Cupcakes for a New Year's Crowd

Cupcakes for a New Year's Crowd
I got this cupcake recipe from Cook's Illustrated and they are delicious with a few of my changes. My parents are having over a dozen people over for New Years tonight and I am in charge of cupcakes.

Cupcakes:
7.5 ounces (1 1/2 cups) all purpose flour
7 ounces (1 cup) sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 large egg, plus 2 yolks

Glaze/Frosting:
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped fine

Glaze/Frosting:
Place the chocolate in a at least 3 cup bowl and set aside. Heat the cream to almost to a boil in a sauce pan. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until it is smooth. Set aside at room temperature.

Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line -12 cup muffin pans with liners and set aside.

Add ALL the ingredients into a bowl of standmixer and mix until well combined.
Divide between 12 cups and bake for 18-20 minutes in the middle of the oven(rotate the cupcakes after 10 minutes).

Remove from the oven and let cool in the pans. Dip the cupcakes into the glaze and set aside. After you dip all the cupcakes, you will have about half of glaze left. Refrigerate it until it is consistency of lightly whipped cream (should take about 10-20 minutes in the fridge).

Whip the chocolate with hand held mixer until consistency of mousse, but do not over whip. Squeeze frosting through a piping bag on top of each cupcake right away. Do not wait too long (not even 10 minutes) to pipe the frosting because it sets up quickly.

Set aside at room temperature (can be frozen, just defrost at room temperature).

Cranberry Cookies in a Jar

I have seen jars of cookie mix in stores and they look so cute. I just love the idea, but have never bought them because most of the time (well actually, always) the ingredient list was scary. This Christmas I thought that I should try to make and give away these cookie mixes in a jar. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com and tried it with a few changes. Oh my goodness, the jars are adorable and the cookies were exceptional. I never thought that a cookie could be that good from a 'mix'!

Pick a nice, clean jar that is big enough to hold the mix. I used 24 ounce pasta sauce jars. I made cloth covers for the top by cutting out a 7 inch circle of cloth with pinking shears and tied it with a ribbon. Attach a cute card with instructions and that's it.

Cranberry Cookies in a Jar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided in half
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (you can also substitute dark chocolate chips)
1/2 cup lightly toasted nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds), whole or roughly chopped

Layer the ingredients (from bottom to top) carefully, trying to keep the layers separate from each other.

                   half of flour (BOTTOM)
                   rolled oats
                   the other half of flour
                   baking soda
                   salt
                   brown sugar
                   cranberries
                   chocolate chips
                   pecans (TOP)

Attach a tag with the following instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In a bowl or stand mixer, beat together 4 ounces (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter (at room temperature) with 1/3 cup sugar for 1 minute. Add 1 large egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and mix to combine. Add the entire jar and mix until well combined.

Form dough into the size of golf balls and space the balls about 2 inches apart. Bake until edges are golden (about 15 minutes). The cookies will be soft and soft in the center, but will firm up as they cool on the baking sheet.

House for Gingerbread People

I love making gingerbread house for Christmas. Last year I made a huge house but that took a lot of space and time. This year I made it a lot smaller and it was fast and easy. You will have a lot of gingerbread dough left over so you can make a village or cut out some ginger people.

House for Gingerbread People

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

3 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

½ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon sea salt

4 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed
130 grams honey
40 grams black strap molasses
2 eggs

In a bowl, cream butter, sugar, honey and molasses until light. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until combined. The batter will look curdled. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Form the dough into a disk and refrigerate until firm enough to roll out.

For the house, you will need two of each (measured in inches). Make templates out of cardboard that you can use to cut the raw dough out with.

                       Side walls: 3 x 2 3/4 rectangle
                       Roof:  3 1/2 x 2 1/4 rectangle
                       Front and back of house:  2 x 1 3/4 rectangle on top of 1 3/4 high triangle with 2 inch wide base.

To bake the house pieces, roll the dough to 1/8 inch thickness and cut out the shapes. Bake at 375 F until firm.

To make glass windows, cut out widows out of the shape and bake it. During the last minutes of baking, place crushed pieces of hard candy into the holes and bake until the candy melts. Remove and let the cookies cool completely before moving them.

To assemble the house, dip the edges of cookies into icing and assemble it on the desired surface. Let the sides dry first before adding the roof. It is easier to decorate the roof before sticking it on the house. Spread the icing around the house and use candy and your imagination to decorate it.

Dust the house with confectioner sugar to make it look like fresh fallen snow.

Royal Icing
8 ounces powdered sugar
2 tablespoons powdered egg whites
3 tablespoons water

Beat all ingredients until smooth and thick.