Salt. Caramel. Chocolate. Brilliant cupcakes

So my friends' baby turned one today.  And they asked me to make cupcakes!  They don't feed their kid sugar or salt so I knew they weren't going to give their kid any of my cupcakes so I went for it and made what I wanted. And I have to say, sorry kid, you missed out.  Next time I'll sneak you a little bit of heavenly goodness I created tonight!

I present to for your viewing and hopefully tasting pleasure

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

Now I have made a lot of cupcakes in my life, I even made our wedding cake and cupcakes!  And those were great, but this was better.  There is a chocolate cake base, a caramel filling and a whipped cream dark chocolate frosting.  And a sprinkling of thick sea salt on top.  Salt, caramel and chocolate combined is unbelievable.  The salt is a surprise, but it adds such a depth of flavor.

Chocolate cake

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

7 tablespoons good dutch processed cocoa powder

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

3/4 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate chunks or squares

1 tablespoon butter

All my ingredients

The cake part is actually super easy.  The rest gets a little bit complicated though, so have extra ingredients on hand just in case you have to redo your caramel (guilty!) or your frosting (guilty!).  These cupcakes take time so I would give yourself at least two or three hours.  But they are worth every minute.  Every minute. 



Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 24 standard size cupcakes tins with your favorite cupcake liners.   

Melt chocolate squares with about a tablespoon or two a butter.  You can heat them on the stove or just pop them in the microwave.  Melt until chocolate and butter is smooth and shiny and then immediately remove from the heat.  There is nothing worse than burnt chocolate.  And once you burn chocolate you cannot get it back! 

Place all dry ingredients into a big bowl.  Oh, I have recently rediscovered my sifter.  And it makes a world of difference so if you have one, use it!  So I should revise my directions and say, sift all the dry ingredients together. 

In medium bowl whisk together all the wet ingredients.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.  Place in cupcake tins and bake for 13-15 minutes.  Now at this point I originally placed one of those pre-made caramel squares in each cupcake and baked for an additional 2-5 minutes.  This turned out to be not a great move, so I would just bake the cupcakes for about 15-20 minutes.  As usual while baking cakes, bake until a toothpick placed into the cake comes our clean or with a few crumbs sticking to it.  Dry cake is the worst, so if you think it is almost done or you think it needs just a minute more, take it out! 

So back to the caramel squares.  While they were easy to place in, I hated the look of them and I was worried they would harden up and would be an unpleasant texture when people bit into them.  So I waited impatiently until the cupcakes were cool and sure enough the caramel was way too hard.  So I removed every single square.  But then I had a whole in my cupcakes so I had to fill them with something.  And so with great trepidation I decided to attempt caramel sauce.

Finished homemade caramel sauce

Caramel Sauce

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup whipping cream

Now those two ingredients look deceptively easy, but caramel is a challenge.  Place sugar in a pan over medium-high heat and cook until it starts to melt and turns a little bit brown. Once it is completely melted, but hopefully still light brown, add the whipping cream to the pan.  It will sputter, and the sugar might be hard and stuck together.  Mine looked like a light brown rock in the middle of the cream!  The first time this happened I thought I had killed my caramel.  But don't give up, keep stirring!  Stir until the sugar has again melted into the cream and it starts to look like caramel sauce.  Be careful it doesn't get too dark or it will taste burnt!  Once your get your caramel sauce to the desired color, remove from the heat and let it cool.  Once the caramel sauce is cool fill each cupcake hole with caramel sauce.  You will have leftover caramel sauce which you will need later for the frosting. 

Chocolate caramel filled cupcakes

Whipped Cream Dark Chocolate Buttercream

1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips or squares

4 tablespoons dutch processed cocoa powder

1 1/2 sticks of butter

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup whipped cream

Frosting cupcakes

Melt the chocolate and about two tablespoons of butter until smooth and creamy.  Set aside so that it is cool when needed.  Cream together butter and powdered sugar until soft and fluffy.  Slowly add the cocoa powder into the butter and sugar mixture.  Fold in the melted chocolate.  In a separate bowl beat whipped cream until it has soft peaks.  Slowly fold the whipped cream into the chocolate buttercream mixture.  Be very gentle so that you do not deflate your whipped cream.  Once all the whipped cream is incorporated chill the whipped cream dark chocolate buttercream for about 20 minutes in the refrigerator.  This will let your frosting firm up a little bit and make it easier to pipe onto the cupcakes.  Your hot hands will warm up the frosting quickly so starting with a cool frosting helps tremendously. 

Once frosted, drizzle the remaining caramel on each cupcake and then add a pinch of good sea salt to each cupcake.  Your whole view of cupcakes will change after you try this. 

Enjoy!  And keep tasting!

Blogging and Eating some Pie.

So I have religiously monitored (some people would say stalked, but that is such a harsh term) the blogs of my friends for years.  And I also closely check, ok, I check it everyday, a lovely blog of sweet and awe-inspiring women who lives in Rainier, WA.  Have I ever met her?  No.  Do I know everything that has she has written on her blog in the last four years.  Yes.  Does that make me slightly creepy?  I hope not.  Anyway the point of this long winded introduction is that I used to complain about people who did not update their blog regularly.  And now look at me, letting weeks go by without blogging. I humbly admit that blogging takes a lot of time and planning.  I take back all my snide comments and constant page refreshing that I directed towards my fellow bloggers.

I have been cooking a lot lately, and one day I will update y'all with my cooking adventures.  In the past week our favorite meal has been the meat pie.  My mother-in-law called to ask if we wanted some chicken pot pie and we politely declined.  But for the rest of the day I kept thinking about savory pies.  And our meat and veggie pie was born.

Meat and Veggie Pie

1 lb ground beef, veal, or lamb.

1 large red potato

1/2 bunch collard greens

1/3 red onion

1 clove garlic

1/2 carrot

2 large mushrooms

1/2 red bell pepper

6 drops Worcestershire sauce

8 ounces of crushed tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon:

   salt

   pepper

  coriander

   oregano
1 pie crust, top and bottom.  Prepared or homemade!
1 small tub, (4 ounces I think) boconccini.  Boconccini is just small balls of fresh mozzarella. 
1 egg

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.  Chop all veggies into bite sized chunks.  But make sure you mince the garlic!  Saute meat in a large skillet on medium heat until the meat has started to brown.  If I am using ground beef I always like to use the leaner cuts of meat.  In this case I used the 93/7 blend.  I just think that it seems to taste so much meatier.  Then add chopped potatoes to the pan.  Finish cooking the meat and then drain any excess fat or water from the pan.  Then add all the rest of veggies.  Don't worry, the collard greens will cook down!  Once the collard greens have started to wilt, add all your spices and thoroughly mix together.  Cook mixture for a few more minutes, just until veggies start to get tender.   

Place the bottom of the pie curst into a glass pie pan.  Glass just works better, so if you don't have a glass pie pan, then go buy one.  There really is no comparison.  Use a fork to puncture holes in the sides and bottom of the pie crust.  This is very important otherwise your pie crust will puff up and you wont have any room for your filling! Or you can use pie weights.  Which reminds me I need to put those on my birthday wish list.  Pre-cook bottom crust for 8-10 minutes, just until the crust stops looking quite so raw.  Turn the oven down to 350 degrees. 

 Slice each boconccini in half.  Put half of those slices into the meat and veggie mixture and stir until the cheese is evenly distributed.  Pour meat and veggies into pre-cooked bottom pie crust.  Be careful not to touch the pie pan now because that glass is hot.  Trust me on this one!  Once all the filling is in the pie pan spread the rest of the boconccini over the filling.  The more cheese the better is my thought!  Top with the second pie crust and brush with an egg wash.  Poke some holes in the top crust to so that the steam can escape. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.  The crust should be golden brown.  Let the pie stand for about ten minutes, cut and enjoy. 

Keep Tasting!

Sometimes you just need a cookie

I've been sick for over a month now, and sometimes the only thing that makes you feel better is a cookie.  I am a firm believer in the fact that food can heal you.  Not so much in terms of antioxidants, vitamins, etc.  Don't get me wrong, those are great and important, but I get great satisfaction from eating comfort foods.  And cookies are one of the first foods that I learned to bake so they are my go to comfort food. 

I love chocolate chip cookies, but I had this great Chehalis mint candies (If you haven't tried them get some now!  You will not regret it.  Go to http://www.chehalismints.com/)  so I threw some of those in as well as espresso grounds.

And out of the oven came delicious

Mocha Mint Cookies

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1 Tablespoon baking soda

1 Teaspoon salt

1 (heaping) Tablespoon espresso grounds

2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup Chehalis mints

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Roughly chop the Chehalis mint candies and set aside.  In a medium bowl mix flour, baking soda, salt, and espresso grounds.  Set aside.  In a large bowl cream together butter and sugars.  Make sure everything is completely incorporated.  Then add eggs, I like to add them one at a time.  Beat dough together until the color of the dough starts to lighten.  It just tastes better this way.  Add vanilla and beat for at least another 30 seconds.   Now if you are using a stand mixture (which is totally fine and makes everything easier) take the bowl off the stand, put the beater attachments aside, get a good sturdy spoon and roll up your sleeves. 

Slowly add the flour mixture into the butter mixture, making sure all the flour gets thoroughly incorporated.  But using your own strength and a spoon your kitchen stays cleaner (no flour spraying everywhere), you get an arm workout and I just feel like it connects your to your baking.  Weird, I know, but I like to be as hands on as possible.  Until I buy a Kitchen Aid, and then all bets are off. 

Yummy, Creamy Chehalis Mint Candies

Lastly add the Chehalis Mints and the chocolate chips and mix until everything is combined.  Drop tablespoon size cookie dough balls on a baking sheet and cook from 8-10 minutes. And enjoy! 

I'm still sick, but the cookies made me feel better and there's nothing like a warm, gooey cookie with a cold glass of milk. 



Keep tasting,