Happy Christmas!: Caramel Cup Cookies

Happy Christmas and happy holidays to all my friends and followers. I hope you spend these days, surrounded by those

whom you hold dear, with tables ladened with delicious foods and drinks.

I know I've been remiss in posting my kitchen adventures these past few weeks. Lots of things have kept me busy...and out of the kitchen. I hope to get back into the swing of things in the new year...but until then, I have but a plate of caramel cup cookies to offer you and Santa.

These cookies are baked in two-bite or mini muffin tins and the end result is a cookie-encased caramel cup, kissed with whisky (What? Given all the busy-ness of the season, a little extra, hidden Christmas cheer is never a bad thing).

Caramel Cup Cookies

Yield: 24

Ingredients

125g (225ml/ 1c less 1Tbsp and 2tsp) all purpose flour

0.25tsp (1.25ml) salt

0.5tsp (2.5ml) bicarbonate of soda

110g (125ml/0.5c) softened butter

100g (125ml/0.5c) brown sugar

1 egg

0.5tsp (2.5ml) vanilla extract

Splash of whisky (optional)

24 mini caramel cups, denuded of papers and set in the freezer for at least 15 minutes

Method

Preheat oven to 190C/375F.

Sift together flour and bicarb. Set aside

Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Incorporate vanilla, salt and egg. Add flour mixture and mix well.

Divide the batter into 24 equal portions--approximately the size of a chestnut. Roll into balls and plop one into each of the 24 mini bun pans.

Bake for about 10 minutes. The edges will be golden, but the centres will be this side of anemic.

Immediately after you take the tray out of the oven, spritz or dribble the whisky into each cookie before shoving a frozen caramel cup into the centre of each hot cookie.

Let cool in the pan before popping out.

cheers!

jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

22 Years on...

...and not forgotten

Geneviève Bergeron
Helene Colgan
Nathalie Croteau
Barbara Daigneault
Anne-Marie Edward
Maud Haviernick
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz
Maryse Laganière
Maryse Leclair
Anne-Marie Lemay
Sonia Pelletier
Michèle Richard
Annie St-Arneault
Annie Turcotte

22 years later, women are still a target for violence

cheers!

jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

Happy Hallowe'en: Chocochocochip pumpkin cupcakes with orange cream cheese icing

Happy Hallowe'en to all ghosties and ghoulies, big and little alike.

Regardless of what you think of the day and how it's evolved into from its long-past roots, I think it's a day where we can have a little fun, let our alter egos become our real egos and...of course...eat chocolates and cakes and cookies.

As if I need an excuse to eat chocolate and cakes and cookies.

As if I need an excuse to wear my tiara...or my red sequinned devil horns...or my bumblebee wings.

I thought of doing something on the spooky side like these witch finger cookies but I really couldn't think of anything truly gross or spine tingling to make.

Since it's autumn, and I can't let an unopened can of pumpkin puree remain unopened...and it seems my chocolate tooth has come back in full force. I was highly unimaginative and resorted to a cupcake default. Double chocolate pumpkin cupcakes, to be precise.

My screen flickered with several recipes for chocolate sour cream cakes and chocolate pumpkin cakes, and from those I came up with this one.

I think it's a rather deceptive little cupcake. On the surface it looks like a chocolate cupcake. Then you bite into it and the pumpkin with its spices add warm and earthy notes to their chocolate partner. Then you get an extra burst of chocolate from the studs of chocolate chips that lie within.

I don't think these cupcakes need icing, but I whipped up some orange cream cheese icing and swooshed a little on top of the cooled cakes.

Double Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes
Yield: 24
Inspired by recipes by Anna Olson, allrecipes.com, Country Living, Adventures in Cooking, and Life's Ambrosia

Ingredients
100ml (0.33c + 1Tbsp) sour cream
90g (100ml/0.33c + 1Tbsp) pureed pumpkin
55g (155ml/0.5c+2Tbsp) cocoa
125ml (0.5c) boiling water
0.25tsp (1.25ml) ground allspice
0.25tsp (1.25ml) ground cloves
0.25tsp (1.25ml) ground cardamom
0.25tsp (1.25ml) salt
260g (500ml/2c) cake flour
1tsp (5ml) bicarbonate of soda
0.25tsp (1.25ml) baking powder
60ml (0.25c) flavourless oil
55g (60ml/0.25c/4Tbsp) softened butter
100g (125ml/0.5c) brown sugar
200g (250ml/1c) white sugar
2 eggs
180g (250ml/1c) semisweet chocolate chips

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line two 12-bowled muffin trays with papers.

Mix together the sour cream, pumpkin, cocoa, boiling water, spices and salt. Set aside to cool slightly.

Sift together the flour, bicarb and baking powder. Set aside.

Combine the oil and butter and mix well. Tip in both sugars and beat for a few minutes, until light and fluffy. Incorporate eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions. Scrape down the bowl

Add the dry and wet ingredients in the usual alternating way (dry-wet-dry-wet-dry), again scraping the bowl down between each addition. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Divide equally between the papered bowls. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out relatively cleanly, with a few crumbs clinging to the wood.

Allow to cool completely before icing.

Notes:

- Don't use pumpkin pie filling

- If you want, you can play with the spicing--take away some or add cinnamon or nutmeg

Orange Cream Cheese Icing
Adapted from The Sweet Melissa baking Book (Carrot Cake with Fresh Orange Cream Cheese Frosting).

Ingredients

125g (approx 4oz/0.5 regular container) softened cream cheese
75g (85ml/0.33c/5Tbps +0.5tsp) softened butter
85g (170ml/0.66c) icing sugar, sifted
minced zest of one orange
0.5tsp (2.5ml) vanilla extract

Method
Beat together the cream cheese, butter and zest. If your icing sugar isn't of the mindset to explode into a cloud when introduced to your mixer's beaters, incorporate the sugar in three additions, beating well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla.



cheers!

jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!