Salted Caramel Poked Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

One of my favorite parts about fall is the return of two of my very favorite coffee drinks: salted caramel lattes and pumpkin spice lattes. Salted caramel has become all the rage these days, and for good reason. It's a perfectly sweet and salty combo that I love in my coffee and desserts alike. In trying to decide what on earth to concoct for a foodie friend who is an incredibly accomplished baker, cook, cookbook author, food stylist, etc. herself (intimidating, right?!), I landed on combining my love for two great fall flavors to create a lovely fall dessert that is absolutely to die for. Not only are these delightfully spiced cupcakes balanced with a tasty salted caramel buttercream on top, they're drenched from the insides with salty caramel goodness. So good, they deserve a spot right next to (or maybe even in place of?) the traditional pumpkin pie at the Thanksgiving table. Give em a whirl!

Salted Caramel Poked Cupcakes

Makes 1 dozen standard cupcakes

Homemade Salted Caramel

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. salted butter
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt

Directions:

Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add brown sugar, heavy whipping cream and salt, stirring constantly. Allow mixture to boil for 1 minute and remove from heat. Cool completely.

Note: Reserve half of caramel for pouring into pokes and drizzling over the top of the cupcakes. I re-heated that portion for about 10 seconds in the microwave just to make it a little easier to work with. The remaining cool caramel was mixed into the frosting (see recipe below).

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 c. flour
• 1/2 (3.4 oz) pkg. instant butterscotch pudding mix
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 c. (1 stick) salted sweet cream butter, room temperature
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 8 oz. pumpkin puree
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease muffin tin or prepare with paper liners.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, pudding mix, soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing in vanilla and pumpkin with last egg. Stir in flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake 20-22 minutes or until tops are golden and spring back when lightly pressed. Cool in pan 10 minutes and transfer to rack to cool completely before filling and frosting.

To fill cupcakes, poke three 1-inch deep holes into each cupcake and spoon cooled salted caramel on top, allowing it to seep into cupcakes. 

Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. butter, room temperature
• 4-6 c. powdered sugar
• remaining salted caramel (from recipe above)

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and salted caramel. Add powdered sugar slowly to desired thickness. Spread or pipe frosting on cupcakes and drizzle with reserved salted caramel. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt if desired.

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Slow Cooker Beef Stew

There is something absolutely lovely about a weekend with nowhere to go and nothing in particular to do. After a solid two months of booked weekends and traveling, we finally enjoyed a weekend at home with some great fall weather, a bonfire with friends, disc golfing, a bean bag tourney with family and football watching. (Disclaimer: the football watching was actually rather disappointing...for Vikings fans, anyway.)

Are slow cookers cheating? I vote no. I love that you can get all the prep out of the way in the morning and enjoy dinner later in the day without much fuss. I chopped up all my veggies (except for the potatoes) the night before and only had to spend about 10 minutes putting everything together in the in the morning. Errands ran and a good game of disc golf later, we came to home to the aroma of homemade stew simmering away. A special note about my disc golfing skills: it's amazing that I'm capable of wielding a knife without losing a finger...or an arm...you'd never guess from my lack of coordination on the disc golf course. Anyway, nothing ground-breaking or Earth-shattering here, just a good, down-home beef stew that makes a return to my recipe repertoire every fall and winter.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. beef stew meat, cut into 1" cubes
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 red potatoes, diced
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 6 c. beef broth
• 3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp. corn starch

Directions:

Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl, mix flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika and ground cloves. Pour flour mixture over meat and stir to coat. Add veggies to slow cooker. Pour beef broth and Worcestershire sauce over veggies and meat and stir. Simmer covered on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-6 hours. During the last hour of simmering, dissolve corn starch in cold water to form a paste and stir into stew. Serve with crusty bread if desired. Enjoy!

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Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes with Lemon Pudding Filling

September has arrived and I feel a bit cheated. It's STILL 90 degrees and humid and I'm more than ready for 60's, football season and all my favorite soups and fall flavors. Of course, come January, I'll be wondering where summer is.

Celebrating the end of summer and saying a warm welcome to fall, these are a great last hurrah for the fresh fruity flavors of summer. Before I overload you with all things spice and pumpkin-flavored (my personal favorites), enjoy a light, refreshing cupcake that's perfect for your last summery get-togethers.

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Makes 1 1/2 dozen standard cupcakes

Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 (15.25 oz) box white cake mix
• 1 1/4 c. water
• 1/3 c. canola oil
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 (3.4 oz) pkg. instant lemon pudding (reserve other half for filling)
• zest of one lemon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F. Combine cake mix, water, oil and egg whites on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add half package of instant lemon pudding and lemon zest, mixing just until combined.

Prepare cupcake tin with paper liners. Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full with batter. Bake 20-24 min or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting and filling.

Lemon Pudding Filling

Ingredients:

• 1/2 (3.4 oz) pkg instant lemon pudding
• 1 c. water

Directions:

In the center of each cooled cupcake, create a small hole about 1/2" in diameter and 1" deep for filling (I used a small spoon to dig mine out). In a small mixing bowl, whisk pudding mix and water for 2 minutes. Let rest at least 5 minutes before filling cupcakes. Spoon pudding into center of each cupcake before frosting.

Berry Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. salted sweet cream butter, room temperature
• 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/3 c. raspberry preserves
• 1/2 c. fresh raspberries, rinsed, patted dry and mashed
• 6-8 c. powdered sugar
• 1-2 drops red food coloring, optional
• Fresh raspberries & quartered lemon slices, optional

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and cream cheese. Add raspberry preserves and fresh raspberries, mixing until combined. Add powdered sugar in small amounts to desired consistency. 

Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes. Garnish with fresh raspberries and lemon slices just before serving, if desired.

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Nutella Swirl Oatmeal Cookies

Baking is hardly ever a premeditated activity for me. The mood strikes me just right and before I know it I'm busting out the KitchenAid and my counters are dusted in flour. I typically get through the "cream butter and sugars, add eggs and vanilla" steps of a recipe just fine until...dun dun dun...inevitably I'm missing a key ingredient that I thought I had in my cupboards. Usually this means an impromptu trip to the nearest grocery store where, despite my intentions of making a record-breaking speedy return to my kitchen, I somehow wind up behind super coupon lady (why do these people use the express lane?!), the old-timer in the Buick doing 18 mph, or something to that effect.

Coincidentally, the very same thing happened to me today. I thought I'd whip up some simple oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and low and behold, I've only got half the chocolate chips I need. (Note: NOBODY really wants to eat chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with only one chocolatey morsel per cookie.) Ugh. I was about ready to slip on my shoes and make a run when I remembered the little jar of chocolatey hazelnut delight that would swoop in and save me from weekend grocery store hell: Nutella. I decided to forego the extra 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and sub in a nice swirl of Nutella. The trick here is to not over-mix so you get a nice ribbony swirl through your cookie dough. The results will be tasty, marbled cookies that are a nice balance between chewy and crispy.

Please take advantage of the fact that only about 36% of the time am I actually fully prepared with all necessary ingredients for a recipe and whip up a batch of these delightful accidents. :) I'm convinced the chocolate chip shortage was a blessing.

Nutella Swirl Oatmeal Cookies

Makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup salted sweet cream butter, softened
• 1 c. brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 c. old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 c. chocolate chips
• 1/2 c. chopped pecans (optional)
• 3/4 c. Nutella

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F. Cream butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla to butter and sugar mixture on low speed.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Add flour mixture to batter in two parts, mixing just until combined. Stir in oats, chocolate chips & pecans. Fold in Nutella.

Drop by heaping spoonfuls (or medium cookie scoop) onto parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 14-16 minutes (they should look slightly under-done but will set up nicely as they cool). Allow to cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Enjoy!

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Toasted Coconut Rum Cupcakes

Coconut is one of my very favorite flavors in the whole wide world. Oddly, it's also a flavor that I'm usually a little leery of baking with because people either love it or hate it - there doesn't really seem to be a happy medium. Apparently you can't just be a moderate coconut fan?

Perhaps the reason I love coconut so much is for its association with the tropics. And by tropics, I specifically mean Hawaii ... more specifically, Kauai. It's a flavor that transports me to place with, in my humble opinion, the most glorious weather and landscapes in the world. I will keep claiming that until I visit New Zealand, which in my mind, is the only place that might rival the north shore of Kauai.

Coconut feels like a perfect summer flavor. It's a great addition to smoothies, salads, stir fry, and of course baked goods. I recently baked these cupcakes for a co-workers birthday. Quite tasty and oh-so-summery if I do say so myself.

Toasted Coconut Rum Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from the Barefoot Contessa

Makes 2 Dozen Standard Cupcakes

Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 3 sticks salted sweet cream butter, room temperature
• 2 c. sugar
• 5 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. imitation rum flavor
• 1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 3 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. buttermilk
• 1 c. sweetened, shredded coconut (I ran mine through a food processor for finer coconut bits)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F. Cream butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs to butter and sugar mixture on low speed. Add vanilla, rum and almond extracts; mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add half of dry mixture to the batter, then buttermilk, then last half of dry mixture. Mix just until combined. Fold in coconut.

Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full with batter. Bake 25-30 min or until tops are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Coconut Rum Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c. salted sweet cream butter, room temperature
• 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 tsp. imitation rum flavor
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 4-6 c. powdered sugar
• 1/2 c. sweetened, shredded coconut, toasted

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and cream cheese. Add rum flavor and almond extract. In small amounts, add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached.

Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle each frosted cupcake with toasted coconut. Enjoy!

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Softest Ever Peanut Butter Cookies

The most wonderful things in life are the simple ones; the ones we overlook and take for granted until they're stripped away from us. One of the things I hate about human nature is how much it takes to shake us and wake us up, to appreciate the everyday things that keep us going.

One of these very things for me is a weekend coffee date with my husband. There is nothing profound whatsoever about these outings, but there is something about the simple joy of sitting at a little table with the person I love most with a good cup of coffee and a crossword puzzle or a game of Yahtzee. It's our time to just be together and talk or think about whatever we choose, to laugh and to fall in love all over again. It's a time to just get back to the basics and relax after a busy work week and enjoy each other's company.

On the back-to-the-basics note, once in a while, it's nice to just dig up a simple favorite recipe; one of those "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of recipes. I'm sure you all probably have a peanut butter cookie recipe at home but I'm telling you, these are a special favorite. I've had plenty of dry, crumbly peanut butter cookies in my lifetime but these are exceptionally soft and chewy AND easy to make. I can't take credit for this recipe - this one was generously shared by Della, a friend of the family, after a fun day of snowmobiling a few years ago. One bite in, I HAD to have the recipe. Thanks Della for sharing one of your best recipes with me and for the fun memories that go along with it!

Softest Ever Peanut Butter Cookies

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, peanut butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. In separate mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda and baking powder. Add flour mixture in 1/2 cup increments to peanut butter mixture. Shape into 1-inch balls. Roll in additional sugar. Arrange on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Flatten with fork in criss-cross pattern. Bake 7-9 minutes. Enjoy!

The trick to keeping these soft and chewy is to not over-bake them. I took mine out before they turned golden brown around the bottom but at the point where they no longer had that shiny, doughy look to them. When in doubt, take them out! :)

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Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes

Fact: I'm a little insecure about my feet. They are very square-ish, look kind of hobbit-y (minus the hair...thank GOD) and have indeed been called "shovels" by a shoe salesman at the Puma store in Mall of America. They're alright for activities like swimming and hiking and biking and walking but there is one activity that my square little feet are just not very compatible with. Dun dun dun....dress shoe shopping. Ugh. Not only are most dress shoes are made for narrow feet, I have confirmed that my left foot is most certainly half a size bigger than my right foot. This is a pretty recent discovery.

So now, every time I go dress shoe shopping, #1 I know it's going to be a hassle because my feet were not designed to be confined by strappiness; and #2 I'm faced with a completely ridiculous moral dilemma. Do I buy the larger size and have blisters on my left foot and leave my right foot flopping out of its respective shoe? Do I buy two pairs of shoes and hope to find a friend with a problem opposite mine that I can give the smaller left shoe and the larger right shoe to? Do I do the unthinkable and swap shoes in the store to buy two correct fitting ones even though they're different sizes? Holy smokes! What's a kid to do? Admittedly, I've done the latter ONCE and only once...and then I felt guilty the whole way home and I think about that awful choice every time I look at the shoes. Thank the lord for Dr. Scholls' invention of those little heel inserts, because without them I would either be spreading this half-a-size difference to a lot of unsuspecting shoe-shoppers or keeping the band-aid company in business.

What does this recipe have to do with my hobbit feet? Absolutely nothing other than the fact that eating a cupcake this delightful looking AND tasting takes the sting of oddly shaped feet away completely. These have a wonderful subtle flavor and are incredibly light. I made these for a bridal shower and they were a hit! Don't go feeling like you need a special occasion to make these just because they have champagne in them. Give 'em a whirl!

Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes

Makes about 2 Dozen Standard or 7 Dozen Minis

Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 (16.25 oz) white cake mix
• 1 1/4 c. Pink Moscato champagne, room temperature
• 1/2 c. salted sweet cream butter, melted
• 3 egg whites
• 1 tsp. strawberry extract
• 1/3 c. strawberry preserves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare standard or mini muffin tin with paper liners. In a large mixing bowl, combing cake mix and champagne. Stir in butter, egg whites and strawberry extract. Fold in strawberry preserves.

Fill each cup of muffin tin 3/4 full. Bake 14-16 min for mini cupcakes or 20-24 min for standard cupcakes (until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean). Allow cupcakes to cool in tin for 10 min. Transfer to rack to cool completely before frosting.

Strawberry Champagne Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 1 c. salted sweet cream butter, melted
• 4-6 c. powdered sugar
• 2/3 c. Pink Moscato champagne, room temperature
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. strawberry extract
• 3-4 drops red food coloring
• Pink sugar pearls, optional

Directions:

Combine butter and 8 cups powdered sugar in large mixing bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients, mixing until smooth. Add additional powdered sugar to desired consistency.

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Lemon Poppyseed Cookie Cups

A co-worker brought to my attention last week that you could give up all your food for the day for 6 cups of ice cream and still be within your caloric limit for the day. *sigh* How tempting. I am fairly confident that I could totally man-handle an entire carton of ice cream all on my own...with a baby spoon...in one sitting.

Ice cream does not fill me up whatsoever. I'm not sure if I was equipped with a hollow leg specifically for storing ice cream or what, but I swear it goes to a magical place. The day after I eat that ice cream, however, it goes to a no-so-very-magical place...like my rear. For this reason, I actually do eat my ice cream with a baby spoon. Seriously. It forces me to at least pace myself. So does the extremely small bowl I eat it from. I guess I feel like I'm getting a better deal eating a really full small bowl of something than a huge bowl that looks very empty-ish. 

Ta-da! Inspiration took place and that's how these delightful little lemon poppyseed cookie cups came to be. These tiny little dessert bowls have virtually endless filling possibilities. For my first go at it, I used a cream cheese filling and fresh fruits with a tasty vanilla dressing. Oh baby, what a winning combo. Give them a try!

Lemon Poppyseed Cookie Cups

Makes 2 1/2 Dozen

Cookie Cups

Ingredients:

• 1 c. salted butter, softened
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 (3.4 oz) pkg instant lemon pudding mix
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 1/2 c. flour
• 2 tsp poppyseeds
• 2 tbsp. fresh lemon zest

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter, sugars and pudding mix. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Blend flour and  baking soda in a separate bowl and then combine with butter and sugar mixture. Stir in poppyseeds and lemon zest, combining throughly.

On an upside down non-stick muffin tin, form dough around each muffin cup to form a small bowl. Dough should be pressed very thin (about 1/8" thick). Bake 5-7 minutes or until cups are lightly browned. Cool completely before removing cookie cups from muffin tin.

Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients:

• 16 oz cream cheese, softened
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl until mixed well. Spread about 2 tablespoons of cream cheese mixture in the bottom of each cookie cup.

Fresh Fruit Filling

Ingredients:

• Any combination of fresh fruits, to equal about 10 cups total (I used strawberries, blackberries and peaches)
• 1 (3.4 oz) pkg. instant french vanilla pudding mix

Directions:

Cut fruits to desired size and combine in a large bowl. Sprinkle vanilla pudding mix over fruit and stir to coat fruit evenly. Allow fruit to rest in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. The fruit juices should mix with the pudding for form a nice "dressing" but you can add water in 1/4 cup increments if needed to help it along. Stir before spooning fruit mixture on top of cream cheese in cookie cups (about 1/3 cup for each cookie cup). 

*I recommend filling your cookie cups just before serving to prevent them from getting soggy. Enjoy!

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