Sparkling Champagne Cupcakes

Posted by: Maggie

Happy New Year's Eve-Eve everyone! 

I've been wanting to make these cupcakes since seeing them on Heather's blog last December. I loooove champagne, and I love an opportunity to make a holiday themed cupcake even more.

If your New Year's resolution falls into the drink less booze/eat less junk category that so many resolutions do, I recommend making these pronto, while you still have the chance.

What you're looking at here is a vanilla cupcake spiked with champagne, a champagne flavored pastry creme center, and a champagne buttercream. Festive, right?

Here's what you'll need:

For the cupcakes:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup champagne (no need to use the good stuff here...my $4 bottle of Andre worked quite nicely)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line cupcake tins with 17 paper liners. Adjust oven rack to middle position.

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, stir together sour cream and champagne.

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and the champagne mixture to the butter/egg mixture alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

Using level 1/4 cup measures, divide batter between prepared cupcake tins. Bake for 17-22 minutes, rotating cupcake tins halfway through baking time. Set aside to cool completely before filling and frosting.

For the pastry creme filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream, divided
1/2 cup champagne
2 tablespoons cornstarch
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup of the heavy cream and the cornstarch. Set aside.

In a saucepan, combine the remaining 1/4 cup heavy cream, the champagne, and the sugar. Stir to combine, and bring to a boil over medium heat.

While waiting for the mixture to boil, beat the egg, and yolks into the heavy cream and cornstarch mixture.

When the champagne mixture is boiling, remove from the heat, and add 1/3 of it to the egg mixture, whisking constantly so the eggs don't cook. Return the champagne mixture to a boil, and add in the egg mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly.

Continue to whisk until the mixture thickens, and remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla, and continue to stir until the butter has melted completely.

Allow the mixture to cool for 15 minutes before filling cupcakes. Using a paring knife, or one of these handy dandy cupcake corers (I got mine from Target) cut out the center of the cupcake, and fill with cooled pastry creme. I spooned mine into a large ziploc bag, and snipped off the end to make this easier.

You will have leftover pastry creme. I'm sure you can figure out what to do with it! Allow the filling to cool completely before frosting the cupcakes.

For the frosting:

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon champagne
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Add 1 cup of champagne to a small saucepan. Simmer over medium-high heat, until it has reduced to 2 tablespoons (about 7-10 minutes, but keep an eye on it!) Transfer to a small bowl to cool completely.

In a large bowl, beat together butter and powdered sugar on medium speed until fluffy. Add in reduced champagne, and the remaining 1 tablespoon of champagne and beat until smooth.

Store cupcakes in the refrigerator, and bring to room temperature 15 minutes before serving.

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Source: Sprinkle Bakes

Peanut Butter and Fleur de Sel Brownies

Posted by: Maggie

Merry Christmas Eve! I know everyone is basically done with their holiday baking at this point, but I couldn't resist squeezing in one more recipe.

I recently discovered an awesome store called Spice and Tea, which is barely a mile from where I live in Virginia. It's a tiny store with walls of spices, teas, and fancy salts, and I literally could've spent hours in there just staring. I'm still in shock that I've lived so close to it for years and had no idea it existed. I tweeted a picture from when I was there a couple weeks ago if you want to take a peek at the insane wall of spices.

Anyway, I bought a little bag of fleur de sel when I was there. I've been drooling over this recipe that Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil made last month, and decided that they'd be the first thing I baked with my fancy new salt. If you make these for someone who loves the sweet and salty combo, or the peanut butter and chocolate combo, they'll pretty much worship the ground you walk on.

I hope all of you who celebrate have a very Merry Christmas tomorrow!

Here's what you'll need:

For the brownies:

10 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

For the frosting:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 teaspoon Fleur de Sel (or another flaky sea salt)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Butter an 8 inch square pan, and line with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. Butter the parchment paper.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine the butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Microwave in 30 second increments on 50 percent power until the butter is just melted. Stir mixture until smooth.

Add the eggs to the cocoa mixture one at a time, stirring well after each to fully incorporate. Stir in vanilla extract. Lastly, mix in the flour, and stir about 40 times, or until just incorporated. Do not overmix! Spread the batter evenly into the pan, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs attached. Cool on a rack.

To make the frosting, cream the butter and peanut butter. Slowly add the powdered sugar, and beat until combined. Spread the frosting on the cooled brownies, and sprinkle with sea salt. Cut into 16 squares.

In an effort to cut these neatly, I froze them until the frosting had slightly firmed up. I wiped off the knife in between cuts, and dipped it in hot water, and shook off the excess before making each slice.

I put half of these in the fridge, and left half at room temperature. I strongly preferred the cold ones!

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Source: adapted from Love and Olive Oil, originally from Not Without Salt

Taco Dip

Posted by: Maggie

I took three years of high school Spanish, spanning from my freshman through junior year. Ten years after my final class, I'd guesstimate that I have a Spanish vocabulary of roughly 150 words. I can count to 100, pronounce and accurately describe most menu items at Tex-Mex restaurants, and know a handful of Spanish curse words. Before going to Peru back in June, I brushed up on my Spanish pleasantries, learned how to order my beverages sin hielo, and reminded myself that el baño and la biblioteca are two very different places, that should not under any circumstance be confused. 

I really wish that I'd paid more attention back in high school Spanish, because as an adult I can finally understand the value of knowing a second language. As a teenager, the only thing I cared about in that class was the "fiesta" we got to have every semester. Our fiesta was really just a day off from learning, where everyone brought in junk food to pig out on for the whole 45-minute class. This dip was always my contribution to our fiesta, much to my poor mom's dismay. She got stuck making this dip for every single Spanish class party. A considerate kid would've signed their mother up for napkin duty. I volunteered her for $15 worth of dip and tortilla chips, roughly six times throughout high school. Sorry Mom!

Gone are the days of sharing this taco dip with 25 of my grody classmates. My mom doesn't make this dip for me anymore; I whip it up myself whenever Annie comes to town. She was here last weekend to go on our annual Christmas bar crawl, and we inhaled this on her first night here.

You can make this recipe more homemade if you desire, but I just use canned refried beans and packaged guacamole. My mom has always used chopped tomatoes as a topping, but the winter tomatoes where I live taste like old cotton balls soaked in V8 juice, so I opted for Rotel instead. It was a delicious substitution that I think I'll stick with the next time I make it.

What you'll need:

1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 envelope low-sodium taco seasoning
1 16-ounce can refried beans
1 7-ounce package of guacamole (about 14 tablespoons)
1 - 1 1/2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
3-5 scallions, washed, dried, and thinly sliced
1 small can sliced black olives, drained
1 10-ounce can Rotel diced tomatoes, drained well, and squeezed of excess water between a thick layer of paper towels (I used the lime juice/cilantro variety)

In a small bowl, mix sour cream, mayonnaise, and taco seasoning. Set aside. On a large plate, spread the refried beans into an even layer. Spread the guacamole on top of the beans, and then spread on the sour cream mixture. Top with cheese, scallions, olives, and Ro-tel.

Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

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Source: My lovely mom, with a couple changes by me!