Ingredients:

1 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 T. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1 large egg

1/2 c. milk

1/3 c. sugar

1/4 c. vegetable oil

1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1 pint fresh blueberries

1.  Preheat oven to 400.

2.  Whisk together the flour, powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl.  Create a well and pour in the egg, milk, oil, and cinnamon; stir until just moistened.  Gently fold in blueberries.  Spoon into prepared muffin cups.

3.  Bake for 17-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Makes 6 muffins.

Now of course I thought I was a trailblazer in this thought and only surfed the web for guidance in each component piece of the treat.  Spolier alert: I wasn’t.  In fact I found no fewer than 30 different recipes devoted to the concept and it was then up to me to weed through them and make a decision on which recipe to follow.  I decided to go with the one I found at Brown Eyed Baker and while I did make a couple of substitutions based on necessity I think the cupcake really embodied the essence of the holiday.  The chocolate stout cake was dense and moist, the whiskey ganache filling was rich and potent, and the Irish creme frosting was creamy and went straight to the head. 

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes  adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Prep Time: 40 minutes | Bake Time: 17 minutes

For the Cupcakes:
1 cup stout beer (I used Alameda Brewing Co.’s Black Bear XX Stout)
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoons salt
3 eggs
1/3 cup sour cream

For the Whiskey Ganache Filling:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (I may have used 10 yr. single malt Scotch – I know someone is turning in their grave)

For the Baileys Frosting:
1 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons Irish Cream (or more to taste)

1. To Make the Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring the Stout and butter to a simmer in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to combine. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream on medium speed until combined. Add the chocolate-stout mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and beat briefly. Using a rubber spatula, fold the batter until completely combined. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners. Bake until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a rack.

3. To Make the Whiskey Ganache Filling: Finely chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then, using a rubber spatula, stir it from the center outward until smooth. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined. Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped.

4. To Fill the Cupcakes: Using a small teaspoon scoop the centers out of the cooled cupcakes, going about one-third of the way down. Using the same teaspoon, spoon the ganache into the cupcakes.

5. To Make the Baileys Frosting: Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar until all of it is incorporated. Add the Baileys, increase the speed to medium-high and whip for another 2 to 3 minutes, until it is light and fluffy.

6. Frost the cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles, if desired.  Store the cupcakes in an airtight container.

It’s like Grandma’s fudge. It was hard as a rock and sent more people to the dentist than off to a slumber filled with dancing sugar plums, but it was tradition. Eventually we figured out that there might be a more concrete methodology to fudge-making (no pun intended) than Grandma’s approach of dumping all ingredients in the pot at the same time and then dropping the pan in the snow to cool/morph into a fudge-flavored rock. So I sought a new direction with the blackberry pie.

Mom always cooks the blackberries, encasing the berries in a thick, syrupy sauce. Then she’d pour the hot filling into the pie crust and bake until bubbly. The resulting pie was pale, sometimes a bit soft and soggy, but wonderful covered in milk the next morning.

After consulting a few cookbooks (in particular Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything”) I came to a few conclusions:

1. Blackberries need not be cooked in advance

2. Blackberries need not be over-sugared

3. The pie crust should be treated with respect

4. The pie should be baked at two different temperatures

While I’m still playing around with pie crusts, the resulting pie was wonderful and consumed quickly. I made it again recently for a girl’s night and it was again enjoyed quickly with dollops of whipped cream – not drowned in milk.

New Traditional Blackberry Pie

Ingredients:

Pie crust/dough of Choice, rolled out, enough for top and bottom

6 c. frozen blackberries, thawed

½ c. granulated sugar plus additional for dusting

3 T. cornstarch

1 lemon

Milk

1.  Preheat oven to 400°.  Place pie crust in buttered pie plate.  Poke holes in crust.

2.  In a large bowl, gently fold blackberries, sugar, cornstarch, and juice from lemon together.  Pour filling into pie crust.

3.  Top with remaining pie dough.  Cut to vent – we always cut a happy face with freckles.  Using a pastry brush, coat pie crust with milk and sprinkle sugar on top.

4.  Bake at 400° for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350° and bake for an additional 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool completely.  Top with whipped cream.  Or, if you must, drown in milk.

That being said, it was kind of fun to cook for myself.  It gave me the license to use ingredients that I typically avoid because of Hubbs aversion to all things seeded.  (i.e. eggplant, squash, etc.)  And I did pick up a few good tips while cooking solo.  For example, Rule #1 of cooking for one: don’t buy produce at Costco.  You’d think this would be a fairly simple concept to digest and yet I still somehow ended up seduced by the allure of a giant bag of bananas.  I figured I could incorporate them into my standard oatmeal breakfast, throw some peanut butter on them for an afternoon snack, and get them finished by the week’s end.  And of course the week ended and I was the proud owner of 5 freckled bananas.

So naturally this week’s recipe search revolved around the fruit.  I was leaning toward this banana biscotti recipe or some sort of cookie bar.  But then Hubbs showed up (for good this time!) with a moving truck full of things I’d missed including my trusty cupcake carrier.  Suddenly a banana cupcake seemed in order, and I found a highly touted recipe from Bon Apetit Magazine.

But what to top it with?  Bon Apetit suggest peanut butter buttercream.  Others suggest some form of chocolate frosting, be it ganache or otherwise.  My final selection: Nutella buttercream.  And the final product, I must tell you, was entirely consumed by my co-workers before noon.  Now the only problem I have is what to do with the remaining Nutella buttercream frosting…

Banana Cupcakes from Bon Apetit Magazine

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 very ripe large bananas, peeled

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line 12 standard (1/3-cup) muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Mash bananas with fork in another medium bowl until smooth. Mix sour cream and vanilla into bananas.

Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and egg yolk and beat until well blended. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with banana-sour cream mixture in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating just until blended after each addition. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups (generous 1/4 cup for each).

Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center of each comes out clean, about 20 minutes. (Mine took about 25 minutes) Transfer cupcakes to rack and let cool completely.

Makes 1 dozen cupcakes.

Nutella Buttercream Frosting adapted from Wilton

1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening

1/3 cup butter

3/4 cup Nutella

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 cups (approx. 1 lb.) confectioners’ sugar, sifted

4-6 tablespoons milk

Cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add peanut butter and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk, one tablespoon at a time, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Keep icing covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Re-whip before using.

Makes 3 cups icing.

For the record, Portland pretty much rocks.  Seriously, this city has it dialed in.  It’s funky and laid-back and exciting with a collective wink.  I’ve had so much fun exploring our new environs and can’t wait for Hubbs to officially become a native next week!

In the meantime, I decided that with as much granola as there seems to be floating around these parts I should make some granola-ish cookies.  Coming to the rescue was the back of the Craisins bag from which I was extracting my oatmeal topping of choice this morning!  I mean, these have got to be healthy, right?  Oatmeal is heart-healthy.  Craisins are practically fresh fruit.  White chocolate chips have anti-oxidants.  (Don’t they?)  And less calories than regular chocolate.  (Right?)

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies from Craisins bag

2/3 c. unsalted butter

2/3 c. brown sugar

2 large eggs

1-1/2 c. old-fashioned oats

1-1/2 c. (9 oz.) flour

1 t. baking soda

½ t. salt

1-1/3 c. dried cranberries

2/3 c. white chocolate chips

1.       Preheat oven to 375°F.

2.      Beat butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing well.

3.      In separate bowl combine oats, flour, baking soda, and salt.  Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition.

4.      Stir in dried cranberries and white chocolate chips.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

5.      Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake for 7-8 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool on wire rack.

Makes approximately 2-1/2 dozen cookies.