Truffle Tarts with Raspberry

Hello Sprinkle Lovers!! We have quite a treat for you.  It seems that we have a birthday to celebrate every week, but I guess that’s what happens on a team of 40 girls.  Anyhow, happy 21^st Felice, we love you.  For this very special event we ventured to make our most intricate dessert yet.  ­­­­­Truffle Tarts with Raspberry, let me just tell you, these are DELICIOUS!  This beauty is a bit time consuming so leave yourself a while, or do what we did and make them the night before you need them.  Ariel found this recipe on www.foodnetwork.com and I quickly approved it as the treat of the night.  Make the truffle mixture first, seeing as it must sit for an hour before you can add them to the Oreo crust.

Dark Chocolate Truffles:

Ingredients

·         1/2 cup heavy cream

·         8 ounces good-quality (70 percent) bittersweet chocolate, chopped

·         1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

·         1 cup cocoa powder, for dusting

Directions

In a saucepan, bring the cream just to a simmer over low heat. Pour the cream over the chocolate in a bowl and let stand about 10 minutes to melt the chocolate. Add the vanilla and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool for 1 hour at room temperature.  Make the Oreo crust at this time.

Oreo Crust

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups fine chocolate wafer crumbs (from Oreo cookies or chocolate wafers)
• 6 tablespoons melted butter
• 6 fresh raspberries, plus extra for serving

Directions

Use a fork to mix together the chocolate wafer crumbs and butter. Spray the cups of a 6-muffin tin with a vegetable spray. Line the cups with strips of parchment or waxed paper, cut so that they are as wide as the diameter of each cup and long enough to overhang the sides (you'll need this overhang to remove the tarts). Use the bottom of a small glass to press the crumbs over the bottom and sides of the muffin cups, building the sides up to only about 1 1/2 inches. Place a raspberry in the center of each crust.

At this time you should beat the chocolate at medium speed until it gets thick and light colored. With a pastry bag or small plastic bag with the corner snipped off, fill the tarts with the truffle mixture. Smooth the tops and refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.

Instead of using parchment paper, we used the paper cupcake liners.  When you remove the liners it leaves a bumpy print on the crust which looks really cute.  Also, instead of making all of the tarts in a regular sized cupcake pan, we made several in the mini pan and cup the raspberries for the middle in half.  The tarts are very delicious, but extremely rich, so we would recommend making all of them in the mini sized pan.  We also chose not to smooth the top of the truffle before refrigerating it because we liked the way the swirled top looked.  Seriously though, you have to make these because I really cannot stress enough how good they are!!!

Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Frosting

Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Frosting

Yesterday morning our teammate Shannon asked if we were interested in baking with bananas this weekend because she had several that were getting quite brown.  Of course we jumped at the opportunity and decided to attempt a recipe we had seen on marthastewart.com.  We were eager to do this healthier alternative to traditional cupcakes keeping our strength coach, Lew, in mind.   We love to bring our baked creations to the varsity weight room on campus and pass them out to the guys who work there.  Lew is losing weight for a competition so he is not eating many sweet things, so when we told him that we were using bananas today he was very excited!  The only problem with baking this morning was class; we were on a time crunch so everything needed to run smoothly and efficiently.

Banana Cupcakes

Ingredients

Makes 12

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas), plus 1 whole banana, for garnish (optional)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not overmix). Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups.
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack. Spread tops with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting. Just before serving, peel and slice banana into rounds, and place one on each cupcake, if desired.

Honey Cinnamon Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat confectioners' sugar, unsalted butter, honey, and ground cinnamon until smooth, 4 to 5 minutes

We decided to double the recipe.  When mixing our cupcake batter, I thought that it would be a good idea to throw a few handfuls of walnuts into the mix, because everyone loves walnuts in banana bread! 

After we filled our regular sized cupcake tins, we realized we still had a substantial amount of batter left over.  Because our teammates have been so supportive of our blogging endeavors we buttered and floured a pan of mini cupcakes to pass out after our practice tonight. 

The bananas and butter smelled wonderful and 25 minutes later they came out of the oven a beautiful golden brown.  When beginning to craft our frosting, we realized that we had used all of our butter, an embarrassing novice mistake.  In a desperate attempt to find 2 sticks of butter we contacted all of our friends in Ariel’s apartment building.  Unfortunately everyone was at class or sleeping, so our only option was to run a few blocks to a small convenience store.  We ran down the streets of Ann Arbor in sweat pants and flip flops carrying butter and looking completely ridiculous.  Luckily by the time we made it back to the apartment, the cupcakes had cooled and were ready to be lathered in frosting!

The Honey Cinnamon Frosting held the sweetest most magnificent flavors I have ever tasted.  The butter and honey complimented one another and the cinnamon added a subtle touch.  When combined with the banana walnut of the cupcake it was blissful. 

Rocky Road Brownies

Brownie batter from scratch, marshmallows, Trader Joe's chocolate chips, and nuts - honestly, what could be better?  I came home today to find brownies and cupcakes scattered around the kitchen, compliments of my lovely roommate Jen.  Needless to say I did not get one bite of her tasty delights as she took them away shortly after my return.  Withdrawals setting in, I was craving some type of homemade treat so I searched the internet for something I could whip up with what was in the kitchen.  My first thought was "Trader Joe" chocolate chips, my sister introduced me to them on her last visit and I have forever fallen in love and deemed them my personal favorite chips to use.  That's when I came across 'Rocky Road Brownies,' on Hershey's website (ingredients below).  Rummaging through the kitchen I found everything I needed and got set to work.

• 1-1/4 cups miniature marshmallows
• 1 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips or HERSHEY'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (Trader Joe's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips in my version)
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

This was not a very tricky recipe to make as I was finished preparing the batter in ohh about 5 minutes.  Due to the lack of baking pans in our kitchen (shocking I know), I had to improvise and use a bread pan for the brownies which tacks on at least an extra ten minutes to the already grueling 22 minutes the brownies have to be in the 350 degree oven.  I sit here in anticipation, waiting for the brownies to cook so I can drizzle the chocolate chips, marshmallows, and nuts on top and put them back in the oven to watch the marshmallows slowly warm and puff up.
Once the brownies were a little less jiggly, I pulled them out and covered them with the chocolate chip mix - 5 more minutes in the oven and then just the time it takes to semi-cool and I can feed my craving of sweets.  This blog may be trouble for me - I feel pressured to bake more in order to post more blogs... yikes, we're going to have to put a little restriction on our baking per week. 

The marshmallows seemed to take over the topping, but I don't mind one bit.  I must say between this recipe of brownies from scratch and one of our previous cupcake creations from scratch (post to come soon!), I am forever sold on baking from scratch and going to try extremely hard to not buy packages for baking. (Unless absolutely necessary for certain creations).  Below if a picture of a sliver of the brownies which turned out spectacular to me.  The rich moisture from the scratch brownie batter, melted chocolate chips, and slightly toasted marshmallow put together a tremendous combination of flavors and textures.  Can't wait to share them :)

Wish you were here Liv :)

Family Apple Sauce

As promised we used our abundance of apples.  I called my Grandpap and he gave us the recipe that he and my grandma used to use all the time to make the world’s best apple sauce.  We began with 15 medium sized red apples, but you can use as many and whatever variety your little heart desires.  We cored, peeled, and chopped the apples into approximately thumb sized pieces.  Just make sure they are all the same size so they cook evenly.  Put the chopped apples into a larger sauce pan and fill with a few cups of water, until the apples are about ¾ covered.  Place the sauce pan on the stove top and turn it to medium heat. 

 You want the water to begin to boil and break the apples down; if you feel that the mixture is getting too thick add a little more water.  As my Grandpap says, this is a feeling process not a measuring process.  Once the apples have broken down and softened a bit add some sugar and cinnamon, once again this is done to your liking.  I would recommend that you do not use less than a half cup of sugar.  Once the apple sauce is thick and relatively smooth it is done.  Remove it from the heat and cool before serving.  Enjoy our family tradition!!

Apple Cider Streusel Muffins

It is a Monday afternoon; practice has been canceled for the day because we had a race against OSU this past weekend, so what better way to fill our extra time than creating some sort of fall delight.  This afternoon we have decided to make apple cider streusel muffins.  This idea came to us as we traveled home from Columbus last night.  We were handed a large bag of red delicious apples and couldn’t help but think that a soul warming apple flavor was in order.  Unfortunately when looking for a recipe to fit our needs we could not find anything striking our fancy.  We decided to go with the apple inspiration without using actual apples.  (We will be using the apples for something else, don’t you fret.)  We found a recipe titled Apple Cider Streusel Muffins on foodnetwork.com. 

Ingredients

Streusel:

• 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts (optional)

Muffins:

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup apple butter, such as Smucker’s
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup apple cider
• 1/3 cup low-fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup canola oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.

To prepare streusel: Mix brown sugar, whole-wheat flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in walnuts, if using.

To prepare muffins: Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl.

Whisk egg and brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in apple butter, syrup, cider, yogurt and oil. Make a well in the dry ingredients; add the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups (they’ll be quite full). Sprinkle with the streusel.

Bake the muffins until the tops are golden brown and spring back when touched lightly, 15 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen edges and turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

We decided to double this recipe because let’s be honest who only wants 12 muffins?  We also decided to use Trader Joe’s Cranberry Apple Butter instead of plain apple butter.  As the muffins baked they filled the apartment with the most excellent aroma of warm apples and butter.  Once they were finished, we let them set in the pan for about 5 minutes and then removed them.  The muffins had excellent flavor, but lacked a little bit of moisture.  We would recommend eating them warm with some butter or yogurt smeared in the middle.  Next time we want to intermix walnuts and apple chunks into the muffin batter to increase the moisture within. 

First Post!!

This an accurate account of the baking adventures of two girls who love to spend their free time bouncing around the kitchen.  In between classes, studying, and varsity rowing practice at the University of Michigan my friend Ariel and I enjoy baking and crafting different types of desserts.  We find it to be a release from all the stresses and pressures of college.  Now, while I mentioned that we enjoy baking many different things, let me make it clear that our main source of joy is cupcakes and thus will be our primary focus.  We have not yet ventured to create our own, so for now we will be borrowing recipes and ideas from several different books, and sharing our experiences.  We hope that from reading about our successes and failures you will also enjoy being in your kitchen!