Amaretto Almond Cupcakes

This is a delightful cupcake recipe we tried a few months back. They are moist and flavourful. As usual I do make alterations to recipes after a first go and gave it my own twist. Since making this original recipe found at Canadian Living: Almond Cupcakes, I have changed once again, a few items.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter,softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp almond extract (plus 1 tsp Amaretto Liquer)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (I substituted buttermilk)

Preparation:
In large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy; beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in almond extract and amaretto. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt, stir into butter mixture alternately with milk, making 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of milk. Spoon into paper-lined or greased muffin cups. Bake in 350°F (180°C) oven until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to rack; let cool.

I iced them with Buttercream Icing infused with Amaretto. (A basic Buttercream can also be found on the Canadian Living site. My recipe is very similar with a few differences.

ButterCream flavoured Ameretto Icing
3/4 cup butter (room temperature)
3 cups icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)
1-2 tablespoons cream (I use whipping cream or 18% coffee cream, half/half)
2 tsp Ameretto
1/2 tsp almond extract


Whip the butter until fluffy, slowly add 1 cup icing sugar until well blended. Add the Ameretto, and almond extract and whip well. Continue adding the icing sugar, alternating 1/2 cup at a time with a little cream, until fully blended. Continue whipping on high speed for another minute or so and ice the cupcakes once they have completely cooled. Top with a piece of sliced almond.


My lovely daughter learning the ropes.

This post can not be completed without thanking my friend Todd, who left a comment on my status one day about adding amaretto to my almond muffins. Thanks Todd!!!

Coconut Cream Pie

I have a serious addiction to coconut cream pie. Key Lime pie is up there as well, but coconut cream pie is my downfall.

I've never actually made one before as I generally only indulge when we order chicken from Swiss Chalet (which is rarely).

I had a real hankering one night after online chatting with a friend, who was in the middle of making one. It was one of those had to have, need to have right now kind of cravings. I didn't have anything available to make one, the stores were all closed so I suffered.

Trying to find a good coconut cream pie in a grocery store is not an easy task so I decided to make one.

I looked at a few recipes online and decided to try one. It turned out alright but the filling was somewhat runny. I made some changes to the recipe and the following is my improved recipe.

This one is pretty good on the coconut cream scale. I may tinker some more or if anyone has any suggestions to improve this one I'll gladly accept but all in all, quite simple to make and very tasty.

Edited to add some details after watching my pretty coconut cream pie disappear in record time tonight. The changes I made were killer!!! Even husband who is not a big fan of coconut said it was absolutely delish!! YAY me. I had a slice and will admit...it was good...very very good.

Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk
approx 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
2 eggs plus one egg yolk
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flaked coconut, toasted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Crust:
1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter

Topping:
1-2 cups real whipped cream

Directions:
Pour coconut milk into a large measuring cup. Add half and half until you reach the 3 cup mark. Add the eggs and egg yolk and mix well.

Pour into a medium saucepan and add sugar, cornstarch, salt. Whisk this mixture completely until totally smooth. (I take some of the milk/half and half and combine with the cornstarch in a seperate bowl until smooth and add it to the saucepan to ensure no lumps.

Bring to a boil over low/medium heat stirring constantly and remove from heat when boiled or getting thick.

Add the coconut flakes, and vanilla, combine well.

Pour into prepared pie shell and cool for 2-4 hours until set.

Top with whip cream and sprinkle additional flaked coconut on top.

I pipe the whip cream on with a large tip on the icing bag just to make it look pretty.

For the crust: Combine graham crumbs with melted butter and press onto the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. Refrigerate of put aside until you need it.

This has instantly become a family favorite. (My daughter is off school today and busy stirring the mixture in the kitchen while I type this) If you filling gets lumpy while on the stove whisk it well. One thing we have done in the past is take the handblender to it to before adding the coconut flakes and pouring into the prepared shell to ensure a smooth filling.

Here you see the mixture warming on the stove (Ignore my plank of wood, we had a piece of granite fall off the endcap, so this is my temporary solution until the granite comes in.

Once it’s thickened you pour it into your prepared shell

Once it has cooled for a couple of hours, top with whip cream, and sprinkle some more coconut on it.

My husband and oldest son have just requested I attempt a key lime pie next time. Perhaps that will be the goal next week. ….. in the meantime I need to finish preparing dinner, and make some Ameretto Almond Cupcakes.

Hopscotch Brownies (Caramel/Butterscotch Brownies)

I began my love of the kitchen as a child. My mother would let me help her make cookies, and cakes and such. When I was about 10, friends from Ireland came to visit for the summer. With them they brought me a cookbook called "The Kitchen Wizard", complete with matching apron. A treasure of a book full of fun recipes for kids. I made sponge toffee, pull taffy, hard candies, all kinds of treats. It was a challenge though as all the measurements were in metric/grams. Managed to convert my favorites and now fortunately have a conversion scale in the kitchen.
Clearing out some old boxes I found my beloved childhood recipe book. It brought back many fond memories of the hours spent in the kitchen with my mom and friends.

This was always one of my favorite recipes. It has actually been doubled as my son has it to memory and dictated it to me. He has taken over the Butterscotch Brownie tradition in the house and has mastered it. If you wish a smaller batch cut the recipe in half.
By the way, he has announced I must credit him with mastering the perfect brownie, so I shall, as he does indeed make a perfect butterscotch brownie.

Butterscotch Brownies Recipe

1/2 cup butter
2 cups light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs (large)
1 1/2 cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup crushed pecans (optional)

Melt butter in a medium saucepan at medium.

Enter in the brown sugar and stir the mixture until all the brown sugar becomes wet from the melted butter.

Put the eggs into the substance with the vanilla extract and continue to stir until neither are visible.

Add the flour, baking powder, and salt into the mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are fully mixed and the substance will appear a light brown colour that is a little difficult to mix.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Pour the mixture into a parchment paper lined 9 X 13 cakepan and make sure that the mixture covers the entire bottem of the pan.

When the oven is ready, put the cakepan into the oven for 25 minutes.

When ready, let the brownies cool and cut after about 10-15 minutes. These are really good cooled but absolutely amazing when still warm.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention how wonderful this old cookbook is. It is now out of print but is titled Kitchen Wizard by Deborah Jarvis. I must thank Ms. Jarvis for introducing me to my love of baking in a fun entertaining way. The book is divided into sections to teach kids how to prepare ingredients such as "Basic Abracadabra", and Tricks of the Trade.

The recipes are divided into fun sections such as A Munchkin Brunch, Lunch in Lilliput, Huckleberry Finn Raft Picnic, A Boston Tea Party, Smugglers Snacks, Dinner with Davy Crocket, and Eskimorsels. All recipes have fun names such as "Flying Monkey Muffins", "Playing Hookey Cookies", and Huckleberry Buckle. My daughter now uses my old Apron and Deborah is now passing this love on to another generation. If anyone ever sees a copy of this in a used book store be sure to pick it up. It's wonderful.

Vanilla Cupcakes - Cupcake of the Day

Vanilla is a wonderful essence. The scent can be so soothing and relaxing and the flavour of real vanilla is sheer delight.

I often purchase real vanilla pods when I can find them for a reasonable price. I use the seeds in homemade icecream and sometimes cupcakes. The empty pods can then be placed in a small airtight container with some sugar. The flavour of the vanilla will infuse the sugar and can be used for a refreshing change to your morning coffee.

Today we have made traditional Vanilla Cupcakes. As usual I substitute milk for buttermilk. It's low fat and somehow, just makes baking taste better. Most of my recipes can use regular milk, but I will always specify that I have substituted the buttermilk in from the original recipe. You can make your own buttermilk. Take a cup of regular milk, add 1/2 tsp of lemon juice and mix it up. Leave it for about 5 minutes and that will do the job.



Ingredients:
1/2 cup of butter (or margarine)
2/3 cup of granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure Vanilla extract (the original recipe calls for 1 tsp. I like a stronger vanilla flavour)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (sifted)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup buttermilk

Mix butter and sugar until a little fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each egg addition. Continue to mix on med-high speed until fluffy. Add the buttermilk

In a seperate bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add the flour until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and give it another little mix. The batter is quite thick.

Take a large spoon and drop into lined muffin cups. This recipe will yield exactly 12 average sized cupcakes. Fill the cupcake liners approx 2/3 of the way up.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for approx 23-25 minutes. Check centers with a toothpick after 23 minutes. Remove from oven and let cupcakes cool completely on a baking rack prior to icing.

Buttercream Icing
1/2 cup butter (or butter flavoured Crisco if you desire)
2 cups of icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
1 tsp pure Vanilla
1-2 tablespoons cream (or milk)

Whip the butter and add 1/2 cup of icing sugar. Whip until well combined. Add the vanilla at this point and whip again, scraping the sides of the bowl. Add the remaining icing sugar 1/2 cup at a time (unless you want to end up with white powder all over your kitchen...ha ha), continuing until all the sugar has been added. Continue whipping for approximately one minute. Add the cream and whip again for about 2-3 minutes or until light and fluffy. You can add any food colouring gel to this recipe if desired. Today, teen son chose Lime Green for a colour.

Prepare your icing bag. If you don't have any icing bags use a sandwich bag or freezer bag and simple cut the corner (very small) for an impromptu round tip icing bag.

When the cupcakes are cooled pipe the icing onto the cupcakes any way you wish. This part is great fun for the kids if you want to get them involved in the project.

As mentioned above. I increase the vanilla ration on this one. I also will try this using some seeds from a vanilla pod next time I think and drop the measurement back down to 1 tsp.

It was vanilla day here as we also made Vanilla frozen Yogurt. I pretty much used up all my vanilla pods on that one. The Frozen Yogurt turned out fabulously. It was the first time we made that recipe from "125 Best Ice Cream Recipes" by Marilyn Linton and Tanya Linton. Many of the recipes in there I use as a base but change up the ingredients for more flavourful icecream. We have a Kitchenaid Ice Cream maker bought at (you guessed it), Golda's Kitchens. It's a pretty good machine all things considered for home use.