Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

     Last night I needed a little bit of therapy. You see, things are just falling apart around me. It seems every day it's something new. And just when I think " O.K., I can deal with this," I get hit with another thing.

     Well last night I was pretty much at my breaking point and it was time for therapy!

     Now I could have gone out and done some retail therapy, but I'm on a strict budget. I don't buy it unless I need it. I'm trying to live a minimalistic life. I feel like people on a whole have too much stuff. I just don't want to be one of those people with too much stuff. In fact, even though I would love to go buy some more fabric to sew with or even some new cake decorating stuff, I am refraining from going to the store to spend money. I have save quite a chunk of change already. Yeah!

     My other type of therapy would be to do some sewing, but I did that the night before. I finished a quilt and sewed a cozy bowl. I still have stuff to finish up, but I just wasn't in the mood.

     So my last choice was baking. I needed something with chocolate in it. After all chocolate is what I go to when I've had a tough day and boy these last few weeks have been that and more. After perusing my pinterest cupcake board I found the perfect treat to make.

     I give you the

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CUPCAKE!!!!!! 

     Not only does it have chocolate it has peanut butter. And the icing on the cupcake has a mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on it.

     Now I had a little trouble with the frosting on this one. It started out super stiff, so I added milk. Well, too much milk, so I had to add some more powdered sugar to stiffen it up some. After a little messing around I got it back to the right consistency and it was perfect.

     So if you're have a tough day, week or month give these little cupcakes a try. I guarantee you'll feel a little better....at least while you're eating it.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
2 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 Cup sour milk*
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Frosting
1/3 Cup peanut butter
4 1/2 Cups powdered sugar
1/4 Cup milk
2 teaspoon vanilla
24 mini Reese's Peanut Butter cup

Instructions for cupcakes
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 muffin tins with cupcake liners and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl mix sugar, canola, eggs and vanilla until the mixture is smooth. Alternately add the flour/cocoa mixture with the sour milk. Be careful not to over mix. Fold in the chocolate chips.
3. Using an ice cream scoop, add the batter to the muffin tins and bake the cupcakes for 23-27 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Instructions for Frosting
1.Unwrap 24 peanut butter cups and place in a bowl and set aside. Beat the peanut butter in a bowl of a stand mixer until lightened, about 2 minutes on medium-high speed. Drop the speed to low, and begin adding half the powdered sugar, a little at a time. Add the vanilla, and slowly stream in the milk. Add the remaining powdered sugar.
2. Once all the powdered sugar has been added, increased the speed back to medium-high, and beat 1-2 minutes.
3. Using a M1 tip and a disposable bag frost your cooled cupcake. Decorate with a mini peanut butter cup.

*To make sour milk, place 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar into a measuring cup. Fill the remaining 8oz cup with milk. Stir together, then allow to sit for 5 minutes before using.

Recipe adapted from Tramplingrose.com

Baked Vanilla Donuts

Baked Vanilla Donuts

     Today I thought I'd try this recipe that I found in the Sunday paper a few weeks ago. It is suppose to be a healthier donut. Really? Is there such a thing? I guess just putting the word healthier in front of it makes people think they are really not doing something that is too bad.

      Me? I say you have to do everything with balance. I don't say that I can't have something, because if I did it would just make me want it more. I just try not to over indulge.  I like my sweets, especially for breakfast, so I just let myself have a little. It's all about self control, right?

     I like donuts and I didn't want to hassle with deep frying them, but with these new donut pans all you do is bake them for about 15 minutes. How easy is that and that way you avoid the grease and they are not as fattening. This recipe also uses almond milk in it which is suppose to be very good for a person. So I guess you can say you are eating a better donut then what you would buy at the bakery and they are easy to make too!

     When I made the glaze for the donuts I used lemon extract. That lemon flavor was so wonderful. it just made it feel a little like spring. I also sprinkled them with non pareils to make them look pretty.

     I could have eaten a half a dozen, but remember it's all about self control. Besides I had to save some for family members that were not home this morning. I think they are going to love them and you will too!

Baked Vanilla Donuts
2 eggs
4 T butter, melted
1 t vanilla extract
2/3 C sugar
2 C all purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 C almond milk

     Preheat oven to 350. Spray 2 six-cup donut pans with cooking spray. In a bowl beat eggs for 1 minute on medium. Add butter, vanilla, and sugar and beat until smooth. Mix in flour, salt and baking powder. Add milk and stir until smooth. Spoon batter into the donut pans. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until light brown. Remove donuts from pans and let cool on a wire rack. Glaze and top donuts as desired. Makes 1 dozen.
Glaze
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
2 t vanilla extract or lemon extract
4 T milk
Stir together. Drizzle over cooled donuts.

Recipe adapted from Parade Magazine

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls

     Oh my Goodness! It's been a long time since I've posted a new recipe. It's not that I have given up cooking or blogging it's just that life has been a little busy and I've been a little tired. It seems that by the time I get done cooking or baking something I don't have the energy to sit down and blog about it.

     But that is going to change! I'm going to try and write a couple of blog posts a week. I miss sitting down and blabbing about my life in general and sharing the different recipes that I have tried out. I want to thank the people that have loyally checked my blog for updates and sorry it's been a while.

   I decided to kick start my reentry with a super yummy cinnamon roll recipe. I got the recipe out of the Feb/Mar Taste of Home magazine and thought that I would give it a try.

     I love the ease of using my bread machine for mixing up yeast bread dough and this recipe worked perfectly for this. The trick is to put all the liquid in first then the dry ingredients and then the yeast. It works perfectly every time.

     The one thing that I would definitely change is the amount of frosting. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or what, but I felt like it was too much sweetness. Maybe half as much frosting would be just as good.

     I also have to say that although these cinnamon rolls were good I don't think they were as good as my Cinnamon Caramel Rolls that I also happen to make in my bread machine. My family totally agrees that these rolls were good, but not as good as my original recipe. I've linked  my recipe so if you want to try that one too it's easy for you to find.

     Well here's the recipe. Give it a try and let me know what you think. Remember you can mix up the dough by hand too. I'll leave directions for that at the bottom of the page.

Happy Baking!

Can't Eat Just One Cinnamon Rolls

1pkg (1/4 oz) active dry yeast

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/4 Cup water

1 Cup milk

1/3 instant vanilla pudding mix (half of a 3/4-oz pkg)

1 egg

1/4 Cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt

3-3 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

Filling

3/4 Cup sugar

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 Cup butter, melted

Frosting

1 1/2 Cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 Cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon water

In a bread machine pan put water, milk, egg and melted butter in first. Then add flour, pudding mix, salt and sugar. Make a little indent in the flour mixture and place the yeast in this indentation. Put the pan in the bread machine and set it to dough. Let it do it's thing. If the dough looks too sticky you can add the extra 1/2 cup of flour to the dough.

Once the dough is done mix up the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set aside.Melt the butter and set that aside.  Roll the dough out on a well floured surface into a 10X18 inch rectangle. Then spread the melted butter on and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the dough up to form a long log shape. Take a sharp knife and cut 12 rolls. 

Place rolls in a greased 9X13 pan. Cover and let rise. Or if your like me I cover it, let it rise and put it in the fridge over night. In the morning while I'm preheating the oven I place it on the stove and let it warm up and rise that way. 

Bake the rolls at 350 for 20-25 minutes.While the rolls are baking you can mix up the frosting. Beat the frosting ingredients in a bowl until creamy. Let the rolls slightly cool before adding the frosting.

If you don't have a bread machine

In a bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in warm water. In a bowl, beat milk and pudding mix on low speed for 1 minute. Let stand 1 minute. Add egg, butter, salt, yeast mixture and cups flour; beat on medium until smooth. Stir in enough flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface, knead until smooth, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double, about 1 hour.  Now your read to add the filling.

Recipe adapted from: Feb/March Taste of  Home