Chocolate (Caramel Filled) Cupcakes with Caramel Bailey’s!!

weird filling.

Confession: I didn’t feel like baking this weekend. I whipped these cupcakes up last minute because Hubs and I crave treats at night.

 

I used my regular boozy chocolate cake batter. As usual it’s awesome.

 

The chocolate caramel filling is good. But I don’t plan on using it again. The filling I made for these is too, um, chewy. It came out like Tootsie Rolls! Whaaaa?! I know. Weird. I should have made some homemade caramel. Or used a can of condensed milk to make it more creamy. Live and learn. 😉

 

I topped these off with a simple buttercream that uses Bailey’s instead of milk.

 

Overall they came out tasty. The recipe isn’t too shabby for a batch of thrown together at the last minute cupcakes.

 

Happy Baking!

-Hey Waitress!!

 

Check out the recipe for Chocolate (Caramel Filled) Cupcakes.

 

Drunken Turtle Cookies!!

 

I adapted this recipe from Nestle. I had planned on making (boring) turtle cookies, but my booze cabinet was feeling neglected, and the Bailey’s called my name. It called my name so loud some even fell in my coffee while I was baking. 😉

 

The cookie dough recipe is the same one I used to make Captain’s Chocolate Chip Cookies…

 

I used about 3 cups of pecans. I think the next time I make these, I’m going to put the cookie dough down first, then arrange the pecans around it. If you don’t have a 1 ½ inch scoop use a HEAPING tablespoon of dough, and you should still get about 4 dozen cookies.

 

The Bailey’s and caramels took me under 2 minutes to melt. Be SUUUUPER careful ‘cause that shiz is h-o-t hot. And it stays hot for a while. I let it cool for a few minutes then poured it into a pastry bag w/ the end snipped off. I figured it would be less messy that way.

 

The finished product isn’t very pretty, but it sure tastes good! My only complaint is that the caramel on top stays pretty sticky so there’s no good way to stack these. Unless you want to cut sheets of parchment paper up and put them in between the layers (like I did)…

 

Check out the recipe for my Drunken Turtle Cookies!

 

Happy Baking!

-Hey Waitress!!

 

OK… I have a confession. I used this cookie dough earlier in the week. I bought a bag of those Candy Cane Kisses at the grocery store… and in an effort to not eat them all I baked a batch of the Captain’s Chocolate Chip Cookies and replaced the Captain Morgan with Kahlua. Then as soon as they came out of the oven I squished a Kiss on top. They were delish. And that’s why there’s a random (non-turtle) cookie picture in the gallery. <3.

 

Turtle Snack Mix & Spiced Caramels

Aaaaaaallright, The original version of this is from Cravings Of A Lunatic. I changed a few things so click on the link to see her recipe!

I didn’t feel like making the caramel part, so I skipped it and added the mini Rolo’s. I stirred them in the mixture while it was still pretty warm so they would melt and get gooey. I also used a combination of milk chocolate chips and semi-sweet (that’s what I had in the pantry).

The next time I make this…I (might) make half the amount of chocolate mixture, and I’m (definitely) not going to leave it in the oven for a full hour. It didn’t seem to need to be in there that long. The corn syrup and chocolate mixture didn’t cook… the coating didn’t firm up until I let it cool for a few hours on the counter. Also, that stuff stays HOT for a long time. ;). Finally I think I’ll put it on 2 large cookie sheets so I can spread it out in a single layer, and see how that works. I didn’t get the cute pieces that the original author got. Mine broke up into bigger chunks.

This snack mix is seriously delish, I can’t stop eating it. Literally. I made this on Sunday, and every time I walk by the bowl I grab a few pieces. Maybe not EVERY time, but definitely every OTHER. Check out my version HERE!

 

I also made some spiced caramels on Sunday. I used this recipe. Just add 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice with the salt! Then, line an 8X8 pan with parchment paper, pour the mixture in and let it cool/ set in the fridge. Then cut it into 1 inch squares. I also added about ¼- ½ c of chocolate chips… but it didn’t really do much. i wouldn’t even bother. Hubs said these are good, but I think they could use more of the spice flavors, so I’ll probably add another teaspoonful if I make them again. Because I was giving these away (and the caramel is pretty soft) I wrapped them in squares of parchment paper. It only took me for-ev-er. If I wasn’t sharing them (or if I was serving them right away) I wouldn’t have wrapped them. It took too much darn effort.

 

Happy Snack Making!

-Hey Waitress!!

Chocolate Covered Inside Out Caramel Apples!!

cored apples…

filled with caramel

sliced

all covered! dark = candy melt, light= choc chips

kind of uuuugly!

regular caramel apples

I saw the original version of these on Domestic Fits, and I KNEW I had to make them.

As usual, I changed a few (small) things. I used a few Empire and a few Gala apple varieties. I got lucky at the local farm stand and I couldn’t pass up on the pretty bright red Empires. I usually go for tart varieties (Granny Smith is my fav), but these looked PERFECT!

If you notice my recipe says 6-7 apples… because I used 6 ½. I broke one when I was trying to figure out how to get the core out with a spoon. It’s not that easy. I ended up using a paring knife to get the core out, then a tablespoon to scoop the rest.

I used the caramel recipe from last week. It’s thick, and stays solid at room temp. I had a little trouble with it falling out of the slices after I cut them. To keep the caramel from getting too soft in the melted chocolate I chilled the sliced caramel apples in the fridge before dipping them.

Speaking of chocolate… I used dark chocolate candy melts on the first bunch, and milk chocolate for the rest. I thought I was only going to need the one bag of candy melts, but I ended up using that bag AND the full bag of chocolate chips. Yikes. The dipping was kind of time consuming, and the end result isn’t very pretty. I’ve never been good at making chocolate covered things look good. Sigh.

The chocolate covered inside out caramel apples where a big hit! All my tasters loved them and so did Hubs! I made these 3 days ago (Monday night) and the apples are still nice and crisp and not brown at all!

 

I also made some caramel apples with some leftover caramel. Originally, I tried to dip the apples in warm caramel, but this recipe just wasn’t designed for dipping. It ended up being kind of greasy, and just wouldn’t stick to the apples at all. So I put it back in the fridge to get nice and cool, then I floured my hands and wrapped chucks of it around each apple. Then I covered some in mini chocolate chips & crushed pretzels, 2 in Nerds, and 2 in mini M&Ms. It was fun!

 

Happy Making!

-Hey Waitress!!

 

Check out my recipe.