Tart Cherry Chocolate Chip/Shavings Frozen Yogurt

Well, I saw this recipe on Love and Lemons and had to try it. It uses maple syrup, so it goes with the maple sugar season. At the same time, the fruit reminds us of the summer to come. The coconut milk solid adds something to this and makes it a bit different from standard frozen yogurt recipes. I added dark Belgian chocolate chunks and savings, because why wouldn't I? Since making this, I've used raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries with some combination of dark, white, or no chocolate. It's becoming the go-to desert in this house.

Tart cherries from our tree.

The husband found the last of the frozen cherries in our freezer the other day. We thought they were long gone. Our cherry tree produced for the first time last summer, over 10 years since it was planted! 

There is one challenge, when using your home-grown cherries--the pits. I had to pit every cherry, which was a fat hassle. In the end it was totally worth it. However, if the tree produces this summer, I am getting one of these pitters. I chopped the cherries into halves and quarters, so that there would be more cherry dispersed throughout the frozen yogurt. Do what works for you.

I have learned to keep a few cans of full-fat coconut milk in the refrigerator at all times, as I am using this recipe for other frozen yogurts. Chilling overnight separates the solid from the water, for the most part. (One time I stuck a can in the freezer for an hour, and that worked, too.) 

I simply chopped a Belgian chocolate bar for the chunks. A vegetable peeler made some nice shavings pieces to add. Short, quick movements with the peeler were best. If you do longer peels you get curls, which don't do much for frozen yogurt. Or, if you don't want to use a peeler, take a refrigerated bar of chocolate and carve down the sides with a sharp knife for shavings. 

This was delicious. Tart and sweet. It brought a little brightness into this never-ending winter we are having.

Guiness Extra-Stout Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey's Cream Cheese Frosting

(A tip-of-the-hat to St. Pat's Day.)

Oh, yes, these.

Audra's recipe, with a few of my own small touches. I added a coffee simple syrup brushing, and then changed out the crumbs in Audra's topping to shaved dark chocolate and crushed dark chocolate espresso beans. They give it a nice, subtle kick.

(Update! Here is Smitten Kitten's recipe, which Audra adapted. Love the idea of the whiskey ganache!)

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Follow the link to Audra's recipe, above. Include a bar of good, dark chocolate and an 1/8 (maybe even less) of a cup of crushed, dark chocolate-covered espresso beans to the ingredients. If, like me, you live in a rural area, it can be hard to find the espresso beans. I found these at a natural living store. No Trader Joe's up this way!

My small addition:   Heat 1/4 c strong coffee with 1/4 c sugar until it boils and the sugar dissolves. Then, you can take it off the heat, or continue heating a bit longer for a stronger coffee flavor.  Let the simple sugar cool. 

After the cupcakes have cooled, poke holes in the tops, brush on the coffee simple sugar, give it a few minutes to soak in, then continue frosting.  Sprinkle tops with shaved dark chocolate and some crushed, dark chocolate-covered espresso beans. When sprinkling the chocolate shavings, they melt quickly in contact with your fingers, so you might want to use a spoon to shake them onto the cupcake. I didn't, because I'm lazy.

Mmmmmmm . . . the cupcake with a hint of coffee and stout, the Bailey's cream cheese frosting with some chocolate and espresso. I ate mine with a cup of tea using Irish china, set on top of my grandmother's Irish lace. Cliche, but oh so St. Paddy's Day. 

Snow Day Chocolate Pecan Salted Caramel Cupcakes!

This late winter has been filled with snow and stormy days and impassible roads, which is fun if you are a couple of big dogs and have a dad who snow blows a running path around your pen. But, if you are a human and you can't get out of your yard, it can be a bit of a bummer. 

So, it's time to experiment with cooking! I am a non-cook who is just starting to realize how much joy there is sharing food you have made. Baking is the easiest for me, and that will be the first Maineiac Kitchen Covers entry. Since I am a beginner, I am no where near creating my own recipes. However, I can manage to "cover" someone's recipe and start to adapt it to my own voice, so to speak. Inspiration first came from molly yeh hagen's, (no caps in her honor), cake here. It looked luscious. However, my family and friends, (as well as myself), lean more toward pecans. I decided to swap pecans for the hazelnuts in her recipe.

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Next, I was feeling adventurous and wanted to add something to this cake. Salted caramel seemed like a good addition. Who doesn't like chocolate, pecans, and salted caramel??? Yum. As I mentioned previously, I am, was, a non-cook. There is no archive of family recipes to follow, and no experiences from which to create recipes. I have to cobble together information from food blogs, cooking shows, and friends and family in the know. To make these cupcakes I used the internet. In addition to mynameisyeh.com, a Google search for a recipe to guide me led to this and this at Audra Fullerton's, the-baker-chick.com.  Notice in the cake recipe, Audra recommends poking holes in the top of the cake to allow the caramel sauce to ooze down into it. Oh, yeah!

Finally, I was daunted by trying to make a multi-layer cake. I am just not there, yet. My frosting skills are negligible and I don't have all the tools, like one of those rotating cake stands. This led me to make this cake in cupcake form. That, I figured I could do. After all, Molly credits the Magnolia chocolate cupcake recipe as the one she used for the cake and she does say that her cake recipe is "halfable and cupcakable."

With inspiration from Molly and Audra, I made these. 

Look who came to peck some suet while I was baking.

I used the chocolate cake recipe from Magnolia Bakery and Molly and the salted caramel from Audra. The frosting was simply Molly's without the nut filling.

I made the Salted Caramel Sauce first. Here's Audra's recipe: Salted Caramel Sauce Actually, I would recommend having this on hand the day before, or days before, to minimize the process the day you make the cupcakes. I had the hub help, as I am a clutz and there is a whole timing thing going on that requires coordination and, for me, multiple hands. One part to emphasize, when pouring the cream, do it slowly while stirring quickly. That's where it was particularly handy having the hub stir while I poured. Oh, and when pouring things into the caramelizing sugar, be careful of the splatter! It could really give you a good burn. Follow Audra's directions as to the size of your pot.

Now, for beginner's tips:

Frosting: (There will be leftovers of everything, because I used a cake frosting recipe and didn't have time to test how much to reduce for just cupcakes. Sorry, but it never hurts to have extra frosting, at least in my opinion.If you don't want extra, cut the measurements in half.) Make the frosting while the cupcakes bake. For those who are novices like me, be careful with adding the powdered sugar s-l-o-w-l-y as it makes a mess (I learned to add by the tablespoon), and make sure you have the speed of your mixer initially on low. My hub saw what a mess I could make and ordered me a pouring shield for my KitchenAid. Maybe I'll keep him around : )

Once cupcakes have cooled, take a toothpick or uncooked spaghetti noodle and poke several holes into the tops of the cupcakes. I spread (using a knife or spoon) warmed (so it is liquid) Salted Caramel Sauce over the tops of all the cupcakes, like a little surface frosting. 

When the salted caramel has cooled on the surface of the cupcakes, I slather a gob of frosting over each one. (Edit--I now drop it from a small cookie dough scoop, the kind that you squeeze and the little metal bar scrapes it out onto your surface.Because, as I said, I'm a slob and this is the cleanest way for me to do this.) Work the frosting around the cupcake. Feel free to just pipe it, if that's your thing. Here's a video about how to make your own piping bags and frost. Or, there is this video from Audra. Don't press too hard when spreading the frosting, to avoid pulling caramel sauce onto the surface. But, if that happens, no biggie, it's all going to taste the same. It helps if the frosting is closer to room temperature as it makes it more spreadable. 

Once frosted, I just drizzled more liquidy caramel sauce around the tops of the cupcakes and scattered some pecan crumbs on top of that. 

Voila (accent over the a--I'm still learning these formatting details)!