Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

Peppermint Mocha is back at Starbucks!  That's how I know it's Christmas time!  These cupcakes were inspired by that popular drink and I think they capture the flavor perfectly.  I had never made a mocha cupcake before but I really liked it.  You don't taste coffee, but it adds a deeper flavor that was wonderful! 

I have to admit something though:  I did use a canned frosting on these.  I tried to make a Swiss meringue buttercream to top them but I don't have a stand mixer and couldn't get my egg whites beaten.  So my wonderful husband made a late night run to the grocery store.  That's why I keep him around. :-)

Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes
Adapted from Annie's Eats
 

Ingredients:
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 cup whole milk (I used 1/2 cup 2% milk and 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream and it worked just fine)
1 cup strong brewed coffee
1 tsp. peppermint extract (I ended up adding about 2 1/2 tsps. because I completely spaced and added this to the dry ingredients first - it ended up okay though!)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs

Directions:
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir together.  Combine the milk, coffee and peppermint extract in a liquid measuring cup.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugars.  Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Blend in the eggs one at a time.   Alternately mix in the dry and liquid ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and mixing just until incorporated.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners.  Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.   Let cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Homemade Oreos

I have never been a huge Oreo fan.  I enjoy them every once in a while but I usually prefer a chocolate chip cookie.  For some reason though, these homemade Oreos really intrigued me.  I had the urge to bake tonight and for once actually had all the ingredients to make something without having to run to the store so decided to try them.  And I'm glad I did!  I don't think the cookies themselves tasted very much like an Oreo but I think the filling is almost a perfect match and together, the two parts are delicious. 

Homemade Oreos

Slightly adapted from Annie's Eats; originally from Retro Desserts by Wayne Bachman

 
For the cookies:

• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup unsweetened dutch process cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ¼ tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1-1½ cups sugar (depending on how sweet you want your cookies - I ended up using about 1-1/8 cups because I ran out of sugar)
• 10 tbsp. (1¼ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 large egg

For the filling:

• 4 tbsp. (¼ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¼ cup vegetable shortening (I used all butter because I didn't have any shortening)
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.  Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.

In a food processor or the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  Mix briefly to combine.  Add the butter to the bowl and pulse or mix briefly to incorporate.  Add in the egg and mix until the dough forms a cohesive mass.

Scoop between 2 tsp to a scant tbsp of batter (depending on how large you want them) onto the baking sheet.  Continue scooping, spacing the dough balls a couple of inches apart.  With moistened fingers, gently press down on the dough balls to flatten slightly.  Bake for 9-11 minutes (closer to 9 minutes for smaller cookies), rotating the pans halfway through baking. Transfer the baking sheets to a wire rack and let cool completely until the cookies are firm and set.  Be sure the cookies are completely cooled before filling.

To make the filling, combine the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until smooth.  Add the confectioners’ sugar to the bowl and mix on low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Blend in the vanilla extract.

To assemble the cookies, pair them up by size.  Use a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip to pipe a swirl of filling onto the flat side of one cookie of each pair.  Sandwich together with the remaining cookie and press down so that the filling reaches the edges.

I was able to get 24 large cookies, which made 12 sandwiches.

Pretzel Kisses

These little treats are so simple it's hard to call it a recipe.  But they are so yummy and cute that I had to share them with you.  Full disclosure:  They are addicting!  I took a few to work with me one day and had to fend off my coworkers!  :-)

I originally saw these on Pinterest (speaking of, if you haven't joined yet, you should!) and a quick search on Google brought up tons of links.  So obviously they are very popular and I somehow missed the memo before now.

You could adapt these to all sorts of different occasions with different kinds of Kisses and different colors of M&M's.  Tonight, I made some regular ones with milk chocolate Kisses and multi colored M&M's and also tried a Christmas-y combination.  At Target I found some Candy Cane Kisses - I don't know if they are new or if I was living under a rock again but they are amazing!  I shouldn't have made them at the same time as the regular ones (details below) but they are so festive!

Here are the instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 300.  There are many opinions about how hot to have your oven and how long to bake the Kisses.  The lower the heat, the higher the time.  I like to use 300 because it give me a few minutes to clean up my wrappers and get my M&M's ready.  I baked this batch for about 4 minutes.  This was too short for the regular Kisses and too long for the Candy Cane ones which is why I shouldn't have done them at the same time.  I probably should have let the regular ones go for another minute or so.



2.  Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil.

3. Place pretzels on foil.  I used regular mini pretzel twists but you could also use the little square ones.  This recipe is great because you can make as few or as many as you want.  But why would you ever want a small batch?!

4. Top each pretzel with a Hershey Kiss.

5. Bake for about 4-6 minutes.  Pull them out when the chocolate is shiny.  This is obviously not an exact science.

6. Immediately press an M&M "M" side down into the Kiss. 

7. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes so the chocolate can harden.  As you can see here, my Candy Cane Kisses melted way too much.

8. Store in an airtight container (if you haven't already eaten them all!)  I keep mine in the fridge because I love cold chocolate but you could also keep these on the counter.
Enjoy!  These would make great little stocking stuffers wrapped up in a cute container!

First post!

Well, here it is -- my very first blog post!  So exciting!  I have been thinking about doing this for a while but never took the time to set it up.  Well, that, and I couldn't think of a cute enough name.  :-)  I'm still not in love with this one but I got too anxious to set this thing up.  We'll see how it works out! 

I wanted to start a blog for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, as I have started cooking and baking more in the past few years, I have depended a lot on blogs to give me recipe ideas and tips and I feel like I shouldn't just take and take and not give anything back to the internet world (not that I think anyone is actually going to really read this, but that's ok).  Secondly, every once in a while I make something that I really think is good and I want to be able to document it - and if I'm able to share it with other people, even better!  The last reason is just simply to give me something to do.  Wedding planning took up so much of my time and now that that's over, I'm a little lost for hobbies.  While I do cook and bake fairly often, I definitely have more opportunities to do so that I don't always take.

So hopefully, this thing being finally underway will encourage me to learn and explore in the kitchen and make lots of messes and make the hubby do lots and lots of dishes!