Nutcase Confessions and Peanut Butter Mocha Brownies

I'm one of those weirdos that enjoys bizarre flavor combinations. And I'm not talking about french fries and Wendy's Frostys, I like some pretty strange things. But I try rEEEEally hard not to let my bonkers food preferences cross over into the food I make for other people. Because you know, its hard not to scare people off in matters of my personal appearance, personal sense of humor, personal dance moves. You know, personal anything. So I proactively avoid scaring them with the fact that I sometimes eat potato chips with strawberry jam.

Oh my gosh. I just admitted that I eat potato chips with strawberry jam on the internet. My secrets are out; I'm a complete nutcase. And now that I've let that smidgen of information slip out I'm tempted to make a comprehensive list of all the odd things I eat in secret. Lift the burden of guilty indulgence I've been living with ever since my first glazed doughnut with cheddar cheese fiasco at age 12. Oh my word I need to shut the clap trap before something truly horrid escapes.

But at least I don't make Peanut Butter and Jelly cupcakes with Frito corn chip topping. (Wouldn't that be awesome? I'm just sayin', I think it would.) I have compassion on the boring people of the world who balk at the idea of culinary freedom and stick to pretty acceptable flavor combos. So when the idea of Peanut Butter Mocha Brownies arrived in my brain I was super excited. An unusual mix of tastes, but one that most people will be on board with? Ho yes. So much yes.

Peanut butter isn't really a popular flavor for coffee drinks, but I know for a fact that they have peanut butter syrup for them. It is one of many at my local Cash n' Carry. (If you have a slight obsession for flavored syrups go to Cash n' Carry. You will have a heart attack of happy. It's like an entire aisle of absolute joy.)
And if it is enjoyed by enough people that they would make a syrup for peanut butter coffee drinks, then I am putting it in dessert form. It's undeniable.
An thick fudgey chocolate-laden peanut butter swirled dessert of awesome. (I have realized that I use the word "awesome" in every. single. post. I have no regrets.)

Peanut Butter Mocha Brownies
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups All purpose flour
3 oz of chopped semi sweet chocolate
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
Preheat the oven to 350 F. lightly grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. Crack the eggs into a large bowl and whisk them together with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, instant coffee, and vanilla until smooth. On the stove top melt the butter over low heat. When completely melted add the sugars. I don't particularly care about the shininess on the top of brownies, but if you are a sucker for the shiny crackly crust on top, heat the sugar and butter until about 110 F. (A couple minutes more) This will dissolve more of the sugar which gives you that nice "boxed brownie mix" look. Add the hot butter/sugar mixture to the egg/cocoa mixture and stir until smooth. Add the flour and shaved chocolate and stir. Spoon the batter into your greased dish. Dollop the peanut butter intermittently and swirl it until it looks pretty. :) Bake for 30 minutes or until a cake tester runs clean of batter when stuck in the middle.

Bad Blog Parenting and Irish Mousse

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day! And I realized that I have posted absolutely zero Irish themed recipes here. My poor blog. I'm such a bad blog mom.

So here we go! To remedy the tragedy I'm posting Bailey's Irish Cream Chocolate Coffee Pudding. (OH my word. That is way to many words to say.) We should just call them St. Paddy's Pudding! Orrrrr Boozy Mocha Puddings. On the newly written out recipe card it is titled "Bailey's Irish Coffee Mousse. But then you don't know about the chocolate, which is very important. Maybe just Chocolate Coffee Mouse? Or something that is easier to say and remember. Here at home we just call it: "That amazing pudding" There is no other description needed. We all just instinctively know what "that pudding" means. Because it is so good.

For one thing, I don't like coffee. And I don't like alcohol themed desserts.
And I like this pudding. (How is that possible? I don't know how that is possible. But it's possible.)

"That Pudding"-- Irish Cream Mocha Pudding
1/3 cup brown sugar
4 Tablespoons flour
1 3/4 cup strong coffee
2 slightly beaten egg yolks
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 Tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup of heavy cream, whipped until stiff. 
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Mini Chocolate Chips to garnish, optional
In a sauce pan combine sugar, flour, a pinch of salt and the cocoa. Slowly whisk in the coffee and Baileys until smooth. Cook on med low heat until thick and bubbly. Reduce the heat to low and cook two minutes more, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs yolks and vanilla together. Temper the eggs and the hot coffee mixture. By slowly pouring in a stream of coffee (about 1/4 cup) into the eggs whisking the whole time. Then add the tempered egg yolks in to the remaining hot coffee mixture, still continually whisking. Bring the whole thing back to a boil and cook 2 additional minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a chilled bowl. Cover the pudding with plastic wrap, making sure the pudding is touching the plastic wrap to avoid a film from forming on it as it chills. Cool it completely in the refrigerator. While it cools, whip your heavy cream until it is stiff. I sweetened mine with 1/4 cup of powdered sugar right before stiff peak formed, but feel free to skip this step if you want to keep the recipe lower in sugar. Reserve half of a cup of the whipped cream to garnish the mousse, folding the rest into your chilled coffee pudding. Spoon into individual cups and garnish with the whipped cream and chocolate chips.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone is having a beautiful Valentine's Day full of chocolate, hugs, and good times. Go ahead and check out past Valentine's posts!
Love and Cupcakes,
Candice

1. Love Letter Sugar Cookies

2. Brigadeiro (Brazilian Truffles)

3. Chocolate Berry Cups

4. Chocolate Coffee Cut Out Cookies

5. Chocolate Covered Cherry Cupcakes

6. Homemade Hostess Cream Filled Cupcakes

Why Coffee is Good in Cookies

It has already been established that Valentine’s Day is awesome.

There is no room for debate on this issue because I unfairly justly implemented cupcakes into my argument. 

Yes. That means I win.

Do you know what else wins? Coffee-Chocolate flavored things. I think this flavor combination is called “Mocha”, but since I am not a coffee drinker I am really not an expert on the subject.

Okay, we are taking a detour here because everyone just went “WAHTTT? You don’t like coffee? Aren’t you a college student living in Seattle? You’re crazy. Coffee is so amazing. It keeps you awake and it tastes good. I love coffee! How can you not like coffee? Coffee…” I don’t like coffee. It tastes like burnt water. Yes, even the so called “good” coffee. It’s gross. I drink it maybe once a month when I am on the verge of physically harming myself because I am so tired and I need caffeine. Usually a cup of tea is enough caffeine for me, (okay, detour within a detour: TEA is amazing. Like the polar opposite of coffee. Okay, back to detour one…) but sometimes when I only have two hours of sleep behind me and I have no hope of getting to bed before 1 or 2 am I have to resort to the evil of coffee to get me through. Ugh.

There. Detour over. We are back to happy things like Valentine’s Day and cookies.

Cookies! Chocolate Coffee cookies to be exact. I usually don’t decorate cookies with Royal icing for two reasons. Reason one is that it takes foreverrrrrr. For. Ev. Er. I could probably get faster if I did it more often and practiced. But I don’t because it takes forever. As aforementioned. But really, it took me about five hours to make thirty cookies start to finish. That’s a lot of hours, amigos.

Reason number two: it just doesn't taste as good as it looks.  And while I like things to look pretty, I like them to taste good more. (That was a terrible sentence grammatically speaking. But it’s okay, this blog is a judge free zone.) Royal icing is so super sweet with no flavor other than just: SUGAR OVERLOAD FLAVOR!! But the chocolate coffee cookies are so intensely dark tasting that a sugar crust to go with it is perfect. It is pretty hard to find a fault with pretty cookies that taste good. :D

And they are perfect for Valentine’s Day! 

• Chocolate Coffee Cutout Cookies
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup  butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1 Tablespoon instant coffee granules
• 1/2 teaspoon salt*
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup  cocoa
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• Beat together the sugar, butter, baking powder, vanilla, espresso powder, and salt until fluffy.  Beat in the egg. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl again.Whisk together the cocoa and flour, then beat into the egg and butter mixture until well blended. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes, or up to overnight. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Lightly grease baking sheets. Divide the dough in half. Sprinkle both sides of each piece with extra flour, to keep the dough from sticking. Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll 1/4 in thick. Cut into heart shapes with a cookie cutter. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until their edges are firm and you start to smell chocolate/coffee wafting through your flour covered kitchen. Allow to cool completely before decorating with icing of your choice. 
  
  
  
  

New Cupcake Flavor!

It's been awhile since I tackled a new cupcake flavor. I perfected my Blackberry Cupcake til it reached perfection but I haven't made a completely new cupcake in a month. (hey! that's a long time for a cupcake fanatic like me, ok?)
This month the ladies at my church are having their annual brunch to kick off the bible study program for this year and they have asked me to host it again!
(Check out last year's post here)
I had a blast last time and it was one of my favorite catering experiences, even if the smell of mushrooms did make me and my sister queasy. ;) So I'm ready to attack this one with gusto! There's something about autumn that just puts my baker side into gear. I love being in the kitchen when it's fall. All the colder weather and beautiful colors go to my head and I go baking crazy! And sure enough now that it's turned September and I'm waking up to colder mornings...well, let's just say I'm really really (really) excited.
I planned the menu for the ladies event about a week ago; I'm really looking forward to it. Of course, I'm planning on having three flavors of cupcakes, just like last year. But I didn't want them to be the same ones, even if they did get gobbled up and raved over. So I decided a nice coffee cupcake would be a nice adult flavor that would go perfectly with a brunch. And boy, am I glad I did...these might be the best cupcakes yet!

I wasn't actually going to post any pictures. They were, after all, just a taste tester. But when my sister saw it she couldn't eat it without whipping out her camera.
"WAIT!" she cried right before my mom put one in her mouth. "Can I take pictures first?" *insert puppydog face here* Of course I couldn't deny her. Who doesn't like having their culinary exploits enthusiastically photographed with vigor in awesome lighting?

So here's the break down of the cupcake himself. 

Coffee Chocolate cake soaked in Kahlua syrup frosted with Mocha Cream Cheese frosting and topped with shavings of bitter chocolate and a dash of cinnamon!