

12 tablespoon (¾ cups) butter, cubed

4 Tablespoons water

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups sweetened coconut flakes, toasted

4 oz (½ cup) semi-sweet chocolate

1 package Girl Scout Samoa Cookies, Keebler Coconut Dreams, or if you live in Canada, No Name Caramel Chocolate Cookies

Preheat your oven to 200° Place popcorn in large bowl; set aside. Chop cookies into bite-sized pieces and set those aside as well.

Line counter a few sheets of wax paper so you can spread you popcorn onto it when mixing the caramel. You don't have to do this, but it makes it easier.

To make the caramel, combine the butter, brown sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Whisk ingredients to together and bring to a boil.

Boil without stirring for approximately 5 minutes until candy thermometer reads 250°.  If you don't have a candy thermometer, 5 minutes is just about the right amount of time.

Remove from heat and immediately whisk in your baking soda and vanilla. Caramel will get lighter and bubble.

Pour caramel over popcorn and stir until it's all coated.

Pour popcorn onto waxed paper and sprinkle toasted coconut on top of popcorn evenly. Leave your wax paper out, you will need it again!   

In a large roasting pan or baking sheet bake your popcorn in oven for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Spread popcorn onto the wax paper and sprinkle chopped cookies evenly over top.

Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second intervals until melted, stirring each time.

Drizzle melted chocolate on top of cookies and popcorn.  Let the chocolate set and break apart.

Store in airtight container for 3-4 days.

Happy Baking!

Funny thing about me. First sign of great weather and I suddenly have this need to eat healthy. It's weird really. I'm pulling out the whole wheat flour, using recipes that call for fruits and/or vegetables, substituting butter for applesauce. Okay, perhaps I'm going a bit far there, but you get the idea.

This is one on my most favorite feel good recipes. My daughter loves it and I don't ever feel guilty about giving it to her anytime of day.

Or eating half the loaf myself. Oops.

CARROT ZUCCHINI BANANA BREAD

Heat oven to 325º degrees.

Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.

Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips. I used both semi and milk chocolate chips because my semi-sweet chips were seriously starting to bloom, so I threw them in. (When a white coating appears on the surface of any chocolate, it's called bloom.)

I have to disagree with this next step. However, I did both my own way and CI's way to show the outcome. They taste the same, but presentation is a whole other ballgame....

CI's TECHNIQUE:

Form scant ¼ cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough uneven surface. Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet. Smaller cookie sheets can be used, but fewer cookies can be baked at one time and baking time may need to be adjusted.

MY TECHNIQUE:

Use an ice cream scoop.

Today is Sunday. It's gloomy, rainy, and cold. A PERFECT time to bake!

A few posts back, I told you the story of the 10,000 Chips Ahoy cookies I have in my possession. Thankfully, I'm down to about 4,000 cookies now, but for a cookie addict like myself, that's still 4,000 too many! Since they're individual wrapped, they won't go stale anytime soon, but I would like to use them up before I lose all self control.

Today, I was hankering for a good brownie. A brownie that has all the bells and whistles - moist, chewy, chocolaty, sweet, salty and peanutty. I started sifting through my cookbooks as well as the internet, but I didn't find one that said, "I'm it Baby. Make me yours!"

So I took matters into my own hands and created what I think are Ultimate Brownies.

Oh yes ladies and gentleman, these are ultimate. It has everything Mama is craving today. Throw on some Barry White, dim the lights, and close the blinds.

It's brownie time.

ULTIMATE BROWNIES

½ cup butter, melted

½ cup cocoa powder

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs

¾ cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup peanut butter

¼ cup dulce de leche sauce

1 teaspoon instant coffee granules

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup mini white chocolate chips

12 chocolate chip cookies – I used Chips Ahoy

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with foil cupcake wrappers. Place a chocolate chip cookie in the bottom of each; set aside.

Combine flour, salt, sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and coffee granules into a bowl and mix well. Add eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. Mix well. Add peanut butter and dulce de leche into flour mixture and mix well. Add white chocolate chips. 

Divide mix into 12 muffin cups.

Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not over bake.

Yield: 12 brownie cups.

Happy Baking!

Since she couldn't be found for a comment, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own damn rainbows.

Rainbow cupcakes that is. These are very cute, super colorful, and a nice way to take my mind off the weather for a bit. Consider these little lovelies your sunshine, rainbow, and pot of gold all in one.

If you're waiting for Ms. Nature to send any of those gifts to you, you could be waiting a long time. 

I also think she may have stolen my garden gnome. 

You can certainly use a box cake mix for these as well. If you do, be sure to use a white cake mix. If you cannot find a white cake mix, no worries, you can still use golden or yellow cake mix, just be sure to use ONLY the whites of the eggs. The yolks will make it yellow and it will be difficult to get true colors.

½ cup butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
3 egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla
1½ cup flour
1½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup buttermilk (You can substitute sour cream here as well)

Preheat oven 350ºF.

In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt together; set aside. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add egg whites, beating well. Add vanilla and mix until incorporated.

Using mixer, add flour mixture and milk, alternating between the two - beginning and ending with the flour.

Using a ladel, spoon exact amounts of batter into 6 cups.

Once that step is done, use food coloring to make desired shades. The bolder and deeper the color, the better.

Line a 12 cup muffin tin with foil cupcake liners. (Mine are paper lined foil wrappers). Starting with purple (or blue if you choose to omit purple) carefully layer colors on top of each other, finishing with red. If you're a bit heavy handed, you can transfer colored batter into squeeze bottles. It will yield almost perfect layers.  

Bake cupcakes for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and it comes out clean. Don't worry if the colors bubble to the top. You can cover up any imperfections with frosting.

Allow to completely cool and frost cupcakes with desired frosting. I used a chocolate buttercream frosting.


CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING  - This recipe makes quite a lot of frosting, but you can freeze what you don't use.

½ cup shortening
½ cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
¾ cups cocoa, sifted
3 to 4 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons light corn syrup

Cream shortening, butter, and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar and cocoa on medium speed, scraping down bowl often. Add milk and corn syrup until light and fluffy.

Yield: 12 cupcakes.

Happy Baking!