Christmas Cupcakes

My sister's fiancée had a Bake-Off in work last week, where he got landed with the awkward category of Muffins. He added an extra teaspoon of baking soda to my Nutella cupcake recipe and lo and behold we had muffins!

Since these are sweet enough he dusted icing sugar ontop using a stencil I had, and I made some quick Christmas goodies out of different coloured fondant! The end result was fab!

You might guess where he works! 

Stay sweet! x

Nutella Pillow Cookies

The cookies I made last week were such a hit that last night I recreated them using only what I had in the cupboards. I love that you don’t need chocolate chips to have an incredible cookie. 

Best part is, they took less than thirty minutes to make, or the time it took the boyfriend to go to town and rent Django Unchained (granted, it's a smaller batch!) You’ll never have to buy cookies again!

This recipe requires a measuring cup, if you don't own one don't try to use average cups- chaos will ensue! You can buy really cheap ones here or use this handy cups to grams converter.

Cream the sugars and butter until they look fluffy, as shown above.

This is the consistency of your finished dough... Which also tastes incredible raw,FYI.

Cookie baking can be a messy business... One of those things you wish you had three hands for! :)

You can probably tell from this picture just how much these beauties spread while baking.

You can see that straight from the oven this cookie is golden on the outside and spongey in the centre! I love the marbled effect from some Nutella-strewn dough! :)

Yield: 5 huge cookies (just double up to make a larger batch, but don’t underestimate how big these guys are!)

You will need:

3/4 Cup Self-Raising Flour, sieved

1/4 Cup Butter at Room Temp.

1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Medium Egg

1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

5 Dessert Spoons Nutella

1. Preheat your oven to 170degrees Celcius.
2. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.
3. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the sugars and butter until fluffy.
4. Add the egg and vanilla extract while beating.
5. Once incorporated, turn off mixer.
6. Sift in 1/4 cup of flour. Beat until incorporated.
7. Repeat step four twice more so that all of the flour is added.
8. Here comes the messy part! Scoop out some dough onto the palm of your hand.
9. Place a tablespoon of Nutella on top of the dough.
10. Place another spoon of dough on top of this. Ensure that all of the Nutella is sealed by the dough, place on prepared baking tray. *Act quickly as the dough will melt from the heat of your hand. Scrape off excess dough/Nutella from your hand back into the mix, you'll need all the dough you have!*
11. Sprinkle some sea salt on the cookies before baking, this really adds depth to the flavour.
12. Bake for 14minutes, until slightly golden at the edges but still spongey/soft in the middle. These cookies continue to cook once you remove them from the oven so DO NOT OVERBAKE. Removing them any later than 16minutes will result in rock hard, inedible cookies trust me!
13. Leave to cool on the baking tray for 5-10minutes.
14. Remove onto a wire rack.
15. Enjoy!

Although this is a small batch it's easy to double up but I liked having all the cookies gone in one night-less temptation the following morning!

These cookies got a great response on Facebook, a few people have already recreated the recipe- let me know what you think in the comments section below!

Don't forget to tune into sUCCulent 98.3fm on Thursday 11-noon!

Until then...

Stay sweet! x

Giant Nutella-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I discovered these cookies on Two Peas and Their Pod. Maria Lichty is the undisputed Queen of Cookies, and this is yet another one of her genius brainwaves. These were perfect for last Thursday's show (mostly because I didn't have enough chocolate chips to make decent cookies!) They turned out even better than I had expected. 

Think Nutella lava cakes, but better! I hear you- how could anything be better than those sweet little cupcakes? Because the juxtaposition between the crunchy cookie, and the vanilla-sugar taste of the dough is deepened by the addition of luscious addition of Nutella... I could sit here and drool over my keyboard all day. YUM! I intend on making these again soon minus the chocolate chips but with extra Nutella, as a kind of pillow cookie... Watch this space ;)

These cookies were HUGE! I scooped them into relatively medium sized balls yet they still spread so much during baking. Here's a large baking tray that just fits my oven (as in, slots into the tray holders at the side). Yes, it only held four cookies!

I did find that my yield was a little smaller than the dozen Maria had suggested; nonetheless every morsel was delicious!

I've been saying this a lot lately, but these cookies could just be the nicest thing I've ever baked!

Apologies for the lack of 'before' shots, my brain was not in blogger mode... I made these at 8.30am last Thursday! You probably already knew that if you follow me on twitter @orlmurf. FYI, you can use your twitter account to follow the blog, so handy!

They're incredibly easy to make though, just bung everything into a stand mixer and let it do all the work! :) This is a really great base cookie dough recipe and until I find a better one (if that's even possible) I'll use it as my standard one! 

Two exceptions to the listed recipe: 

1. I didn't include any salt in the actual cookie because I used normal butter (some claim that by using unsalted butter, you can regulate how much salt you bake with by adding it in yourself after, personally I find unsalted butter hard to come by so I just used regular Irish Creamery Butter!). I did however sprinkle sea salt on top of the cookie dough mounds before baking, definitely a must-do! 
2. I only used a teaspoon of Nutella inside the cookies **Confession: this was a mistake, my sleepy eyes misread the quantity! But it worked out great, as you can see below!**

I love the philosophy behind these cookies, the same as that of a Baked Alaska, or the Mint Cupcakes I made for St. Patrick's Day... Once you seal in whatever you're hiding inside your dessert it won't melt. So the world is your Nutella-stuffed cookie! Check out Picky Palate for loads more stuffed cookie recipes!

I also compared these cookies to Subway's Chocolate Chip Cookie (all in the name of research!) and found that this is a much more similar cookie to those I made last year (however the Copy Cat Cookies have a much larger yield so might be better for large gatherings!)

Make your Monday a little brighter, and bake these cookies!

Stay sweet! x

Nutella Cupcakes / Cheat's Lava Cakes

For St. Valentine's day I baked these in heart-shaped moulds and served these beauties hot from the oven, with strawberries, ice-cream and other tasty treats! They looked fab on a platter (made to share!) and even better when matched with little bowls of lovehearts, Hershey's kisses and Haribo hearts.

These heart-shaped moulds from Lidl, at under €4 were perfect for Valentine's baking! 

I greased them as recommended but apparently they will be non-stick hereafter, fingers crossed!

They were so simple to make and oh so delicious! The smell of chocolate from these cakes is almost delirious- treat with care! The soft centre makes these cakes so versatile, if served warm they are the easiest lava cakes but can be eaten cool as cupcakes- it's a win-win situation!

The recipe is from odlums.ie 

Makes approx 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

6oz self-raising flour

4oz Caster sugar

4oz Margarine

3 Eggs

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

1/2 Jar of Nutella

1. Preheat the oven to 190degrees Celcius. 
2. Line cupcake tray with cases.
3. Put all of the ingredients (EXCEPT the Nutella) and beat until smooth.
4. Spoon half of the mixture into the the prepared cases.
5. Place a teaspoon of Nutella into the centre of each case.
6. Cover with a spoon of mixture on top of the Nutella.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until springy to touch. NB the knife test won't work with this recipe as the centre of the cupcake is supposed to be gooey!
8. Serve immediately as lava cakes or allow cool on a wire rack for cupcakes.

Stay sweet! x

Friday Fave: 3 Ingredient Nutella Cookies- Plus White Chocolate Buttons!

Here are five reasons to bake these cookies.

1. You only need an egg, flour and Nutella- the white buttons are a decadent extra.
2. The take less than 20 minutes to bake.
3. They kick your chocolate craving without having to go out and buy 70% cocoa chocolate.
4. They taste amazing.
5. It's Friday!

 These were fantastic Christmas gifts, and tasted amazing with a glass of milk!


The cookie recipe which consistently cropped up throughout an internet search was brilliant and easy. The white chocolate buttons are not really even necessary but they look so cute, I couldn't resist! Even with this addition there are still hardly any ingredients!

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 cup Nutella
• 1 cup flour
• 1 packet white chocolate buttons

1. Preheat oven to 180degrees Celcius.
2. Beat together egg, Nutella and flour.
3. When just about combined, add the buttons and mix at a gentle speed.
4. Spoon onto baking parchment-lined baking tray.
5. Bake for 7-8minutes.

For a more uniform cookie, flatten with the bottom of a glass before putting into the oven and bake for 6-8 minutes. However, I like the mountainous look of these, especially if munched during a Lord of The Rings movie night! :)

Stay Sweet! x