Mocha Cupcakes with Mocha Frosting

I decided to make cupcakes this past weekend, but I didn't want to make plain old chocolate cupcakes, so I made mocha chocolate cupcakes instead. The coffee intensifies the flavor of the chocolate, while adding subtle flavors making them not too sweet and kind of dangerous. 


The recipe is adapted from mybakingaddiction.com:

Cupcakes
Ingredients:
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup whole milk (I used 1%)
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temp
3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
I also had chocolate covered espresso beans handy, which I ground up and added to the mix as well.


Steps:
1. Preheat to 350°F. Line cupcake pan with liners or spray with non-stick spray.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a measuring cup, combine the milk, brewed coffee and vanilla.
3. In a stand mixer at medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until combined. Slowly add the flour mixture, alternating with the coffee mixture, ending with the flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and the ground espresso beans, if used.
4. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Bake for about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cool before frosting cupcakes.


Frosting
Ingredients:
3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa
3 tablespoons coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla 
1/2 cup butter, softened
3-4 tbs milk
ground espresso beans


1. Mix together sugar and cocoa
2. Mix together coffee and vanilla
3. Beat butter at medium speed until creamy. Alternate adding the sugar and coffee mixture, beginning and ending with the sugar
4. Add in ground espresso beans, if used
5. Add milk, 1 tbs at a time, until desired consistency is reached


Any unused frosting can be frozen. Remember to only frost COOL cupcakes!


Have fun:)

Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

For dinner, we had bowtie pasta with fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes, crushed red pepper, and basil. We had a salad, a light red wine, and these yummy whole wheat dinner rolls on the side. The rolls were a last minute addition. They were so easy to throw together, only 50 minutes rising time total. You use a muffin tin instead of forming them by hand, thus making the prep process even easier. It's important to add the all purpose flour because adding only whole wheat flour will result in a product that is too dense. Here's the recipe:

RECIPE:
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast- one package
1 cup warm water
2 tbs melted shortening
1 egg
1 cup flour

(Oven: 400 degrees)
1- Mix together whole wheat flour, sugar, salt, yeast
2- Add in warm water, melted shortening, egg
3- Mix until smooth- I had to add little more flour because the dough was too sticky.
4- Place a small amount of olive oil in the bowl, cover with a kitchen cloth and let rise in a warm, dry place for 30 mins. Should double in size
5- Punch down after 30 mins
6- Grease muffin tin then spoon dough in (should be exactly 12 rolls- eyeball how much dough to put in each)
7- Let rise another 20 mins
8- Bake until golden (15ish minutes)

(Recipe courtesy of cooksrecipes.com)

Have fun :)

It's been awhile....Flax Seed Muffins with Fresh Blueberries

It has been forever since I've baked..well that's not really true. I made a lemon meringue pie about 2 weeks ago and, while it came out just fine, I had quite the time making it. I was in a particularly bad mood so everything seemed to be a challenge. Anyway, I am back and am going to try to make some healthier baked goods. I made these flax seed muffins yesterday and they came out yummy! I ground my own flax seed, which is apparently much better than buying it already ground. The muffins took like 20 mins to put together and then 25 mins in the oven at 350 degrees. I even used my rose shaped muffin tin, so all of the muffins came out looking like pretty roses.

The cool thing about these muffins is that you can mix anything into them, for example, I used blueberries, but you can add shredded carrots, nuts. craisins, really anything that sounds good to you.

So here's the recipes...Oh and remember to never overmix muffin batter because it will make the muffins tough and icky.

Oven: 350 degrees

1.5 cups ground flax
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1 egg beaten
little bit of cinnamon and a little less nutmeg...use your judgement
3/4 cups brown sugar- I use dark brown because I like the dark look it gives the finished product
1 tbsp baking powder
2 cups milk- I use 1%- try not to use skim because the water content is too high

Mix all the dry ingredients together in one bowl. Mix the milk in with the beaten egg. Add the wet ingredients to the dry. At this point, you can add in any mix ins- the choices are endless. Mix everything together, but don't overmix! Spray some muffin tins with non-stick spray, stick 'em in the oven and 20 mins later, check to see if the tops and sides are nice and brown, if not give 'em another 5 mins.

this recipe is courtesy of spiffyman.com.