Oreo White Chocolate Cupcakes

I'm back!  For good this time, I hope :)

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of atypical schedules.  Right after Thanksgiving, we entered tech for the last show of the semester, for which I choreographed a piece.  On top of that, my poor fiancé got food poisoning so he needed care.  After that, final practicals and exams began, so studying took top priority (yaaaaay...).  Only an hour after I picked up my last exam, a take-home test for my criticism class, I was in the car on the way to the airport.  After two hours of insanely fast typing, my semester was officially finished; another two hours later, I landed in Florida to reunite with Jon, meet his dad, and go to his best friend's wedding.  We spent a fantastic weekend at Universal Orlando together and had a great time hitting the parks and celebrating the marriage with everyone - it was honestly the best time I've had in months!  I wish we could've stayed there longer.
My parents came down and met us Sunday night, and the next morning I continued south with them to Vero Beach to visit my brother and his wife (and their new dog!) for the next week.

And that's where the cupcakes come in.

Thanks to crazy schedules and an insanely long distance between us, I missed my brother's birthday at the end of November, but I promised him a treat of choice while I visited.  I knew he loved white chocolate so I wanted to include that, and Oreos were a natural choice since he keeps them in the house all the time.  I had made the cupcake base before, but I decided to use a white chocolate frosting on them this time.

It was a good choice :)

The cupcakes are fluffy and full of vanilla flavor and huge chunks of Oreos - including an entire Oreo half on the bottom!  (I'd suggest finding someone totally ace at twisting apart Oreos to help with that part, or you can use a paring knife to separate the halves.) The white chocolate cream cheese frosting has fabulous flavor without an overpowering sweetness from the white chocolate - this is the stuff I could eat with a spoon.  Or a bunch of animal crackers.  Together, the combination is delectable!

If you're already all cookie'd out for Christmas or you're looking for something unique for the dessert spread, try these!  Maybe use the winter Oreos and some holiday sprinkles on top for a festive touch!  Regardless, I can tell you that they'll be enjoyed by everyone with tastebuds.

Oreo White Chocolate Cupcakes

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
Source: slightly adapted from Annie's Eats
Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
12 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached
1 heaping cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 + 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
10 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped (quartered is a good place to start)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and place an Oreo half in the bottom of each cup, cream side up.
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt with a fork.  Set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy.  Add the egg, mixing until it's fully incorporated, then mix in the vanilla extract.  Add half the flour mixture, beating until just incorporated.  Beat in the milk until just combined, then the rest of the dry mixture.  Fold in the chopped cookie pieces with a spatula.
Scoop the batter by quarter cup-fulls into the prepared muffin cups.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Allow to cool five minutes in the pan before removing to a cooling rack until ready to frost.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Source: adapted from Baking Bites

Ingredients:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (half a stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 oz white chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp heavy cream (more if needed)
2-3 cups confectioner's sugar
5 Oreo cookies, crushed (for topping)

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and melted white chocolate.  Mix in the cream, then gradually add powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency - make it stiffer if you plan to pipe it onto the cupcakes.  Frost the cupcakes as desired and top with cookie crumbs.  Enjoy!

Congo Bars

Another instance where baking for friends paid off.

Remember those three shows I'm involved in this semester?  Well, one of them is a choreography showcase, which we had auditions for this week.  All of the choreographers had to stay after auditions to cast our pieces and create a rehearsal schedule.

Translation: we were going to be there for a while and we needed food.

Our director provided a delicious and healthy dinner, but I received a request (read: demand) for dessert.  I didn't have time to make cupcakes, which I'm now famous for in our dance department - seriously, who said dancers don't eat?? - but when I saw these Congo Bars in an email update from Michelle of Brown Eyed Baker I knew I had a solution.

The bars were incredibly easy to assemble - melted butter is combined with brown sugar, then eggs and vanilla are added, followed by the addition of the dry ingredients and the chunky bits - and came together in a cinch the night before auditions.  My roommates and I did a taste test (for quality control purposes, of course!) and when I served them the following night, there were yummy groans throughout the room.

These may be the most addictive treats...ever.  They're rich, moist, and chock full of chewy toasted coconut, crunchy pecans, and melty semisweet and white chocolate chips, with a shiny crackly top like the fudgiest of brownies.  Every bite reveals a new flavor combination...which means you want to keep taking bites.  Forever.
One of my roommates asked me to hide the leftovers to ensure that Jon got to taste one.  All of us became instantly hooked.

Congo Bars have now officially been dubbed Crack Blondies in our apartment.

And I highly encourage that you get your butt to your kitchen and mix up a batch of said Crack Blondies.  You will be happy you did...just be prepared to want half the pan.

See the one I'm holding?

It was totally warmed up and smothered in cookie dough ice cream and chocolate syrup a couple hours later. 

You know you want to...

Congo Bars (a.k.a. Crack Blondies)

Source: Brown Eyed Baker, originally adapted from Baking Illustrated

Yield: however many bars you want to cut from a 9x13" pan

Ingredients:

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1½ cups light brown sugar
2 eggs
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ cups shredded coconut, toasted (I used sweetened, but the original recipe calls for unsweetened)
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup white chocolate chips 

Directions:
Set an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350˚F.  Coat a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper, leaving overhang on each side as "handles" for later.  Set aside. 
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.  Set aside. 
Mix together the melted butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until well combined.  Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until totally incorporated.  Sprinkle the dry ingredients on top of the butter mixture and stir to combine, being careful not to overmix - a couple of lumps will be fine.  Fold in the coconut, pecans, semisweet and white chocolate chips with a rubber spatula.  At this stage, try to resist eating what you see and smell inside your mixing bowl.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread with the spatula until even.  Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until the top of the bars are shiny and cracked and feels firm to the touch.  Allow to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack.  Lift from the pan using your parchment paper handles and cut into desired size bars.  Serve and enjoy!
Then try not to eat a second one.
Go ahead.  I dare you.

Good Ol' Independence Day. And scones!

So...Happy Independence Day!  Belated.  Whoops.

It's become a bit of a family tradition to spend the weekend of the Fourth out at our vacation home in West Virginia, and let me tell you...this place is beautiful.  It's the house I wish I could take everywhere in the country with me.  Heck, I'd plant this place in the middle of New York City!

The logs would be a mite incongruous with the rest of the city's architecture, but it would be worth it.










The kitchen's gorgeous too, and perfect for photos...I miss that kitchen already...

This time around, the company included my parents, myself, and my brother Rob and his new wife Colleen.  It took me about two weeks to narrow down dessert options, but based on the weather, people's tastes, and with the help of the best cookbook ever, I came up with a solution eventually.

Rob and Colleen love strawberry shortcake, and Rob has a killer recipe for it (which I may beg off of him and post in the future), but I decided to try it with a twist.
A patriotic twist, naturally.

The base I chose for the shortcakes was a strawberry white chocolate scone.  I made one tiny change to a recipe from Alice's Tea Cup, my favorite restaurant / bakery in New York, so I expected that they would be delicious.

Good gracious, was that ever a good choice.

Even without the toppings, the scones were incredible!  Flaky but not at all dry, buttery to boot, and chock full of bits of tart strawberry and sweet white chocolate, these made the kitchen smell amazing and made me do my happy dance.
But we had to gild the lily, so we split them in half and filled them with mascerated strawberries and blueberries and whipped cream.

[Disgraceful secret: The grocery store was out of heavy cream so we cheated and used the stuff from a can.  For goodness' sake, whip your own, preferably with some sugar and vanilla.  But the canned stuff was a viable enough solution.  Particularly the extra-creamy...guilty pleasure in a can.]

The best part?  Totally versatile.  Swap out the white chocolate for milk or semisweet chocolate chips, ditch the blueberries for a more classic shortcake, use raspberries instead of strawberries...anything goes!  And anything would be divine.

White Chocolate Strawberry Scones
Source: barely adapted from Alice's Tea Cup by Haley and Lauren Fox
Yield: 10-12 scones
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/4 cups hulled and quartered strawberries
3/4 cup white chocolate chips (brand of your preference - I used Toll House)
1 1/4 cups buttermilk (I used low fat)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream (for brushing)
1/4 cup sugar (for sprinkling)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425˚F.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Using two knives, a pastry blender, or extremely clean fingertips, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs.  Add the strawberries and white chocolate chips and mix till they are evenly distributed throughout the dry mixture.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, then pour the buttermilk and vanilla into the well.  Combine until all the dry mixture is wet - do not knead!
Turn the mixture out onto a well-floured surface and gather the dough together, sprinkling some flour over the top.  Gently pat the dough to make a rectangle about 1 1/2 inches thick.  Using a dough cutter or a sharp knife, cut out wedges measuring about 3 1/2 - 4 inches and lay them on a nonstick baking sheet.  If necessary, gather any remaining dough together lightly to cut out more scones - just don't knead too much.  Brush the tops of the scones liberally with heavy cream and then sprinkle with sugar.
Bake the scones for about 12 minutes, or until lightly browned.

To serve shortcake-style, allow scones to cool for approximately 10 minutes.  While they cool, mix together approximately 8oz sliced strawberries, 3/4 pint of blueberries, and 1/3 cup of granulated sugar together in a bowl and allow to mascerate.  In a chilled bowl using a mixer with chilled beaters, whip 1 pint of heavy cream with 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract to stiff peaks.  Once scones are sufficiently cool, slice in half lengthwise and place two halves on a plate.  Scoop a healthy amount of berries onto the bottom half, top with whipped cream, and top with the top half of the scone.  Enjoy!