Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I stumbled across these cupcakes on a few other cooking blogs and decided to give them a try myself. I made them for a 4th of July cookout that my family was having. I made about 24 cupcakes to take along and they were gone by the end of the night! A few people there wanted to take some home with them, or save a few back for someone else to try. I was so happy that everyone liked them!

For this post, there won't be quite as many pictures. I made everything homemade. The filling, the cookies, the cupcakes and the frosting. The entire process took me over 4 hours, so it was hard to document every little step I did. There are still a decent amount of pictures though!


Step One: Cookie Dough Filling

Ingredients:

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature (I forgot to add that into the picture!)
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix on medium speed until it's light and fluffy, which will take about 2 minutes. Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until your mixture is smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips with a spatula. It should look like the picture above once you've done these steps. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a little bit.

Once you've let it harden up a bit in the fridge, you're going to form the cookie dough into balls. The recipe I went by said to get a ice cream scooper, scoop out some of the mixture and then divide that in half to make one ball. Which is what I did. I would suggest making them a little bit bigger though. I was hesitant since this was my first time making them, I wanted to make sure they'd fit in the cupcakes..but next time I'll be making them a little bit bigger than this.

Form as many as you can until you've run out of mixture. I got two trays out of mine. Now pop them in the freezer!

Step Two: Cookies

   

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg

12 ounce package of chocolate chips (about 2 cups)

This step is optional. I think it just makes the cupcakes look cute and is a 'sweet' little bonus for whoever is eating the cupcakes. In a medium sized bowl mix together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla until creamy. Stir in the chocolate chips. Then pop the mixture into the fridge for about 30 minutes to let it harden up before you try to form your cookies.

Form little balls out of the dough. Bake at 375° for 8-12 minutes.

Cookies after baking!

Mmm.

Step three: Cupcakes

Ingredients:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

 

 

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two cupcake pans with cupcake papers. First combine the butter and brown sugar. Beat together on medium speed until light and fluffy, which will take about 3 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir that in with the butter and brown sugar mixture. Mix on a low speed, then add the milk and vanilla. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula. Now, you can add as many chocolate chips as you want. The recipe I went by called for one cup but since I made the cookies, and knew the filling had a lot of chocolate chips, I only used 1/2 cup.

What you want to do next is scoop your batter into the cupcake papers. Once you've done that, get the chocolate chip cookie dough balls (the filling) that you made earlier and put them in the center of the batter.

Once the cupcakes bake, you won't be able to see much of the filling. Even if a little shows like in the picture above, it won't matter because it will be hidden under the frosting!




Step Four: Brown Sugar Frosting

Ingredients:
3 sticks unsalted butter (1 1/2 cups)
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
3 tbs. milk
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Mix in the powdered sugar. Beat in the flour and salt. Then mix in the milk and vanilla until smooth. Make sure everything is well blended.

Aren't they cute? 

I should have gotten a better picture of the inside right when I was finished but I forgot. This cupcake was one that I didn't think looked as good as the others, so I didn't put it in with the ones I took to the cookout. My fiance was about to eat it and I said, 'Wait wait! Let me take a picture!' I didn't want to mess around trying to get the best angle since he was waiting to eat it so this was the best I got!

Enjoy!

Deviled Eggs

I made these for a birthday party quite a while ago now..Everyone really liked them though and they were gone by the end of the night. My mom made them this way for years. The only thing I did was double her recipe (to make 24 instead of 12). So if 24 is too many, you can just split the recipe in half.

Ingredients:

24 eggs

4 tbs. mayonnaise

2 tbs. white vinegar

2 tsp. dry mustard

3 teaspoons soy sauce (or Worcester sauce - soy sauce is vegetarian-friendly, which is why I use that)

1 and 1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. paprika

Parsley sprigs

The first thing you want to do is hard-boil your eggs. I put them in right away, bring it to a boil and then let them cook for probably 15 minutes after they start boiling.

Once your eggs are done, peel them. Some people let them cool completely but I find that the shells come off a LOT easier if you peel them when they are still pretty warm. I'll usually get a big draining spoon and scoop one out soon after they're done, run it under cold water then crack it gently and start peeling.

Cut the eggs in half lengthwise. 

Take out the yolks and place them in a bowl.

Do that with all the eggs.

Then take your bowl of egg yolks and..

Mash them up well with a fork. The recipe I have says to press the yolks through a sieve, but I just do it this way. I think it's easier, quicker and it does basically the same thing a sieve would do.

Next, add the rest of your ingredients. The mayonnaise, white vinegar, dry mustard, soy sauce, salt, pepper and paprika all go into your yolk crumbles.

Mix everything together until the mixture is smooth and fluffy.

Scoop the mixture into your eggs. I used a piping bag to do mine. Then sprinkle some parsley on top and that's it!

Enjoy!