C is for Cookie and that is Definetly fine by me!

For those who were anxiously waiting for those photos of my pineapple upside down cupcakes, here are just a few a pictures I took throughout the whole baking process.

If you recall correctly, I mentioned yesterday just how vivid the color of the pineapple and the contrasting cherry color were compared to the gray mini-cupcake pan. As you can clearly see, I was completely spot on about the color. At the same time, the smell of the pineapple combined with butter and brown sugar was absolutely delicious. Not surprising that the taste didn't fail to deliver either :P

As for the final product, look how cute they are! Though I usually turn my nose up at mini cupcakes (come one, there is no way that something that tiny could satisfy one person's sweet tooth) I couldn't deny how tempting they appeared. Of course things got even better when I flipped them over. Now I am not going to lie, this was the part of the recipe that I thought would fail; that the topping would either have burned or the cupcake itself would fall apart if I tried to remove them from the pan. Yet somehow, perfection!


Overall I think I'm going to write this off as another baking success.

But anyway, I'd like to walk away from cupcakes for a few minutes and turn everyone's focus to cookies. Yes cookies, those crumbly little things that always seem to have a place at any kind of function. Why cookies? Well, originally I was supposed to go with a few others on a trek to the Mount Washington. Jumping the gun as I tend to do, I promised my group leader, and friend, Therese, that I would bake cookies. Of course, the next day I realized that I couldn't walk away from my academic responsibilities for another weekend. And yet, I made a promise and I needed to follow through it.

Cue the epic searching music!
I journey to the mythical place that is the internet and sought out a recipe that sounded delicious, interesting, and most importantly, didn't call for a lot of ingredients that I didn't already own. At first I was going to try something a bit more complicated, chocolate hazelnut cookies, but decided that perhaps I should save the wow factor for another time. So I selected something called Monster Cookies! Ever hear of them? Well, I had never heard of them either so don't fret about it.

A combination of oats, chunky peanut butter, peanut M&M, regular M&M, and chocolate chips, these cookies really live up to their name. It didn't help that I accidentally scooped out too much cookie dough for each cookie, meaning that when they reached the oven, the expanded into large sizes, ultimately forming into one giant, misshapen cookie. In total, I made three cookie sheets worth of cookies, twenty-five and all. Of course, the last five cookies came out perfectly shaped. What a surprise.

Does anyone want to hear a fun fact? This was my first time baking cookies by myself! And from the general consensus of everyone who's tasted them, they are the definition of delicious. Ironically,  I thought that I had messed them up when I went to pull them from the oven. Rather then being a solid form, they were mushy, having the consistency of oatmeal. They were brown like the recipe said they'd be, but I had reservations about pulling them from the heat. So, I put them back in for another three minutes. After I pulled them out and let them cool, I cautiously cut them up, half expecting to see that I had burned the bottoms. I hadn't! I had totally just baked the my first solo batch of cookies and they had come out perfectly! Talk about a shock to my system.

Considering my cookie success, I plan on baking some more at another point in time. But for now, let's get back to why we are all here: Cupcakes! As for my next baking endeavor, I am gonna try and bake four different recipes all based off caramel cupcakes with a caramel center. Sound good? Well, I hope so 'cause that's what's I'm baking.

Until next time,
Jill

Monster Cookies

Yield: 26 large cookies

Prep Time: 45 minutes | Bake Time: 10-12 minutes per baking sheet

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 (4 ounces, or 1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1½ cups chunky peanut butter
4½ cups rolled oats
½ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup chocolate chips
¾ cup Reese’s Pieces
¾ cup M&M’s

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (If you don’t  have three baking sheets, just be sure to cool the ones coming out of the oven before placing more cookie dough on them. If I’m short on sheets I will run them under cold water to cool them down.)
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the eggs, both sugars, vanilla extract, corn syrup, baking soda and salt. Then stir in the melted butter and peanut butter, followed by the oats and flour. Lastly, stir in the chocolate chips, Reese’s pieces and M&M’s. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
3. Drop the dough by ¼ cupfuls onto baking sheets (if weighing, each ball of dough was approximately 2.7 oz or 77g). Use your fingers to flatten the dough slightly. Baking for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are a light golden brown. Cool on a rack and then store in an airtight container at room temperature.


*I accidentally bought corn starch so I just used 1 teaspoon of molasses
*I put them in the fridge to cool over-night so they wouldn't be too gooey. It worked out fine for me, but it's not necessary

Pineapple Sunshine Fun!

Before I begin today's post, I just want to give everyone a warning: There are no photos of the actual baking processes included in today's post. They will be included in my post tomorrow. Yes, I know, how totally unprofessional of me. However, I left my camera behind at my dorm and cannot go back and get. Alas, my librarian might be extremely lax in responsibility, however, even I cannot abandon my post to fetch my camera. On the plus side, I do have some photos on hand to post instead; see, problem solved. So lets get on with this thing!

Though it might be hard to believe, last week, the weather was totally perfect; warm, sunny, low to no wind. Just the absolute definition of perfection. At the same time, last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was my beloved Outing Club's kick-off series. We started Friday afternoon by bringing a rock wall to Clark's annual activities fair.

While many eager students awaited a chance to climb the wall, I ventured down the fair itself. The place was crazy with activity and student life. All the clubs were out, having a nonsensical blast as tunes that summoned nostalgia floated through the air. Somewhere out there exists a video of me and few other Clarkies dancing to the Cotton Eye Joe. Besides this is my friend Rachel posing with her fellow mustachioed friend. (Here's a hint, she's the one with the black stash).

 And here I am; posing besides the Outing Club's photo display. Doesn't it look awesome!

For part two of Outing Club's crazy weekend, my friend Therese performed an Outing Club first; she took me and bunch of other eager clubbers to the beach! And oh what a perfect day it was! We arrived just at the peak of low tide and over the next few hours, we all watched the tide come in.

It was a great day, especially for me who only went to beach one other time this past summer. The only draw back was that I received a brutal sun burn. Yea, I'll admit now that I can be a bit cocky when it comes to sunscreen. Usually I don't I wear any. Clearly, one can see how that life choice might come back to haunt to me. Lets just say that nearly a week later, I am now sporting a nice tan on my back and torso.

To bring the weekend to a close, the Outing Club took off on our first official hike of the year to Worcester's Boynton/Cascades. Though the cascades weren't cascading, the trip itself was awesome! It felt great to be surrounded in nature once again.

 A great feature of the Boynton/Cascades hike is that its an easy enough hike for even the most beginners of hikers, but at the same, an throw a few surprising curve balls. At the start of the trail, there is this sharp incline that follows alongside where the cascades should be. Interestingly enough, just a week before hand, the waterfall was gushing water. However, just there wasn't a cascade, didn't mean there wasn't any water.

 

Now I am sure you are wondering, just what do all of these pictures have in common with pineapple cupcakes? Well, last Wednesday, I stopped by the school's library just to see if there was chance there was any cookbooks hidden among the shelves. Naturally, the answer was no :( However, one librarian took an interest in my search and offered me her massive collection of cookbooks to search through whenever I need them. It was this kind librarian who produced the perfect recipe; Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes. And of course, the day I decided I bake these sweet little treats just so happened to be the day that the rain clouds decided to move in over Worcester. With cold rain pelting the city and washing away the remaining remnants of summer, it was nice to see the brightness of the pineapple and maraschino cherries that were included in the recipe.

In addition to being my first fruit based recipe, I decided to go ahead and break out my newly purchased mini muffin pan. At first I was concerned that the topping and batter would be too much for the small little pan, yet I somehow managed to avoid having an spillovers. Bright and full of deliciousness, these little treats brightened up the otherwise cold and rainy day. Talk about absolute perfection!

Special thanks to Debbie for finding this little gem for me!

Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes, by Norma Jean and 

Carol

 Topping:

4 tablespoons butter

7 tablespoons dark brown suar

1/2 crushed pineapple

6 maraschino cherries cut into slices

Cake Batter

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg, separated

1 cup, sifted cake flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter in a saucepan and add brown sugar, Cook over low flames until well blended, then stir in crushed pineapple, reserving juices. Pour about a teaspoon of this topping into the bottom of each greased miniature muffin cup and add a sliver of a red cherry. To prepare batter: Cream the butter, add the sugar, and bear until fluffy. Beat the egg yolk and add. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together; add alternatively with the pineapple juice. Add vanilla. Beat the egg white until stiff and fold into batter. Pour this batter over the topping and bake in a preheated 350 oven for 25 minutes, cool, then turn cupcakes carefully onto a cake plate. the pineapple side up.

Yeilds: 2 dozen miniature or 1 dozen regular cupcakes

So this makes 9 recipes, which means, 491 recipes to go! Oh yea, pushing the ten recipe landmark! Whoever thought I'd get this far?

As for what I plan on baking next time, stay tuned for tomorrows post, its gonna be a fun one!

So until next time,

Jill

At Last, that Peanut Butter Recipe (Sorry :P)

Yea, I know, I did something bad. I know I should have posted this a few days ago, but understand, I just started my junior year at Clark. Not only that, but my club responsibilities have just tripled with all the stuff the Outing Club has planned for the first two months of school. As for classes, well, the course load isn't too unbearable, but I know that that's gonna change soon. Everywhere I go, I carry around this little notebook that I just bought on a whim at Border's which ironically has become the notebook, aka, the thing to which my life is now dependent on. Anything and everything is getting written down in this little notebook and if I lost it, I can promise you that chaos would ensue. I can guarantee that this will be one notebook that I won't misplace, a tradition that I have kept up since middle school. I want to add that yesterday was Clark's Community and Engagement Services fair. Considering my impulsive personality, it's only natural that I would be the person who would go to every table and basically sell me and my cupcakes to the visiting organizations. Naturally, I won't be able to participate in many of them considering my lack of transportation and the fact that most of these organizations are too far to get to via walking. However, there was one organization that stood out to me that I knew would be a good fit for what I aspire to accomplish. It's the Boys and Girls Club located right here in Worcester. What's even better is that its one of the few places that my schools escort vans drives too (this is saying a lot since escort only has a .5 mile radius). I plan on emailing the representative that I spoke with yesterday who kindly wrote down the work baker next to my email address. Right now, I'm thinking about dropping cupcakes off at the club once a month. In addition, I would love to host some baking classes since I was assured that the B&G club had a great kitchen. Wouldn't that be cool?

Alright, I'm done distracting from the matter at hand. Once again, sorry for the delay of this post. Seriously. I hope you all enjoy it.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes. Taken from 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly

For cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened

1 cup superfine sugar 

2 cups self-rising flour

4 eggs

1 cup crunchy peanut butter (I used creamy)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 18 baking cups in pan. Combine the butter, sugar, flour, and eggs in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the peanut butter until well combined. Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pans from the oven and cool for about five minutes.

*For variation, add 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips with the peanut butter*

For frosting

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter, softened

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar; sifted

2 tbsp. milk

To make frosting, combine the peanut butter, butter, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer beat until light and fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Ad the confectioners' sugar along with the milk, and beat until well combined. Swirl the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes