Kevin & Amanda » Recipes

Mini Funfetti Cupcakes with Sprinkles

Amanda — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:00:33 +0000

Ahh, who can resist a cute mini cupcake with colorful confetti sprinkles?? A simple vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting is my absolute favorite kind of cupcake. I knew I had to make this fabulous little cupcake for our Cupcake Taste Testing Party, and it’s the perfect recipe to kick off Cupcake Week!

I used Sweetapolita’s Fluffy Vanilla Cake recipe for these cupcakes, and I’m going to just send you over there to get it. The cupcakes were gorgeous, light, airy, fluffy, and impossibly moist. Everything I want in a vanilla cupcake. Even when made mini — and that’s hard to do! A perfect vanilla cupcake.

I topped them with my favorite vanilla buttercream frosting recipe (posted below). You can use any vanilla extract for this buttercream, but if you’d like to give your frosting a little WOW factor, I absolutely love Tahitian vanilla extract! This special vanilla extract is specifically for use in recipes that are not cooked or heated, and results in a pure, simple, delicious vanilla flavor.

Here are the two recipes below. Enjoy these, guys! Five new cupcake recipes are coming at you next week. Have a great weekend!

Click HERE to get the recipe for Fluffy Vanilla Cake!

NOTES

I weighed all my ingredients.
I used Egg Beaters Egg Whites in place of the egg whites, so I wouldn’t have leftover yolks. So easy and worked PERFECT!
I used 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.
Just before pouring the batter into the cupcake liners, I stirred in 1/4-1/2 cup confetti sprinkles. I didn’t measure exactly, I just kept adding until the batter looked colorful and sprinkly :)
For MINI cupcakes, bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. For STANDARD cupcakes, bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons Tahitian vanilla extract

Place the butter, sugar, cream and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. If necessary, add more cream, one tablespoon at a time, beating for 1-2 minutes after each addition until desired consistency is reached. Pipe onto cupcakes and top with confetti sprinkles!

Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies

Amanda — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:00:03 +0000

I am so in love with these darn chocolate lava cookies! What is it about a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie stuffed with decadent, rich, melted chocolate that makes it so irresistible?? Especially when topped with vanilla ice cream. These are one of Kev’s favorite homemade treats, and he usually asks me to make them at least once a week. They are so simple to whip up, and such a treat! Let’s make some right now :)

All you really need for these fabulous cookies is your favorite cookie dough and a bag of chocolate chips. My favorite cookie dough just happens to be Picky Palate’s, and it works perfectly for this recipe, but you could just as easily use a store-bought mix or even refrigerated cookie dough. Slice and bake cookie dough would be so simple here! But my heart will always belong to Picky Palate’s cookie dough. It absolutely can’t be beat in flavor and chewiness!

Since these cookies are absolutely gushing with delicious rich chocolate, my favorite chocolate chips for this recipe are the Hersey’s Milk Chocolate chips. I did a side by side taste test with these and a few of the other milk chocolate chips available in my grocery store, and these by far had the most prominent rich chocolate flavor. Next time you’re at the store, grab a couple of bags and have a chocolate chip taste testing of your own! They’re all good, so you definitely won’t have a problem using them up — you really can’t go wrong with milk chocolate :)

Now let’s make some chocolate lava cookies! Using half the cookie dough, grab a 1.5-2 tbsp scoop of dough (I used a Pampered Chef Medium Scoop for this) and flatten it out a bit.

Place the flattened cookie dough in the bottom of a well-greased standard sized muffin tin. Now depending on how much cookie dough you eat (in my case, I think it’s an abnormally high amount), you’ll have enough for 10 or 11 cookies. I start with 10, and add the 11th later if I have enough dough leftover.

Now for our gooey, rich milk chocolate filling. Place 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips in a Ziploc bag, and seal shut.

Lay the Ziploc bag flat in the microwave, spreading out the chocolate chips in a single layer. Microwave for 30 seconds. Remove bag and flip, microwaving for an additional 10-15 seconds until all the chips are softened.

Cut a small tip off the Ziploc bag and layer over the cookies. If you have any leftover chocolate, save it — I’ll show you what to do with it in a minute.

Heaven help me.

Scoop and flatten the remaining dough, and place on top of your lava cookies.

If you’ve got enough dough leftover, you can make one more cookie… or eat it as is! Your choice! :)

Bake these in a 350 degree F oven for 15-20 minutes, until the edges are just browned. As soon as they come out of the oven, you may want to run a knife around the edges to make for easy removing later. Cool completely before removing from the tin, running a knife around the edge to help loosen.

Now here’s how I like my cookies. Cooled, soft, and so perfectly chewy. I could eat about a million and a half of these.

But here’s how Kevin likes his cookies.

Warmed in the microwave for 10 seconds, topped with vanilla ice cream, and drizzled with chocolate sauce. You can use any leftover melted chocolate here!

Mama mia.

Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups (210 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 (11.5 oz) bag milk chocolate chips (I prefer Hersheys)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a standard size muffin tin with cooking spray. Place 1/2 cup chocolate chips in a Ziploc bag, and seal shut. Lay the Ziploc bag flat in the microwave, spreading out the chocolate chips in a single layer. Microwave for 30 seconds. Remove bag and flip, microwaving for an additional 10-15 seconds until all the chips are softened. Set aside to cool.

2. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well combined. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until just combined. Add the remaining chocolate chips (1 cup) and stir to combine.

3. Using half the cookie dough, scoop 1.5-2 tbsp of dough, flatten it out a bit, and place in the bottom of the muffin tin. Repeat for a total of 10 cookies. Cut a small tip in the corner of the Ziploc bag, and gently squeeze a layer of chocolate over the cookie. Scoop and flatten the remaining dough and place on top of the chocolate layer. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until the edges are just browned. As soon as they come out of the oven, run a knife around the edges to make for easy removing later. Cool completely before removing from the muffin tin, running a knife around the edge to help loosen.

These are good as mini muffins, too! Try baking at 350 for 9 mins. Enjoy!

Sparkly Vanilla Bean Macarons with Three Christmas Inspired Frostings

Amanda — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:00:21 +0000

Oh my gosh, I am absolutely in love with our latest edition of Christmas macarons! Stephanie and I are at it again, and we had seriously way too much fun making these sparkly holiday macarons. We got glitter everywhere! Yes, these decadent vanilla bean macarons are topped with gorgeous edible glitter for a completely magical, completely festive holiday treat.

I took a tray of these beauties to a holiday party this year and I cannot tell you how much everyone’s eyes lit up! They are definitely the star of the show, and people are so surprised when they bite into these fabulous cookies for a light, fluffy, decadent surprise. Not only are they stunning, but we also filled them with three festive holiday frostings. Like these red macarons, filled with Spicy Milk Chocolate Mocha Ganache.

And our white macarons, filled with Eggnog Marshmallow Fluff.

These fun candy cane swirled macarons are filled with White Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream. Can you say yum??

You guys totally know how to make macarons now, but if you need a refresher, check out our Thanksgiving and Halloween macarons for step by step photo guides.

Here’s how we made our White Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream. I looked for soft candy cane sticks to use for this buttercream, but I couldn’t find them, so I went with these soft peppermint candies. I wanted that fun look of crushed peppermint in my frosting, but I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s teeth with rock hard candy!

Unwrap a few peppermints and crush, crush, crush until you have approximately 1/4 cup.

I didn’t want my frosting to be too chunky, so I crushed mine pretty fine.

This will give your frosting just a hint of peppermint, but feel free to add more if you want a stronger peppermint taste!

Now for your white chocolate. Just grab a bar of white chocolate and chop it up here. But don’t use white chocolate chips, they’re too waxy and will give your frosting a funky texture.

Melt your white chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds and add it to your frosting.

Love these peppermint specks! This frosting is not too sweet and the flavor of the macaron really shines through here.

Next up is our Eggnog Marshmallow Fluff! Oh my gosh, I love, love, loved this one! This one totally turned out to be my favorite and I will definitely be making it again ASAP. Now I’ll admit, I don’t like eggnog, but I can handle this fun Sugar Cookie Eggnog! It’s sweet and tastes like a milkshake. In other words, it doesn’t taste like eggnog at all. :) If you really can’t stand the thought of using eggnog, feel free to use heavy cream instead, but trust me, you must make this sweet, fluffy frosting! It is to die.

So light and fluffy.

And finally we have our Spicy Milk Chocolate Mocha Ganache. This beautiful chocolate ganache has so many wonderful flavors going on. Milk chocolate, a hint of coffee, and warm Christmas spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice. These warm flavors pair perfectly with Mexican vanilla, if you have some on hand.

Feel free to use ground spices here, but sometimes, on special occasions, I like to grind them myself. They pack so much flavor and fill the kitchen with such an incredible fragrance all day.

I use a $20 coffee bean and spice grinder from Krups to do the job. Just add a few whole spices to grinder, add the lid and press the button to grind into a fine powder.

Perfect. Usually by the time I can’t hear the spices clanging around in there anymore, it’s ready!

Just turn the grinder over and tap and the lid becomes a bowl for all your freshly ground spices. Makes scooping out the right measurement a cinch.

Cinnamon. Allspice. Cloves. Nutmeg. I cannot tell you how fabulous this smells!

Note: I only used the spice grinder for the allspice and cloves, I use a fine grater or zester for the nutmeg and the cinnamon was pre-ground.

This spicy ganache will warm you right up!

Now for the fun part! Oh my gosh, we got glitter everywhere! It was all over our hands, faces, clothes, cameras, and even Miley and Howie were pretty sparkly by the end of it. It was so much fun. We used Disco Dust edible glitter in American Red and Rainbow. I was worried the glitter would add a funky texture to the macarons, but you actually can’t tell it’s there at all.

To prepare the macarons for the glitter, we brushed them with a simple syrup, which is just equal parts sugar and water boiled until the sugar dissolves and then cooled. I did 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water, but you could probably get by with 1/4 cup here. I forgot to get a picture of this step!

For the candy cane swirl macarons, Stephanie made this pinwheel template for us. Just lay it on the macaron, sprinkle with red glitter, gently lift off the template, and then quickly flip the macaron over to remove excess glitter.

Download Stephanie’s pinwheel template here.

Now sprinkle the whole thing with rainbow glitter!

Eek! I love these!

And for the red and white macarons, just sprinkle the whole thing with glitter!

These magical macarons are a must for the holidays.

Plus they’re the best way to get glittery fairy dust lips. :)

Be sure to check out Stephanie’s photos and recap
of our Christmas macaron making day!

Sparkly Vanilla Bean Macarons

90 grams aged egg whites
110 grams almond flour
200 grams powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean
25 grams white granulated sugar
1 tsp cocoa powder or powdered food coloring (optional)

Up to 5 days before making macarons, separate the egg whites, cover loosely with a paper towel, and store in the refrigerator. The night before making macarons, set them out on the counter to come to room temperature.

The next morning, place almond flour, powdered sugar, and the contents of a vanilla bean into a food processor and process until fully combined. Move to a large bowl and whisk in one teaspoon of cocoa powder for chocolate macarons, or one teaspoon of powdered food coloring for colored macarons. Leave plain for vanilla macarons. Whisk to combine, then sift and set aside.

With a mixer, whisk the egg whites on medium-high speed until foamy. Add in granulated sugar and continue whisking until the the egg whites have stiff peaks. Add the egg whites to the flour and fold to incorporate until the mixture is just smooth, using no more than 50 strokes. Fit a pastry bag with a large round tip, and fill with macaron batter. Pipe approximately 1-inch circles onto a baking sheet lined parchment paper. Let the batter rest on the pan at least 30 minutes before baking, to form a strong skin to help keep the macarons from cracking in the oven.

Bake the macarons at 280 degrees F for 15-20 minutes directly in the middle of the oven. To test for doneness, gently touch the top of a macaron to make sure it’s dry. Then gently try to lift the macaron from the parchment paper. If it comes away pretty easily, they’re done. If it doesn’t come up and the top breaks away, they need to cook longer. Keep checking on them every two minutes until the bottom is dry. Once removed from the oven, allow the macarons to rest on the pan for 10 minutes to finish cooking before trying to remove. Cool completely before frosting.

Macaron recipe adapted from Shaina at Food for My Family. For more macaron tips, check out her step-by-step macaron tutorial.

White Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 oz. good quality white chocolate (no chips), chopped, melted, and cooled to room temperature
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp Tahitian vanilla extract
1/4 cup crushed soft peppermint candies

Place the butter, sugar, melted white chocolate, milk and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Add crushed peppermint and beat until fully combined.

Eggnog Marshmallow Fluff

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 (7 oz jar) marshmallow fluff
1/4 cup eggnog
1 tsp Tahitian vanilla extract

Place butter, sugar, marshmallow fluff, eggnog, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.

Spicy Milk Chocolate Mocha Ganache

3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp Mexican Vanilla extract
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly cloves
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Place chocolate chips in a glass or heat-proof bowl. In a medium saucepan, whisk the heavy cream, vanilla, instant coffee power, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg and bring to a simmer. Pour over the chocolate chips, let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk until completely smooth. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour or until the ganache reaches a thick, frosting consistency.

Simple Syrup

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

Bring the sugar and water to a boil until the sugar dissolves. Remote from heat and cool. Brush over the tops of the macaron shells with a pastry brush and sprinkle with glitter.

Make Vanilla Sugar with Leftover Vanilla Beans

Amanda — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 07:00:42 +0000

If you’ve got leftover vanilla beans — say, from making macarons — don’t throw the empty pods away. Did you know you can throw empty, scraped vanilla bean shells into a container with sugar to make vanilla sugar? You’d be surprised at how much flavor and fragrance those would-be disposable beans still have left to give!

Not sure what to make with vanilla beans? You can use a vanilla bean in place of any recipe that calls for vanilla. One vanilla bean equals roughly 2-3 teaspoons of vanilla extract, although if a recipe called for 1-2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, I personally would go ahead and use the whole bean! If you’ve never used a whole vanilla bean before, here’s a step-by-step photo tutorial from my Halloween macaron post on how to scrape a vanilla bean.

You could add the seeds from a vanilla bean to this 2-ingredient ice cream for a beautiful Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Or use it your favorite buttercream frosting recipe. (Mine’s here, down at the bottom.) I absolutely adore the pure little flecks of vanilla bean that show up!

What about adding it to pancakes for Vanilla Bean Pancakes? And topping it with this Vanilla Bean Butter?? A thousand times yes.

A good ratio for your vanilla sugar is roughly 2 cups of sugar per vanilla bean. But I don’t really measure, I just throw my beans into the container above whenever I’m done with them. Store in an airtight container and after about a week, your sugar will be infused with delicious vanilla flavor.

Now with your brand-new vanilla sugar, you can use it anywhere you’d normally use sugar for a little extra vanilla essence. Pancakes, waffles, cookies, biscuits, cupcakes, muffins… The possibilities are totally up to you! What would you make with vanilla sugar?

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I’ll be here on Black Friday with a fun giveaway. See you then!

Caramel Apple Macarons with Cinnamon Apple Butter Buttercream

Amanda — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:00:34 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving week! I’m so glad the holidays are here. My dear friend and neighbor Stephanie (who has a fun crafting & homemaking blog called All Artful) and I have been bitten by the macaron bug. You guys know how much I love macarons, and I love them even more now that I know how easy they are to make! I love coming up with fun flavors, shapes, colors, and decorations. Macarons are very customizable. We’ve been having a blast dreaming up all sorts of fun holiday themed macarons. I cannot tell you how excited I am to share these Thanksgiving macarons with you today! These photos nearly make me squeal with delight.

Just look at our lil’ turkey! This one’s a chocolate macaron shell with a smooth, creamy, peanut butter buttercream filling. YUM! I could just eat him up.

And here’s our chocolate acorn, isn’t he a beauty? This macaron is a chocolate lover’s dream-come-true with its chocolate acorn-shaped shell, milk chocolate ganache filling, and generous topping of chocolate shavings.

Oh, snap. This was our absolute winner. Our Caramel Apple Macaron. We made bright green and red vanilla bean macarons, filled them with a cinnamon apple butter buttercream frosting, dipped them in caramel and rolled them in crushed candy bars.

I. DIE.

If you’ve never had a macaron, don’t wait another second. Macarons are not hard at all, they just require a little precision which can easily be accomplished with a simple kitchen scale. I use mine all the time! Whip up these holiday macarons and treat yourself to a fabulous dessert, right away. You’ll be so glad you did.

All you need is 110 grams of almond flour, 200 grams of powdered sugar, and the contents of one vanilla bean. Process these in a food processor until thoroughly combined.

(For a more thorough step-by-step photo tutorial, check out my Halloween French Macarons post.)

After processing, move flour mixture into a large bowl. If you’d like to give your macarons a little color or flavor, now’s your chance! You can add up to 1 teaspoon of powdered food coloring or 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder for chocolate macarons.

So sparkly! I loved this green. I find Wilton’s Color Dust powdered food coloring at Michaels and Hobby Lobby.

After you’ve colored or flavored your macarons (or just leave plain for vanilla), whisk to combine, and then sift to make sure your dry ingredients are completely free of lumps.

Next, using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, whisk 90 grams of egg whites until foamy, then add 25 grams of sugar and continue whisking until you get stiff peaks.

Add the egg whites to the dry ingredients — here’s one of our chocolate batches.

Using no more than 50 strokes, gently combine with a spoon, folding the batter on top of itself until you reach a smooth, shiny consistency.

Add your batter to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. We used a Wilton #2A, found on the cake decorating aisle at Walmart. Here are all of our macaron batches — we made four! — one red, one green, and two chocolates.

Pipe 1 to 1.5 inch circles onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper.

I find it much, much easier to keep my macarons all the same size if I make myself a template! Using the following macaron template, trace circles onto the back of a sheet of parchment paper (curly side up — you can hold it down with magnets) then turn the paper over (curly side — and marker side — DOWN) before piping. Here are the templates we used for our Thanksgiving macarons:

Circle Macaron Template
Acorn Macaron Template

How cute did these acorns turn out??

We covered the top half with a little chocolate ganache, then sprinkled on beautiful chocolate curls.

For more thorough step-by-step photos of our chocolate curls, check out Stephanie’s photos and recap of our day.

So yum! These were stuffed with a rich, decadent, supremely chocolatey milk chocolate ganache. Death by chocolate!

Next up were our turkeys!

Here’s what we used to decorate our turkeys.

Candy corn, of course
Hersey’s Drops for the head
Pretzels for the feet
Cookie Icing and Black Sprinkles for the eyes
Black sparkle gel to hold everything together
And finally, our turkey’s little red gobble-gobble (what IS that thing called?) — I was originally looking for some heart-shaped sprinkles, and even though the stores are decorating for holidays ridiculously early these days, they still didn’t have any Valentine-themed sprinkles. But Stephanie found these Disney Princess sprinkles at the grocery store just last week. They include sprinkles shaped like a gold crown, Cinderella’s glass slipper, and Snow White’s red apple. The red apple worked perfect! We even stuck the stem into the candy corn beak for a little extra security.

Now for our piece de resistance… The Caramel Apple Macaron. It all starts with this Cinnamon Apple Butter Buttercream Frosting from Cupcake Project.

It is un.real. My mind was blown. Steph and I were literally dying over this frosting. If you don’t do anything else, at least promise me you’ll make this frosting. Add it to your bucket list.

Okay, so not only did we fill our cute apple red and green macaron shells with ridiculously good cinnamon apple butter frosting, but we also dunked them in caramel…

And topped them with crushed Snickers. And Reese’s Cups. And Butterfingers. And roasted, salted peanuts.

I die.

Dunk!

Keep your caramel warm, we had to reheat ours at least once during our macaron making process.

Let the excess drizzle off before topping, or you’ll end up with a mess.

Now top! The flavor combinations are totally up to you!

We used Snickers here. Gently press the caramel-covered macaron into your crushed candy bars of choice and lift up.

Wow. I still cannot get over this combination of cinnamon, apple butter, brown sugar, caramel, and chocolate. I wish I could make one of these for every person in the world.

To make our caramel apple macarons look a little more like caramel apples, we also dunked a few like this…

Mmm…

Half and half!

And rolled in crushed candy bars.

It’s caramel apple macaron pops!

Here’s our caramel apple macarons, all lined up and ready to be topped.

There was some serious deliciousness going on in the Kevin & Amanda kitchen this day.

Cinnamon apple butter buttercream frosting… I love you.

How amazing is this little tin of caramel apple macarons! Wouldn’t these be so fun to give (and receive!) as Christmas gifts?

Oh mama. Here’s our Reese’s topped caramel apple mac.

And another topped with Butterfingers. I think this one turned out to be my favorite.

I could just eat you with a spoon little chocolate peanut butter turkey!

Oh my gosh. Little flock of macaron turkeys. Cuteness.

Here’s another look at our acorns.

I seriously loved our chocolate curls!

Caramel apple macarons, on top of beautiful apples.

Here’s a peek at each deliciously decadent layer of our caramel apple macs. Reese’s cups. Caramel. Chewy red macaron. Cinnamon apple butter buttercream. Chewy red macaron.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all! Hope you had as much fun reading about these macarons as I had making them. I only wish I could give each and every one of you a big tin of them for Christmas! But they are so easy (and so delicious. and delicate. and unique) I think everyone should give them a try. All the recipes we used to create these macarons are below. Enjoy!

Be sure to check out Stephanie’s photos and recap of our macaron making day!

Macaron Shells

90 grams aged egg whites
110 grams almond flour
200 grams powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean
25 grams white granulated sugar
1 tsp cocoa powder or powdered food coloring (optional)

Macaron recipe adapted from Shaina at Food for My Family. For more macaron tips, check out her step-by-step macaron tutorial.

Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the butter, sugar, peanut butter, milk and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.

Milk Chocolate Ganache

8 oz milk chocolate chips
8 oz heavy cream

Measure ingredients by weight. Place chocolate chips in a bowl, then bring heavy cream to a simmer, and pour over the chocolate chips. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk until completely smooth. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour or until it reaches a thick, frosting consistency.

To top our chocolate acorn shells, I warmed part of the ganache up in the microwave just a tad to thin it out a bit so it would spread smoothly over the top of the macaron.

Chocolate Curls

3 oz semi sweet chocolate
1 tbsp shortening (Crisco)

Combine chocolate and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and heat until melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Turn a clean sheet pan upside down and pour melted chocolate over the bottom of the pan, spreading thin with a spatula. Freeze for 5-10 minutes until chocolate is hardened. Use a small metal spatula to scrape chocolate off the pan forming curls. If chocolate is too hard to curl, let rest at room temperature for 1 minute. Keep chocolate curls in the freezer until ready to use, they do best when they are really hard and frozen!

Recipe via The Pioneer Woman.

Caramel

1 (11-ounce) package Kraft Caramel Bits
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt

In a double boiler, melt the caramel with the cream. Add the vanilla and salt and stir until smooth.

Recipe via The Pioneer Woman.

Cinnamon Apple Butter Buttercream Frosting

1/4 cup apple butter
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup powdered sugar

Melt the butter in a sauce pan, then add the apple butter and brown sugar. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium low. Continue to boil for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Add the milk and cinnamon, still whisking constantly, and return to a boil, then remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Beat in powdered sugar until smooth and it reaches a frosting consistency.

Recipe via Cupcake Project.

Frosted Candy Bar Stuffed Cookie Cups

Amanda — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:00:42 +0000

Oh boy, first of all, let me apologize in advance for these cupcakes! They are just downright ridiculous. I don’t know about you, but I still had some leftover Halloween candy in my house this weekend, and I knew I had to find something delicious to do with it. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to make stuffed cupcakes or stuffed cookies, so…

I decided to make both!

I give you… The Frosted Candy Bar Stuffed Cookie Cup! It’s a supremely soft, chewy cookie, stuffed with a fun-sized candy bar, baked in a cupcake tin, topped with vanilla buttercream frosting, and finally, sprinkled with crushed candy bars.

I have no excuse for my behavior.

(By the way, sorry my frosting looks a little funky here. I wigged out and accidentally doubled the amount of milk, causing it to separate just a tad. Don’t be like me.)

Let’s make these, okay?

Combine 1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar.

Then pour in 1 1/2 sticks butter that’s been melted and cooled for about 10 minutes.

And go ahead and add in your vanilla too. I just read the following on the Nielsen-Massey Vanillas website, makers of my favorite vanilla:

“In baking, cream the vanilla with the shortening or butter portion of the ingredients. The fat encapsulates the vanilla, preventing it from volatilizing in the baking process.”

Interesting!

Cream the butter, sugars, and vanilla on medium speed until very light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together 2 cups of flour with 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and set aside.

Add two eggs to the wet ingredients, and beat well until fully incorporated.

Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated.

Now break out those fun-sized candy bars!

Add a little dough to a well-greased muffin tin…

Top with candy…

And top with just a little more dough. Love this little chocolate guy peeking out!

Go ahead and flatten out your batter so it covers the candy evenly. This made 12 regular-sized cookie cups.

Bake these at 325 degrees for 12-15 minutes, until the edges just start to turn golden.

Here’s what they looked like when they first came out of the oven. Yummy!

After they cooled, they sank considerably, but that’s okay, because….

We’re going to fill them with fluffy, fluffy frosting.

And top them with even more crushed candy bars! I matched up my crushed topping with the candy bar inside so I’d know what was in the middle. But you could mix it up and let it be a surprise, too!

Baby Ruth. Come to mama.

(What’s the difference between a Baby Ruth and Snickers?)

Now, I had just a teeny tiny bit of batter leftover, just enough to make 3 mini candy bar cookie cups. I scooped my leftover batter into a mini muffin tin (filling the cups about 2/3 full) and topped it with a fun-sized candy bar.

I ended up loving these and wishing I’d made them all minis!

They are just so bite-sized and popable!

You could easily have a delicious fling with one or two of these mini cups without even giving it a second thought.

While the larger cups require a higher level of commitment.

Either way, I love the combination of chewy cookie, chocolate candy bar, and frosting here! The cookie is so soft that when I first handed one to Kevin, he thought it was an actual cupcake.

Enjoy these, guys! Let me know if you make ‘em as minis or big mommas.

Frosted Candy Bar Stuffed Cookie Cups

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter, melted and cooled
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray. Cream the butter, sugars, and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the flour and baking soda. Next add the eggs to the wet ingredients and beat well. Finally add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Scoop batter into a regular-sized muffin tin, filling the cups about 1/3 full. Top with fun-sized candy bars. Scoop remaining batter on top of the candy bars, filling the cups about 2/3 full. Bake at 325 for 12-15 minutes or until the edges just start to turn golden.

Makes 12 cookie cups. Store at room temperature.

To make as minis: Scoop batter into a mini muffin tin, filling the cups about 2/3 full. Top with a fun-sized candy bar. Bake at 325 for 6-8 minutes or until the edges just start to turn golden.

Buttercream Frosting

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon Tahitian vanilla extract

Place the butter, sugar, milk and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.

Trick or Treat! Halloween Cookie Dough Pops

Amanda — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:54:58 +0000

Happy Halloween! Here are some fun treats to help celebrate today. I made these sprinkled Halloween pops over the weekend, and they turned out so cute, I just couldn’t not share them today!

We all know that cookie dough is the best part of making cookies… And what could be more fun than cookie dough dipped in candy and covered in sprinkles?

It’s cookie dough!

These guys are pretty straight-forward. Make cookie dough, dunk in melted almond bark, and cover in sprinkles! The hardest part will be choosing which sprinkles to use… They’re all too fun! But here are a few tips I found that made things a little easier.

Use your favorite cookie dough recipe, substituting 2 tbsp milk for each egg. I used Picky Palate’s White Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies recipe for my cookie dough.

Scoop cookie dough about 1.5 tablespoons in size and roll into balls. While the cookie dough is still at room temperature, insert lollipop sticks. To help the sticks stay in place, you can dip the tip of the stick in melted almond bark before inserting. When melting almond bark in the microwave, be sure to stir every 30 seconds to prevent it from overcooking and becoming gritty or clumpy.

After you’ve converted all your cookie dough into upside down pops, freeze them for 15-20 minutes until firm.

Working in batches, remove 4 pops from the freezer at a time.

Melt your almond bark in a small glass with enough coating to completely cover the pop in one dunk. Pull straight up from the bark and tap well on the side of the glass to remove the excess coating.

You’ll want to make sure your almond bark stays hot, so reheat it in the microwave for 30 seconds every 8 pops or so.

Now for the best part… Sprinkles! I found it easier to “sprinkle” the sprinkles on to the pops first, then roll on the plate if needed to cover completely. Work quickly here so the almond bark doesn’t dry on you. Thanks to my mom, the lovely hand model here!

I found all these sprinkles this year at Target and Walmart.

So many fun options to choose from!

Oh, make sure you have some foam to hold your pops.

Or some candy corn will do.

How fun would these be with sprinkles for all occasions… Christmas, Birthday, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Fourth of July…

So what could be more fun than cookie dough dipped in candy and covered in sprinkles? Put it on a stick, wrap it up, and tie it with a bow!

We made these over the weekend, and I sent them with Kevin to work today.

All wrapped up!

Trick or Treat! It’s salty and sweet.

(I was losing light outside, so I had to move the photoshoot inside at this point.)

Here’s what I sent with Kevin today…

His desk is going to be quite colorful!

Have a happy Halloween!

Halloween French Macarons

Amanda — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 07:00:42 +0000

Oh my goodness, am I excited to share these Halloween macarons with you today! My sweet friend and neighbor Stephanie from the fabulous blog All Artful came over on Monday and we had so much fun goofing off in the kitchen, cranking up the music, and dreaming up these Halloween-themed macarons.

I remember the first time I ever had a macaron. It was last year. I was in New York at Bouchon Bakery. Just a few months before finding myself there, staring at the pastry case, on the hunt for a french macaron, I wasn’t exactly sure what one was. But I knew I needed to find one.

It was life changing.

The macaron has so many things going for it. It’s cute. It’s layered. It’s mysterious. It’s sweet. And it’s got fabulous texture. It’s crispy. It’s chewy. It’s light and airy. It’s decadent. It will make you swoon. Just wait til you see the inside of this little guy. But more on that below.

Last month my friend Shaina from Food for My Family came down and stayed with me for a weekend filled with dessert making and photo shoots for her upcoming cookbook. We made the most adorable pink macarons, and once I saw how easy they were, I was hooked.

I was a little intimidated to try them on my own, but let me calm your fears. They’re not that scary. I totally promise you. This recipe is pretty foolproof. It makes me feel like a macaron pro!

Just look at how perfect these little guys turned out. If I can do it, you definitely can too. If you’ve never had a macaron, don’t wait another second. Whip these up and treat yourself to this fabulous dessert, right away. You’ll be so glad you did.

Here are a few things we’ll need to get started. Almond flour and vanilla beans. You can find vanilla beans either right there with the vanilla, or sometimes they are mixed in with the spices, as was the case with the McCormick vanilla beans. The almond flour is more likely to be found in gourmet supermarkets like Whole Foods. But I got this at Target, and I’ve occasionally seen it in the baking aisle or the organic section of my grocery store. If you can’t find it, you can use raw almonds, without the skin, which you’ll grind up in the food processor.

The second thing you’ll need is a food scale (which I failed to photograph!) so you can weigh your ingredients. Here is the one I have, and I use it every day.

Now the fun begins! Weigh out your almond flour and powdered sugar and add them to the bowl of a food processor. If you’re using whole almonds, grind them into a powder first, then add the sugar.

Okay, now the fun really begins. The vanilla bean. Scraping out the caviar of a vanilla bean is one of the more rewarding experiences in life. And we’re about to do it. Use a sharp knife to split the vanilla bean in half.

Then turn the knife to the dull side, scrape out the vanilla bean seeds, and add them to the food processor.

Steph grabbed my camera here. That’s me in the background splitting a vanilla bean. I love how it turned out!

Process the flour, sugar and vanilla bean until fully incorporated.

Here are a few more fun things we’ll need! If you’d like to give your macarons some fun color, you’ll need powdered food coloring — no gel, paste or liquid. Michael’s and Hobby Lobby both carry this Wilton Color Dust that I used. We also used Wilton Sparkle Gel to decorate the jack-0-lanterns and spider eyes (Walmart), and red gel food coloring for the eye balls (grocery store).

For chocolate macarons, add 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder. I used Hershey’s Special Dark.

Or for orange macarons, add 1 teaspoon of powdered food coloring. And for white macarons, you don’t have to add anything! Whisk together to combine.

Next you’ll want to sift this combination so it’s completely free of lumps. I know, I know. Break out that sifter!

Macarons start with aged egg whites. Up to five (5) days before making macarons, separate your egg whites, cover them loosely with a paper towel, and keep them in the refrigerator. The night before making macarons, set them out on the counter to come to room temperature. Yes, they’ll be fine. Perfect, even! My egg whites aged for 2 days, one night in the fridge and one night on the counter.

Whisk the egg whites until foamy.

Then add a little sugar, and whisk until you get stiff peaks. When you lift out the whisk, the egg whites should not fold over.

It’ll look about like this. When they’re ready, add the egg whites to the flour.

Now we’re going to fold the egg whites into the flour. Gently stir the batter with a spoon, folding the batter on top of itself until just combined, and there are no more white streaks from the egg whites.

It should look about like this. If you draw a line in the batter with your spoon, it should start to fold back onto itself. Slowly. It takes me about 40 strokes to reach this stage, but don’t go over 50 strokes. The macarons will thank you.

That’s it! It’s all downhill from here! Add the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip. I’m using Wilton #2A here, found at Walmart. Pipe the batter into circles on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper (not wax paper) and pull straight up. I’m really bad at the precision thing, so I drew circles with a sharpie on the back of my parchment paper to help keep my macarons evenly sized. You’ll want to draw on the curly side of the parchment paper so when you turn it over it’ll lay flat on the pan.

Download my macaron template here.

Tip: Lay your macaron template on the sheet pan, use magnets to hold down the parchment paper, and trace your circles. Remove the magnets and template, then flip the parchment paper over before piping macarons.

When you’re done, give the sheet pans a good solid tap on the table to pop any air bubbles in the batter.

Now the most important part. Let your macarons rest on the pan at least 30 minutes before baking. I try to give mine 45 minutes to an hour. While they rest they’ll form a nice strong skin to keep them from cracking in the oven.

Bake the macarons at 280 degrees F for 15-20 minutes directly in the middle of your oven. It takes exactly 15 minutes in my oven. To test for doneness, pick a not-so-cute macaron you’re willing to sacrifice, if need be. First, gently touch the top to make sure it’s dry. Then gently try to lift the macaron from the parchment paper. If it comes away pretty easily, they’re done! It can stick just a tiny bit — they’ll still need to rest for 10 minutes on the parchment paper before they’ll fully done. But if it’s not coming up and the top breaks away, they need to cook longer. Keep checking on them every two minutes until the bottom is nice and dry, just like the one above.

Now that your macarons are done it’s time to fill them! The secret to this deliciously fluffy buttercream frosting is in the vanilla extract. I highly recommend Tahitian vanilla extract if you can find it. I love using Tahitian vanilla for frosting and other recipes that won’t be cooked. It gives them that beautiful, simple, pure vanilla flavor.

Match up your macaron shells and stuff those babies!

Ready to make some hairy legs for cute spider macs?? Melt some chocolate almond bark in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth.

I got the idea for these cute and delicious legs from Bridget at Bake at 350. Check out her hairy spider cookies!

Set up your assembly line…

Dip pretzel sticks into the chocolate and roll them on the sides of the glass to get rid of the excess chocolate — lest your hairy spider legs be clumpy.

Then roll in chocolate sprinkles.

Perfect!!

We had so much going on in the kitchen at this point!

For the spider macarons, take a little chocolate buttercream and spread it on the bottom of a macaron shell.

Break off the tips of the pretzels and arrange the spider legs…

By the way, the leftover pieces from the spider legs are a delicious snack.

Moving on.

Add a little more chocolate frosting…

And top with another macaron shell.

Gorgeous!

Okay, I just could not stand it any longer at this point. Had to try one of these guys!

Now check this out. See that deliciously delicate, sugary crisp shell up at the top? It’s glorious. It’s also nice and strong from our aged egg whites.

Now check out the fluffy, chewy cookie.

And the soft, creamy frosting.

Then cookie.

Then shell.

The texture and flavor combination of macarons just blow me away.

There was lots of photo-taking going on in the kitchen.

Macarons are very photogenic.

We couldn’t stop snapping away!

Here’s our little Halloween macaroonies!

Little spider man is my favorite.

Loved our jack-o-lanterns. The sparkle gel was perfect!

And our ghost buster! How cute is this little guy?? Stephanie piped our white macaron batter into these ghostie shapes and they baked up so cute!

We made a few round white macs too. How scary are these eyes topped with an M&M??

I am just in love with these cute little chocolate spiders.

And our spooky jack-o-lanterns. Chomp!

Thanks so much Stephanie for coming over and making macarons with me! It was an absolute blast. Already thinking of ideas for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Make sure you check out Stephanie’s photos and recap
of our day!

Halloween French Macarons

Macaron Shells

90 grams aged egg whites
110 grams almond flour
200 grams powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean
25 grams white granulated sugar
1 tsp cocoa powder or powdered food coloring (optional)

Place almond flour, powdered sugar, and the contents of a vanilla bean into a food processor and process until fully combined. Move to a large bowl and whisk in one teaspoon of cocoa powder for chocolate macarons, or one teaspoon of powdered food coloring for colored macarons. Leave plain for vanilla macarons. Whisk to combine, then sift and set aside.

With a mixer, whisk the egg whites on medium-high speed until foamy. Add in granulated sugar and continue whisking until the the egg whites have stiff peaks.

Add the egg whites to the flour and fold to incorporate until the mixture is just smooth, using no more than 50 strokes.

Fit a pastry bag with a large round tip, and fill with macaron batter. Pipe approximately 1-inch circles onto a baking sheet lined parchment paper.

Let the batter rest on the pan at least 30 minutes before baking, to form a strong skin to help keep the macarons from cracking in the oven.

Vanilla Buttercream

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk
2 teaspoons Tahitian vanilla extract

Place the butter, sugar, milk and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.

Chocolate Buttercream

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
2/3 cup (10 tbsp) butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa)
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. Allow to cool for 5-10 mins. Meanwhile, combine butter, sugar, cocoa and salt in a food processor and process until smooth. Scrape the bowl as needed. Add the corn syrup and vanilla and process until just combined. Add the melted chocolate and process until smooth and creamy.

Macaron recipe adapted from Shaina at Food for My Family. For more macaron tips, check out her step-by-step macaron tutorial.

Mini Chocolate Chip Maple Pancake Cupcakes

Amanda — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:47:13 +0000

Today I’m sharing these fun mini, mapley, and chocolaty cupcakes over on my sweet blogging buddies Maria and Josh’s site, Two Peas and their Pod. As you may remember from their virtual baby shower post this summer, Maria and Josh just welcomed a new pea into their pod. His name is Caleb and he makes my heart pitter patter. He looks just like his proud papa! These cupcakes are in honor of our sweet day in NYC this past January, where we came across a fun cupcake bakery filled with mini cupcakes in all kinds of crazy flavors. Click the photo above for the full story behind the cupcakes and for the recipe to recreate these delicious minis.

Mini Chocolate Chip Maple Pancake Cupcakes

Thanks so much for looking, have a great weekend, guys!

Ultimate Halloween Peanut Butter Oreo Brownie Bar

Amanda — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:00:28 +0000

AKA The OMG Illegal-in-48-States Ultimate Insane Brownie.

I’ve been seeing these new white chocolate candy corn Halloween M&Ms pop up all over my favorite food blogs recently, and I knew I had to get my hands on some! I had no idea what to expect. Did they taste like white chocolate? Candy corn? M&Ms? I was totally intrigued, so at 10 pm on Friday night, Jenny and I decided on the spur of the moment to go on the hunt all over Nashville in search of these mysterious candies. Just another a day in the crazy life of two sweet shoppers! (Make sure you check out Jenny’s yummy dessert with the same M&M’s today too!)

Let me save you a little bit of time. We found out these special Halloween treats are a Walmart exclusive, and we eventually found them not in the Halloween section and not in the candy aisle… but in their own display in the produce section. Well that should have been a no-brainer, right?

They’re slightly larger (and more irregularly shaped) than plain M&Ms and they taste like white chocolate chips. I’m guessing the candy corn name comes from the fun colors of the M&Ms. I love peanut butter and white chocolate and I knew exactly what I was going to do with these…

I recreated my Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n’ Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar with a peanut butter cookie & white chocolate candy corn M&M base and Halloween Oreos.

It’s a warm, gooey peanut butter cookie topped with a soft, fudgy brownie, with a sweet double stuffed Oreo nestled right in the middle. It’s the ultimate chocolate peanut butter treat!

This peanut butter cookie recipe is insane, it tastes just like peanut butter ice cream. Love it!

If you can’t find the white chocolate candy corn M&Ms, I think Reese’s Pieces would be incredible in these cookies. Or just leave it plain! I seriously cannot say enough good things about this cookie dough.

Break out the fun Halloween Oreos…

And layer them over the cookie dough. I push my Oreos to the middle because I usually cut off just a little bit of the edges for bar treats. I’m a no-edge girl.

Now here’s a little secret I learned from Picky Palate. I always add 1/4 cup hot fudge topping to all boxed brownie mixes. It makes them so gooey and fudgy!

Whip up a 9×13 Family Size brownie mix and add in some hot fudge topping. Or dang. What about caramel topping?? Someone please try this and report back.

Here’s our gorgeous layers, ready for the oven!

Really, what more can you say about this warm, gooey, fudgy, peanut buttery delight?

Oh yes. You can say, Ice Cream please!

This bar is so dangerously delicious… it’s scary.

Ultimate Halloween Peanut Butter Oreo Brownie Bar

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (9.9 oz) pkg white chocolate candy corn M&Ms or 1 cup Reese’s Pieces
1 pkg Halloween or Double Stuffed Oreos
1 Family Size (9×13) Brownie mix
1/4 cup hot fudge topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream the butter, peanut butter, and both sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed for 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla and beat until dough is light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt, then slowly add to the mixer until the flour is just combined. Stir in M&Ms. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray, line with wax paper, and spray with cooking spray again. Spread the cookie dough in the bottom of the dish. Top with a layer of Oreos. Mix together brownie mix, adding an optional 1/4 cup of hot fudge topping to the mix. Pour the brownie batter over the cookie dough and Oreos. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted 2″ from the edge comes out with moist pieces clinging to it.