Chocolate Pie

Currently listening to: 500 Days of Summer Soundtrack

What I should be doing instead: Hm, nothing really

(Picture taken from Joy of Baking)

     This is seriously the best chocolate pie ever. And thanks to the Joy of Baking, where I got this recipe, I will never ever eat a Jell-O chocolate pie ever again (no offense, Jell-O). The picture above is not mine. I couldn't get a picture before it was viciously devoured by my family. I hope to get my own picture soon the next time I have a reason to make pie.

Graham Cracker Crust

1 1/4 cup graham crackers, crushed

2 tbsp sugar

5-6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Step 1

     Crush the crap out of those graham crackers with your fist/mallet/rolling pin/any other desired object, but be sure to keep them contained in a bag, we don't want a huge mess. 1 1/4 cup crushed graham equals about a whole packet (minus 1 or 2 crackers).

Lost in the land of cracker crumbs, don't get squished!

Step 2

     Put the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar in your pie pan and mix together with your hands. Then add the melted butter and mix with your hands more. Your hands are the best tool for this because you're gonna be squishing these crumbs into the pan to make a flat layer and going up the sides of the pan.

Step 3

     Now put the crust into the fridge while the oh-so-delicious filling is made.

Chocolate Pie Filling

Yeild: 1 - 9" pie

3/4 cup sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

1/3 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder

1/8 tsp salt

2 1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

4 large eggs yolks

4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp

Step 1

     Take out 2 large heatproof bowls (stuff like porcelain), 1 medium heavy saucepan, 1 large heavy saucepan, and a strainer. Also, take out and prepare all of your ingredients as it makes things a little easier and faster.

Step 2

     In a large heatproof bowl, whisk together your sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, and salt. Then whisk in 1/2 cup of milk until a thick paste is formed. Add your egg yolks to this paste one at a time until blended. Set this aside while you go to heat the rest of the milk and cream.

Step 3

     Rinse a medium-sized heavy saucepan with cold water and then shake it out to get rid of the water. This prevents your milk from scorching. Pour in the remaining 1 1/2 cups milk and 1/2 cup cream into the an. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-low heat then remove from the heat. Be sure to closely watch your milk/cream mixture, because if it boils over, then you have one nasty mess to clean up.

Step 4

     Add milk to the pasty-egg mixture, whisking constantly. Always remember to add hot stuff to cold stuff when it is involving eggs, if you try the other way around, then you end up cooking your eggs, ew.

Step 5

     Transfer the filling to a large heavy saucepan and place over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens to the consistency of mayonnaise (yum?). Be sure to be scraping the bottom and corners of the pan to make sure nothing gets burned. I like to use a heatproof spatula :)

This smooth liquid mixture turns into....

...this thick kinda lumpy mixture.

Step 6

     Remove your filling from the heat and pour through a fine strainer into a large heatproof bowl. This will remove any lumps (which for me, a lot showed up and I freaked out the first time I made this pie, but don't worry!)

Step 7

     Add your chopped chocolate, vanilla, and room-temp butter to the filling and stir with a spatula until smooth. Then cover with plastic wrap and let cool to room temperature.

Yummmmm

Step 8

     After the filling has cooled, pour it into your graham cracker crust. Let this delicious pie sit overnight in the fridge and in the morning you'll have a delicious chocolately breakfast! Or you can do the patience thing and wait to eat it later, psh.

You can add whipped cream as a nice topper. In my first pie, I piped it on like the way Joy of Baking did, but the second time I made the pie, I got a little lazy and let people serve their own whipped cream.

By the way, sorry for the delay in posting this. Blogger or iPhoto don't really want to make my photo posting easy and convenient, dumb. Anyways, up next will be my Oreo cake pops!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy 5th day of Hanukkah everyone!

I got a lot of baking goodies this year. My bestie got me a 'surprise' cupcake pan, so I might be baking some peanut butter cup or cookie dough cupcakes soon :) My boyfriend's mom got me stuff to make cake pops, which I have never tried before and I'm very excited to venture into that!

In my next post I'm gonna be sharing my recipe for chocolate pie <3 But first, I'm gonna eat it tonight with the fam!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday with their friends, family, and loved ones! Now look at this adorable picture of my dog, Oso (which was my surprise Christmas present 2 years ago).

Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies

Currently listening to: A Very She & Him Christmas
What I should be doing instead of this: Filling out my DSHR app for the Red Cross

     This is a very very very very very easy recipe. I enjoy an easy recipe, especially when it yields a yummy result.






Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies
(Recipe taken from the side of a Duncan Hines cake box)
Yeild: 2 1/2 dozen


1 box of Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup melted butter (let it cool a bit)
2 eggs
Half bag (or 3/4 of the bag if you're like me) of Nestle's dark chocolate and mint chips


Step 1
    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Yeah!


Step 2
    Throw all these ingredients together in a medium bowl and mix. Wow, wasn't that easy! But wait, make sure the butter isn't piping hot when it mixes with the eggs, we wouldn't want scrambled eggs in our cookies now would we? Unless that's the flavor that you're going for, then go for it...

Can I have some now please?

Step 2

    Place the cookies on a cookie sheet giving them a good distance between each other, these cookies spread out pretty far. Look at my picture if you want a good reference (as I am not good at estimating measurements).

Step 3
     Cook the cookies for about 10 minutes, which will give you a pretty chewy cookie with a crispy edge. Be sure to remove these cookies from the pan pretty quickly as it can make the bottoms a bit too overcooked.

Now there you have some speedy minty and chocolate-y cookies! I love this chocolate cookie recipe because I can change out the chips...peanut butter chips, semisweet chips, white chocolate chips... All the possibilities!

Tips and Tricks

So, I decided that I needed to add a tips and tricks post instead of writing my tips and tricks into each recipe I put up.

So here is my #1 Tip: ROOM TEMPERATURE EVERYTHING (unless otherwise stated). This can really make or break a recipe.

• So you need room temperature butter... thankfully there are microwaves around because this is how I do most of my butter. I don't really plan my baking ahead of time and don't wanna wait the normal 30 minutes for butter to get room-temp. Also, sometimes room-temp isn't always perfect because of these things called seasons, and it tends it get kinda roasty during the summer in my whereabouts. So for my butter, I just toss 1 stick into the microwave for 7 seconds, flip it, and then do another 7 seconds. This normally gets me the consistency that I like.
• Room temperature eggs -- can't really toss these guys into a microwave, but what you CAN do is to put them into a bowl of lukewarm warm water and wait for the magic to happen... well, it's not really magical, the eggs just get to room temp faster.
• Milk -- you can microwave this... or take out the amount you need and it reaches room temp pretty quickly.

Tip #2: No buttermilk? No problem. Just take 1 cup of milk and add 1 tbsp of lemon juice or white vinegar, then let it set for a couple minutes. Wham! There you got your buttermilk! As with all substitutions, you won't yield perfect results, but its better than nothing.

Tip #3: I love love love this website for all my substitutions: Joy of Baking Substitutions. They've got almost everything in there!

Tip #4: If you want a quality product, use quality ingredients. Now I don't do this with all of my baked goodies because I kinda don't care. I only care when it is 1 flavor and it needs to make an impression, for example: chocolate pie. Gotta use the good stuff to make a wonderfully delicious chocolate pie!

Tip #5: Always, always, always add hot stuff to cold when it involves eggs. And do it slowly while whisking... unless you're going for the cooked scrambled egg flavor ;)


I'll slowly add to this list as I think of things!

Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

Currently listening to: Christmas jams on XM radio!

What I should be doing instead of this: Nothing!

Yummm

      So this recipe is my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe when I'm in a rush and need to pound out some cupcakes. It's a very easy recipe and produces a nice moist cupcake.



Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes
(Recipe adapted from Hershey's)
Yield: about 2 dozen regular cupcakes

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs (room temp)
1 cup buttermilk (room temp) **
1 cup strong black coffee (freshly brewed and warm)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp peppermint extract (this can be vanilla extract if you want a regular cupcake)
Chocolate chips


Step 1
    Preheat that oven to 350 degrees! And then maybe line your cupcake pan with some liners, it makes life easy.



Step 2
    Now, add together all the dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt). Yes, there is no creaming of butter and sugar in this recipe, you just need to mix up these dry guys.


Step 3
    Ok, now we add all the wet ingredients to the dry. Beat for a couple of minutes on medium speed. I find that my spatula-mixer-paddle works wonders with this recipe...and I really need to find out the proper name of my mixer paddle.


Step 4
    The batter will be very thin, so the best way to distribute the batter into the liners would be to put it in an liquid measuring cup with the lip on it for pouring. After you have evenly distributed the batter into the liners, add about 4-5 chocolate chips to each cupcake (these will sink to the bottom and be a nice surprise!). Then put those puppies into the oven for 15 minutes! And BAM easy cupcakes. Now for the frosting after they cool down...




Peppermint Frosting
2 - 3 cups powdered sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp peppermint extract
1/4 cup milk
A couple of crushed candy canes for garnish


Step 1
    Whip up the room temperature butter until it is light and fluffly (~2mins). Then slowllllyyyyyyy add the powdered sugar until desired sweetness.


Step 2
    Add in the extracts and milk and continue to beat the frosting until it is a lovely fluffy cloud of sugary goodness.


Step 3
    Put the frosting in to a piping bag (or a zip lock bag with the corner cut off) and pipe onto your cupcakes. Then garnish with the crushed candy canes!

There, we've got our cupcakes that are perfect for the holidays :) Chocolatey, pepperminty, and incredibly easy. Yum!

**Note: If you don't have buttermilk chillin' in your fridge, or you're just feeling downright lazy, or don't wanna run to the store, you can just take some regular milk and add 1 tbsp of lemon juice or white vinegar to it. Let it set for a couple minutes and BAM homemade "buttermilk"**

I'm going to try this blogging thing again!

So I don't know if I am much of a blogger since my last post was in March, heh, and then I have one half of a post that I never finished, but I do have a folder loaded full of cupcake pictures that I have taken. So while I wait for my next baking adventure, I might share my pictures and recipes (and this blogging page to more friends).

Also, I'm gonna share recipes that aren't only cupcake recipes because I like all kinds of baking :)

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting

Currently listening to: Lily Allen Pandora station

What I should be doing instead of this: Studying up on chest tubes and preparing for my simulation class tomorrow

Wanna bite?

     Now this recipe is one of my absolutely favorite chocolate cupcake recipes because the cupcakes stay so moist and chocolatey, they are delicious! And who couldn't love the delectable combination of Guinness and chocolate?! And since it was St.Patty's day, an excuse to drink excessively, why not make the famous irish car bomb in cupcake form? Here is the recipe kids! And it is fairly simple.


Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes
(Recipe from S.F Food Wars)
Yield: about 18


1 cup Guinness
1 cup unsalted butter (cut in to chunks)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs (room temp)
2/3 cup sour cream (room temp)


Step 1
    Preheat oven to 350 degrees! Whew, tough step ;)


Step 2
    Put butter chunks (what a lovely word...) and Guinness in a saucepan over medium heat and bring it to a simmer.

Step 3
     While the butter and Guinness are forming a beautiful concoction, whisk (or use a fork like me because I don't own a whisk) together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.

Step 4
     The Guinness and butter should be simmering by now, so add that unsweetened cocoa powder! Whisk (or fork) until it becomes smooth. Put off to the side to cool, or so you won't be tempted to taste it (trust me, it tastes bad right now so don't do it!).

Step 5
     Now if you're lucky like me and have a Kitchenaid mixer, this is the time to use that sucker! Mix the room temperature sour cream and eggs in the mixer until smooth. Now the Guinness-butter-chocolate mixture should be cooled down. It is essential that this mixture is cool because we don't want to dump it in to the mixing bowl with the eggs and end up cooking them, that would be terrible.

Step 6
     Now this is the time to add the dry flour-sugar-baking soda-salt mixture to the chocolatey-Guinness-y goodness. Add slowly as to prevent a cloud of dry ingredients.

Yum! By the way, I have a bowl-scraper
spatula mixer piece that does wonders when
baking. I never have to scrape the sides anymore!

Step 7
     Put paper liners in your cupcake tray and prepare for the pouring! Since this batter is more liquid, I recommend putting it in to a liquid measuring cup to help with the pouring. Unless you like to make a mess and lick up clean up the mess later. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full and put in to the oven for 15 minutes. 

Now I'm picky with baking times because I'm used to using different ovens. I always put it in shorter than the recommended time and take a peeksy at my little cake buddies. If they are still jiggly, no good, keep it in the oven. If they are set with a little moist/wet spot in the center, perfect! I also do the toothpick (or fork if toothpick isn't around haha, this is college baking!) trick, stick the toothpick/fork in to the center of the cupcake and it should come out mostly (my preference) clean. You don't have to listen to my jibber jabber though and just do the 15 minutes, you should be good :)

Perfect! And it smells soooooooooo good in the house! This recipe made me about 18 cupcakes.




Now for the frosting. I normally go willy nilly on my frostings and kind of wing it. I don't follow very many frosting recipes because they are always wayyy too sweet. I am not a huge sweet frosting lover. I get headaches from that sweet stuff, ugh. Anways, on to the frosting! And sorry I didn't take any pictures of this... I got a little excited and forgot.


Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter room temp
3-5 tbsp Bailey's Irish Cream (or irish cream equivalent)
Green food dye (optional)


Step 1
     Whip up the room temperature butter until it is light and fluffy. And easy way to get room temp butter is to put it in the microwave for 7 seconds, flip it, and then do another 7 seconds. It should be perfect. Or leave it out for about 30 minutes, but make sure it doesn't get too mushy especially during those warm summer months.


Step 2 
     Very slowly add the powdered sugar and alternate with the Bailey's every so often. Add sugar until desired sweetness and add Bailey's until desired booze/flavor levels. This give you the excuse to keep dipping your (hopefully clean) fingers in to the frosting to test!


Step 3
     Once desired flavor is attained, now add some green food dye. I use the really concentrated stuff and I just added very little bit. For those who use the grocery store liquid kind, add a couple drops until desired greenness, but make sure not to add too much because it will leave a food coloring flavor (ew). There won't ever be a perfect dark green because the color of the frosting lightens it.


Step 4
     FROST AWAY! I added my frosting to a piping bag with a star tip on it. If you want to pipe your frosting, you can always use a ziplock bag with the corner cut off. Or you can just use a knife to keep it simple! Here you can add sprinkles too if you want.

Now.... ENJOY!






I hope my first cupcaking-baking blog went well!

Welcome!

Alright. I have been wanting to start a cupcake/baking/yummy goodness blog for a while for all the goodies I bake. I plan to put up recipes and step-by-step pictures of my baking process... And of course, the end results :) Let's see if I can keep up with this!

Also, I wanna slowly put up older pictures of my cupcakes just to keep on here.

Let's see how I do blogging!