Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I love to bake! Call me crazy, but I love the act of baking more so than actually eating what I've baked. I know, I know. I'm a nutcase. Fortunately, my husband's office, and my neighborhood, are full of willing taste testers for my baking experiments.

We had Grayson's 3rd birthday party last weekend (pictures coming soon!) and I was on the hunt for the perfect cupcake for his party.  I began 'practicing' a few weeks before so that I could have the cupcake perfected in time for all of the hungry guests. Luckily, I got it on the first try.

Warning: Do not make these cupcakes unless you have about 23 people around to share them with. They. Are. That. Good. But, as you can see by my Paula Deenesque use of butter, they are not good for you.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes


Ingredients:

Cupcake:
1 Chocolate Cake Mix
1 Box Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix
4 Eggs
1 Cup Vanilla Yogurt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 stick butter (softened)
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting Recipe:
3 stick installed butter; softened
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
2 pounds confectioners sugar
3 Tablepoons milk
3 Tablespoons vanilla coffee creamer

Cookie Dough:

I used one bag of Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip cookie dough and followed the directions on the bag. Trust me! After making this icing and these cupcakes, homemade cookie dough is the last thing you are worrying about. 

Directions for the cupcakes.

Before you start baking, let all of your ingredients come to room temperature. 

(While you are doing this, line 2 muffin tins with cupcake liners. You will need 24).

Preheat oven to 350. 

In a stand mixer (or large bowl with a hand mixer) combine combine all of ingredients for the cupcake batter. (I do dry ingredients followed by wet ingredients). Beat on medium speed for about 2-2 1\2 minutes. Note: This batter will be MUCH, MUCH, thicker than regular box cake batter if you usually bake with that.

Fill each cupcake liner about 1\3 of the way full. Add 1 teaspoon of chocolate chip cookie dough. Add enough cake batter on top of the cookie dough to completely cover it. (Should be around 2\3 of the way full). 

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Let the cupcakes cool on a wire baking rack for about 10 minutes before you ice them.

Icing Directions:

Cream butter together with vanilla and coffee creamer. Slowly add confectioners sugar and milk, alternating, until your icing reaches the desired taste and consistency. 

**Note: I usually have to add more milk.**

I use the rest of the cookie dough to make a garnish. Spoon a teaspoon of cookie dough onto a baking sheet (should have enough to make 24) and bake at 350 for about 7-8 minutes. The final product should look something like this!

Baked Corkscrew Rotini and Whole Wheat Penne (Ziti)

It seems like everyone loves Italian. It's filling, it's cheap, it's relatively easy to make, and it's yummy! I got tired of making the same spaghetti all the time and so I decided to change it up and started making my house famous ziti.

Yesterday, when I went to get all the ingredients together, I realized I didn't have any ziti. What I did have was MULTIPLE boxes of pasta with only 4 ounces of pasta in them. This is because a lot of recipes I've used call for 12 ounces of pasta, and the boxes of pasta are 16 ounces. So basically you are left with 4 ounce boxes of corkscrew pasta, rotini, and whole wheat penne. So this is the (edited) version of my baked ziti that we will call Baked Corkscrew Rotini and Whole Wheat Penne. It was very good and after it was all cooked and baked together (and covered with cheeses) you couldn't really tell the pastas apart. I also added about 8-10 chopped spinach leaves to make me feel like a good Mom to make it healthier.

Baked Corkscrew Rotini and Whole Wheat Penne (Ziti)

Ingredients:


***I use fresh herbs because I have them in my garden. You can substitute dried herbs, you just might need to use a little more.***

1 Tablespoon olive oil
32 ounces spaghetti sauce (see recipe for sauce below)
12 (or 16) ounces cooked ziti rigatoni pasta (or small pasta of choice)
1 pound ground beef (or turkey or sausage) (1\2 sausage and 1\2 ground beef is VERY good)
8 ounces grated mozzerella
8 ounces ricotta cheese
1\4 cup parmesan cheese
8-10 spinach leaves (chopped)
2 Tablespoons minced onion
3 garlic cloves (chopped) or 1-2 Tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon fresh oregano (chopped)
1 Tablespoon fresh basil leaves (chopped)
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary (chopped)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Brown beef (or meat of choice) in a skillet with 1 Tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, oregano, basil and rosemary. Add the spinach leaves just before the meat is done.

Other recipes say to layer pasta, then cheese then sauce. This is what I do: Mix pasta, sauce (only 32 ounces of sauce), meat, ricotta cheese, 1\8 cup of parmesan cheese, and 1\2 cup mozzarella cheese together in a pot or bowl and pour into 13x9 baking dish. Top with remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 or until mozzarella is completely melted.

Sauce Recipe:

4 lbs fresh tomatoes (peeled or unpeeled, I usually don't peel)
2 Medium onions, chopped. (I use white onions because it's a milder flavor)
1\4 to 1\2 green bell pepper
4 cloves of garlic, chopped.
1\4 cup fresh basil, chopped.
1\4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
4 sprigs fresh parsley
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped
1\2 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped. (about 2 sprigs)
1 Tablespoon sugar

Instructions:

Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, bell pepper, onion, basil, salt, and red pepper.
Sautee until onion and bell pepper are tender (5 minutes or so). Add tomatoes, parsley, sugar, oregano, rosemary, and thyme. Heat to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 2 hours. Stir often or until the sauce is as thick as you want it.


****This recipe always makes more sauce than what you need, so, as always, freeze the leftovers!****

Enchilada Sauce

Welcome to Mommy Chef! Let me start off my saying that I am in no way, form, or fashion a chef nor am I claiming to be one. I just wanted a cute title that my friends could remember and www.imamomandiliketocookandmyfamilyseemstolikeitoratleasteatitandihaventkilledanyoneyet.com just seemed like a mouthful. Maybe I'll use that one for my next blog.

Anyway, it seems I'm always cooking up something and I'm always posting (much to the chagrin of some of my Facebook "friends") or emailing the recipes, so I thought it would be easier to blog them. Plus, it's been about 18 months since I posted on my last blog, and I think that's a long enough vacation...(although, being pregnant and having a baby doesn't really qualify as a vacation unless you put an umbrella in your orange glucose drink and call it a cocktail).

So, back to cooking. I love to cook. And bake. And invent recipes whenever I think them up don't have one of the original ingredients. I love to cook your recipes. I love to cook your recipes and combine them with my recipes to make them our recipes. Sometimes that's how the best recipes are made anyway. It's can be fun no matter which way you go about it.

Since I'm a Texas girl and I grew up eating Mexican food every meal 99.9% of the time, I'm going to start with my Enchilada Recipe.

This recipe is really for my enchilada sauce. I have used this sauce to make various enchiladas (ground beef, beef fajita, shredded chicken, and chicken fajita). It's good with ALL of them.



Enchilada Sauce



Ingredients:

1\2 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1\4 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons flour
1 can low sodium beef broth
15 ounce tomato sauce (update: I sometimes use half tomato sauce/half salsa)
1\2 teaspoon oregano
1\4 teaspoon basil
1\2 teaspoon salt
1\4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 can Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce

Directions:

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Stir in garlic powder and flour until smooth. Cook approximately one minute. Stir in chili powder.

Gradually stir in broth, tomato sauce, enchilada sauce, oregano, basil, salt and cumin.

Simmer 15-20 minutes.


To make the enchiladas:

Preheat oven to 350.

Dip the already heated and softened tortillas (I've used corn, flour, whole wheat flour) in sauce, coating both sides. Add your desired filling and roll up. Pour sauce over all of the enchiladas until they are all covered. (Don't use all of the sauce if you don't have to because you can freeze it). Sprinkle with cheese if you want to and bake for at least 20 minutes.

It's that easy, and you can make it ahead of time and freeze it for another day when you won't have the time (insert: energy, desire, patience) to cook.


****Will update with a photo as soon as I find one figure out how to do it on this computer.*****