Oreo Cupcakes

Crispy chocolate cookie vs. creamy center. That is the great Oreo question. (I’m a chocolate cookie kinda gal myself). Regardless of your preference, these cupcakes have the best of both worlds. There’s no skimping on the cookie or cream in these cupcakes. With a crispy cookie “crust” on the bottom of each cake and large chunks of Oreos in the batter, I couldn’t help myself but to top them off with Oreos as well. Just. Couldn’t. Help. It….

It’s always nice when you can make a dessert and watch the eyes pop out of someone else’s head. That’s what happened when I made these Oreo cupcakes for a friend’s baby shower. They received lots of oohhs and aaaahs and ohmygods. Make a double batch – they won’t last long!

Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats blog.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
24 Oreo cookie halves, with cream filling attached to one side of the cookie (set aside the other cookie side – or eat it…)
2-¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1-2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk (I used skim)
15 Oreo cookies, chopped

Line two cupcake tins with paper liners. At the bottom of each liner, place half of the Oreo cookies, cream side up.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set this aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, egg whites, and vanilla. Once thoroughly mixed, add in half the flour mixture. Mix. Then add in half the milk. Mix again and repeat with the remaining flour mixture and milk. GENTLY fold in the chopped Oreo pieces using a rubber spatula. Be careful not to over mix.

Fill each cupcake liner ¾ full of batter. Bake the cakes for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool slightly in the pan for about five minutes. Remove the cakes and cool completely on a cooling rack.

Once the cakes are completely cool, frost and top as desired (see below):

For the frosting #1:
Whipped cream
Halved Oreo cookies

Top each cupcake with whipped cream and half an Oreo. **Note** consume these IMMEDIATELY or else the whipped cream will start to melt.


For the frosting #2 (vanilla buttercream):
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream
Broken Oreo pieces

Using an electric mixer, mix together the sugar and butter for about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat for about a minute, adding more cream if needed depending on your preference of consistency. Top with Oreo pieces.

(the picture doesn’t do it justice) Blueberry Crisp

My camera is not the best for still photography, and that’s especially apparent with this picture. Please don’t hold my camera skills against this recipe. You must try it. The brown sugar and oats combine for a crunchy coating, but underneath the blueberries stay plump. Pair it with some vanilla ice cream, and you’ve got yourself one heck of a dessert!

Ingredients
3 pints fresh blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
the juice from half a lemon
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 stick cold butter, diced
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the blueberries, sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch. Mix it all up using a large spoon or your hands. Once well combined, dump this mixture into a deep dish pie plate or an 8” x 8” pan.

In a separate bowl, toss together the oats, flour, brown sugar, salt and cold butter. Again using your hands, work these ingredients together until they start to form crumbs. Pour this topping over the fruit and place the pan in the oven for 40 minutes. The fruit should start to bubble, and the topping should be golden brown.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Monster Cookies

This cookie has to be the mother of all cookies. It’s a little bit of everything all rolled into one gargantuan package: oats, crunchy peanut butter, M&M candies, chocolate chips…what’s not to like? These quarter-of-a-cup cookies are not for the faint of heart. You’ve got to commit to eating an entire one of these. There is no such thing as breaking it in half and saving the rest for later. Don’t even think about it. No one on earth has that kind of willpower. Just succumb to the inevitable and grab a large glass of milk. You’re going to need it!

(Recipe adapted from the Brown Eyed Baker)

Ingredients

3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon corn syrup
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1½ cups chunky peanut butter
4½ cups rolled oats
½ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup chocolate chips (I used white chocolate – it’s all I had)
¾ cup Reese’s Pieces candies
¾ cup M&M’s candies

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper, and set them aside.
In a large bowl, mix together the baking soda, salt, oats and flour, and set that aside as well.

In another large bowl, mix together the eggs, both sugars, vanilla, and corn syrup using a large spoon. Add in your melted butter and the crunchy peanut butter. Continue to mix.

Slowly incorporate the flour/oat mixture (a little at a time) into the wet ingredients until thoroughly combined. Then stir in the chocolate chips and candy pieces.

Cover the bowl with cling wrap and allow the dough to rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Using a ¼ measuring cup, scoop out balls of dough and place them on the prepared pans. You may need to push the dough into flatter disks using your figures. The original recipe said to bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. I found that with my oven, the cookies needed to bake for 15-17 minutes.

Remove the cookies from the oven and transfer them to cooling racks. Allow them to cool completely and store them in airtight containers. This recipe makes about 30 large cookies.

Cherry-Granola Muffins

Adapted from 500 Cupcakes

This may be one of the very few recipes I post that does not use butter and sugar. Weird, I know. I’ve gotten so in the habit of automatically pulling butter and sugar out when I bake that I didn’t realize the recipe hadn’t called for either of them. So I mixing all the ingredients and noticed these two staples sitting off to the side, all sad and lonely. Not for long though – I’m sure the next thing I bake will more than make up for the reduced calorie count in these muffins.

The original recipe called for dried apricots, but I subbed dried cherries instead. You could also use raisins, currents, or mashed bananas. These are hearty muffins that are great for breakfast. The granola seems to melt right into the middle for oatmeal-like consistency.

Ingredients
1 cup dried cherries, chopped
1-1/4 cups granola (I used store-bought)
2-1/4 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup orange juice
¾ cup honey
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with paper liners (this recipe makes about 18).

In a medium bowl, mix together the cherries, granola, flour and baking powder, and set it aside.

In another mixing bowl, whisk together the orange juice, honey, oil and egg. Continue to whisk until the honey is dissolved and the mixture foams slightly on top.

Using a large spoon, mix your dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.

Spoon the batter into the paper liners, and pop the pans in the oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the pans from the oven and allow the muffins to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, and then remove them so they can cool completely. These can be stored in an airtight container for 3 days. Although I just ate three, so I doubt they’ll last me that long…

Coconut Freezer Pie

Holy hotness! 90 degree days are simply not conducive to baking. My little window AC unit is no match for my brand-spankin-new oven. And since I’d prefer not to sweat into my cookie batter (sorry for the mental picture), I’ve been really, really bad about posting to my blog.

Lucky for me I came upon a recipe for a freezer pie during my daily review of some of my favorite blogs. The original posting mentioned turning on the oven (gasp!) to toast the coconut, but it’s not imperative to the recipe. So I refuse. I opted for a store-bought graham cracker crust and coconut straight out of the bag. Then I substituted the milk and almond extract for coconut milk (see * below).

Ingredients

4 ounces (1/2 block) cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup coconut milk*
1 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1 tub (8 ounce) Cool Whip, thawed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 store-bought graham cracker pie crust

*1/2 cup milk plus ½ teaspoon of almond extract can be substituted for the coconut milk.

In a mixing bowl using an electric mixer, beat together the softened cream cheese and sugar. Pour in the coconut milk and vanilla extract and continue beating until well combined.

Using a large spoon, fold in the thawed Cool Whip and 1 and ¼ cups of the coconut flakes. Once all these ingredients are well mixed, pour the creamy batter into the prepared graham cracker crust. Sprinkle the pie with the remaining ¼ cup of coconut flakes and place in the freezer for at least 4 hours. Be sure to allow the pie to soften a bit before slicing a serving.

Peanut Butter Brownies (or are they cookie bars?)

If you can melt butter, you can make this recipe. I love a quick recipe, but I really love a quick peanut butter recipe. If you haven’t already noticed, I’m pretty much a peanut butter junkie. At least I’ve accepted this about myself. I am who I am.

That being said, I think anyone, even those moderate peanut butter lovers out there (if there is such a thing), will devour these. They have a brownie consistency and the recipe is pretty much identical if you sub the peanut butter for the chocolate. But major point here: there is no chocolate in them. Can it still be a brownie if there is no chocolate? Does that make it a cookie bar? Ahh one of life’s great questions! I’d have to say this question is right up there with evolution, what came first - the chicken or the egg, and what the heck is tofurkey?!?! Take a few days, make this recipe and ponder the cellular structure of a brownie vs. cookie bar. Or do what I did. Slap some chocolate on top and call it a day. Vuala: brownies.

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter
1-¾ cup white sugar
4 whole eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup peanut butter (I used smooth)
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9 x 13” baking pan with cooking spray. Set the pan aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter heating it 30 second at a time. Using a large whisk, stir in the sugar, eggs and vanilla. Switch to using a large spoon and stir in the peanut butter, flour and salt. Your batter will be about the consistency of cake batter.

Pour the batter and spread it evenly in your prepared baking pan. Place the pan in the preheated oven and let it bake for about 3 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove the pan from the oven and pour the chocolate chips over the top of the brownies. Allow them to sit for about 5 minutes until they just start to melt. Using a spatula, smear the chocolate evenly over the top. That might be the easiest glaze you’ll ever make.

Allow the brownies to cool and then slice into squares.