Dark Chocolate Chunk Muffins - Secret Recipe Club

The third Monday of the month brings us the June edition of Secret Recipe Club.  If you're not familiar with how SRC works, you can find the details here!  For the month of June, I had the pleasure of being getting to know, Jess  of Pumpkins and Peonies.   When I first started browsing her blog,  I recognized some familiar sites and realized Jess had lived in Omaha.  It's so much fun when you run across a blogger who lives (or has lived) in your town.    Jess says:

I’m all about…

My hubby,

My family,

His family,

Our godson,

My best friends,

Our puppies,

Making people happy,

Shopping,

Baking,

Traveling,

Any and all sports,

[Attempts at] cooking,

Change,

Self Improvement,

and

All things pretty and scrumptious.

She has a beautiful blog, with delicious recipes and other fun posts.  Stop by and check out Pumpkins and Peonies!  As always, it was hard to decide which recipe to choose.  For SRC posts, seems I move towards the sweets and this month was no exception.  I chose Jess' Deep Dark Chocolate Chunk Muffins. 

The flavor of these muffins is delicious, cocoa and chocolate chips create a wonderful chocolate treat.  I found this batter to be VERY thick, I read the recipe twice to see if perhaps I added too much flour?  When I make these again, I will cut back the flour by at least 1/2 cup and reduce the baking time by five or so minutes.  As written, the muffins were a little dry for my liking but I warmed them in the microwave for about 30 seconds, creating a warm gooey muffin.

Dark Chocolate Muffins:

1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

2/3 c. sugar

1/2 c. firmly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 c. sour cream

1/2 c. milk

2-1/2 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. cocoa powder

2-1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 scant c. semisweet chocolate chunks or chips

Garnish:

Powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F.  Place oven rack in center of oven.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth.  Add cream cheese and beat together with butter until smooth.  Blend in sugar and light brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla extract and blend well.  Fold in sour cream and milk.
3. In a medium bowl, blend together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, making sure no ingredients remain unblended.  Fold in chocolate chunks.
4. Using a large scoop, scoop generous amounts of batter into each muffin cup.  Place a couple of chocolate chunks in the tops of each muffin.  
5. Bake 28 to 32 minutes or until muffins spring back when gently pressed.  Let cool 5 minutes before removing from pan.  When cooled, dust with powdered sugar, if desired.

Yield: 18 muffins

An InLinkz Link-up

Sweet and Salty - Mint Stout Cupcakes

Do you like the combination of sweet and salty?   The addition of a little salt to a sweet dessert creates the perfect combination of flavors.  Tim got me this dessert and baking salts sampler for my birthday this year.

My favorite cupcake at the local cupcake bakery is a Sweet and Salty.  Having also read recently about using a stout beer in cupcakes, I decided to add a mint stout to a devils food cake mix.  The combination was delicious, adding just a hint of mint to the dark chocolate cake.  After topping with a basic chocolate buttercream frosting, I sprinkled the top with the espresso salt.  The addition of just a little salt, tempers the sweetness of the frosting.

I sent these to work with Tim and was quick to remind him to tell his coworker the "dusting" on the top was salt.

Mint Stout Cupcakes 

1 box devils food cake mix
1 1/4 cups Mint Stout Beer
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
Finishing Salt - I used Espresso Salt

Directions

• 1 Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Grease bottoms only of three 9- or 8-inch round cake pans. Make cake batter as directed on box, using cake mix, beer, the oil and eggs. Pour about 1 1/2 cups batter into each pan.
• 2 Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pans. Cool completely. 
• Frost with your favorite chocolate frosting. 
• Garnish with sea salt, if desired.

Watermelon Radishes in Sherry Vinegar

 What's your favorite season?  For me, it's a toss up between Spring and Fall.  Spring has just a slight edge because Spring brings us the Farmer's Market.  When you live in the cold Midwest like we do, fresh vegetables are pretty sad in the Winter time.  Our Farmer's Market began the first weekend in May.  It was obvious Omaha residents were ready for the fresh veggies of Spring, you could hardly walk around at the market because it was so crowded.  The first week, we picked up beautiful asparagus, nothing out of the ordinary but oh so delicious.  The second weekend, we found a new type of radish, the watermelon radish.  I wish I had taken a picture of the radish itself, it was a beautiful green on the outside and pink on the inside.  The flavor of a watermelon radish is mild but still has the wonderful hot bite flavor normally found in radishes.

 Watermelon Radishes in Sherry Vinegar

2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Kosher salt, to taste
½ pound watermelon radishes (about 3 large radishes)
A few cilantro sprigs, for garnish
In a large bowl, combine the sherry vinegar, sugar, oil, and salt. Add the radishes, and toss well to coat. Let sit for 2 to 3 minutes, then serve garnished with cilantro.

Old Fashioned Rhubarb Pudding Cake

Rhubarb is a sign of Spring at our house.  There's those traditional rhubarb desserts, like the Rhubarb Pie I always make for our friend the landscaper and this rhubarb dessert, recipe courtesy of Tim's mom. Looking for something new for this year,   I was intrigued by the look of this Old Fashioned Rhubarb Pudding Cake.  The topping looked crunchy and delicious.This could be my new favorite rhubarb dessert. easy to make but nice enough for when you have guests. 

Served alongside ice cream or whipped cream, this dessert is a keeper!  One thing to note, it doesn't keep well.  Although, still delicious, it was dry within a day or two of baking. 

 

 

Old Fashioned Rhubarb Pudding Cake Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups chopped rhubarb
• 1 3/4 cup sugar, divided
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup sifted flour
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2/3 cup boiling water

Directions
Cover the bottom of an 8 or 9 inch square pan with fruit. (I prefer an 8 inch or 9 inch square glass baking dish.  You could also use a deep dish glass pie plate.)

Mix 3/4 cup sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, extracts, milk and flour together (add a little more milk if it is too thick to pour); pour over fruit.  Mix remaining sugar and cornstarch; sprinkle over mixture in pan.  Pour boiling water over the top.  ( I know this sounds strange, but trust me, it works to create a pudding around the rhubarb in the bottom of the pan.)

Ready to go into the oven

Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.  Yield:  9 servings.

You can see that the sugar topping creates a glaze on the top of the cake, something like a creme brulee, as well as creating the pudding at the bottom.  You can serve warm in a bowl with ice cream, or let it cool a bit, slice and invert on your plate to show off the pudding. 

Banana, Chocolate Chip, Granola Muffins

Does anyone know what time it is?  You guessed it!  It's time for Secret Recipe Club.   Want to know more about SRC and join in the fun?  Check it out here! 

This month I was assigned the Kitchen Witch.  Rhonda a.k.a. Giggles, a middle-aged blogger, culinarian, photographer and avid motorcycle rider.  Drop by and give her blog a look, you'll find beautiful photographs and delicious recipes!

After making my way through Rhonda's recipes, I settled on Banana, Chocolate Chip, Granola Muffins.   No granola in the pantry?  No problem, I used coconut and quick oats.  I found these to be done after 15 minutes.  I always set the timer on muffins for less time than the recipe calls for because muffins tend to be dry when overcooked! 

Banana, Chocolate Chip, Granola Muffins

• 1 1/2  cups plus 2 tbs. all purpose flour, divided
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 or 3 bananas)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 plus 2 tbs. butter, melted and divided
• 1 1/2 cups granola, divided
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/8 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375F.  Lightly grease 12 muffin cups or line with muffin paper liners.  In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter.  Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture until moistened.  Then stir in the  granola, and chocolate chips.  Do not over mix.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tbsp. flour, cinnamon and melted butter.  Then stir in 1/2 cup granola.  Sprinkle topping over muffins and gently press into batter.
Bake in the oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of muffin comes out clean.

An InLinkz Link-up

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats

When I was a kid, the only options for Rice Krispie Treats were the original ones.  I always thought they were too sweet.  Today it's fun to see all of the different recipes.  There's one's made with red hots,  a salted caramel variety, this one using cake batter and a recipe made with everyone's favorite biscoff. 

With hot chocolate season over,  left with a few extra packets in the fridge, this recipe caught my eye.  Fun how it uses the hot chocolate packets in the recipe.  These are yummy and you could substitute almost any kind of chips.

Just a little recipe note on this one...the next day I was planning to send these to Tim's office and tried to cut them.  They were hard as rocks.  Have you ever had this happen with Rice Krispie Treats?  I did some reading and apparently my marshmallows got too hot which results in very hard Rice Krispie Treats.  Note to self, don't let the marshmallows get that hot ever again!!  I'm so glad we enjoyed a couple of them the night we made them.  

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate Rice Krispy Treats

Recipe Courtesy of A Kitchen Addiction

Serves: 24

Ingredients

• ¼ C butter
• 1 (10 oz) bag marshmallows
• ¼ C creamy peanut butter
• 2 packets dry hot chocolate
• 3 tbsp unsweetened baking cocoa
• 6 C crisp rice cereal
• chocolate chocolate chips, for garnish
• peanut butter chips, for garnish
• mini marshmallows, for garnish

Instructions

1. Butter or spray with non-stick cooking spray the bottom and sides of a 9×13 inch baking dish.
2. In a large saucepan (I used a 6qt.), melt butter over low heat. Stir in marshmallows until melted. Stir in peanut butter, hot chocolate mix, and baking cocoa until smooth.
3. Add crisp rice cereal and stir until coated.
4. Gently press mixture into the bottom of prepared baking dish. Do not press too hard or bars will turn out hard.
5. Sprinkle with chocolate chips, peanut butter chip, and mini marshmallows. Gently press down.
6. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars and serving.

Happy Mother's Day!!!