Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

Looking in the pantry the other day I noticed that I had two big containers of hazelnut spread, which did inspire me to make use of it.  It has been some time since I actually baked with it or actually eaten any for that matter!

I like the singular aspect of these cupcakes.  Lots of things I bake or make usually are combinations of more than one flavor.  Nothing wrong with that, but sometimes you crave just one flavor.  After baking these and having the aroma of nutella fill my kitchen, you can be I was craving one of these.

The cupcakes actually are crisp on the outside and light on the inside.  The airy texture and subtle flavor of the cupcake goes well with the thick rich taste of the spread on top.  Yes, that strip on top is not some mixed up frosting, it is purely the hazelnut spread. This recipe makes about 16 cupcakes.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes
adapted from Cupcakes Galore

Ingredients
1/2 cup whole hazelnuts
1 1/2 cups chocolate hazelnut spread
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
3 eggs

Grease the top edge of the cupcake cavities and fill with cupcake liners.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder.  Set aside.  In another bowl cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in one egg at a time until blended.  Mix in 3/4 cup of the hazelnut spread until  incorporated.

Fold in half of the sifted ingredients so no dry streaks remain.  Mix in the milk and then add the rest of the sifted ingredients.

Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full with the batter.  The batter was thick, so I tapped the pan on the counter to level it out.  You do not want any peaks or uneven batter, for it will reflect in the shape of the cupcake after baked.  Place pan(s) in the oven and bake until tester comes out clean 20-25 minutes.

Place pan on rack and let cool for 3 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan cavities.  Place on rack and let cool completely before frosting.

After the cupcakes have cooled, pipe the rest of the hazelnut spread onto the cupcake and place a few nuts on top or you can grind the nuts and sprinkle on top.

Tips and Notes:
1. You can leave to spread off and serve these plain with your morning coffee.
2. The flavor really stands out when these are slightly warmed in the microwave
              **LAST YEAR: Oatmeal Butterscotch Muffins**                  

Colonsay Isle Cookies

Off the coast of Scotland are a few islands. One of which is called the Isle of Colonsay.  In Gaelic, or Celtic language of Scotland, the word for hazel is coll.  There was a discovery of a big pit (over 9000 years old) of burned hazelnut shells on the beach of that island, indicating that hazelnut harvests had been going on for quite some time.  That pit did not represent just a few burned hazelnut shells, but hundreds of thousands.  Apparently all the people back then were vegan since there was no deer or wild game on the island.

These particular cookies do have the flavor of hazelnut.  They are made of a mix of three flours-hazelnut, rice and all purpose.  The rice flour gives it extra crispness. The real "pop" of hazelnut flavor comes from a hazelnut cream extract. The particular brand I used is LorAnn which is 3 to 4 times the strength of standard extracts.

I find that the texture is somewhat like a Lorna Doone cookie.  It is crisp on the outside but disintegrates into soft crumbs in your mouth.  Due to its texture, this cookie is not one that you would want to ship and send to anyone.  It is too delicate.  Also, with time the cookie does lose its crispness after a few days at room temperature. The recipe makes about 3 dozen 2 1/2 inch cookies.

Colonsay Isle Cookies
by Flourtrader

Ingredients/Cookies
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup hazelnut flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
5 tsp hazelnut liqueur
1/2 tsp hazelnut cream flavoring or 2 tsp hazelnut extract
3/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg

Ingredients/Drizzle
1/4 cup of Nutella or hazelnut spread
2 tbs butter
3 tbs milk (or more)
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp hazelnut cream flavoring or 1 tsp of extract

To make cookies, sift together rice flour, all purpose flour and baking powder.  Then stir in hazelnut flour.  Set aside.  In another bowl, beat together shortening and sugar until fluffy. Add egg, liqueur and extract and beat for 30 seconds.  Then fold in sifted ingredients until no dry streaks remain.  Cover and chill for 1 hour.

After 30 minutes of chilling time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 2 cookie sheets with non stick spray.

Lightly flour a flat surface and roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thick.  The dough will still be very soft.  I used a method of rolling out and using a sharp spatula to slide under the dough occasionally to make sure it was not sticking.  After rolling it out, I used the spatula one last time under the dough and then I cut out the cookies.  Some people prefer to put the rolled dough on the cookie sheet and then cut so the cookie does not have to be moved once it is cut. They just take away the dough around each cookie and remove it from the sheet.  Besides personal preference, the detail of the cookie cutter and consistency of dough is to be taken into consideration.

Place the cut out cookies one inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.  Bake until lightly browned on the edges or until done.  This should take about 8-12 minutes.  Once baked, transfer to a wire rack set over a piece of wax paper to cool.

For the drizzle, I used a squirt bottle but you can just as well use a fork.  Place butter and hazelnut spread in a saucepan.  Put pan over medium heat and stir until all the butter is melted and blended with the hazelnut.  Remove from heat and sift in confectioners sugar.  Stir mixture and then add 1 tbs of milk and mix together.  Continue to add milk by tablespoon until you reach the desired consistency.

Then drizzle glaze over cookies, letting excess drip onto the wax paper underneath the rack.  Wait at least 1-2 hours for drizzle to set up and then serve.
        **LAST YEAR: Chocolate Frosted Butter Cupcakes**

Lower East Side Nut Cake

This recipe is one that I have had for quite some time and just now got around to making it.  The two things that drew me to it was the inclusion of matzo meal as well as the raspberry filling.

Before I made this, I wanted to be sure I did everything to insure that this was a success. I got a buttercream icing recipe and scaled it down to make the crumb crust, I did not want this thing tearing as it was iced.  However, it needed very little crumb coating since the cake was only  1 1/2 inch in height and had a layer of raspberry on top underneath the icing.  Also, instead of just purchasing raspberry jam, I got raspberry filling (I used Solo brand) and I used the whole can instead of 1/4 cup as stated in the recipe.

I really did like how it turned out.  It was a dainty, nutty cake and the raspberry was a great pairing of flavor.  The only issues I had was that I should have ground the hazelnuts more and the chocolate ganache frosting took a long time to set up.  Next time, I may use chocolate instead of chocolate chips, which may help with the consistency. Also, note that this recipe recommends using two 9 inch square baking pans.

Lower East Side Nut Cake
adapted from Food Network

Ingredients/Cake
1/4 cup cream
2 tbs hazelnut liqueur
2 tbs melted butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, separated
1 cup finely chopped roasted hazelnuts
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup matzo meal
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup cake flour
1/4 tsp salt and one pinch for egg whites
pinch of cream of tartar
1/4 cup raspberry cake filling or seedless jam (see note above)

Ingredients/Ganache Frosting
4 oz bittersweet chocolate chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
chocolate buttercream crumb coat (optional)
1 pint raspberries for decorating

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare pans by spraying with non stick coating.  Then line the inside bottom of each pan with parchment paper.

Place flour, salt, baking powder and 1/2 cup of sugar in a sifter and sift all into a large bowl. Then sift again for 2 more times.  Then whisk in the chopped nuts and the matzo meal.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and add egg yolks, oil, liqueur, cream and butter.  Stir with a wooden spoon until all is blended.

In a separate bowl add egg whites, salt and cream of tartar.  Beat with electric mixer until foamy and just starting to form peaks.  Add 1/4 cup of sugar and beat for 1 minute.  Add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and beat until stiff glossy peaks form.

Stir in 1/3 of the egg whites into the yolk batter.  Then fold in the rest of the whites until no white streaks remain.  Divide batter evenly and pour into each pan, spreading until even.  My batter was a little over 2 cups for each pan.

Bake cakes until lightly tan on top and top springs back when lightly touched.  This should take about 20 minutes.  Remove pans and place on cooling racks until completely cool.  Cake should pull away from edges while cooling.  Once cool invert pans and let layer release from pan.  Then place one layer on a cake plate, parchment side up.

Remove parchment and trim top to level if needed.  Then spread with half of the raspberry mixture.  Remove parchment on other layer of cake and flip over on top of the other layer.  Trim to level if needed. Spread the remaining raspberry on top of the cake, leaving a small border to insure raspberry does not drip down sides.  If using a crumb coat, smooth it on the exposed sides of the cake and the top edge then place in fridge for 30 minutes to set.  If no crumb coat, still place it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

To make frosting, place chopped chocolate in a medium heat proof bowl. Then pour cream into a small sauce pan and place over medium high heat.  Once it reaches scalding, remove and pour cream over chocolate and stir until all the chocolate is melted and smooth.  Let cool for 30 minutes or until it is thick enough to spread.

Remove cake from fridge, frost the sides and top of the cake with the ganache frosting.  Then place raspberries on top for decoration.  Place in fridge for another 30 minutes to have it all completely set.  Then run a knife under hot water, wipe off and cut cake into pieces for serving.

Brown Mercedes Muffins

A long time ago I worked with someone that had an 1977 dingy brown Mercedes.  He had talked about getting a new paint job done on the car.  I asked what color he was going to get it painted.  "The same" he replied.  I told him that he should get it painted a different color, something with a little bit more flash.  He advised that while he liked the performance of the car, having one was never about flash or image.  Attracting attention was not something he was into.  I wondered about him the other day.  Perhaps he is still happily scooting down the road, unnoticed, in that same murky brown classic.

These muffins are kind of like that old car.  They have a wonderful flavor, but a rather humble appearance.  Which means that you will not have someone bolting across the room at the sight of these.  Serving these will be more civil, instead of a bunch of snatching hands.

The taste is really the game changer of that calmness. Just one bite of the fluffy muffin will drive your taste buds straight through a dark hazelnut tunnel. If that is not enough, there will be an occasional bump of chocolate chips and salty nuts.  So take your taste buds for a test drive with these humble brown muffins, the keys to get things started are below.

Brown Mercedes Muffins
from flourtrader

1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips
1/3 cup chopped, skinned and salted hazelnuts
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup Nutella
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup or 5 tbs and 1 tsp butter (room temp)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
sparkling, slow melting sugar (optional for sprinkling on top)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Grease top edge of 14 muffin cavities, then fill with paper liners and set aside.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  In another bowl, beat together the butter and Nutella for one minute.  Add both sugars and beat again at medium speed for about 2 minutes, stopping to occasionally scrape down the sides of the bowl.  While maintaining the same speed, beat in the egg and vanilla extract, making sure all is blended and mixture is smooth. Set the batter aside.

In a third bowl, whisk the yogurt and the applesauce together.

Take about 1/3 of the sifted ingredients and fold into the nutella/sugar batter.  Then add 1/2 of the yogurt/applesauce and stir until blended.  Follow the same steps again and then add the last third of the sifted ingredients.  Stir until no dry streaks remain.

Take 2 tablespoons of the measured out chopped hazelnuts and set aside.  Pour the remaining chopped nuts into the batter and then add the mini chips, stir until all is evenly distributed.

Using a scoop, fill each of the 14 muffin cavities evenly with the muffin batter.  They should be about 3/4 full.  Sprinkle the top of each with the reserved nuts. Then, if you have opted for the sparkling sugar, sprinkle it evenly on top of each muffin.

Place pans in oven and bake about 24-27 minutes or until done.  Pans will need to be rotated and  rack switched (from one to the other) halfway through the baking time. When done, top will spring back when lightly touched.

Remove pan and let muffins cool for a few minutes then transfer to rack to finish cooling.
                       **LAST YEAR: Spicy Sausage Calzones**