Dairy Milk Cupcakes

In pursuit of the perfect English chocolate cupcake, I present to you my third attempt. Although not perfect, I now know the next few tweaks that will get me closer to my goal. The frosting on this version is still the whipped ganache I used for version #2. We really like it. It’s not too sweet and it’s simple: melted chocolate and heavy cream. Unfortunately, I over-whipped this batch.  The base cupcake is Dorie Greenspan’s Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes with Dairy Milk substitutions. My first attempt at English chocolate cupcakes also used Dorie’s recipe and that has been our favorite over this course.

In the time since baking these, I baked a 4th version using a “perfected” chocolate cupcake recipe I pulled out of Food & Wine magazine  a few years ago and relegated to my magazine stack until now. I am sparing you all not sharing that version because although tasty, it wasn’t close to perfect. Until next time…

Photos by Paulrus

Orange-Buttermilk Dinner Rolls

Oh, magazine recipes.  In my quest to create order out of chaos and make recipes out of my magazine pile, I came across a recipe for Orange-Buttermilk Dinner Rolls. It hails from the November 2010 issue of Cooking Light and probably makes a lovely side for a Thanksgiving Dinner.

As it is, it’s barely March but still a very appropriate time for these rolls. As their name implies, the bread uses buttermilk and orange zest for flavor. They are delicious sliced in half, toasted, and served with an egg. They are also good plain.  The zest lends a fresh taste and the buttermilk it’s trademark tang. I  imagine they would be tasty with turkey and mashed potatoes too.

Orange-Buttermilk Dinner Rolls recipe

Photo by Paulrus

magazine recipes

I have a problem. I’m sure many of you have the same problem. Anytime I see a recipe I like in a magazine I rip it out and add it to the pile. I like a lot of recipes.
I’m slowly ending subscriptions to magazines and I don’t buy magazines at the store anymore so my pile of recipes isn’t growing as fast as it did in the past.
My pile currently resides in the library closet. By library I mean our spare room with piles of books, bags of old clothes that need to be donated, and junk that has no other home. Nothing as fancy as shelves.

How do you organize your magazine recipes? In the past I tried organizing by type. Now I think I’m going to try organization by month of publication. That way when it’s February 2014, I can look at my February pile and pick a seasonally appropriate recipe. I don’t know. I probably should just throw them all away. Until I do, I’m challenging myself to make two magazine recipes a month.

World Nutella Day 2012: Nutella-Swirl Pound Cake

Happy World Nutella Day! I’m excited to be back after missing last year’s celebration. I almost missed it again, having only realized it was happening a couple days ago.  I quickly searched for a recipe I could make that wasn’t too time-consuming and one that I had all the ingredients on hand.

Nutella-Swirl Pound Cake from Food & Wine fit the bill. Not only was it easy to bake, my swirl worked! I have a problem with swirl cakes. It’s got a pretty good swirl and a great taste. Not dry and the Nutella to cake ratio was perfect. No need for whipped cream or fruit with this cake. You can find the recipe HERE.

“Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso solemnly declare Sunday, February 5th “World Nutella Day 2012″ – a day to celebrate, to get creative with, and most importantly, to EAT Nutella.”

Photos by Paulrus

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Drunk Cherries

I’ve made these cookies and posted them using the name Bon Appetit used: Cherry and Chocolate Chip Cookies. I made them again and renamed these morsels of goodness to a more (in my opinion) appropriate name: Chocolate Chip Cookies with Drunk Cherries. You take dried cherries, soak them in kirsch, and add them to chocolate chip cookies.

Very popular with everyone.  For the recipe go HERE.