Choc Nut Cupcakes

Just like peanut butter and jelly, certain foods just go together like a match made in heaven. Bacon and eggs, pancakes and maple, PB and J, these flavors are really meant for each other. Like loyal partners, they never let each other down, rather, they bring out the best in each other, forming a powerful combination of flavors. If ever there’s a Brangelina in the culinary world of flavor duos, it would definitely be peanut butter and chocolate. Who can resist the classic combination of bittersweet rich chocolate and lusciously creamy peanut butter? Here in the Philippines, there’s a famous local candy featuring the classic combination of chocolate and peanut, the Choc-Nut. Made with sugar, milk chocolate and peanuts, this sweet treat has been giving smiles to Filipinos for decades already. Therefore, it is just right that a cupcake version should be made to highlight this unassuming candy, making an already loved classic confection even more irresistible. Here’s the recipe:

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Classic French Chocolate Truffles

Hello February! It is that time of the year again when everyone gets sickeningly sweet and disgustingly romantic (notice the hint of bitterness?). So what could be more perfect than a chocolate post? This is just a repost of a recipe I have shared years ago, however, something as classic as chocolate truffles never go out of style.  So go on, whether your status is  ‘single’, ‘in a relationship’ or (hopefully not) ‘it’s complicated’, you deserve to have at least a bite of chocolate today… and tomorrow… and for the rest of your life!

A quick intro. The film Chocolat by Jesse Hallstrom inspired me to explore the world of chocolates. The way Vianne Rocher would whip up her chocolate concoctions was pure magic. No wonder, right after watching the movie, I was craving for chocolate treats.

These truffles were among the first chocolate desserts that I learned to make. Having no oven back then, it was very easy because it did not require baking. I searched different sites online to look for the “best” truffle recipe but I have noticed that they were almost the same. The main difference was the choclate-butter-cream ratios. I finally settled for the recipe from Martha Stewart and used her recipe as my inspiration for these deletable chocolate delights.

There were a few misses with the recipe that I followed though. For me, I find the ganache too soft, thus it was difficult to roll the truffles. I also ommited the part where I run the truffles into a thin layer of melted chocolate. For some strange reason, I could not succeed in this particular step. So after a couple of ratio experiments, I found my perfect ratio and discovered a step (by accident) which results into a soft and chewy ganache.

Here’s my recipe:

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Very Vanilla Cupcakes

According to Leonardo da Vinci, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. This is perhaps why posting a vanilla cupcake recipe is difficult.

The flavors of this cupcake rely on its simplicity. Unlike other cupcakes, a vanilla cupcake has nowhere to hide its flaws; no fancy frosting nor any sweet filling can mask a bad tasting vanilla cupcake. In order to be a good vanilla cupcake, it has to be simply good. It’s that … simple. Yes, the simplest of things can sometimes be the most complex of all.

In the world of cupcakes, it is said that you only have to master two flavors: vanilla and chocolate.

Perfecting these two basic flavors can create a smorgasbord of gastronomic wonders just by tweaking an ingredient or two. You will be amazed by the seemingly limitless supply of wondrous combinations.

For a vanilla cupcake, everything relies on the ingredients. Real butter is a must, and the same goes with vanilla. If you want great tasting cupcakes, use great tasting ingredients.

As mentioned earlier, nothing can mask a flawed cupcake therefore, it is imperative to have a trusted recipe.

Here’s mine:

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Darling! Cupcakes

A chocolate cupcake with a dulce de leche frosting, most people would assume it’d be called as such. Yet, why did I name it as so?

Well, let’s take a bit of a walk in my memory lane.

Back in high school, I used to buy this certain homemade candy called “yum-yum”, our local version of yema.  This delectable candy was sold by a friendly lady who never fails to call any of her customer “Darling!” (yes, with an exclamation point; she had that much enthusiasm). And because of this, most students have come to known her as Darling. I was one of her avid customers (at P3 for 2 pieces, it was a steal!)

Now, you all know that I’ve perfected my chocolate cupcake recipe. The great thing about chocolate is that it mixes well with a variety of flavors so, I’ve begun to experiment in making it even, uhmmm… yum-yummier.

Back to my past, growing up, I’ve always adored my Ahma’s Chocolate Decadence cake. It’s a chocolate cake, frosted with chocolate fudge icing and topped with a caramel glaze.

Looking into my previous posts, I’ve always been a fan of bite-sized treats and my grandmother’s cake is no exception; I just had to make a smaller version of this.

With that in mind, I wanted to incorporate yum-yum into my cupcakes; yum-yum, as delicious as it is, is a hard candy. I can’t necessarily use it as frosting as it’d be difficult to bite into along with the cupcake (believe me, I’ve tried). After endless contemplation, I’ve realized that the yum-yum was actually inspired from a more well-known sweet treat, dulce de leche!

Dulce de leche and yum-yum are pretty much the same; they only vary in texture, with dulce de leche being the softer version. I’ve tried using real yum-yum for the cupcakes and it was disastrous! The frosting was tough and chewy, and would not pipe well. It was a mess! By using dulce de leche, you still get the wonderful flavor of yum-yum with just the right smoothness in a frosting.

Lo and behold, I give you one of the products from my small kitchen:

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Homemade Dulce de Leche

 

Dulce de leche (or, DDL for short) is a classic South American confection that is prepared by slowly cooking sweetened milk in order to create a caramel-like product. Literally translated, it means ‘candy of milk’ or ‘candy made of milk’. A traditional recipe of DDL calls for a can of condensed milk to be boiled for hours until the contents caramelize and form a brown, viscous liquid.

Yes, you read it right – HOURS.

Depending on the consistency, it can take up to four hours to create this Latin goodness.

Personally, this takes too much time; so, I looked for ways to speed up the process and searching online directed me to the process of using a pressure cooker.
A bit of caution though,  a pressure cooker can be dangerous to use if you are not familiar with it thus it is important to have someone who knows how to use it help you with the process.
With that being said,  I’m coming clean – I didn’t make them myself. I am terrified of pressure cookers!!! So, I let some generous (and brave) souls do the work for me! I just gave the instructions on how to make dulce de leche.

So here’s the recipe:

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S’mores Cupcakes

I came up  with this idea simply because I love S’mores. Come on, who doesn’t love the flavors of luscious warm chocolate and sticky roasted marshmallows sandwiched in rich graham crackers? With these flavors in mind, I knew that turning this favorite camping snack into a cupcake will definitely be a winner.

When I celebrated my birthday last year, I wanted a new cupcake flavor to serve. Fresh from a stormy camping trip,  s’mores was my top choice. The concept was simple, chocolate cupcakes frosted with marshmallow fluff and topped with graham and chocolate bits. Looking back, I made pretty tasty cupcakes but I knew something was missing; I have yet to perfect the fluff and more importantly, the cupcakes!

When I finally discovered my new chocolate cupcake recipe, I knew I had to give my s’mores cupcake a second try. I also made necessary revisions with my marshmallow frosting along with the over all presentation of the cupcake.

Then I suddenly remembered something. A few years back, Jennifer Shea of Trophy Cupcakes made s’mores cupcakes in one episode of the Martha Stewart Show. I knew I had her recipe somewhere so I immediately searched for it in my little recipe folder. With my new chocolate cupcake and her recipe in hand, I finally perfected my S’mores cupcakes (which I consider one of my best cupcake recipes to date).

So, what makes up a S’mores cupcake? Here’s a diagram:

 

Now let me teach you how to make one. Here’s the recipe:

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Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

More than any other cupcake in the world, chocolate cupcakes are my absolute favorite. It’s the simplicity in the cupcake that makes it my ideal cupcake. It is also in it’s simplicity, however, that makes it tricky to make. Before this recipe, I have already tested 3 other recipes and all yielded wonderful cupcakes. But there would always be a ‘but’. One’s not chocolatey enough, the other one was too eggy and the other one was a bit dry. Although these three tasted great, it’s not the ultimate chocolate cupcake.

Then it hit me, chocolate cupcakes are just miniature chocolate cakes (duh!), so for really really good cupcakes, I just need a really really good chocolate cake recipe.

I have to look no further, my go-to chocolate cake recipe is a modified version of Ina Garten’s Beatty’s Chocolate cake. No buts, this recipe produces a soft, moist, and definitely chocolatey cupcakes. Not to mention a simple set of instructions. Although the original calls for an electric mixer, this particular recipe can be made with just a bowl and a whisk. Finally, I have found the recipe for my ultimate chocolate cupcake!

So why chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cupcakes? Simple, it’s a (1)chocolate cupcake, frosted with whipped (2) chocolate ganache, and finally drizzled with a (3) chocolate glaze. So that’s chocolate in THREE forms in ONE cupcake. What could be more chocolatey than that? Here’s the recipe:

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Classic Chocolate Truffles

This recipe is just a repost, this was already blogged years ago. However, something as classic as chocolate truffles never go out of style. And since it’s that time of the year again when everyone gets sickeningly sweet and disgustingly romantic (notice the hint of bitterness?), what could be more perfect than a chocolate post. So go on, whether your status is  ‘single’, ‘in a relationship’ or (hopefully not) ‘it’s complicated’, you deserve to have at least a bite of chocolate today… and tomorrow… and for the rest of your life!

A quick intro. The film Chocolat by Jesse Hallstrom inspired me to explore the world of Chocolates. The way Vianne Rocher would whip up her chocolate concoctions was pure magic. So it was no wonder that right after watching the movie, I was craving for chocolate treats.

These truffles were among the first chocolate desserts that I learned to make. Having no oven back then, this was rather very much easy because it does not require baking. I searched different sites online to look for the “best” truffle recipe but I have noticed that they were almost the same. The main difference was the choclate-butter-cream ratios. As fate would have it, as I was watching the Martha Stewart  show, she featured how to make the “best truffles”. So it was her recipe that I got my inspiration from.

There were a few misses with the recipe that I followed though. For me, I find the ganache too soft, thus it was difficult to roll the truffles. I also ommited the part where I run the truffles into a thin layer of melted chocolate. For some strange reason, I could not succeed in this particular step. So after a couple of ratio experiments, I found my perfect ratio and discovered a step (by accident) which results into a soft and chewy ganache. Here’s my recipe:

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Mini Blueberry Cheesecake

Cheesecakes intimidate me. To start with, it’s a sosyal food. Then it’s complicated to make (sort of) because you have to usually cook it in a bain-marie. Also, cream cheese is a bit pricey here in the Philippines. And I’m not really a fan of cheesecakes,  so  I never thought I’d ever make one.

But all of these changed when I chanced upon an episode of Anna Olson’s Fresh on the Asian Food Channel. She made mini lemon meringue cheesecakes and turned a complicated recipe into a simple one. First there was no bain-marie method involved (thank God!) and they were so tiny, so they cook fast. The serving portion is just perfect, and they were so cute to look at. With her recipe, I was determined to make one too.

As fate would have it, last Wednesday, we threw a surprise baby shower for my sister. It was my chance to try out her recipe. However, my sister’s having a baby boy, so color-wise, yellow wouldn’t go well with the theme. It has to be blue! (Last year, I made pink cupcakes for my other sister’s baby shower). So what is a blue cheesecake? Go figure!

Loosely-based on Anna Olson’s lemon meringue cheesecake recipe, here’s my mini blueberry cheesecake recipe:

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Red Bean and Vanilla Mochi Ice Cream

I did it! Finally, after months of trying to make one, I’ve finally had the courage to make one.

Of course, it wasn’t an easy process. Being my first try, I had a couple of problems. The original plan to wrap the vanilla ice cream with red bean paste before finally covering the filling with mochi. That didn’t go quite well. For some strange reason, the ice cream balls just wouldn’t re-freeze! So out of frustration, I folded the red bean paste into the vanilla ice cream instead. They really didn’t look great, but still tasted amazing. To form them into balls, I transferred the ice cream into my 3/4oz cupcake tins and made 12 singles.(Sorry, forgot to take pictures) After 36 hours in the freezer (yes, that long!), they were finally ready for some hot lovin’.

What I’ve learned in this process is that you have to always work with a fairly hot mochi dough. A cooled dough would not stretch and seal the edges when pinched. Believe me, I’ve learned the hard way! So, if you know a mochi recipe that works well even cold, please share them with me! 😉

I basically followed the mochi recipe I already have which I posted weeks ago. I just added half a recipe so I could make 12 mochis. For your convenience, here’s the recipe (again)

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