Cookies & Cream Cupcakes

So now for my third attempt.  A remake of the cookies and cream.  Going with Martha Stewart this time and instead of butter I used Crisco Butter Flavored baking sticks.  The recipe called for 350 degrees for 15 to 17 minutes.  I checked them at 12 minutes, not quite done.  Fifteen minutes seemed to do it.   I got 24 cupcakes out of it.

Here’s the recipe

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 ½ cups sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

6 large egg whites (3/4 cup)

¾ cup of milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon sour cream

15 crushed chocolate sandwich cookies (I used Oreos)

24 Mini Oreos for garnish

Directions:  Beat butter and sugar until fluffy (about 5 minutes).  Stir together all the dry ingredients and set aside.  Mix egg whites; milk, sour cream and vanilla.  Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to butter mixture; add 1/3 milk mixture and beat with an electric mixer at medium. Continue to alternate until all ingredients are combined.  Fold in the crushed sandwich cookies.  I put mine in plastic bag and hit them with a meat tenderizer. 

Frosting:

1 8 ounce package of cream cheese

16 ounces of powdered sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 tablespoons of milk

3 crushed chocolate sandwich cookies (crushed fine)

Here’s what I learned:

      For the frosting I needed to crush the cookies a little more.  Chunks are okay for the cupcakes.  Several times I had to take my decorating gun apart because a cookie bit jammed up the piping tip.  I use Wilton’s Dessert Decorator Plus and I was using the star tip.  It looked like it had the biggest opening and less likely to jamb.  It was easy to unclog with a toothpick but could have been avoided if the cookies were crushed better. 

      It’s hard to get perfect looking Oreo cookies from the Mini Oreo bag.  I guess because they all bounce against each other during shipping.  Or maybe they have a life of their own and are having a grand ole time in the bag before they meet their final resting place.  A bucket list for mini Oreos? If I were making a batch to take somewhere I’d probably get 2 bags so I could sort through the chipped and broken ones to get the decorator quality mini.  

      I didn’t have enough icing.  If I doubled it, it might be too much.  I’m thinking 1 plus ½ of the recipe would have been just about right. 

The taste test:   They are GOOD!!!!   Not too dry.  However, playing devil’s advocate I didn’t think “Wow, these are really moist” either.  I think I’d add more sour cream next time as an experiment. 

The Beginning

I don’t know much about blogging but I guess I’ll learn the way I learn everything else.  The hard way.  I’m not really trying to do a Julia & Julia thing here.  It’s just a coincidence.  I want to be a better baker and I’d like to track it and get some tips from other bakers.  My experience  is you can read all you want but it’s the trying, trying, trying where you really figure it out.  This is my 3^rd real attempt.  I’ve tried strawberry cupcakes but it was a cake mix and store bought icing so I’m not counting that one.  Then, I tried Paula Dean’s Cookie and Cream cupcake recipe.   Made the cupcakes on a Friday night to be iced Saturday before a barbecue I was attending.   Well as luck would have it I got violently ill during the night; wasn’t able to attend the barbecue.  A friend rescued me and as I was explaining the cookies and cream, cream cheese frosting I was going to make she looked at me as only a fellow “jersey girl” would and stated “I ain’t no frigging Betty Crocker like you”, but was willing to buy some store bought icing for them so they wouldn’t go to waste.  I didn’t get to try them so I can’t comment on them.  Everyone said they were great but everyone is polite (most of the time).

My second attempt was pistachio cupcakes.  My daughter made me an awesome pistachio birthday cake so I thought that would be my next cupcake attempt.  Somehow my  daughter got the baking gene that I didn’t. I got the recipe online.  Good flavor but a little too salty and too dry.  We won’t be sharing that recipe, but they looked great!!!  Again everyone else said they were great.  Everyone is polite.  Truth is that “everyone” likes being the guinea pigs and probably don’t want to be crossed off the guinea pig list in anticipation of that moment when I finally get it right.  This is my journey in getting it right.