Irish Carbomb Cupcakes

Yes, you read that title correctly.  These are, in fact, Irish Carbomb Cupcakes, and the ingredients list includes Guiness, Irish Whiskey, and Baileys.  Except, unlike the drink, they don't tend to make you fall off of your barstool, and are super delicious.  

The first time I made these was for a friend's 21st birthday a couple of years ago (okay, it was a younger friend, it has been a loooong time since I was 21). We took a limo into Chicago from the burbs and ended up dancing til 4am at the Hangge Uppe, where we somehow managed not to get kicked out despite being repeatedly told to stop climbing on things and hanging off of the ceiling. 

My life has changed a little bit since then.  I haven't seen 4am in years, and the thought of attempting an Irish Carbomb makes me a little nauseous.  Despite the fact that I'm massively more lame these days, I'm still quite fond of a good old fashioned alcoholic dessert.  

A couple of weeks ago some of our friends decided to plan a progressive dinner through our neighborhood, where we stopped at different houses and had a couple of small plates and a drink at each.  We were the last stop, and so were tasked with making dessert, and I thought it was the perfect time to pull out my favorite recipe once more.

A couple of tips for making these: 

1.  You may be very excited about the idea of making an alcholic cupcake.  You may think, "Hey, there's not much booze in this at all!  I can barely taste it!  Maybe I should add some more..."  You're going to want to ignore that thought.  Don't, whatever you do, add more alcohol.  If there's one thing I've learned after years of making these babies, it's that people really like the idea of eating booze, but don't actually like it in practice.  Really, would you want to take a big bite of something that's normally sipped or shot?  I've made the mistake of adding too much booze before, and they are not fun to eat.  

2.  I don't care what Deb from Smitten Kitchen says, add a normal amount of frosting to them for god's sake.  The frosting is the best part, so don't skimp.  

The original recipe can be found at Smitten Kitchen.

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My Favorite of the Cookies

So if you're ever flipping through the Betty Crocker cookbook (what, you don't do this?), you might notice some little paragraphs at the end of the recipes that just look like additional notes.  You might think, extra reading, why would I do that?  That would be a major mistake, because those little paragraphs include tidbits on how to make the recipes way better.  Like, for example, the peanut butter cookies.  The regular cookies are good, but add peanut butter chips and twinge the other ingredients, and they get amazing.

And these cookies are amazing, but what really wins me over is that they only use one bowl and take about ten minutes to make.  Win win win.

Peanut Butter Chip Cookies (from Betty Crocker)

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Additional granulated sugar
1 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix sugar, peanut butter, butter, and egg.  Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Stir in peanut butter chips.

Shape dough into balls and roll in granulated sugar.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes, let cool.  And then tell your significant other/roommate that you made cookies and accept all of the praise.




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The Brookie

Brookies, you have stolen my heart.  What's a brookie, you ask?  Really, it's just a brownie with a cookie in the middle, but I've now heard them described twice as greater than the sum of it's parts.  My coworker brought some of these into the office last week, and we took the whole tray down before noon.  I then had to make them for a barbecue we went to over the weekend.

Sorry for the terrible iPhone photo, I almost forgot to get a photo before they disappeared so this was the best I could do.  

To make these, you'll need one box of brownie mix (plus whatever ingredients the mix asks for) and a package of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough (the recipe makes 24 brookies, so I used a package of 24ct break and bake cookies).  You could make everything from scratch, but you know, that takes a lot of time when you're suffering from a major chocolate craving.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease two muffin tins.

Prepare brownies as directed and pour mix into muffin tins.  Add one piece of cookie dough to the center of each.  

Bake for 20 minutes, until the brownies look set and the cookie dough has started to turn golden brown.  Let them sit 5-10 minutes in the tins, then loosen the edges with a knife and let cool completely on a cooling rack.  If you can wait that long.  The boyfriend and I both grabbed them as soon as they came out of the pan.  Which, let me tell you, was an excellent choice.

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Sugar Crumble Cookies

When you think of a Christmas cookie, what does it look like?  I think most people's first thought is of a sugar cookie.  Now, weirdo that I am, I don't actually like regular decorated sugar cookies.  All of the frosting and sprinkles and whatnot is a little too much for me.  When I think of my perfect sugar cookie, it's warm, buttery, and topped with plain colored sugar.  

My grandma's recipe for sugar cookies (which I modified slightly because I think she underestimates the amount of sugar that actually goes into the finished cookie) really is one of my favorite cookie recipes of all time.  When she used to make these for her annual Christmas party (the only thing that wasn't catered), my sister and I would find the stash and gorge ourselves on them.  As an older, much more responsible person, I limit myself to one at a time as to avoid falling into a sugar coma.  

Ingredients:

4 1/4 cups flour

1 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

1 t. cream of tartar

1 cup butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 cup oil

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

Additional white sugar

Colored sugars for decoration

Mix flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar in a large bowl.  Set aside.

In another large bowl, cream butter and sugars together. 

Add eggs, oil, and vanilla.  Beat until combined.

Slowly mix in flour mixture.  If you have the time, chill the dough for one hour to make it more manageable.  

Using your hands, roll balls of dough and then roll through plain white sugar to coat completely.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and flatten with the bottom of a glass.  Top with colored sugar.  

Hint - If you're out of a certain color of sugar (ahem, I was missing green), you can mix a couple of drops of food coloring in with plain white sugar.  It won't come out perfectly, but the result was good enough for me!

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until edges are just starting to turn golden.  

Let cool and enjoy!  

What kind of cookies will you be leaving out for Santa this year?