Peanut Butter Cups

I can think of a million uses for "Reese's" peanut butter cups.   One of them?  Crushed in ice cream!!  (Who hasn't gotten a Reese's Blizzard from Dairy Queen at least ONCE in their life?). I have many fond memories of my grandmother who LOVED eating them (not to mention a number of other very close relatives and family friends).

I have been thinking about making these for so long and now I'm really not sure why it took me so long to actually do it!  They're SO simple to make, very tasty, and easy for getting little kids involved.  :)

Why not make your own "Reese's" Peant Butter Cups and toss them on some vanilla ice cream, or just to have as a simple dessert?  Make these as minis to pack in school lunches or to make "thumb print" cookies with!  I'm pretty sure the options are endless!

Peanut Butter Cups

1 bag chocolate chips (use your favorite kind!)
peanut butter (I like to use natural with no-added sugar, but use what you have or prefer to eat!)

Line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners.  In two bowls, divide the chocolate chips into 1/4 of the bag in one bowl and 3/4 of the chocolate chips in the other.  In the microwave, melt the smaller bowl of chocolate chips (just a tip for melting chocolate in the microwave - do it in slow increments, about 30 seconds, then in 15 second segments, mixing the chocolate each time so you don't over melt them and burn the chocolate - it really doesn't taste good if you do!!!).

Pour the chocolate evenly into the bottom of each cupcake liner, just covering the bottoms of each so there is a thick enough later at the bottom.  Allow to harden (you may want to put it in the fridge to harden - this will take about 15 minutes).

Next, spoon about 1 tbs of peanut butter in the center of each cupcake liner, trying your best to leave a little bit of an edge for the chocolate to spill over (to create a sort of "seal").  You may decide that you want even more, so I'll leave that up to you!

Lastly, melt the second bowl of chocolate (the larger one).  Once melted, pour the chocolate over each blob of peanut butter so all the peanut butter is covered.  Allow the chocolate to hard and serve!


Beware!  If you use natural peanut butter, you might want to have a napkin on hand (or a spare sink... it gets really messy, but totally worth the chocolate-peanut "butteryness" that covers everything!)

Chocolate Irish Cream Tart

Our awesome friends, Pierce and Lindsey, invited Nicholas and me over for dinner a couple of nights ago.  As always, I wanted to offer anything I could!  Lindsey at first, via text message suggested we bring a "desert" over, in which I responded, "I don't know if we can manage a whole desert... but we'll certainly bring a dessert of some kind!"  (Sorry, Lindsey, just had to add the humor from the text conversation.  :)  Anna and my mother can both vouch that quite often, I miss a number of things as I'm quickly writing a message!).

So... that big bottle of Irish Cream that I got for St. Patrick's Day (when I found out you can buy alcohol at 10:00am in Texas...) has been sitting in the fridge and asking to be used for quite some time now.  'Another dessert,' I thought!  After searching numerous recipes online and finding things that only called for about a teaspoon or so of Irish cream, recipes that really just sounded awful, or called for a couple of ingredients that I didn't have, and since I didn't have the car at my disposal to get those few items, I was feeling "out of luck."  I finally stumbled upon a rather tasty sounding recipe... a chocolate tart!  Looking over the recipe, I found that I have everything (with the small adjustments I always end up making to a recipe to put my own stamp on it!) except for one thing... sweetened condensed milk...

I must be honest.  I have used sweetened condensed milk a number of times, especially when making a few bar cookie recipes that I LOVE.  But has anyone else ever been grossed out when opening that can?  I started looking for "sweetened condensed milk substitutes" in Google and, to my dismay, continually was finding recipes that called for milk powder.  "Well, that's great... lovely..." another thing I didn't have (and didn't want to own anyway).  I finally narrowed my search by adding "with milk" and came across a great site with a homemade recipe that called for, hold your chair, REAL milk!!!  I can't say I looked around after finding this recipe, www.kitchenstewardship.com got me started on the right track.  I adjusted her recipe a little, as I didn't have white sugar (only brown and powdered - can you tell that I'm using EVERYTHING I can?!) and didn't want to wait the 2+ hours she said it can take (and since I didn't quite HAVE those two hours), I sped the process up a little by whisking much more frequently and on a higher temperature, but came out happy in the end with the result.

And thus was born this chocolate tart!  (Inspired and adjusted from the recipe on Better Crocker - wanted a chocolate crust and a white whip cream topping - the opposite of what the recipe called for).

Chocolate Irish Cream Tart
tart dough
   1/2 cup butter (room temp)
   1 cup flour
   1/4 cup cocoa powder
   2 tbs powdered sugar
   1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400.

Combine dry ingredients together and mix.  Fork butter in until a smooth, firm ball is formed.  This makes a rather unsweet crust, which I thought might be good, since the rest of the dessert was going to be quite sweet.  So if you want to make it a little more "cookie like," then add more sugar to the recipe (about a 1/3 a cup or so, depending on personal taste).

In either a tart pan, spring-form pan, or pie plate, spread dough over the bottom and about 3/4" up the side of the pan, making the crust as even as possible (unless you like a lopsided tart!).  :)

Bake for about 15 minutes.  Remove from oven, and allow to cool while you make the filling.

chocolate Irish cream filling
   1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (for the recipe I used, look below)
   1/3 a cup Irish cream (or heavy cream if you don't want the alcohol)
   1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (melted)
   1/4 cup cocoa powder
   2 eggs

Turn oven down to 350.

If you're using a can of sweetened condensed milk, then heat the chocolate chips either in a double-boiler or in the microwave until smooth.  (If using the microwave, you must be very careful, checking it every 15-20 seconds once it begins to melt, otherwise you'll burn the chocolate chips and they'll taste nasty!  I learned my lesson QUITE early on in life with that one...  Whoops!).  Stir in cocoa powder to the melted chocolate chips.  Add the sweetened condensed milk, Irish cream, and stir.  Once the mixture has cooled down, add in the two eggs (make sure you don't add it while it's too hot, as you probably don't want cooked egg chunks inside your tart!).

Pour batter into crust and return to oven for 15-20 more minutes, or until the center is no longer loose.

Allow tart to cool completely, refrigerating once it has cooled, so the whipped cream won't melt on top!  (This should take about two hours or so).

Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk
   3 cups milk (whole is probably best, but I used 2% as that's what we had)
   1 cup sugar (again, I used brown, but white would be "traditional")
   1/3 cup butter
   2 tsp vanilla

In a sauce pan, combine milk and sugar.  On medium-low (or medium on our stove...), stir mixture so sugar dissolves.  Once the mixture has come to a low boil, turn down heat to low (or simmer if you'd like to wait the full 2+ hours), stirring occasionally so that the milk doesn't burn.  I found a whisk helpful to keep the sugar incorporated.  Make sure you check on the mixture every five minutes or so!

Once the liquid has reduced to about half, check the amount in a measuring cup.  You'll need it to have reduced to about 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups.

At this point, remove from the heat, adding butter and vanilla, and stir until butter has dissolved.

When the mixture was still warm, I melted the chocolate chips inside the sweetened condensed milk I had made and allowed it to cool in the fridge for a short while before I finished making the filling.

Once the mixture was cool enough to add eggs to, in a blended, I poured the milk mixture, added the Irish cream, and cocoa powder and mixed until they blended together.  Remove from the blender and mix eggs in until mixed together.  Pour into tart shell as above and bake and cool as directed.

Irish Cream Whipped Cream
   1 cup heavy cream
   1/4 cup powdered sugar
   2 tbs Irish cream

With a hand or stand mixer, combine ingredients, and beat on medium-high to high speed until peaks begin to form.  Don't over beat, unless you want to spread some sweet Irish cream butter on your bread!

Put on cooled tart and place in fridge until served!

To serve, pour a little more Irish cream over the top, serve with raspberries, chocolate shavings, or whatever might sound tasty on top!  (Or really, you don't need to add much more.  It's pretty rich already!).

Irish Cream Cupcakes

What is St. Patrick's Day without a little bit of Irish flare?  No, they're not exactly green like the last cupcakes we made, but they're still tasty.  :)

Admitidly, Lexi (Alexandra) was a little "bored" after teaching this morning and wanted to do something in honor of this holiday. No, it's certainly not a day in which my family celebrates, but a holiday  is certainly an excuse to make a dessert if any day is!

Irish Cream Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter (room temp)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup Irish Cream (any brand)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350.

In a separate bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together and set aside (flour, cake flour, baking soda, and salt).

Cream butter and sugar together until nice and fluffy.  Add in Irish cream and blend well.  It'll be a nice, smooth texture at this point (and... tasty!  But don't eat too much, otherwise the ratio will be out of whack for the rest of the ingredients!).  Mix eggs and vanilla in and blend. 

Add in the dry ingredients into the wet mixture on low and mix until blended.  Lastly, add in the sour cream and mix.

Place liners in cupcake pans or grease and butter if you'd rather.  Spoon the batter into the holders and fill to almost the top (or about 3/4 of the way full).  This should yield about 18 cupcakes.

Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs.

Let cupcakes cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan and let cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Espresso Frosting
8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
1/2 tsp espresso grounds
4 tsp cocoa powder
2-3 tbs Irish Cream
powdered sugar



Cream the Irish Cream into the cream cheese.  Add espresso grounds and cocoa powder and mix until well incorporated.  Slowly add powdered sugar until desired texture and sweetness.

You may desire a stlightly more intense espresso flavor and decide to add more or even double.  This recipe gives a nice subtle hint of coffee but is not overwhelming.  Also, if you REALLY love frosting, then you might just want to double the whole recipe.  :)

Frost cupcakes!

Early Irish Fest.: Guinness Cupcakes

Cupcake binge?  Cupcake fling?  Cupcake obsession?  We're not sure...  And we're also not sure how long this is going to last, but who cares, right?  As long as they taste good!  And why not make each kind as different as possible?  We already have a few prospective flavors we had to put on the back-burner tonight (due to some failed missions in getting required ingredients, but we won't go into details.  We'll just leave it at... this part of town is not stocked for our high-end taste buds).

Since we're quickly approaching the time of year when little green men, pots of gold, and rainbows are abundant, we thought we'd give a toast to the Irish and make a recipe with the nation's staple food: some good 'ol fashioned Guinness beer!  Can't say either of us enjoy drinking the beer on its own, but baking with this alcohol is a whole new ballgame!  Partially inspired by our lack of Irish Creme and an awesome friend Lindsey who made a tasty Guinness cake a few months back, here is our tribute to the Irish!

We might just even have to enter ourselves on Cupcake Wars...  :)  Is that allowed?

Guinness Cupcake
1 cup Guinness
3/4 cup butter (room temp)
1 cup flour
1 cup cake flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tbs vanilla
2/4 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the flour, cake flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda together and mix.  In a stand mixer, add butter and sugar together and blend until creamed.  Once nice and fluffy, and in the Guinness and mix on low. The texture will look a little funny, but don't be disturbed, that's okay.  Add in the vanilla and eggs and mix.  The batter will still look funny.  :)  Next, mix in the sour cream.  The texture will start to look a little more normal.  Once all incorporated, slowly start to mix in the dry ingredients.  Do not over beat the batter, but make sure all of the dry ingredients are blended in.


Place cupcake liners in the muffin tins and fill about 3/4 of the way (they will look decently full, but shouldn't be spilling over the edge).  This yields about 18 cupcakes.

Bake for 15-16 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.  You want them to be nice and fluffy looking (no over baking!).  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from the pans.



Ganache Filling
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup  half-n-half (or heavy cream)
2 tbs butter
1 tbs Guinness

In a saucepan, add chocolate chips and butter and allow to melt on medium-low, constantly stirring.  Once mixture is almost fully melted, add in the Guinness and the half-n-half (or heavy cream).  Continue to stir until all of the chocolate is melted and the mixture is nice and smooth.  If you want it a little thicker, add more chocolate or less liquid.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, remove the insides of the cupcakes making about a 3/4" hole about 1" deep. It'll be a little crater.  :)  We used the 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon measures, since we don't own a cool to do it for us.

Carefully spoon the ganache filling into the holes!  This should be just enough, with a little extra, depending on how deep and wide you make those holes.  We came out with just a little left over.  We didn't want to overdue the ganache and have a chocolate overload on the inside (just a nice, little surprise!).

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter (room temp)
8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla
green food coloring (optional... but FUN!)
powdered sugar (approx 1 - 1 1/2 cups)

In a stand mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.   Add in vanilla and food coloring (if desired).  Mix until blended and slowly add powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency for your frosting.

Now frost those guys and eat 'em!!!