Cupcake Cookie with Peanut Butter Buttercream

My good friend Gwen from DC was in town visiting, and I wanted to whip something up in anticipation of her arrival. So, I decided to experiment a little since Gwen is a bit of a baking connoisseur. I aimed to please.

I’ve done a very similar recipe in the past. I mean, just look up at my banner and you’ll see the brownie version, with a peanut butter topped oreo inside. But after a few times baking the brownies, I wanted to do more. So, today, I gave the recipe a bit of a remix, and decided to go with a cupcake mix from scratch, with an oreo cookie inside and finished it off with a peanut butter buttercream on top. And boom, now you have what I like to call the cupcake cookie.

Easy to make and definitely a delicious treat. Happy baking and enjoy.

Chocolate Cupcakes – 12-14 cupcakes

• 1 stick of butter, room temperature
• 1 to 1 1/4 cup sugar (depends on how sweet you want it to be)
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup milk (I personally use 1% in my household. Use whatever you prefer)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Process

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees, then turn it down to 350 once cupcakes are in.
• Cream the butter until smooth and well blended. Then add sugar. Mix about 2-3 minutes.
• Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until well incorporated.
• In a separate bowl, combine your dry ingredients (baking powder, cocoa, flour) and whisk together.
• Add a portion of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar and mix it just to combine. Add portion of the liquids (milk & vanilla) and mix to combine. Continue adding the dry and wet ingredients, making sure you end with the dry. Mix well, scrapping bowl often.
• Once mixed, with a spoon add a little bit of the batter to cupcake liners (there’s no exact science here, you just want to coat the bottom of the liners). Then place double stuffed Oreo cookie (I live in Wegman’s country and use the double stuffed Wegman’s O’s and they taste the same) in each liner, pressing slightly so batter covers sides of the cookie. Add remaining batter to each liner, covering cookie completely. Each liner should be 2/3 full. Bake for 18-22 minutes.
• Allow to cool, then frost

Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

• 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
• 1 stick of butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk (or light cream)
• 1/4 cup peanut butter (you can add more, depending on taste. 1/4 cup gives you a nice peanut butter finish without being overwhelming).

Process

• Cream the butter until smooth and well blended.
• Add the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, gradually mix in the sugar.
• Add the milk and mix on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).
• Add peanut butter. Mix for an additional 2 minutes or so.

‘Tis The Season: Santa Hat Brownies

 

Santa Hat Brownies. Scratch made brownies as the base, a strawberry with a Mascarpone buttercream. The sweetest thing on earth (no literally). Ha! But delicious nonetheless.

A pretty simple recipe that I got over at daisy’s world. If you want to do a boxed brownie mix, that’s cool. I like to do my brownies from scratch. The butter cream is very sweet. Be mindful of that and I’d give it a taste after every cup added. Other than that, I wouldn’t change anything. If you don’t want to do the Mascarpone buttercream, a cream cheese icing would probably be delicious too.

Enjoy. Happy baking. And happy holidays.

Here’s my brownie recipe (if you decide to do it from scratch). For the mascarpone buttercream recipe and assembling instructions, head over to daisy’s world by clicking here.

• 1 cup butter (I’ve seen that some folks substitute with oil or do half oil/half butter. I haven’t tried this but when/if I do, I’ll update you)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 whole eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ⅔ cups cocoa powder
• 1 cup flour
• ½ teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoons baking powder

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Melt butter (I do this over medium heat).
• Combine ingredients in the order listed and stir by hand (I use a wooden spoon)
• Bake for 25-30 minutes (use the tooth pick trick to determine if brownies are done)

Adapted from Best Basic Brownie

Hello World x Cheesecake Squares

My grandfather and I at some point in the 80's.

For the last 8 months or so my full time gig has been in a bakery, working mostly with breads. An interesting career change for a guy with graphic design, journalism, youth work and logistic management under my belt. But it has been my experience in the bakery that has inspired me to experiment with desserts in the spare time I have outside of work. By no means am I a professional (yet). As it pertains to baking sweets, I’d consider myself more of an amateur baker (with plenty of experience devouring baked goods and other desserts in the last three decades). I’m learning and perhaps you’d love to learn along with me.

Over the last few months I’ve been asked to share some of the recipes I’ve discovered and tried, by way of a blog. I was a bit hesitant but decided to give it a go. After a lot of thought (and tons of input), I decided on the name Crawford Stanley Eats. Crawford is my grandfather, and he was (is) an important part of my life, and so I move forward with this site, having him in mind. I’ll share here some baking, non-baking, sweets, breads and more. It should be a fun adventure for all.

So, to kick things off, I wanted to share one of my favorite recipes. I can’t recall where I got this one from but it was one of my first attempts on the dessert baking side of things. It’s delicious and easy.

Cheesecake Squares

Crust:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine (I always use butter. Be sure that it’s at room temp)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I don’t include the nuts but kept it in as an option if you want to)

Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a large mixing bowl combine flour, brown sugar and butter. Beat at low speed, scraping the bowl often, until mixture is crumbly.
• Stir in nuts (If you decide to go this route)
• Reserve 1 cup of mixture for the topping.
• Press remaining mixture into the bottom of an 8″ square pan. Bake crust for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.
• In a small mixing bowl, combine all filling ingredients. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until smooth.
• Spread filling over hot crust.
• Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.
• Continue baking for 23 to 30 minutes or until golden brown (a lesson I’ve learned from baking bread; you can always add time but you can’t take it away. Start at 18 minutes and add from there. Depending on your oven, times may vary. Golden brown is the key to the game).
• Cool. Cut into squares.
• Store refrigerated.