Martha's Mint-Filled Brownie Cupcakes..or how I had to use two heavy-duty sauce pans as a double boiler

Ok...I know I've been absent for a few days. My sincerest apologies! Work gets in the way and so do the holidays. But I'm back! Also, you'll notice I changed the name of the blog. I'm sure it won't be the first name change as I am indecisive and may not like this name in a month. At the beginning of the week I was craving something chocolate and awesome. I turned to a recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook that I wanted to try. Now, I will be honest and admit that I do not actually own this particular cookbook. I saw the recipe and beautiful cupcakes on Nosh and Tell a while ago and I was completely mesmerized. I had every intention of making these cupcakes last week but anyone that works in retail can tell you that the week of Christmas is complete insanity so I barely had time to breathe let alone think about cooking or baking! Luckily, since I wanted to make them last week, I had everything I needed and didn't need to make any late night trips to the grocery store. I did not, however, own a double boiler. :( I made the best of the situation though and I used two saucepans. It works the same way, just make sure that they aren't the same size.

 

 

Mint-Filled Brownie Cupcakes
From Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

8 oz semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temp
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
12 small chocolate covered peppermint patties, such as York Peppermint Patties

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners. Place chocolate and butter in double boiler and stir occasionally just until melted, 4-5 minutes.
Remove bowl from heat, whisk in sugar and salt until mixture is smooth. Whisk in eggs to combine. Gently whisk in flour and cocoa just until smooth (do not overmix).
Spoon 1 heaping tbsp of batter into each lined cup. Place 1 patty on top, gently pressing into batter. Top with 2 tbsp batter, covering patty completely. Bake, rotating tin halfway through , about 35 minutes (start checking at 30). Transfer tin to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

As you can see, the little pan is tilted slightly but it all worked out just fine!

Almost all melted! You do not want to walk away while you're melting chocolate. Also, I didn't even have the water boiling. Maybe it took me a bit longer to melt the chocolate and butter but it made sure that the chocolate didn't burn or scorch. Who wants that!

All the ingredients mixed together. 

 

Use the SMALL peppermint patties. I believe the large ones will be too big for these cupcakes unless you're making six large cupcakes instead of 12 regular sized cupcakes. Gently press the patties into batter

 

I took this when I was checking on them. They smell SO delicious.

 

Mmmmm cupcakes!

 

I suppose you could frost the cupcakes but I chose not to. They were perfectly delicious and rich without the frosting. They're also a lot heavier than your typical cupcake. Maybe due to the peppermint patties or maybe because they're brownie cupcakes.

 

This is what they look like inside! So pretty!

I use the people I work with as my guinea pigs because I know that my family is never going to tell me that something I made was terrible. So even though I made these a few days ago, I had two left and I brought them to work. Mary, one of the lovely people I work with, devoured the entire cupcake before it was even 10am! They are very happy to taste test my food. :) 

I will have another post hopefully before next week. Unfortunately, I don't have the funds to go grocery shopping right now since the new company that owns my chain of stores changed our payroll to every other week. :( Makes me sad that I can't cook or bake for a bit. But! One of my best friends is coming for a visit in a few weeks so there will be plenty to report from that. Never fear though, I will have some posts between now and then.

Happy New Year!

Ashley

Two things today...

Alright..I've been MIA the last few days because of work and the insane Christmas shopping...also that brutal snowstorm the Northeast got whacked with over the weekend. But that didn't stop me from cooking. Nope. Just from blogging. So here I am. It's gonna be a quick one tonight because the season is finally catching up to me and I am exhausted. Some day last week..I don't remember what day..I made what was supposed to be tomato minestrone soup..a recipe from Rachael Ray but I adapted it to be more of a vegetable soup. I mean..same idea. So I'll post her exact recipe and what I did to change it.


Tomato Minestrone with Buttery Pine Nut Breadcrumbs

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/4 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into thirds
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 3-4 small ribs celery with leafy tops, chopped
• 1 fresh bay leaf
• 1 can garbanzo beans (15 ounces), drained
• Salt and pepper
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 2 cups water
• 1 can tomato puree (28 ounces)
• 1 cup mini penne rigate or mini rigatoni, such as Barilla brand
• 1-2 basil leaves, torn
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 loaf crusty or stale bread
• 1 jar pine nuts (3 ounces or 1/3 cup)
• 1/4 grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, plus more to pass at the table

I added a can of red kidney beans, the rest of the white mushrooms from the chicken soup and a few diced fingerling potatoes. Also, I used ditalini(Pastene brand) instead of penne or rigatoni. Also, I didn't bother with the breadcrumbs since I knew we wouldn't be eating it all at once and it would be heated and re-heated over the rest of the week so I can't tell you how it came out. The soup itself was delicious and filling. And even better as leftovers. It lasted for days! Making it was fairly easy as well.

Pre-heat the oven to 325˚F.

Heat a soup pot over medium to medium-high heat with EVOO, two turns of the pan. Add the onions, garlic, green beans, carrots, celery, bay leaf, and garbanzo beans and season liberally with salt and pepper. Cook the vegetables for 7-8 minutes to soften, then add in the stock, water and tomato puree. Bring the soup to a boil, add the penne and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the basil and turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small pot over low heat. Pulse the bread and pine nuts together in a food processor. Turn the breadcrumbs out onto a cookie sheet and toss with the butter and cheese. Toast in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until light golden in color.

Top the soup with the breadcrumbs and serve.

Tonight, in preparation for Christmas, I made brownies laced with peppermint bark. There is no special trick to this at all. Just use your favorite boxed brownie mix..or make your own if that's what you prefer...and get one bar of Ghiradelli Peppermint bark, chopped into small pieces. Stir into the mix and bake as directed on the box. No pictures as these do not last around my house. I will try to make another batch before Christmas since I snagged two bars at work the other day.


That's all from me tonight.

Enjoy!
Ashley

Chicken Noodle Soup

It's a bit cold here in New England this time of year and nothing warms you up like a nice, piping hot bowl of soup. This was yet another one of my planned meals this week and I am not disappointed. The recipe I used was originally Emeril Lagasse's recipe for EJ's Vegetable Noodle Soup, one of the first dishes he cooked for his kids. The soup is GREAT for kids. The flavors are simple and it's fun. I'll post the original recipe and then add my changes at the bottom.

EJ's Vegetable Noodle Soup

1. 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2. 2 small onions, cut into 1/4-inch dice
3. 3 celery ribs, cut into 1/4-inch dice
4. 4 carrots, thinly sliced
5. 1 garlic clove, minced
6. 3/4 teaspoon chopped thyme
7. 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
8. 1 cup water
9. 1 bay leaf
10. Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
11. 2/3 cup alphabet pasta
12. 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
13. 2 tablespoons snipped chives

When I went food shopping the other night, I grabbed a whole cooked chicken with the intentions of using it in a soup. I had this recipe handy and thought that it would be perfect. It was! That was the biggest change. It was no longer a veggie only soup. I changed alphabet pasta to stars, cut out the frozen peas and substituted them for thinly sliced white mushrooms. I also cut out the chives and used one medium onion instead of two small and it was just fine. You could cut out the noodles completely and add potatoes if you prefer.

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions, celery and carrots and cook over moderate heat, stirring, for 8 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for 1 minute. Add the broth, water and bay leaf and simmer until the vegetables are tender, 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Stir in the pasta and simmer until tender, 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the peas and chives. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.

To make the veggie soup a chicken soup, I manhandled the bird and cut the breasts off the carcass and made them into bite size pieces. The rest I saved for the people in my house to eat. Using both breasts was just enough chicken but if you want more, go ahead and use the wings and thighs. Just be very careful about the bones! This was probably the hardest part for me. It was cold and my fingers were turning numb. Haha. Basically to make my version of the soup, follow along with the directions, adding the mushrooms and chicken when the broth starts to boil and wait til the mushrooms are tender before adding the pasta and cooking for five minutes. Any small pasta is fine.


Enjoy!
Ashley

Mini Skillet Meatloaves

I had a pretty rough day at work with a ton of issues. I'll give you a little insight...I'm responsible for a retail stores money. What stays in the safe and what comes and goes. This morning everything was a mess and any normal girl would do some shopping therapy to get over it. But not me. I went to the grocery store and bought a TON of ingredients for a few recipes I want to try this week and the first one I picked was a recipe I saw in the Christmas Food Network magazine. It was really pretty easy and fun!


Mini Skillet Meatloaves

1/3 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 large egg
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 small onion finely minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 gloves garlic, grated or finely minced
1 1/2 pounds meatloaf mix (ground beef, pork and/or veal)
Kosher salt and ground pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup ketchup
1 to 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1. Mix the breadcrumbs, milk, parsley, egg, Worcestershire sauce, onion, chili powder and garlic in a large bowl. Add the meat, season with salt and pepper and mix with your hands until combined. Shape into six 3 to 4 inch oval loaves.




2. Heat the vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add the loaves and brown about 3 minutes on each side.

3. Whisk the ketchup, sugar and vinegar in a bowl and brush a few tablespoons over the meat. Add 1/2 cup of water to the skillet, cover and simmer over low heat until cooked through, about 15 minutes.

4. Transfer the loaves to a plate. Add the remaining ketchup mixture to the skillet and cook over high heat, stirring until thick, 3 to 5 minutes. Serve meatloaves with hot glaze.




I didn't get to the grocery store until after 3pm and I don't know when my store stocks certain items so when I got to the meat section, there were only three packs of meatloaf mix left and none were a pound and a half. So I bought two and added just a little bit more of each other ingredient when I made the loaves. I made six loaves and put the rest of the meat in a regular loaf pan and stuck that sucker right in the oven for an hour. Why waste it??? I was a little squicked out by having to mix the raw meat with my hands but I got over it. I had fun shaping the little loaves, too.

I'm sure if you don't like meatloaf mix, you can use just ground beef or your combination of choice. I haven't had a homemade meatloaf in a long time so it was nice to make these little guys. And they're SO delicious. I didn't make the hot glaze because I used what was left after brushing the mini loaves to pour on top of the big meatloaf. It was fine, I just used plain ketchup when I sat down to eat.

So try this recipe and let your kids help make the mini loaves, it'll be a great way to get them in the kitchen! Needless to say, I feel tons better after my bad day at work.

Enjoy!
Ashley

Welcome!

Welcome to the wonderful world of Ashley's Kitchen Experiments! This is my first food blog and I was inspired by the lovely ladies at Nosh and Tell. While I don't have any recipes or reviews for you right out of the gate, I will tell you a bit about myself and what you will see in this blog.


My name is Ashley and I'm a 24 year old working girl from Boston, Massachusetts. And I love to cook! Now, I didn't always love to cook because I hated doing the dishes but things have changed and you can find me in the kitchen at my grandmother's house baking or cooking something delicious at least once a week. Also, I love to travel. I have a few very close friends who are all scattered all over North America so I find myself traveling to different places to see them. In four years, I have been to Daytona Beach, Las Vegas, San Diego, West Hollywood, San Bernardino, Santa Monica, Long Island, Virginia and New Hampshire. A lot of these trips also see us going to NASCAR races. My close-knit group of girlfriends and I are avid NASCAR fans. We have gone to the Pepsi 400, Sylvania 300, Rock and Roll 400, Pepsi 500, UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400 and the Lenox Industrial Tools 300. This may not seem important to all of you foodies, but these race trips take me all over the country so I will have plenty of restaurant reviews for all of you!


I am not a fabulous chef or bakeress by any means. Nobody has taught me anything. I am learning and experimenting all on my own, hence the title of my blog. I will post my trials and tribulations as well as all of my successes. I am truly happy when someone enjoys my cooking.


Now onto what this blog will consist of...

• recipes from some of my favorite chefs and cookbooks
• recipes from friends
• recipes that I, myself, create and/or modify in some way
  
• restaurant reviews from in and around Boston as well as the places I travel

I will try each and every one of the recipes I post here so you'll get an honest review from someone who is teaching themselves how to cook and bake.

I promise to be back soon with my first recipe as Christmas is fast approaching and it is time to start turning out cookies and pies like there is no tomorrow!

Stay tuned!

Ashley