Molten Chocolate Cupcakes

In my long, long history of blogging for Yeah, I'd Bake That there hasn't been a post that has gotten more views or comments than the notorious Chocolate Dump Cake. Something about it has attracted and captivated..four or five people.

So in trying to recreate that same experience, I'm sharing a new super EASY recipe for Molten Chocolate Cupcakes. Let's face it- the best dessert any restaurant ever has is that chocolate cake that's all heated up and oozes out molten chocolate lava. In the kitchen of those restaurants, they just put a piece of cake in the microwave to heat it up and then watch as you 'ooh' and 'ahh' over it. (You can thank my previous work experience for that nugget of insider knowledge) This is exactly that, but in a more impressive way that you can make on your own. This recipe will make your friends think you're moonlighting as a part time pastry chef, and if they don't, then that's the last time you share your cupcakes with them! I mean, come on, could you give some positive feedback at least once if your life Karen?!

The recipe is from Betty Crocker, you can find it online here: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/molten-chocolate-cupcakes

I made this before I started the blog, so there's only one picture. After spreading the icing on the cupcakes I dusted them with powdered sugar, but they'd also be good with whipped cream and strawberries or vanilla bean ice cream. The one thing I should mention is that you shouldn't skip on the whipping cream for this recipe, it's a must!

Try it out and let me know how it goes! In the meantime, I've got a wicked recipe for cookies and creme cupcakes that I just finished and will be posting about soon. Here's a sample of what the post contains: oreos, self rising flour, and a failed attempt at streamlining (and possibly inventing?) cookies and creme icing. Discuss!



Source: Betty Crocker
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/molten-chocolate-cupcakes

Cherry Kolaches Part 2, The Squeakquel

I love wikipedia because it's always so...right. Right about everything! Last week when I stumbled upon that Cherry Kolache recipe, wikipedia told me that it was a pastry. I mean, it doesn't get much more thorough or correct. They certainly were pastries, but they also were ridiculously delicious. I mentioned in my earlier post that I had no idea how to pronounce kolache either, so after I made them I went around offering people anything from "cherry galoshes" to "cherry goulash" to "cherry cough and walk away and don't finish the sentence". It didn't seem to matter because people already had their mouths full by the time I walked away, so all in all, a success.

Upon further inspection, and with the capital K in wikipedia instead of a lowercase k- I found a much longer entry. If you're curious you can check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolache  The page is pretty interesting, apparently in some parts of the US there are annual Kolache festivals! Of course, it is wikipedia so take it with a grain of salt (pun INTENDED). Last week I saw the F word in a post about special education, so you never know what you're going to find.

Anyway, the recipe is awesome if you have the time. I posted the recipe and some photos below to get you started, just be sure to read it through before you start. There are large amounts of time when the dough has to double itself and just sit, and apparently I had forgotten how to read when I first read the recipe and almost missed those parts. So here you go:

Ingredients:
1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup warm 2% milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 can (21 ounces) cherry pie filling
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
5 teaspoons 2% milk

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, sugar, shortening, salt, nutmeg, eggs and 2 cups of flour and beat until smooth. Keep adding the rest of the flour to make the dough soft (it not be the full 4 cups total, but that's okay)

Put dough on a floured service and knead it until smooth for about 7 minutes or so

Place the dough in a greased bowl and then turn it over so the greased side is on top. Cover it and let it rise for an hour. As you can see, I used this seasonally appropriate christmas towel as a cover.

That's the dough doubled!

Punch the dough down (not sure why it has to be so violent?) and divide it in half.  Shape each half into small balls.

The recipe says to place the balls 3 inches a part, on a greased baking sheet. 

Flatten each ball down to a 3 inch circle. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, I let mine sit for about 30 minutes. (this photo is before doubling)

Make a dent in each roll and add a tablespoon of filling. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. Mine were in for 16 and came out just the right amount of brown.

Before removing from the pan, the recipe says you can brush the rolls with the melted butter. I didn't do this step because it wasn't a part of the original recipe, so I didn't know about it. So they are still good if you want to forgo the butter.

For the finishing touches, combine the glaze ingredients and and drizzle over the rolls. Make sure they're not too hot or the glaze will melt. But you knew that.

This recipe comes highly recommended, and they were also great for breakfast. That's the mark of a true dessert, I think.

On a side note, if you try any of these recipes let me know on the blog! It'd be great to hear if they worked well for you, or if they failed miserably because I left out a step. Any press is good press! Unless you got food poisoning, in which case keep it to yourself.

Check out the recipe here: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Coffee-Klatch-Kolaches/?addtobox=y

Source: Taste of Home Magazine, April/May 2011

Recipe online: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Coffee-Klatch-Kolaches/?addtobox=y

Submitted by: Carol Houdek, Minneapolis 

Cherry Kolaches Part 1

I like to age myself. No really, what's so wrong with it sometimes? I'm only 25 but I bake like a Grandma. It's because when I was growing up my sister and I used to bake with our Gramma all the time. She was a master baker, and even though sometimes we give her a hard time for all of her crazy substitutions (like the one time when she only had so many chocolate chips so she used raisins. What's the difference really, they're both black) the lady's got skills.  She was the only person I knew that would keep bananas in her freezer just to bake with, and I'm pretty sure she's the only person I've ever known that refused to use the recipe on the back of the chocolate chips bag. That's ludicrous.

To get back on point here- today's recipe is old school. I found it in the mystery magazine that's still being delivered (see, now I'm harking back to earlier posts. I'm getting this.) It's official magazine name is Coffee Klatch Kolaches, but since I don't drink coffee and have no idea what a kolache is I felt the liberty to change the name for this blog. 

I've yet to make these yet, but will be baking them soon for this weekend. They look excellent in the magazine, and I was able to find the recipe online too: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Coffee-Klatch-Kolaches/?addtobox=y

If the link doesn't work because I am a (very prestigious) member of the site, here's a photo of what they will look like. These pastries will be cherry filled when they leave my kitchen, and will hopefully look like this photo. This is me clearly not taking the credit for the photo, it was taken from the website just for demonstration purposes.

They look good right? Yes, they do. And like any red blooded American, I had no idea how to pronounce Kolaches, but I'll save that explanation for when I post the results and all the non-stolen photos I will take.

Wish me luck! In the mean time, thank you to all 12 of my readers for making this blog an overwhelming success! We have over 400 views, and in turn, we are the big time.

Source: Taste of Home Magazine, April/May 2011

Recipe online: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Coffee-Klatch-Kolaches/?addtobox=y

Submitted by: Carol Houdek, Minneapolis