S'mores Cupcakes- the redo!

My summer of weddings is officially over. The chaos, the running around, the making cakes in hotel rooms is done. But I can’t say that I didn’t go out with a bang because 2 weeks ago I made an entire dessert buffet in a tiny hotel room with an even small kitchen- although, thankfully, a full oven. There were tears, there were mere hours of sleep, there were sunrises being watched, but it all worked out in the end, out of some miracle.

This last wedding was that of my beautiful friends Jordan and Lonny (who we affectionately call girl-Jordan in my house to distinguish from my boyfriend Jordan). It was a wedding full of breathtaking scenery, beautiful handmade details, and lots of love. And lots of dancing. Of course.

I didn’t bring my camera to the actual wedding, so I have seldom few pictures of that, but I did get some nice ones of the dessert buffet, and along with it, I am going to post my recipe for S’mores Cupcakes again, because it remains on of the most looked at pages on this site, and has some of the worst pictures! So I thought that should be remedied.

Recipe Adapted from Bon Appetit

Graham Cracker Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 15 crackers)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp Baking Powder

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

2 Large Eggs

1/2 cup Butter, softened

3/4 cup Milk or Buttermilk

Ganache:

3/4 cup Dark Chocolate

2/3 cup Heavy Cream

Marshmallow Topping:

3 Large Egg Whites

2 tbsp Sugar

1/2 cup Water

3/4 cup Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Decorate with

Broken pieces ofGraham crackers

2 Bars of Hersheys Chocolate

To make Ganache

Bring the cream to a boil

Pour on top of chocolate

Stir until smooth 

To Bake Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350F

Line with cupcake liners or butter and flour 1 dozen cupcake tins, or 3 dozen mini cupcake tins.

Whisk together your dry ingredients

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time beating well between each addition.

Alternate in the dry ingredients and wet ingredients beginning and ending with the dry.

Spoon the batter 3/4 of the way up the cupcake liners.

And bake them until they’re beautiful and slighly browned and an inserted skewer comes out with only a few moist crumbs, about 20 minutes for full sized cupcakes

To Make Marshmallo Topping

Put 3/4 cup sugar and water in a pot over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove spoon and bring to a boil and with a candy thermometer let it comet ot he firm ball stage, 246Degrees F.

While it’s boiling put the egg whites and the vanilla in the bowl of a standing mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed until soft peaks form. Add in the 2 tablespoons of sugar slowly until stiff peaks form.

When the sugar is up to temperature slowly pour it into the whites while whisking on high speed. Keep whisking until the bowl is cool and the meringue looks very marshmallowy, this will take about 8-10 minutes and the meringue should be mostly wrapped around the beater in a ball, and little should be on the sides of the bowl.

Put into a piping bag right away.

To Assemble:

Turn on the Broiler.

With a pairing knife cut a little hole out of the middle of the cupcakes.

Put the ganache into a piping bag and pipe it into the holes in the cupcakes (the consensus was that there wasn’t enough chocolate in the ones I made so don’t hesitate to load em up!)

Pipe the marshmallow topping on top of the whole thing!

Now throw the whole things under the broiler for a couple minutes until the tops just get golden.

July 24, 2011
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Strawberry Buttermilk Tart

I have a very vivid picture in my head of going strawberry picking with my Dad and my sister when I was, oh maybe 6 or 7. My dad, the doctor, decided to go a scientific experiment of what size and shape of strawberry tasted the best.

He conducted this experiment scupulously and with the utmost precision, by moving lying down in the middle of 2 rows of strawberries and eating and eating and eating, moving about a foot every 20 minutes or so.

The verdict of his research was that the small to medium ones that were sort of bell shaped, were the best. Sweet, but not sugary, soft, but not mushy, and also, pleasing to the eye.

So the other day, when Jordan and I were driving past a strawberry farm we pulled in, sadly without enough time to pick them, but I knew we had to buy lots when I went over to the plants and they were nearly all that perfect medium sized bell shape.

We’ve been back to that farm a few times now, for berries for jam, and for shortcakes, but the other day, when my apartment heated up to some where high in the thirties, I used some for a tart that hardly takes any cooking, but tastes wonderful.

I made a graham cracker crust because I didn’t want it in the oven on for long but I think the crumbly texture works nicely against the smoothness of the buttermilk mousse. And the strawberries that were so ripe and juicy were completely perfect and not to sweet. This tart looks like a bit of work, but it is really easy, and a perfect ending to a summer meal, light and fresh, but still with a bit of substance.

Graham Cracker Crust

1 3/4 cup Graham Crackers

3/4 cup Butter, Melted

Buttermilk Mousse Filling

1 cup Buttermilk

1 cup Whipping Cream

Zest of 2 Lemons

Juice of 1 Lemon

Half a Vanilla Bean, or 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Gelatin

3 tbsp Sugar

Strawberry Topping

3 cups really good Strawberries, cut in half, or quarters depending on the size.

1/4 cup Really good Strawberry Jam.

Preheat oven to 350F

Mix the graham cracker crumbs and the butter until totally combined.

Press it down into a 9 inch round tart shell or pie pan.

Bake about 15 minutes or until the crush has begun to set, but not so that it’s coloring.

Pull out your tart shell and allow to cool. Your done with the oven now to so you can turn it off! Yes!

While it’s cooling whip up 3/4 cup of heavy cream until its at stiff peaks. Put it back in the fridge to keep it cool.

In the meantime sprinkle the gelatin over the lemon juice in a little bowl. Let if soften ther for 15 minutes

While thats sitting Mix 1/4 cup of the cream with the sugar  and the vanilla bean in a small pot and put it over medium heat and stir it until it’s dissolved.

Stir in the gelatin mixture and stir until that’s dissolved too.

Pour the cream and gelatin mixture into a bowl and stir in the buttermilk and the lemon zest. Put this in the fridge for about ten minutes, until it’s just about cool. The gelatin will start to set up and you don’t want it too firm, you still need to add in the whipping cream, BUT if you add the whipping cream in while it’s still warm the bubbles you’ve whipped into the cream will collapse. So just open the fridge door every couple of minutes and give it a stir. Once you notice it sticking to the sides a bit, you can carefully fold in your whipping cream.

And now pour it into your tart shell!

Now put it in the fridge for about 20 minutes until it is set up nicely.

In the meantime mix your berries and your jam. You might find it easier to warm the jam up in the microwave for a few seconds.

Now gently spoon all the strawberries onto the tart. And there you have a ridiculously good summer dessert!