Sunday, January 23, 2011

Kisses for Cupcakes!

On Thursday, as I finished preparing ingredients for the meal I was cooking for friends the following night,   (chopping, cooking beans, etc.), I checked to see if I could do anything in advance for the dessert I was making. I opened up the cookbook, and realized I was missing a few key ingredients, namely cream cheese. Since I refused to go out to buy ingredients, I looked for something else that might suit.

Since I'd been jonesing for chocolate lately, this recipe for Brownie Kiss Cupcakes (recipe and photo from Taste of Home) caught my eye. I had all the ingredients on hand, so I was good to go. I mixed everything up but the baking powder that night (it was a VERY thick batter) and put it in the fridge. The next day, I mixed in the baking powder, put them in muffin tins and plopped in the left over Christmas Hershey's Kisses, and put them in the oven. As I was making Mexican Bean & Barley soup, I kept trying to smell the soup to see if it needed anything additional, but all I could smell was the brownie cupcakes, and they smelled amazing! They turned out that way too :-) Dense and chocolatey from all the cocoa, with a nice melty chocolate kiss in the middle for fun as well! Next time you need a chocolate break, this is the ticket!

Brownie Kiss Cupcakes


1/3 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. baking powder
9 Hershey's Kisses, unwrapped

Cream butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together. In separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Combine both mixtures. Fill greased muffin tin (or use muffin papers) with batter, about 2/3 full. Place an inverted Hershey's Kiss into the top of the batter of each cupcake. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until the top springs back when lightly touched.



Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Creamy + Puffy = Cream Puffs!

As a kid, my health-conscious mom had a food pyramid posted on the fridge at some point. My "I've been working up a farmer's appetite in the field all day" dad added his own base to the pyramid. Under the original base of grains on the old food pyramid, he had penciled in the most important category that had apparently been inadvertently left off of the list: the Donuts, Pancakes, and Cream Puffs category. :-) Cream puffs are one of Dad's favorite desserts, and therefore something we had occasionally as a treat and something I learned to make.

I didn't think this was anything unusual until I began making them for friends after I got out of college. I got rave reviews, and people thought they were so impressive! Even better, they're SO easy with Grandma's recipe, with just 4 ingredients. Hence, when my friend Steve decided it was time to learn to bake, he wanted to learn to make cream puffs. So, tonight, he made them while I "supervised." They turned out marvelously!

Here's Grandma's recipe:

Cream Puffs


1 c. water
1/2 c. butter
1 c. sifted flour
4 eggs
(pinch of salt, optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat water and butter in medium saucepan until boiling. Stir in flour. Keep on burner, stirring constantly until mixture forms a ball (about 1 1/2 minutes). Remove from heat. Cool 5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time until smooth and velvety. Drop from spoon onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake until they appear dry, about 30-35 minutes. Cool. Store in dry place so they don't get soggy. Cut in half. Fill with pudding, whipped cream, or a combination. Best eaten fresh. Yield: 8 large or 12 small puffs.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Love me some Colbert!

That Stephen Colbert. I'm pretty sure he is the definition of sarcasm and irony (and my parents will verify that I know a thing or 2 about sarcasm, particularly around age 14). Check out this clip from an episode in which he back-handedly describes why some politicians have no familiarity with the life of Jesus and how he told us to help the poor. Enjoy the satire :-)




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