Tiramisu Cupcakes

 April seems to be birthday month around here, and I love it.  Last weekend I got to spend all Saturday afternoon baking cupcakes with Clare, and helping Jake (along with Clare, Stewart and Alicia) prepare an amazing gourmet pizza party for Michele.  If you're looking for a good party idea, this one turned out splendidly.  We were expecting twenty guests around 7:30.  So at 4:00 we started 6 recipes of this pizza dough.  It's my absolute favorite pizza dough recipe (although beware, it needs more flour than it calls for).  We let the dough rise while we made a trip to the grocery store for the sauce ingredients, then began the sauce.  About an hour later, I divided the dough into 24 equal personal-pizza-size portions, and began rolling them out while Jake and Stewart fired up the grill.  We grilled each dough for just a couple minutes, until they were about half cooked.  Then all the guests brought different ingredients with them, and everyone got to make their own personal pizza!  Once the toppings were arranged to each person's liking, it was just popped back on the grill for less than 5 minutes, and voilà! delicious, gourmet, piping hot personal pizza!  It was a blast.

And these cupcakes were the perfect way to round off the meal :)  Clare and I discovered the recipe over at the BrownEyedBaker.


Ingredients (makes 18 cupcakes)

For the Cupcakes
1 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted (I didn't have any, so I made my own using this tutorial)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
4 Tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
3 whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar

For the Coffee-Marsala Syrup
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly brewed espresso
1 ounce sweet marsala wine
1/4 cup granulated sugar

For the Mascarpone Frosting
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

Procedure
For the cupcakes

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk and vanilla-bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium heat just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter until melted, and let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, and discard vanilla-bean pod.

With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, yolks, and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand just until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, up to 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.

Gently but thoroughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches.  Stir 1/2 cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.  Don't over mix, or the batter will deflate!

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full (they rise a lot!). Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

For the syrup
Stir together hot espresso, marsala, and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Let cool.

Brush tops of cooled cupcakes evenly with coffee-marsala syrup; repeat until all syrup has been used (don't worry, they won't be soggy!). Allow cupcakes to absorb liquid 30 minutes.

For the frosting
With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until very stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated.  Do not beat further after the cream and cheese are combined, or the cream will break. Use immediately.

To finish, dollop or pipe frosting onto cupcakes; refrigerate for an hour or up to overnight in airtight containers. Dust generously with cocoa powder just before serving.

share. eat. repeat.

Crustless Spinach Quiche

Photo Credit: Jay Eads

Last month, my dearest Oma passed away.  She came into my life when I met Carsten, and she adopted me as another one of her granddaughters when Carsten and I were married.  Every minute I had with her over the last seven years was treasured.  There was more love and selfless generosity, more adventurous spirit and zest for life packed into that one tiny lady than I'm likely to find in another person in this lifetime.

On Easter weekend, every single family member joined together to celebrate her life, and the moments we were blessed enough to share with her.  Many emotional tears were shed, and laughs were expelled as we reminisced over our memories.  The morning of the memorial service, everyone gathered at Uncle Gregg's house for a family breakfast.  This recipe I discovered there, and I've slightly adapted it (adding spinach), just to fit my personal taste.  But this quiche will always remind me of that family gathering.

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cup cottage cheese
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/4 tsp salt
5 eggs
6 oz cream cheese (low fat works just fine!)
6 oz Jarlsberg or Emmental cheese, shredded
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 10oz pkg frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove all moisture

Procedure 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium low heat. Whisk in the flour until smooth, then gradually add the milk while continuing to whisk. Bring up to medium heat, and continue to stir.  When it begins to bubble, continue to cook for 2 minutes, until thickened. Remove from the heat and let cool for 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the cottage cheese, baking powder, mustard and salt. In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat eggs. Slowly beat in the cream cheese, then cottage cheese mixture and roux (butter/flour/milk mixture) until well combined. Fold in the Jarlsberg and Parmesan, then the spinach.

Pour into a greased 9 inch pie pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting. Serve warm.



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