SU and Birthdays and a Dinner Party oh my!

Happy Dinner Party/Birthday Amanda/Go SU! We certainly had lots to celebrate Friday night. For my birthday I couldn't decide which cupcakes to make: Irish or S'mores? Obviously I went with the Irish ones and had to wait for an opportunity to make the S'more ones...enter Amanda's birthday! They were a bit messy to eat but they certainly tasted like a S'more.

Ingredient/Technical Difficulties: Marshmallow Fluff is harder to find around here then I thought. The local stores had all sorts of peanut butter, jam and jellies but no fluff! Just as I was mentally preparing to make it from scratch Mr. Lawyer found some Ricemallow Fluff from Whole Foods. It tasted fine, a bit sweeter maybe but it did not hold it's shape which posed a problem with making the garnish. It oozed all over the place and didn't harden up. I charred up some mini marshmallows which worked wonderfully and looked more visually pleasing (you can see both toppings in the photo). I would recommend using fluff for the filling but going the normal marshmallow route for the topping. Either way prepare for a mess, I was very angry at marshmallows while making these (who on earth would ever make something so sticky and messy!! Grrr...). However I thought that the toasted marshmallow on top added some of the best flavor, nothing like nice toasty caramelized sugar to zing up a cupcake. Also, Cupcake Corer.  Best five dollars I ever spent.

S'more Cupcakes

(Bon Appétit Magazine)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 1 packet)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole milk
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup plus one 7-ounce jar marshmallow creme (Or 7oz of marshmallows)
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
12 1-inch pieces broken graham crackers (for garnish)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk graham crumbs, flour, baking powder, and pinch of salt in medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating to blend between additions. Beat in vanilla. Add graham-cracker mixture in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with graham-cracker mixture. Divide batter among muffin cups.
2. Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center come out clean, about 22 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to rack; cool completely.

3. Place chocolate in medium bowl. Bring cream just to boil in small saucepan; pour over chocolate. Let stand 1 minute; stir until smooth. Cool ganache until lukewarm.
4. Core cupcakes with a  cupcake corer, apple corer, spoon, etc. Spoon 3/4 cup marshmallow creme into resealable plastic bag, pushing into 1 bottom corner. Cut 1/2 inch off corner. Pipe into holes in cupcakes. Spread 2 teaspoons ganache over each cupcake.

5. Preheat broiler. Coat rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Spoon dollops of marshmallow creme on sheet (or marshmallows!). Broil until slightly charred, 1 to 2 minutes. Spoon dollop of charred creme over each cupcake; garnish with piece of graham cracker.

Poorly behaving Ricemallow Fluff and well behaved but messy mini marshmallows.

Final Product? Amazing.

There's a bunch more so I will use a super obnoxious page break. Read on for the rest of our goodies!

Holy Cheesy Goodness!

I need to have a gathering ASAP so I can share these amazing Cheese Straws. This was my morning project, they were incredibly easy and there might not be any left by the time Kevin gets home tomorrow. I mean what's not good about cheese? Especially when that cheese is Cabot Cheddar? And we all know I have a major, major weakness for Cabot.
It called for half-and-half but I just used milk and they were fine. Add more or less red pepper flakes depending on how spicy you want them. They were amazing out of the oven and still amazing when they were cold.

Cheese Straws

(found this one on smittenkitchen. com, a wonderful site!)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups grated extra-sharp Cheddar cheese


4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into 4 pieces


3/4 cup flour, plus more for dusting


1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes


1 tablespoon half-and-half (I used milk)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a food processor, combine the cheese, butter, flour, salt and red pepper in five 5-second pulses until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the half-and-half and process until the dough forms a ball, about 10 seconds.
3. On a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough into an 8- by 10-inch rectangle that is 1/8-inch thick. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into thin 8-inch strips, each 1/4- to 1/3-inch wide. Gently transfer the strips to an ungreased cookie sheet leaving at least 1/4-inch between them.
4. Bake the straws on the middle rack for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the ends are barely browned. Remove from the oven and set the cookie sheet on a rack to cool.
5. Serve at room temperature. Cheese straws will keep in the refrigerator, in a sealed container, for two days.

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