CAMPFIRE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

Posted in Cake by sallybr

I cannot take credit for the design, it is from a cookbook I highly recommend: Cupcakes for Any Occasion, by Rachel Lindsay (click here to order it). She used lemon cupcakes for her version, I opted for chocolate, going for a reverse creaming method that is so simple and easy to bake.

CAMPFIRE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
(inspired by Rachel Lindsay)

for 10 cupcakes:
100g all-purpose flour
25g unsweetened cocoa powder
140g white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
50g unsalted butter, room temperature, soft
1 large egg
120ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 + ½ tsp baking powder

for the buttercream:
226g butter, very soft
452g powdered sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream (or more to adjust consistency)
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
6 Oreo cookies, crushed fine
orange, red and yellow food gel coloring
Pretzel sticks (four per cupcake)
mini marshmallows (1 to 2 per cupcake)

Heat oven to 350F. Prepare a muffin type pan with cupcake liners.

Whisk the milk, egg and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Reserve.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt, butter and sugar into the stand mixer
bowl with the paddle attachment. Mix on a medium speed until all the butter looks like small pieces of sand. Add half the milk mixture, mix to incorporate until smooth. Give it a final minute mixing in high-speed. Add the rest of the milk, and whisk until fully smooth.

Add to the lined pan, a little more than half full. These cupcakes rise a lot. Bake until a toothpick comes clean, about 16 minutes. Let cool completely before icing.

Make the buttercream. Whisk the butter in high speed for five minutes. Add half the powdered sugar, mix at medium-speed until fully smooth. Increase speed to high for 30 seconds. Add the other half of the sugar, pinch of salt, vanilla and heavy cream. Whisk in medium to high-speed until smooth. Adjust consistency if needed.

Keep half of the buttercream in the mixer. Add to it the Oreo crumbs. Transfer that to a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Divide the rest of the buttercream (around 110g portions) to smaller bowls. Dye each portion red, yellow and orange. Place them over plastic wrap as straight lines side by side. Make a sausage with that plastic wrap and insert into a piping bag fitted with a medium size leaf tip.

Decorate the cold cupcakes first with “stones”, using the Oreo buttercream. Add “flames”, stick Pretzels to make the decorations, using small marshmallows for additional touch.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I love the way the addition of Oreo cookies make the buttercream perfect to mimic stones. That could come in handy for Halloween designs in the future. I made a little mistake and used Pretzel sticks to insert the marshmallows, but in the cookbook she advises using toothpicks, and they will work a lot better, so keep that in mind if you want to try these. I am so happy with the way they turned out!

One extra bit of advice: when you pipe the “rocks”, smooth the surface with a brush to make them more round and smooth. I did not do that to some of them, and wish I had. Once the buttercream hardens you cannot quite smooth things out.

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1Dec2023

PUMPKIN SHAPED SOFT PRETZEL ROLLS

Posted in Breads by sallybr

The cuteness factor of these is huge! They are adorable and so simple to make that you can plan to bake it with kids. The only messy (and potentially dangerous) part is the mandatory boiling in alkaline water so that you get the right texture and amazing color, but you can take charge of that step and let the kids get involved with all else. The recipe is from Haniela’s blog, she is not only a fantastic cookie artist, but a great cook too…

PUMPKIN SHAPED SOFT PRETZEL ROLLS
(from Haniela’s blog)

for the dough:
1 + 1/2 cup warm water
1tsp honey
1 package dry yeast (2 + 1/4 tsp)

2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour
2 + 1/2 cups (325g) bread flour (divided)
1tbs kosher salt
6tbs melted butter

For the alkaline solution:
5 cups water
1/3 cup baking soda

for brushing the rolls:
egg yolk
1 tbs water
pretzel salt (available here)

cashews (or other nuts) for stems

Pour warm water into the bowl of your mixer, add honey and stir in the yeast. Let stand for 5 minutes, until foamy.

Add 2 cups of all purpose flour, 2 cups (260g) of bread flour, melted butter and salt into the bowl with yeast and knead using the dough hook attachment. If dough is too sticky add additional 1/2 cup (65g) of bread flour. Knead for 5 minutes, or until the dough turns into a smooth ball. Lightly coat a large bowl with oil and put the dough into the bowl.Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for one hour.

Invert the dough onto a clean work surface but do not use any additional flour. Roll the dough into a rectangle and using a knife or pizza cutter cut the dough into squares. The size is not important, just make them very small if you like to have tiny little rolls, or bigger. I divided my dough in about 25 portions. Using both hands, pull the dough together, form a ball from each square.

Bring 5 cups of water to boil, add 1/3 cup baking soda. Stir well until baking soda is dissolved.”Blanch” the pretzel rolls in the baking soda bath for 30 seconds. Remove from the solution onto a tray or bare baking sheet and continue with remaining rolls. Transfer pretzels onto a sheet lined with parchment paper, using kitchen shears, hold pretzel roll in your hand and using shears cut total of 8 cuts through the dough, all around, keeping the center of the roll intact. Then using a wooden spoon handle press deeply into the center of the roll, leaving a small dimple.

Whisk together egg yolk and water, strain through a small sieve. Brush sparingly tops of the pretzel pumpkins, sprinkle with pretzel salt. Bake pretzels at 450F for about 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.
Push a cashew into the center, into the dimple while still warm from the oven.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: The dough is a total pleasure to work with, soft, smooth, and the intense color when it bakes due to the alkalization of the surface is gorgeous. Some of my rolls got only six slits around, make sure you go for eight, it gives a better pumpkin impression. You will need the special salt to get the right pretzel experience, so I recommend you bite the bullet and order some.

A little mustard, a little ham, and that was a super tasty lunch, even after cutting my finger on a sharp ceramic knife…. Clumsy, who, moi?

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11Oct2016

TWO IDEAS FOR HALLOWEEN

Posted in Desserts, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

I made these treats for our Halloween party last year, and waited to blog now, so there’s plenty of time for you to make them in case you are hosting a party, or just feel like sharing something with friends on Halloween week. Very easy and fun. First, Screamingly Cute Chocolate-Covered Pretzels.

They were fun to make, even if slightly messy. But that could very well be operator-error. I am not that skilled when it comes to melted chocolate. You will need a bag of pretzels, melting chocolate (the best kind is this one, according to many sources), and eyeball candy. Sounds scary, right? Well, it’s for Halloween, it must be scary!

Second, even simpler to put together: Witch Brooms. Peanut Butter Cups with a strategically placed Pretzel stick. The flavors all work well together too. Hardest part of making them, is unwrapping the peanut butter cups. Be Zen. And enjoy the moment.

If you make the Screaming Pretzels, handle the eye-ball candy with impeccably clean hands. Any chocolate that gets to the white candy will be hard to clean once you place them on the pretzel. Tweezers help. It will be easier to glue them while the chocolate is not fully set, but then it’s best not to try to re-adjust their position. Work slowly and you’ll get the hang of it. I am sure it will surprise you that I had never had the combo of pretzel with chocolate. It works! It is really a delicious combination, a little crunch, a little salt, a lot of chocolate.