Chocolate & Chipotle

Cupcakes, Cranberries & Christmas

I have been a baking fool lately, starting with 340 mini cupcakes that adorned a Christmas Tree for the Anacortes Celebration of Trees last weekend. My wonderful Mom did the cupcake wrapper garland as I spent the day before decorating the tree, baking, frosting, decorating and packaging all the little cuppies that were to go on the tree. From 6am until almost midnight I worked on those cute little cupcakes, altho at the time I wasn't calling them cute.

 Then I packaged them all to hang on the tree ...

Then I spent Thursday morning hanging them on the tree ...

The result was a wonderful cupcake tree with a dozen Extreme Red Velvet Cupcakes & a Giant Chocolate Port Cupcake in a chocolate holiday wrapper for the winning bidder!  My tree brought in $600!!! The winner also gets a cupcake catered party whenever they want!

 
Now one would think that with all that baking I would be sick of it ... well no, not really. So as I was surfing Tastespotting I can across a Mock Cranberry Bliss Bar recipe, you know like the Starbucks kind!!! So of course I had to try those, now I have to get them out of my house!!! These are so good and I think much better then Starbucks (who's I find a bit dry)

So thanks to My Little Mochi I give you my rendition of Cranberry Bliss!!

Faux Cranberry Bliss Bars
makes about 32 triangles with extra sides

cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped
6 ounces (about 3/4 cup) white chocolate chips (or chopped white chocolate)

frosting:
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 T. fresh lemon juice
the zest from 1 fresh lemon, diced
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped, set aside

drizzling icing:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1-2 tablespoons room temp milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add eggs, vanilla, ginger, and salt. Mix well.
2. Gradually add flour. Mix until smooth. Stir in cranberries and white chocolate.
3. Pour the batter into a well-greased 9×13-inch pan. Use a spatula to evenly spread the batter in the pan. Bake 25-35 minutes, until edges are light brown. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
4. Make the frosting: Mix together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice until completely smooth.
5. Make the drizzling icing: In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, milk and melted butter. Use enough milk to make a thick but drizzly consistency. I used closer to 2 tablespoons.
6. When the cake/cookie is fully cooled, frost. Sprinkle the top with ½ c. chopped cranberries.
7. Put the drizzling icing into a ziploc bag and snip off a tiny bit of the corner. Drizzle the icing on top in whatever pattern you like.Let sit in a cool place for about 2 hours (if you can stand it) Cut into squares or triangles.

Cheeseburger Soup on Triple D!

 picture courtesy of Food Network

I admit it, I am hooked on Diner's Drive-in's & Dives!! Partly cuz I want to own a diner one day but mostly cuz I love getting unique recipes from this show. I was watching last week when Guy was at Grover's in East Amherst, NY.  The food looked great but toward the end of the segment, the owner made Cheeseburger Soup that Guy was creaming his jeans over ... so armed with my note pad and pen, I replayed the segment until I had the ingredients and most of the how too's ... I swear I don't know what I would do with out DVR!!

Anyway back to the soup ... So I get the ingredients and arm myself to make this soup. Now you ask yourself "Why is this such a big deal, cheese soup with hamburger in it ... Aaaaaa but just as the soup was finished the chef/owner added lettuce and tomatoes. Can you have a cheeseburger without lettuce and tomato, I think not!!! I was skeptical about adding the lettuce too but then I thought, is it really any different than adding spinach?  Don't be afraid, ADD THE LETTUCE it is a wonderful surprise!  I will have to make it again to get a picture, we ate it all before I remembered to take one, it is that good!

So without further ado I give you my version of Triple D Cheeseburger Soup ... then only thing I will do different next time???? Is make it a Bacon Cheeseburger Soup!!!!

Triple D Cheeseburger Soup

• 1 pound super lean ground beef
• 16 oz chicken stock
• 1 pints half and half
• ½  block of Velveeta, cubed
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 T. butter
  
• 2 med tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cups Iceberg  lettuce, chopped
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup flour mixed with 3/4 cup water (for thickener)
  

In a Dutch oven, melt butter and sweat onion until translucent, remove. Add ground beef, season with salt & pepper and cook until browned and a bit crispy, drain. (Next time I will make actual patties and grill them to get more of a burger taste) remove from pan.

Add your chicken stock, & flour slurry, bring to boil scrapping bits off the bottom. Add half & half and Velveeta. Cook until all the cheese is melted, not boiling. Add in onion & hamburger.

Season to taste and lower heat. Cover and cook for about an 1 hour. Add the tomatoes and lettuce, stir and serve.

Since I am following Weight Watchers, I have added my version after I put it in the WW Recipe Builder to get the points:

POINTS® Value: 5
Servings:  8

1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp table salt
8 oz Kraft Velveeta Light Reduced-Fat Pasteurized Processed Cheese Product
1 medium onion(s)
1 cup(s) Iceberg lettuce
1 cup(s) tomato(es)
3 cup(s) fat-free chicken broth
1 pound(s) cooked extra lean ground beef
1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Buttery
1 cup(s) fat-free skim milk

Instructions

In a Dutch oven, spray butter and sweat onion until translucent, remove. Add ground beef, season with salt & pepper and cook until browned and a bit crispy, drain. (Next time I will make actual patties and grill them to get more of a burger taste) remove from pan.
Add your chicken stock, & flour slurry, bring to boil scrapping bits off the bottom. Add half & half and Velveeta. Cook until all the cheese is melted, not boiling. Add in onion & hamburger.
Season to taste and lower heat. Cover and cook for about an 1 hour. Add the tomatoes and lettuce, stir and serve.

Pumpkin - Part Duex

Iron Cupcake Anacortes was this past Monday ... the challenge was Thanksgiving and while I HAD grand ideas, time was not on my side. So I made Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes with a Pumpkin Mousse Frosting. This recipe was discussed at my WW meeting and I wanted to try it so I made them. If you are on WW or just want a healthy cupcake this dessert is moist and yummy!!!

 

WW Pumpkin Cupcakes

1 15oz can pumpkin
1 box reduced sugar cake mix
1 cup of water

Mix all together and fill lined cupcake pan 3/4 of batter in each. Bake at 350 for approx 12-15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes then, remove from pan and cool completely on rack.

Pumpkin Mousse Frosting

• 15 ounces canned pumpkin
• 1 (3 1/2 ounce) boxes fat-free sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 cups skim milk
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 - 8oz tub fat-free whipped topping

Mix first four ingredients together. Fold in the tub of whipped topping. Frost cooled cupcakes and store in refrigerator. Frosting will hold up if left out for a few hours if not too hot in room.

So then this morning my daughter and I were going to drive 45 minutes to IHop for Pumpkin Pancakes ... I had 1/2 of a can of pumpkin in my fridge, which is MUCH closer then IHop, so I made Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancakes ... OMG as my daughter said ... they were quite yummy!!!

Pumpkin Pancakes
makes approx 12 regular size or 24 dollar size
for my WW friends ... if you leave out the oil,
each pancake is only 1 point each!!!

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 T. brown sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 t. pumpkin spice (recipe below)
1 cup buttermilk
1 T. molasses
2/3 cup pumpkin puree (I used canned)
1 egg
2 T. veggie oil

Mix all dry ingredients together, mix all wet ingredients together. Mix wet and dry together until just mixed. Spray your frying pan with non stick cooking spray, pour approx 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. If so desired, top with chocolate chips before turning. ENJOY!!!

Pumpkin Spice Recipe:

1 t. cinnamon
1 t. mace
1 t. ginger
1/2 t. allspice
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 t. nutmeg

Mix together and store unused spice in an airtight container (I use an old Pumpkin Spice Container and just keep refilling it)