S'Mores Cupcakes with Nutella

 I have found the cupcake Mecca!

And no, I will never go back to plain ol' cupcakes ever again.

After the Lemon-Marionberry-Lavender creations my mind has been awhirl with thoughts on new ideas for more cupcakes.

I knew after "S'Mores" came to mind that it had to have already been done. Which it has, but most of the recipes I found online called for chocolate ganache. Now I must say I have nothing against ganache. But it seemed so simple, plain almost.

And that is when I remembered that my favorite way to make S'Mores isn't with a chocolate candy bar but with Nutella!

 Frosting made from Nutella! Genius! And I was also wasn't the first to come up with this either. So I married a recipe for Nutella Frosting, and a recipe for graham cracker cupcakes and piped them with marshmallow creme... They are devine!

Ingredients:

Graham Cracker Cupcakes:

• 11/2 cups graham cracker crumbs.
• 1/2 cup cake flour.
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder.
• Pich of salt.
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened.
• 3/4 cup sugar.
• 2 large eggs.
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
• 3/4 cup milk.

Filling:

• Marshmallow Creme (1 can should be enough)

Frosting/Topping Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup Nutella
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• Milk/Cream
• Teddy Grahams

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees & line cupcake/muffin pans with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl mix together graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder & pinch of salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl beat butter & sugar until light & fluffy.
4. Add eggs into butter mixture one at a time, blending well after each.
5. Beat in Vanilla.
6. Alternatingly add part graham mixture & milk until all is blended together into large bowl.
7. Pour into lined pans and bake. 22 minutes for standard size cupcakes, 14 minutes for mini cupcakes (or a toothpick comes out clean).
8. Cool completely.
9. Cut out hole in center for piping marshmallow creme into.
10. Put  marshmallow creme into a quart ziploc bag, seal and cut off one corner the size of the whole in your cupcake. Pipe creme into cupcakes.
11. With mixer on high, beat butter & Nutella until evenly combined. Add powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time, mixing well after each. Add milk/cream as/when needed to reach desired consistency (I used Heavy Whipping cream).
12. Put Frosting into decorating bag with desired tip and pipe onto cupcakes.
13. Garnish with a Teddy Graham.
14. Enjoy!

Cookie-Brownie Peanut Butter Cup Surprise!

These are definitely meant to be eaten with a glass of milk at the ready. I modified a recipe I saw on a friends Pinterest stream recently. I took them from full-size to mini form, and I am glad I did. As a full size one of these babies would definitely not be digestible in one sitting.

Here's what you need:

• 2 packages of refrigerated cookie dough 

(the kind you break off in pre-scored pieces) I choose to use Toll House Mini Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

• 1 box brownie mix of your choice

(plus everything needed to make said Brownie Mix) I choose Pillsbury Milk Chocolate

 

• 1 Bag of Mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

(You could essentially use any mini peanut butter cups, Trader Joes makes some that are just as good if not better than Reese's)

 
 

• Either mini cupcake pans or brownie bite pans

• Flour or Butter Cooking/Baking Spray

(this is a must as I forgot the spray on the last pan I put in the oven and they would not come out of the pan. The tops popped off and I was stuck scraping out the bottom)

Here's what you do:

• Make the brownie mix per package instructions.
• Spray the pans you are going to use with the cooking/baking spray
• Cut the cookie dough on the score lines. I tried breaking it apart by hand but it wasn't coming apart evenly, so I began just cutting it. 
• Put one square piece of cookie dough into the bottom of each well in the pan. Press the dough into the bottom of the pan evenly.
• Next place one mini Reese's peanut butter cup in each well on top of the cookie dough.

• Pour brownie mix in each well, do not fill completely or they will bake up over the top. While the brownie mix will cover the peanut butter cup you should still be able to see the form of the top of it raised in the center.

 

• Bake in a 350 degree oven for 14-15 minutes. Unfortunately because of the peanut butter cup in the center you can't stick a toothpick in to see if its done. You will have to go more by look and feel to tell that they are done.
• Let them cool in the pan about 5 minutes before popping them out with a knife, cutting around the sides to ease them out.
• Rinse/wipe out pan before re-using, dry, and then re-spray with the cooking/baking spray before re-loading with more.
• I just kept making them until I was out of brownie mix. I used a little over 1 package of cookie dough, the whole thing of brownie mix and about 3/4th's of the bag of peanut butter cups.

Delicious, but super rich! A great baking project for the kids to help you with as the cookie dough and peanut butter cup part are very easy to do.     Enjoy!