Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Martha's One Bowl Cupcakes With A Little Somethin' Somethn'







Happy Fall friends! This recipe sort of hit me this morning, I had a little time to spare, thought I would try it out and... mwa-ha-ha-ha! It's alive! If you have an addictive fall personality like I do (signs would be but are not limited to: massively baking with pumpkin and cinnamon, drinking cider till you are ill, whipping up soups every week, planning Halloween costumes months in advance, being thrilled each and every time the weatherman says the temperature will be below 60 degrees, going on drives through the mountains to see the leaves change, etc.), make these this week! The "somethin' somethin'" is a Pumpkin Hershey's Kiss in each cupcake center as well as a wicked good cinnamon butter cream frosting. You are gonna love 'em and they are going to feed your fall fix!



Martha's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

1 1/2C all purpose flour
3/4C unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
1 1/2C sugar
1 1/2t baking soda
3/4t baking powder
3/4t salt
2 eggs
3/4C buttermilk
3T vegetable oil
1t vanilla
3/4C warm water

Somethin' Somethin' (part one)

18 Pumpkin Hershey's Kisses (unwrapped)

Preheat oven to 350 and grease muffin tins. Combine dry ingredients and add; eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and water. Fill tins 2/3 full and bake 20 mins (rotating after 10 minutes). After first 10 minutes, remove tins and place a kiss in each center, pressing down on each candy. Return to oven an additional 5-8 minutes. Remove and cool 10 minutes in the tin and completely on rack.



Somethin' Somethin' (part two)

Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

1C unsalted butter
3-4C powdered sugar
1t vanilla
1/4C cinnamon simple syrup OR...
1T ground cinnamon

Cream butter for 5 minutes and add powdered sugar slowly. Add vanilla (and sugar as needed) and cinnamon, cream another 3 minutes and pipe as desired.


Can we discuss this simple syrup? The company who makes it is Sonoma Syrup (www.sonomasyrup.com) and they are absolutely fantastic! I sold their products, in my shop, and am utterly impressed by them. I met the owners at the Fancy Food Show in San Diego last year and HAD to have their stuff on my shelves! Their vanilla (pictured in the first photo) is HANDS DOWN the best vanilla I have ever baked with, the cinnamon syrup made this buttercream... well... wicked good and makes cider incredible. They have many flavors of simple syrup as well as several impressive extracts. Check out their site and contact me if you would like anything. I am still selling vanilla, cinnamon simple syrup, vanilla hazelnut simple syrup, regular simple syrup and a few other flavors.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

peanut-buttery-chocolatey-cinnamon-ey goodness



My daughter has been learning all about the letter "C" this week in school. The class made pretend cookies and she's been singing "C is for cookie..." all week. Long story short, I have cookie on the brain. I wanted to try something new, something tasty and so perfectly "cookie" they just could not be resisted. Bearing those things in mind, I created the following "peanut-buttery-chocolatey-cinnamon goodness":

1C unsalted butter
3/4C sugar
3/4C brown sugar
2 eggs
1C crunchy peanut butter
1t vanilla
1 3/4C flour
1t baking soda
1t salt
2t true cinnamon
1/2C milk chocolate chips
1/2C semi-sweet chocolate chips

1C dark chocolate (melted)
1/4C cinnamon sugar mixture

Cream: butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs (one at a time) until incorporated. Add peanut butter and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine: flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Add chocolate chips and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes (chewy and soft... not crisp). Cool completely and arrange in a single layer over parchment paper. Melt dark chocolate and drizzle over the batch then sprinkle cinnamon/sugar mixture over the chocolate.