Irish Cream Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Glaze

Posted on July 14, 2008 by kitchenbelle

 I would not be honest if I didn’t tell you I was in quite a rush when I made these cupcakes!  They were a last minute decision and I made them using ingredients already in my cupboards.  Nonetheless, I think they came out pretty well.  The Irish Cream flavor was strong but not overbearing.  Next time I think I will try frosting with a vanilla buttercream instead of the chocolate glaze, but time was not on my side (that seems to be a theme on this blog!) and I went with a simple chocolate glaze. 

I think these would be great for St. Patty’s day, especially with some shamrock embelishments.   

Irish Cream Cupcakes:

  • 2/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature (I used salted)
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 large eggs at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 1 1/3 cups Irish Cream Liquor (I used Bailey’s)
  • 4 cups of flour
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Insert liners into cupcake pan.  In a large bowl cream together sugar and butter.  Add the vanilla and eggs.  Beat well.  In another bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt.  In a third bowl mix Irish Cream with milk.  Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternating with the liquid mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Beat on medium speed for two minutes.  Fill the cupcake papers 3/4 full.  Bake for about 20 minutes.  Cool cupcakes in pan.  Makes 24 cupcakes.

Milk Chocolate Glaze:

  • whipping cream
  • coarsely chopped milk chocolate*

Heat the whipping cream until it is bubbling but not boiling.  Remove it from the stove and add the chopped up chocolate.  Whisk cream and chocolate together.  Add more cream or chocolate to reach desired consistency.  After the cupcakes cooled I drizzled the glaze over each.

*I was low on milk chocolate chips so I used a solid Godiva chocolate bunny that I have been holding on to!  Talk about improvising–haha!  I did feel bad watching his paws melt, but there was no time to run to the store!

Irish Cream Cupcakes adapted from Crazy about Cupcakes by Krystina Castella

Milk Chocolate Glaze adapted from Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans

Filed under: chocolate, cupcakes, Dessert, icing, Irish Cream | 1 Comment »

Chicken Sausage Burgers

Posted on July 7, 2008 by kitchenbelle

I thought these burgers were delicious!  Because of the fennel seed and other spices, they tasted very much like sausage patties, but fresh, and without all of that fat.  Also, the red pepper gave them a nice kick!  I found them to be much more interesting than traditional burgers–a nice way to add some depth to typical cookout food.

Chicken Sausage Burgers:

  • extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 pound ground chicken
  • 1 pound ground turkey (package actually contained about 1.5 lbs of meat, which was fine)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1/4 teaspoon allspice
  • juice of one orange
  • 2 generous handfuls of grated parmigiano cheese
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • salt
  • freshly ground pepper

Place the ground meat in a bowl and add the fennel seed, red pepper flakes, allspice, orange zest, garlic, salt and pepper.  Using your hands, mix the meat with the seasoning and form about seven patties.   Make a shallow dent in the top of each burger to prevent the burger from bulging as it cooks.  Place burgers on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  Drizzle burgers liberally with olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper on the top of each.  Layer wax paper between layers of burgers.  Cook on low heat on the grill (about 10 minutes on each side) until there is no longer pink in the center.  Be careful not to overcook.  Serve on fresh crusty rolls slathered with sweet BBQ sauce. 

These were juicy and delicious!

recipe notes: makes about 7 medium size burgers, recipe called for orange zest, which I omitted, recipe only used chicken, but I used half turkey half chicken to make the burgers a little tastier and less dry, I doubled this recipe, which is why there are 14 burgers in the photo.

Recipe adapted from Rachael Ray’s recipe found here on foodnetwork.com

Filed under: chicken, ground meat, Main Dish, turkey | Leave a comment »

Spinach Artichoke Pasta Salad

Posted on July 7, 2008 by kitchenbelle

 

Tortellini is one of my favorite types of pasta so when I found this recipe, I was very excited to try it.  Also, I don’t really like pasta salads that are “mayonaisey” so this combination of ingredients was particularly alluring.  It tasted so fresh!  So many wonderful textures and flavors.  The tartness of the artichoke hearts was balanced so nicely by the saltiness of the prosciutto filled tortellini.  The sweet onions provided a satisfying crunch.   Every bite was colorful and enjoyable.  I plan to make this one again and again. 

Spinach Artichoke Pasta Salad:

  • 1 package fresh Buitoni chicken prosciutto tortellini
  • 1/2 pound baby spinach (chopped)
  • 1 15-oz can artichoke hearts in water (drained and chopped)
  • 1/2 small red onion
  • 2 clove garlic
  • 1 lemon
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • A few splashes of red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
  • handful sun-dried tomatoes (chopped coarsely)

recipe notes: the recipe called for 1 chopped roasted red pepper, which I omitted.  I also omitted lemon zest and instead used only fresh lemon juice.  And I tripled this recipe to get the quantity shown in the photo.

Boil the pasta in salted water.  Cook tortellini for 3-4 minutes.  (I was so worried about over cooking these little pouches of deliciousness, that I actually undercooked them.  More on that later.)  Drain then cool pasta by spreading across a cookie sheet in a single layer.

Coarsely chop baby spinach.  Combine with artichoke and red onion.  Chop garlic then add salt to it and mash with the back of a spoon to create a paste.  In a small bowl combine the garlic and salt paste with the lemon juice.  Add the vinegar.  Whisk in oil, thyme and fresh cracked black pepper.  Add pasta and sun-dried tomatoes to the salad.  Dress the salad and gently toss.

So, I did under cook the pasta, just a bit.  Before storing it, I added some olive oil and chicken broth so the next day, the leftover pasta had obsorbed more of the dressing and was just fine. 

I highly recommend this dish as a fresh alternative to boring colorless, traditional, creamy salads.

Recipe adapted from recipe by Rachael Ray found here on foodnetwork.com

Filed under: artichoke, salad, Side, spinach, tomato, tortellini | Leave a comment »

« Previous Page