Christmas Cookie Caper '08: #6 - Homemade Oreos

When I saw this recipe in The Great American Bake Sale cookbook I was like "How cool will we be if we make our own Oreos??!!?" While it seemed like a great idea at the time, I don't think we'll make these again next year. They don't stay crunchy for longer than a day. But they are super delicious on the first day! Dark and chocolatey like a real Oreo. The filling is sweet and so good. We made half of them with mint filling and half plain. I didn't wanna put the mint ones into the cookie tins we were giving away because I was scared they'd make everything else taste like mint. Oh well... more for me! The recipe says to roll the dough up like a log and slice it when it's nice and cold. We definitely didn't do that. I was envisioning lopsided, totally unround Oreos... so I decided it would be better to roll it out like sugar cookies and cut them with small round cutters. We used a tiny 1 1/2" flower shaped cutter. But after they baked, the shape was indiscernable. However they were still ROUND! Mission accomplished. I recommend these, but make them in a small batch and don't plan on keeping them around for more than 2 days.

Recipe from The Great American Bake Sale
HOMEMADE OREOS
Makes 50 sandwich cookies

For the cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup light corn syrup

For the filling
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
5 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon mint extract (optional)

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, and baking soda.
2. In a small heavy saucepan, melt the chocolate over low heat, stirring the entire time. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. (You may also melt the chocolate using a microwave-safe bowl, setting the microwave at half power for 1 minute; re­move the chocolate, stir, and return to the microwave for another burst, if needed. When the chocolate is half melted, stirring will complete the process.)
3. In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter with the sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and add the melted chocolate, egg, and corn syrup; mix thoroughly. Pour the chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well to blend all of the ingredients.
4. Here's where I changed things around. I divided the dough in half, wrapped each piece in plastic wrap, and threw it in the fridge overnight. The next day it took a looong time to soften up, so take it out of the fridge at least 4 hours before you're ready to roll. Roll it to 1/4" thick. Cut it into 1 1/2" circles. Everything else is the same so continue reading below...
5. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two or three cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
6. Slice the cookies into 1/4-inch-thick disks and arrange them on the prepared pan, leaving 1 inch between each cookie. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the cookies are firm. (They won't be perceptibly darker or crispy.) Transfer the baked cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. To make the filling, put the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes, or until creamy. Reduce the speed to low, gradually add the confection­ers' sugar, and mix until creamy and smooth. Add the vanilla and mix briefly.
8. Oh yeah we did this part different too. Don't worry about rolling the filling into a log and slicing it... that's silly. Instead roll it into balls the size of marbles (it's not sticky so it won't stick to your hands). Sandwich a ball of filling between two cookies and press. TADA! Divide the filling in half. Roll each half into a log just a bit smaller than the di­ameter of the finished cookies. Slice the logs into 1/3-inch disks, and sandwich each be­tween two of the baked cookies. Store the cookies in airtight containers.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes (From Scratch)

Mother’s Day weekend, my mom and I went to my grandma’s house in North Carolina. Saturday, we had a surprise baby shower for my cousin and a 4th birthday party for my second cousin. I made Cookies and Cream cupcakes for both; Blue and green minis for the baby shower, and hot pink and lime green cupcakes for the birthday party! The cupcakes were okay, but I like the kind made with cake mix a little more (Ahh blasphemy! Oh well…). Then for Mother’s Day I made a “Better Than Sex” layer cake. It was yellow cake, layered with pineapple and vanilla pudding, and topped with whipped cream, coconut, and walnuts (Sorry, no picture). I finished it off this morning for breakfast!

IngredientsReeeaaally delicious batter!

Baby shower minis

Birthday cuppies

The cupcake recipe is from Crazy About Cupcakes by Krystina Castella. I think this recipe was written wrong. It’s not the first typo I’ve noticed in this book. The first recipe below is copied straight from the book. The italicized instructions are the way I made the cupcakes. If anyone has made these exactly how the book tells you to, let me know that it’s not a mistake. It just seemed very odd to me.

I frosted them with vanilla buttercream. Most of you probably know how much I hate regular buttercream, but I was making them mostly for children who LOVE sweet frosting. I searched allrecipes.com for the highest rated buttercream frosting. I came across a recipe for "Special Buttercream Frosting." Guess who doesn't hate buttercream anymore!! It's really delicious!

MY NOTES: I got 16 regular sized cupcakes and 21 minis. The frosting recipe makes enough to frost them all and have about 1 cup leftover. Keep the frosting refrigerated.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 cup chocolate sandwich cookies (about 10), lightly crushed

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.
2. In a large bowl cream together the butter, milk, and vanilla with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix until integrated. Stir in the sugar. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat for 30 sec­onds. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes. Add the egg whites. Beat for 2 more minutes. Stir in the crushed cookies.
5. Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full. Bake for about 20 min­utes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.
2. In a large bowl cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Slowly add egg whites to butter mixture, mixing well between each addition. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until only a few streaks of flour remain. Stir in the crushed cookies until batter is evenly blended.
5. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake for about 15 min­utes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan for 5 minutes. Finish cooling on a wire rack.

Special Buttercream Frosting
2 cups shortening (I used butter flavored Crisco)
8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons clear imitation vanilla extract
6 fluid ounces heavy cream

1. Cream shortening until fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar and continue creaming until well blended.
2. Add salt, vanilla, and whipping cream blend on low speed until moistened. Add additional whipping cream if necessary (up to 2 ounces).
3. Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.

Overall rating on a scale of 1-5
Moistness: 4
Tenderness: 3
Frosting: 4

Mississippi Mud Cupcakes

The winner with 78 votes is.... Mississippi Mud Cupcakes. I voted for these because how can they not be completely delicious with chocolate chips, crushed Oreos, and chocolate cake?? I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, but luckily I was in a chocolate mood when I made these. They're perfect! Everyone loved them. So here you go...

ingredients... a lot of them!
ready for the ovencooling & looking good enough to eat topped with leftover chocolate frosting

Recipe from Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans.

MY NOTES: I let my eggs and sour cream come to room temp (as usual). The recipe originally says it makes just 18 cupcakes, but I easily got 24. I microwaved my unsweetened chocolate instead of using a double boiler to melt it. I reduced the sugar to 1 cup.

Mississippi Mud Cupcakes
Makes 24 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 1/4 cups sugar (I cut back to just 1 cup)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water

2 1/4 cups crushed Oreo cookies (about 20 cookies)
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (I used mini chips)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 24 muffin tin cups with paper liners.

Put the unsweetened chocolate in a heatproof bowl or the top of a double boiler and place it over, but not touching, a saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from the water and set aside to cool slightly.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until smoothly blended and creamy, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. On low speed, mix in the melted chocolate. On medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is blended into the batter. Add the vanilla and beat until the mixture looks creamy and the color has lightened slightly, about 1 minute. Mix in the sour cream until no white streaks remain. On low speed, add half of the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate it. Mix in the water. Mix in the remaining flour mixture until it is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.

Spoon 1 tablespoon of the cookie pieces and 2 teaspoons of chocolate chips into the bottom of each paper liner. Spoon a scant 1/4 cup of batter over the chocolate chips. Sprinkle remaining cookie pieces and chocolate chips over the tops, pressing them gently into the batter.

Bake just until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the pans on a wire rack.

Optionally, top the cupcakes with melted chocolate or your favorite chocolate frosting.

Oreo Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

The winning flavor with 55 votes is.... Cookies and Cream! Hallelujah, because I've had a major desire to bake these since I started cupcaking back in April. My original plan was to use the recipe in the book Crazy About Cupcakes, but someone recommended the recipe in Cupcakes From The Cake Mix Doctor. For a little while (a VERY little while) I was one of those "I'm too good for cake mix" types. But I can't deny the deliciousness, so any recipe that uses cake mix is alright by me! Everyone loved these cupcakes, especially my dad who wanted to eat 3, but I convinced him that 2 was a healthier number to stop at.

Also, I got some silicone baking cups last month for my birthday. I was leery about using them, because I've heard some folks say that cupcakes actually do stick to them. However, mine worked perfectly. I love the way the cupcakes baked up and stayed perfectly round on top. If it wasn't such a pain to wash and dry 24 of those things, I'd use them all the time!

ingredients half of an Oreo in the bottom of each cupI didn't completely demolish the Oreos into crumbs.

You can see some distinguishable cookie pieces. filled silicone cups ready for the ovenCheck out the beautiful rounded tops that did not sink while they cooled!TADA! Oreo cookie, meet your new fate! Soooo delicious! I know you can't wait for the recipe!

The cupcakes are really incredible! They're so easy to make. You gotta try them! The recipe in the book says to use regular buttercream frosting with the cookie pieces pressed into the tops. But I knew that would be tooth-achingly. Instead, I used the whipped buttercream recipe from Bake & Destroy. I mixed the Oreos pieces into the frosting.

Cupcake recipe from Cupcakes From The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn.
Frosting recipe adapted from Bake & Destroy.

MY NOTES: The recipe didn't specify, but I let my sour cream come to room temp. I don't know if it was because of the silicone cups, but my cupcakes took about 22 minutes to bake thoroughly.

COOKIES AND CREAM CUPCAKES
MAKES 22 TO 24

30 Oreo cookies
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Set the pans aside.
2. Count out 12 Oreos and separate the top and bottom wafers. Make sure each has some of the icing on it. Place one wafer, icing side up, in the bottom of each paper liner. Set them aside. Place the remaining 18 Oreos between sheets of waxed paper or in a large, closed zipper-lock bag and crush them by rolling over them with a rolling pin. Set these crumbs aside.
3. Place the cake mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 1 1/2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of the crushed Oreos and fold these into the batter until well incorporated. Set aside the remaining crushed Oreos for the frosting. Spoon or scoop 1/3 cup batter into each lined cup­cake cup, filling it three quarters of the way full. (You will get between 22 and 24 cupcakes; remove the empty liners, if any.) Place the pans in the oven.
4. Bake the cupcakes until they are lightly golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cup­cakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your finger­tips. Place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before frosting.

Store these cupcakes, in a cake saver or under a glass dome, at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. If you plan to freeze them, don't add the cookie-crumb topping. Wrap them I in aluminum foil or in a cake saver and freeze for up to 6 months. Thaw the cup­cakes overnight in the refrigerator and top with cookie crumbs before serving.

COOKIES AND CREAM FROSTING

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
a pinch of salt
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
remaining crushed Oreos

Mix together butter, confectioners sugar, and a pinch of salt until it’s creamy. Increase your mixer speed to high and beat until its light and fluffy. Add whipping cream and vanilla. Beat until its smooth. Fold in crushed Oreos. Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes.

Cheesecake Cupcakes

My original plan for baking cupcakes with my cousin was to make 3 different flavors while she was here. However, with a continuous stream of cupcake cookbooks arriving in the mail, we couldn't help but throw another batch in the mix. My parents invite friends over every Tuesday night for hot wings. My cousin and I decided to make the dessert.

ingredients for cheesecake cupcakes filling the cups with the very watery batter chocolate chip and plain cheesecakes cooling chocolate chip, cherry, and plain cheesecake cupcakes the Oreo crust of chocolate chip cheesecakes cherry cheesecake and a chocolate chip cheesecake hiding in the back

I had a cherry cupcake and a chocolate chip cupcake for breakfast this morning, and they were both delicious! The recipe says it yields 1 dozen, but I beg to differ. After doubling the recipe I ended up with 43 cupcakes (there would've been more if the dog hadn't sniffed out the bowl of leftover batter).

Here is the recipe from 500 Cupcakes.

MY NOTES: One batch yields about 24 cupcakes NOT 12. I left out the blueberries. I used half of an Oreo for crust and mini semi-sweet chocolate chips on some, and I used canned cherry topping for others. I only had 3 3/4 cups of ricotta so I added 1/4 cup sour cream.

Baked Cheesecakes
These mouthwatering little cupcakes make stunning individual desserts. Make them ahead of time and all you'll have to do is pop them on a plate when your guests are ready.

1 cup (4 1/2 oz.) graham cracker crumbs
5 tbsp. sweet butter, melted
2 cups ricotta cheese
2 cups cream cheese, softened
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 325'F (160'C). Place 12 paper baking cups in a muffin pan.
Put the cracker crumbs into a medium bowl and stir in the butter. Spoon tablespoons of the crumb mixture into the cups, pressing firmly into the bottom. Chill until set.
In a large bowl, beat the ricotta until smooth. Add the cream cheese, vanilla, and confectioners' sugar, blending until smooth. Slowly add the eggs, blending well. Spoon the mixture into the cups.
Bake for 25 minutes. Remove pan from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack. Chill until time to serve. Serve topped with blueberries.

Store covered for up to 2 days in the refrigerator.

Makes 1 dozen