Posts Tagged ‘Dorie’

Apricot Jam Cookies

{ February 10, 2011 @ 6:00 am } · { Cookies }
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Wind.

It’s freezing outside right now. The cold wind whips your hair into your face and slaps you hard. It is unrelenting, unforgiving, and chills you to the bone. After a couple days of relative warmth, days when the growing pile of snow actually began to melt away, the dreaded winter came back with a vengeance.

I am not amused, Winter, not amused at all.

Those two days you gave us, that little taste of a warmer and happier time, they were a tease. I was ten times more productive than I am now. I ran errands with a smile on my face. I didn’t have to religiously apply lotion to my dry, cracked hands. I didn’t have to sit shivering in my car waiting for it to warm up before I break out of my hunched, freezing position.

And now?

Now I’m sitting inside, moping with a cup of tea in my hand.

Now I’m munching on these tiny bites of buttery, gingery perfection.

I suppose I should be angry with you, Winter, for forcing me back indoors to wrap myself in blankets and try to hibernates some more. But you know what? I’m happy because these cookies are absolutely, positively delicious and had you not turned your back on me yet again I would not have been inspired to make them to accompany my steaming cup of Earl Grey.

SO THERE!

You all know how I loves me some Dorie Greenspan. Flipping through her book, I always find a new recipe to try, perfect for the mood I’m in. These cookies certainly did the trick. The addition of ground ginger gives it a warming spice and the delicate sweetness of the apricot jam make it a perfect pairing for a cup of tea. Friends asked if the flavors were orange, it’s so difficult to decipher what the taste is though you know it’s delicious. The cookie is balanced, takes minutes to whip up, and is a wonderful bite for a snack, for tea, for dessert, for battling the cold, or for whatever your heart desires.

Apricot Jam Cookies
adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours

Makes ~45 cookies.

Ingredients

  • 2 c all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2/3 c granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp whole milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 c apricot jam (I used preserves.)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375F, positioning two racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, ginger, and salt. Set aside. Using a stand or hand mixer, cream butter for a minute or so. Add in sugar and beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Mix in the egg, beating until well-combined. Add the milk and vanilla and mix. It will look scary and curdled but don’t fret, it’ll come together. On low speed, beat in the jam or preserves. Finally, add in the flour mixture and mix until the flour just disappears. You’ll have quite a thick dough.

Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of batter approximately 1 inch apart onto the baking sheets. Bake the sheets for 15 minutes, rotating them from top to bottom and front to back halfway through (if you remember – I did not and the cookies turned out fine). Allow to cool on the sheet for 1 minute before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough once baking sheets are cooled.

Are you having good weather? If so, I’m jealous.

Dorie’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

{ January 3, 2011 @ 6:00 pm } · { Chocolate, Cookies }
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How is everyone’s 2011 going so far?

I imagine most of you, like me, headed back into the daily grind after the excitement and days off for and during the holiday season. This morning was not pretty, friends. Not at all. I had to hastily eat a bowl of cereal while warming up my car for not nearly enough time because I slept in a little too long. And, friends, my stomach is not yet back into the zone of not having food readily available at a moment’s notice. So I spent much of the morning (and afternoon) hungry while chasing after my residents and trying to meet and understand all of my new patients.

I told you. Not pretty.

But things are looking up since these cookies were waiting for me when I got home.

There was absolutely, positively NO way I was starting off the year without chocolate chip cookies. I believe it’s the only way to get things moving on the right foot. Don’t you? And who better to turn to for a cookie recipe you can count on besides Dorie Greenspan? No one. Essentially, making these cookies was a no-brainer. Another plus? The dough doesn’t need to be refrigerated. It always bothers me when I have to refrigerate cookie dough. I can almost taste them in my mouth.. and then I have to wait an hour before that actually happens. Such a tease. Especially if you sneakily ate some of the dough and can already tell it’ll rock your world. I know I’m not the only one who does this.

Can I get an AMEN?!

Chocolate chip cookies. Doing favors to slightly cranky Monday work-goers all over the world.

 

Dorie’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Baking from My Home to Yours

Makes 40-45 cookies.

Ingredients

  • 2 c all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 c sugar
  • 2/3 c packed light brown sugar
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 c bittersweet chocolate chips (or 12 oz chocolate chopped into chips)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375F and line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

Using a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter for about 1 minute or medium speed until smooth. Add sugars and beat another 2 minutes. Add in vanilla followed by the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in thirds, mixing just until combined before adding another third. Add in the chocolate. At this point you can also add in 1 c finely chopped walnuts or pecans but I don’t like nuts in my chocolate chip cookies so I omitted this step.

Spoon tablespoonfuls of dough onto prepared sheets. Leave about 2 inches around each cookie. Bake 10-12 minutes or until the edges are browned (rotate pan halfway through). Allow to cool for 1 minute on the pan before transferring to a rack.

What’s the first thing you made in 2011?


 

World Peace Cookies

{ August 10, 2010 @ 3:27 pm } · { Cookies }
{ Tags: , } · { Comments (6) }

Hello! Did you enjoy the reposted recipes last week? They’re certainly some of my favorites and they’re sure crowd-pleasers.

It was nice to be gone but it’s even nicer to come back home.

See, I’ve been gone for over a month spending time at a NYC hospital and then vacationing in London/Dublin (both of which were extremely tiring but much fun indeed). So now, to come home after all that time feels wonderful.

But I’m tired.

So this will be short and sweet so I can take a nap.

Given that I’ve just come from a lovely international vacation, Dorie’s World Peace Cookies seemed like a fitting come-back treat. These cookies are wonderfully crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth. They do take a little bit of time to make because you have to refrigerate them but they’re worth the wait (and if you want to set aside a little bit of egg-free dough to snack on in the meantime I won’t tell). I’m in agreement that if everyone had one of these cookies every day there would be world peace. They sure brought peace to my stomach! (Until I ate the entire batch myself and had a wee bit o’ a tummy ache. Whoops.)

World Peace Cookies
from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours

Makes 36 or so cookies.

Ingredients
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 c packed light brown sugar
1/4 c sugar
1/4 tsp fine sea salt (or 1/2 tsp fleur de sel)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c mini chocolate chips

Instructions
Sift flour, cocoa, and baking soda.

In a large bowl and using a hand or stand (paddle attachment if possible) mixer, beat butter on medium speed until creamy. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla and beat for another 2 minutes. Turn off mixer.

Add all the dry ingredients into the bowl and protect everything possible from the upcoming dusting by placing a towel over the bowl. Pulse the mixer on low for a second or two about 5 times. Peek in and ensure that enough flour is incorporated that you can uncover the bowl. If not, pulse a couple more times. Uncovered, mix for another 30 seconds a low speed just until the flour disappears. Don’t overmix! Add in the chocolate mix briefly.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide in half. Shape each half into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours or up to 3 days.

When ready to back, preheat oven to 325 and line baking sheets with parchment.

Slice 1/2 inch thick rounds off the refrigerated logs. If they crumble apart (and they will), just push them back together. Place on baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake each sheet one at a time for ~ 12 minutes. They won’t exactly look done but they will be, trust Dorie on this! Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack until just warm. EAT EAT EAT!

Cottage Cheese Pufflets

{ June 19, 2010 @ 8:58 pm } · { Miscellany }
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Giveaway from Whisk for a KitchenAid hand mixer and cookbook set! Yay!

So that’s it. Third year’s over. Simultaneously, my head just said both “already?” and “took long enough.” Does that every happen to you?

It was the first year of the rest of my clinical life. It was my first real exposure to the inner workings of a hospital. To the fine balance between the relationships between patients, doctors, nurses, therapists of all sorts, and social workers that ultimately determines outcomes, to the healthcare pitfalls in America. It was also my first chance to take something I had read about for years and apply my knowledge. To listen to a heart and hear a murmur and know deep within me that I actually hear it instead of just nodding along to an attending’s suggestion that one may be present. To spend time with a patient, figure out what’s going on, make suggestions to get to the bottom of it, treat, and see results. To feel as sense of responsibility for patients and in their care.

And now, at the end of a full year of surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, ob/gyn, psychiatry, and family practice, I feel learned, matured, and TIRED.

VERY tired.

We have two weeks between third and fourth year, one of which is filled with classes at school but no required studying and one full week free. I’m ecstatic.

First order of business: Party. Check. Had one last night, made a very quick version of what ended up tasting like strawberry toaster strudel (read: puff pastry layered with strawberries, sweet cream made of cream cheese, whipped cream, and condensed milk, and a strawberry syrup of sugar, water, strawberry gelatin, and perhaps a splash of vanilla).

Second order of business: Bake. Check. Made these cottage cheese pockets of goodness. ‘Twas one of the best ideas I’ve ever had. Even though I had to wait a night and it was a two-part event.

Third order of business: Eat. Between me and Boy, we ate the entire (half) batch in an evening. I had originally intended to bring a dozen or so to my resident who is living a lowly existence of night float.. but given the circumstances (read: there are no more puffs), I will have to think of something else. Small price to pay for a stomach full of these bundles of joy.

Cottage Cheese Pufflets
adapted from Dorie’s Baking from My Home to Yours

This half-recipe makes about 30.

Ingredients
1/2 c (1 stick)  unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tbsp sugar
pinch salt
4 oz cottage cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 c + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
¼ cup thick preserves, marmalade or jam [I used blackberry preserves.]
Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting, optional

Instructions
Cream butter and sugar together. [Dorie says to use a food processor. I just used my hand mixer.] Add cottage cheese and vanilla and mix some more until velvety and it looks like whipped cream cheese. Add the flour and pulse/mix just until blended.

Wrap dough and refrigerate anywhere from 3 hours to 3 days. [I spread it out in a freezer-sized plastic bag which made it easier to roll out later.] You can also freeze the dough for up to 2 months and defrost it, wrapped, overnight in the refrigerator if you so desire

For baking, preheat oven to 400F and line two baking sheets with parchment/silicone mats.

I suggest you roll the dough out between sheets of wax paper as it is very very sticky! Working with one half at a time, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch in thickness, preferably in a rectangular or square shape. If the dough gets too soft, stick it back in the fridge for a bit. Cut the rolled-out dough into 2-3 inch squares, dab on a tiny bit of jam, fold over, and seal the edges. Line up your little pufflets about 1/2 inch apart on the baking sheets. Poke a hole in the center of each as a steam vent. You can also flash-freeze the pufflets at this point in time and then bake them straight from the freezer at a later date with 2 extra minutes added on.

Bake each sheet for 10-12 minutes. Let cool a bit before eating as the jam inside is hot hot hot!

Perfection.

- Sharlene, MS4 (previously, MS3)

    Cottage Cheese Pufflets
    recipe courtesy of Dorie Greenspan’s BFMHTY *
    1 c unsalted butter, room temperature
    2 T sugar
    1/4 t salt
    8 oz cottage cheese
    1 t vanilla
    1 2/3 c flour
    1/4 c jam or fruit preserves
    powdered sugar for dusting
    1. Blend the butter, sugar and salt in a food processor until creamy. Add the cottage cheese and vanilla. Process another 2 minutes until the mixture is the consistency of whipped cream cheese. Add the flour and pulse until dough forms.
    2. Dump dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Shape into a rectangle, wrap and refrigerate at least 3 hours.
    3. Preheat oven to 400.** Roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut the dough into 2 x 2 inch squares (I used a circle cookie cutter because it was easier). Add a dab of jam to each square, slightly off center. Fold opposite corners together to form a triangle. Seal edges and poke a minute steam hole in the top.
    4. Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and dust with powdered sugar once they’ve cooled a bit.

Raspberry Meringue Bars

{ March 31, 2010 @ 1:00 pm } · { Bars }
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What’s my favorite fruit?

Funny you should ask because I have two. Peaches for fresh or stand-alone fruit. Raspberries for baked goods or to pair with chocolate.

The peach story is actually a nice one. I studied abroad for a summer in college once. Madrid, Spain. I lived with a host familia who were awesome. The mom was stay-at-home and made the best Tortilla de Espana (how do I get the tilda over the n?) I will ever eat. If you’re not sure aforementioned dish is, read on! It’s a potato omelet which sounds plain but somehow it’s this buttery melt-in-your-mouth bite and you’d swear there was cheese or some other form of fatty goodness but no such thing. One of these days I’ll work up the nerve to try and make one but for now, even years later, I’d rather cherish the memories of that Tortilla. (I’ve had others in restaurants and tapas bars both stateside and in Spain — Not the same. Not by a longshot.) Anyway, she was awesome also because every day I’d come home from school at 2 or 3 in the afternoon and she’d say (in Spanish obviously), “Will you be taking a nap? When do you want me to wake you?” BLESS YOU, WOMAN! Yes! I think I will take a nap! Thank you for asking! She also did my laundry and didn’t bat an eye if I told her I was going out to dinner. Can you tell I adored her?

Moving on.. The dad was a musician and had a little music studio in the apartment with all this electric stuff, knobs, dials, and sliding things included. The two daughters were grown and one had moved out. The other was studying to become an English teacher (go figure) but she wasn’t around much either.

Back to the peach thing. Every morning I was left to my own devices on what to do about breakfast and lunch. The fridge was always stocked with cheeses, meats, and breads for lunch so I just made myself a little sandwich while I made breakfast: toast and peach jam. Every day. Toast and peach jam. I was in love! Why hadn’t I ever had peach jam before? And for a long time after returning from Spain I couldn’t stand the idea of any other kind of jam besides peach on my toast. This led to a lot of toast-less meals at the diner. I’ve since moved on but still buy peach jam every once in awhile and I’m taken back to that little apartment off the Estrecho metro stop on the yellow line in Madrid.

Unfortunately, this story isn’t really relevant since this recipe called for raspberries. (Wasn’t it a nice story though?) But really, raspberries are my favorite fruit to bake with because they always lend a bit of tartness that perfectly complements the sweetness of chocolate. I instantly knew I needed to bake these the moment I laid eyes on them. They’re actually called “White Chocolate Brownies” but the white chocolate flavor is barely, if at all, noticeable and they’re not brown in the least so I’ve renamed them appropriately. Despite the lack of a pronounced white chocolate flavor, however, these bars are delicious. Scrumptious. Finger-lickin’ good.

Boy agreed.

Dorie’s Raspberry Meringue Bars
adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours, Dorie Greenspan


Ingredients
For the brownies:
2/3 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c almond flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
4 oz white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 c sugar
2 tsp grated orange zest
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 c fresh raspberries

For the meringue:
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
1/2 c sugar

Instructions

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 325F.

Butter a 9×13-inch pan and line the bottom with parchment or foil. Put the pan on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour, almond flour, and salt.

Melt the butter and chopped chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, stirring frequently until the ingredients are just melted. Be very careful as white chocolate quickly separates when it gets too hot! Remove the bowl from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and aromatic. Add the eggs and beat with a hand or stand mixer on medium-high for about 3 minutes or until pale and foamy. Add vanilla. On low, mix in the dry ingredients just until they disappear. Pour into pan and add a layer of raspberries (they’ll likely sink). Set aside to make the meringue.

In a clean mixer bowl with clean whisk attachments for a hand or stand mixer, beat the egg whites and salt on medium until foamy and just opaque. Increase the speed to medium-high and add the sugar in a slow, steady stream. Whip the whites until firm but glossy peaks. Spread over top of the batter.

Bake 30-35 minutes according to Dorie but this took much longer for me to set, more like 45-50 minutes in my opinion. The meringue should be browned and crackly. Cool to room temperature in the pan.

For serving, Dorie suggests you cover a cooling rack with a piece of parchment or wax paper, dust with confectioners’ sugar and gently turn the pan out. Take care not to squish the meringue! Peel away the lining and invert onto a cutting board. She suggests 32 bars.

Love it!

- Sharlene

Cocoa Almond Meringues

{ March 23, 2010 @ 7:21 pm } · { Chocolate, Cookies }
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Spring has sprung in New Jersey!

To celebrate, I made my first ice cream purchase of the year. Neapolitan was the lucky flavor. Boy loves Neapolitan.

Way back when- as in, beginning of second year of medical school- we instituted this policy of dinner on Tuesday nights. Boy would go off to the gym around 8.30 every Tuesday (as well as other days.. don’t want you to think he’s a one-time-a-week gymming kinda guy) and in an effort to see him more often (we weren’t REALLY dating yet) I offered to make him dinner and have it on the table by 6 so that his belly could rest up before exercising. And every Tuesday we did just that. Even when we became official. When was that, you ask? No one knows. We have no anniversary date. It sort of just.. happened.

But then third year sort of just happened and Tuesday night dinners fell apart. I had no time to cook (and I was not home by 6 half the time let alone have time to cook a meal by then). And he stopped going to the gym at the same time every week. So no more Tuesday night dinners. Until last week. I happened to have the afternoon off (yippee skippee!!) so I offered to make dinner and he agreed. I settled on these meringues by Dorie to accompany the ice cream I already knew I wanted to buy since the weather had warmed up a bit. (Also, I decided to make dessert POST-trip to the store and happened to have all these ingredients on hand. Sweet!) Big hit. The fluffy and crunchy meringues went really well with the different flavors of smooth, silky ice cream. We’ve been eating bowls of the stuff all week.

And have been running every other day.

Win/win.

Cocoa Almond Meringues
adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours, Dorie Greenspan

Makes about 30.

Ingredients
1 c confectioners’ sugar, plus extra for dusting
1/3 c almond flour
1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
4 egg whites, at room temperature
pinch of salt
1/2 c sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c finely chopped bittersweet chocolate [I used 3 squares of a bittersweet Ghirardelli baking bar]

Instructions
Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 300F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Sift confectioners’ sugar, ground almonds and cocoa. Set aside.

Using a hand mixer or stand with whisk attachment, whip the egg whites and salt until the whites are opaque. Increase to medium-high speed and continue to whip while adding the granulated sugar 1 tbsp at a time. Whip until stiff peaks form but they are still shiny/glossy. Beat in vanilla extract.

Remove bowl from mixer and gently fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the chopped chocolate, with a large rubber spatula. The whites will inevitably deflate a bit, but fold quickly and gently to minimize this.

Drop the batter by tablespoonfuls onto your prepared baking sheets spacing them about 2 inches apart. Dust the tops lightly with confectioners’ sugar.

Bake at 300F for 10 minutes, then, without opening the oven door, lower the temperature to 200F and bake for 1 hour more. Remove from oven and allow meringues to cool completely on the baking sheet. Carefully peel meringues off the parchment.

Con helado, por favor. (With ice cream, please.) Perfect springtime dessert!

- Sharlene

Mint Cream Puffs

{ March 3, 2010 @ 2:00 pm } · { Miscellany }
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Valentine’s Day has never really been my “thing.” But it hasn’t really been “not my thing” either. It’s a teeny tiny itty bitty version of Christmas in my opinion. One of those days where, to an extent, you can feel the love in the air (or at least the version of love wherein the guy likes the girl so much he’s willing to pay for an overpriced dinner just so she doesn’t get mad at him). I usually like that feeling.

This year, I wanted to do something. With the busy lives we lead any excuse to have a date night of sorts (studying in the same place does not, to me, constitute a date) sounds like a good idea. We contemplated going out to dinner. NYC Restaurant Week had been extended and we had wanted to go in the first place but did we really feel like making the hike into the city after just going in two days prior? And did we have the funds (Boy keeps reminding me that we’re in a recession)? We contemplated a movie. You don’t want to see Valentine’s Day.. right? Clearly, Boy was not wanting to watch the star-studded flick (I wasn’t set on it but I wouldn’t have minded either). So we settled on making dinner. On the menu was the Pioneer Woman’s lasagna and I (obviously) offered to make dessert. I was going to my parents’ house the day before and I love any excuse to use my mom’s stand mixer (note to Boy: HINT HINT).

This is what I came up with. Peppermint cream puffs sounded like a high end after-dinner mint to me and they seemed perfect for a “romantic” night in. They were. (However, we ate most of them while waiting for the lasagna to cook since we were starving and then stuffed ourselves silly with the lasagna and didn’t eat any more puffs after that.. But I’m sure they’re a perfect ending to a perfect meal!)

Peppermint Cream Puffs

adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours

Note: The original recipe was meant to be piped in a ring but I was more in the mood for little individual mouthfuls of joy. I also opted not to make the glaze out of sheer laziness but check out the book if rings and glazes are your cup of tea!

Ingredients

Pastry (the “puff”)
1/2 c water
1/2 c whole milk
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 c all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

Cream (the “cream”)
1 2/3 c heavy cream
40 fresh mint leaves
6 tbsp sugar
1/2 c sour cream (or creme fraiche), cold
peppermint extract, optional [didn't use]

Garnish
 chocolate for melting and dipping

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425F.

Cream:


Bring 1 1/3 cups cream and the mint leaves to a boil in a medium saucepan. Pull the pan from the heat, cover and let steep for an hour, then pour into a bowl and refrigerate until cold, about 3 hours.

Strain the cream into a measuring cup and add as much additional chilled cream as needed to measure 1 1/3 cups. Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a medium bowl, whip the cream and 1/4 cup of the sugar until the cream holds firm peaks. Stir the remaining 2 tbsp of the sugar into the sour cream/creme fraiche and, using a rubber spatula, gently fold the sour cream into the whipped cream. Taste the cream, and if you’d like a stronger mint flavor, add a drop or two of extract.

Puff:


Bring the water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the flour all at once and mix it in with a wooden spoon, then keep stirring energetically [REALLY FAST] until the dough comes together in a shiny mass. the bottom of the pan will be covered with a thin film of flour. Cook the dough for another minute or two, stirring constantly, then transfer the hot dough to the bowl of a stand mixer or another large bowl.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat in 3 of the eggs one at a time, beating until each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Whisk the remaining egg in a small bowl and very gradually add enough of the beaten egg to form a dough that is thick, shiny, and silky.

Spoon the warm dough into a pastry bag [or Ziploc] and pipe puffs. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375F and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until they are puffed, brown, and firm.

Assembly:
Use a serrated knife and a very gentle sawing motion to slice off the top of the puffs.

Spoon the mint cream into a clean pastry bag [or ziploc] and pipe cream onto puff bases. Place tops on.

Melt some chocolate in a bowl over boiling water and dip/spread/decorate over tops however which way you please.

Eat day of and you’ll be super happy. Also, the mint cream goes with tons of things (see: green tea cupcake recipe to come!) so keep it in your arsenal of.. things that will impress people.

Enjoy!

- Sharlene

Tiramisu Cupcakes

{ February 11, 2010 @ 2:57 pm } · { Cupcakes }
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Sometime last year when I started getting on the cupcake bandwagon, Boy asked me for Tiramisu Cupcakes. (Did he know these existed? Was he trying to send me on an impossible adventure so I’d stop bugging him for ideas? Does he just like pronouncing the word tier-uh-MEE-su? Who knows.) Months later, I came across this recipe and HAD to make them. He gobbled them up, as did friends in Philadelphia we visited later that day.

They’re delicious.

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from i♥cuppycakes
[who adapted it from  Baking: From My Home To Yours, Dorie Greenspan]

Makes 20.

Ingredients

2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
10 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk [I used 2% milk I had in the fridge, just under 3/4 cup and then topped it off with white vinegar.]

Espresso extract:
2 tbsp instant espresso powder
2 tbsp boiling water

Espresso syrup:
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp Kahlua

Frosting:
8 oz mascarpone [look for this in the specialty cheese area, usually by the mozzarella]
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp Kahlua
1/2 cup cold cream [original called for 1 cup but i♥cuppycakes indicated that she liked the frosting better before the whipped cream so I halved it to increase the volume of the frosting but keep the mascarpone flava]

Decor
finely chopped chocolate
cocoa powder

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cake:

Sift cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

With a hand/stand mixer, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar and mix to combine. Add eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition. Add vanilla.

Gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture. Mix until flour is just incorporated into batter.

Fill cupcake liners about 1/2-2/3 full and bake ~17-20 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

While the cupcakes are baking, assemble the rest of the fun stuff!

Espresso extract:
Stir espresso powder and boiling water together until blended.

Espresso syrup:
In a small saucepan, combine water and sugar together and bring just to a boil. Pour syrup into small bowl and stir in 1 tbsp of espresso extract and add Kahlua.

Frosting:
Combine the mascarpone, sugar, vanilla and Kahlua in a large bowl and whisk until smooth. Whip the heavy cream until it hold stiff peaks in a separate bowl. Using a spatula, stir in about 1/4 of whipped cream into mascarpone mixture. Fold in the rest of the whipped cream with a soft touch. Add espresso syrup to frosting to taste. (If frosting is too soft to pipe, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes or until frosting is good to go.)

Final product:
Poke holes in cupcakes with a toothpick. Spoon about 1-2 tsp of espresso syrup over each cupcake. (Do this slowly to let it soak in before adding more lest you get syrup all over the place.) Frost and top with cocoa powder and chopped chocolate.

Yummy!!

- Sharlene

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