Homemade Monkey Bread

I wanted to make something...bread like, so I set myself on monkey bread! I have not had this stuff since, well, I can't even remember the last time I had it. I went and found a very simple and very delicious recipe. You must try!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup water, warm

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

3-3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp sugar

1 large egg

2 tbsp butter, melted

3/4 cup milk, warm

2 cups brown sugar

1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions:

1. Lightly grease a standard 10-in bundt pan with vegetable oil and set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine warm water and yeast. Let stand for 2 minutes until yeast is slightly foamy.

3. Stir in 1 cup of the flour, along with the salt, sugar, vanilla, egg, 2 tbsp melted butter and warm milk. Mix well until dough is fairly smooth.

4. Put the dough hook attachment onto your mixer and gradually add in the remaining flour, mixing at medium speed until dough comes easily away from the sides of the bowl.

5. Knead for 3-4 minutes on medium speed. (My mixer started to jump a little!)

6. Remove dough hook and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let sit for 30 minutes.

There's my dough!

Now as 30 minutes has passed...

7. In a bowl, whisk together brown sugar and spices. Place melted butter in a nearby bowl and grab a fork!

8. Flatten dough out on a lightly floured surface and using a knife, cut off small pieces of dough to from 1/2 to 1 inch balls. (I just ripped off pieces of dough, no knife needed!)

9. Place dough ball, (I placed more than 1 at a time) into melted butter and roll around. Then dunk into brown sugar mixture and make sure ball is completely coated. Yummy!

10. Place all coated dough balls into prepared bundt pan.

It will look like this!

Now you will want to cover your bundt pan with plastic wrap and let sit for 60 minutes. The dough will double in size. I know, I know, the waiting stinks!

While dough is 'resting' preheat your oven to 350. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.



Cannot get any better than that! Now comes the time to flip the pan upside down and turn bread out on a plate. (Eat a piece or 5 while they are warm and gooey!) ;)

And there you have it, Classic Monkey Bread.

Lemon Poppy-Seed!

It has taken awhile to get my second set of birthday cupcakes on here, but the time has come. I had a special request to make some lemon poppy-seed cupcakes and I think I found one of the best recipes out there. These were very good!

What you will need for the cupcakes:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flouur
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp lemon extract (I used a little more)
zest of 1 large lemon (I used a little bit more of this also)
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cups poppy seeds

Now here is what you do:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 cupcake tins with liners and spray with cooking spray.
2. In a bowl, sift together flours, baking powder and salt.
3. In a bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the lemon extract and zest.
4. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat until combined after each addition. Lastly, beat in those poppy seeds!
5. Fill cupcake liners three quarters full and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
6. Let cool and frost!

For the frosting I improvised. I knew that I wanted something cream cheesey so I made a cream cheese buttercream frosting and added some lemon extract as well as some more zest. Turned out fabulous!

I garnished some with tiny lemon wedges...

And some with yellow crystal sprinkles...

And some with birthday sprinkles!

Don't they look good!?

Needless to say, my second set of birthday cupcakes went fast!



I partied @ The Shabby Nest!
&
Sweet Treat Thursdays!

Cookies & Cream cupcakes!

It is my birthday in 2 days, ah I can just feel the year gone by :) I work in two different locations so I wanted to bring birthday treats to both places. My first treat i chose was cookies and cream cupcakes because 1. I love oreos and 2. i LOVE oreos!

I got this recipe from Beantown Baker and I must say, it was very delightful.

I didn't need 24 cupcakes, so I cut the recipe in half, but I will give you the full recipe. (Cuz I would have to say, make them all, but be careful cuz you might consume more than you'd like!)

For the cupcakes:
24 oreo halves, with cream filling attached
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, room temp
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
20 oreo cookies, coursely chopped.

Here are my oreos chopped, leave them somewhat big, its better when you take a bite :)

For the frosting:

8 oz cream cheese, room temp

2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 cups confectioners' sugar

2 tbsp heavy cream

Now direction time...

Preheat oven to 350. Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 liners. Place and oreo half in the bottom of each liner, cream side up.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Blend in the egg whites one at a time. Blend in vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Add the milk and beat just until combined, them mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Gently fold in the chopped oreos.

Evenly divide the batter between the cupcake liners.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool in the pans for 5 to 10 minutes then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth. Blend in the vanilla. Beat in the confectioners' sugar until incorporated and smooth. Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy.

Frost your cupcakes and garnish with whatever you desire!

Here are my cupcakes cooling, look good dont they?

And here they are decorated! I put some finely crushed oreos in my frosting as well, I loved how it turned out. Then I topped them off with some birthday sprinkles and a mini oreo cookie :)





I linked up to http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/ !!!!
&
http://www.crazyforcrust.com/
&
http://www.mandysrecipebox.blogspot.com/

Banana Split cupcakes!

So I wanted to try something...fun, and looking at all the recipes out there I came across some banana split cupcakes and I knew this was what I wanted to try next! They were a little work, but so totally worth it! I found many recipes for banana split cupcakes and mostly all of them were the same. I knew I wanted to get every taste of the banana split so I chose a recipe that had banana, strawberry, pineapple and chocolate! Here it is:

For the cupcakes
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract ( I use imitation)
2 ripe bananas mashed
3/4 cup sour cream

For the filling
1 lb strawberries, chopped up small
2 tbsp confectioners' sugar
12 oz crushed pineapple, drained

For the frosting
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions for the cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add eggs, vanilla and bananas to the butter and sugar mix. Mix well! Add the flour mixture alternately with sour cream; blend thoroughly but do not overmix. Pour into prepared pans. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the pan on rack then remove and cool completely.

Getting ready for the insides!

Now while the cupcakes are cooling, you can prepare the strawberry filling (or you can do this while they are baking!)

Combine the strawberries and confectioners' sugar in a bowl. Mix them well while smashing lightly with a fork. Allow the berries to macerate at least 20 minutes.

Drain your pineapple. (I did not drain and the juice sank into the cupcakes which made them ...how do I say this...EXCELLENT!)

In the meantime you can start whipping up your frosting, literally.

First, add the heavy cream to your chilled bowl for your mixer. I stuck my bowl into my freezer for a couple minutes. With the whisk attachment and on medium speed, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and continue to whip until thoroughly combined and stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over-beat! Blend in the vanilla. After I was done making the frosting, I covered it and stuck it in the fridge.

Now it's time to stuff the cupcakes! First lets cut the center out!

Now, lets add some pineapple!

A little blurry, but it is in there, trust me :)

Now put some of that strawberry in there!

Ok, now we are to the fun part. Top these suckers with some of that whipped cream frosting! Make some ganache and pour over the top (my ganache did not set up on top like it was suppose to but ran over the sides, which was ok because it still looked ok)

Oh yeah, add some flare and a cherry on top!

I was looking in my fridge right after and noticed I had some caramel sauce in there, and I thought, Heck Yes!!!

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah!

Tasted just like a banana split, no lie!

The banana cake, strawberry and pineapple filling and chocolate sauce all came together and made one heck of a yummy cupcake!

I wonder what this would taste like if I had put a dollop of ice cream with it ;)



Reeses Cupcake!

It was my boyfriends birthday the other day and since reeses are his favorite candy I decided to make some reeses cupcakes. Good idea right?! Pretty much went with a real moist chocolate cupcake and stuck a reeses in the bottom. I found out that you should put a little batter in the bottom of the liner first, and then lay your reeses cup in otherwise it sticks to the bottom of the liner.

 I made chocolate peices to go on top for decoration. This one was made by our puppy :)

I made a chocolate fudge frosting. The frosting consisted of sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips.

Take a look :)

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmm...........Here it is allllll mixed,

I drizzled this over the top and it made a nice smooth shell on top. He loved them!