Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Mint Icing

The Cupcakes

2 1/8 c flour

2 c sugar

3/4 c cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

1 c Guinness

1/2 c vegetable oil

1 tbsp vanilla

Put cupcake wrappers into the cupcake pan, pour the batter into each cup about 3/4 full.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes

The Icing

Big handful of mint leaves

c 1/2 c plain yogurt

confectioners sugar

c 1/4 c heavy cream

Put the mint in a food process and chop well.  Add the yogurt, mix it up.  Add confectioner's sugar to taste.  If your icing is too thin, add heavy cream and whisk until it thickens.

The inspiration behind using mint for the icing today:

This plant is taking over my windowsill.  And I thought I'd have trouble keeping it alive...I do wish it would put more effort into growing big leaves and less effort into growing long stems...I found a stem that was about 3 ft long the other day.  I keep breaking off the really long ones but it doesn't seem to deter the plant from continuing to reach out.

Mint-Guinness Cake

The things I do when I've been entertaining myself too many evenings in a row and need to get off the couch and do something.  (Something other than cleaning...I should do that someday...)

Anyway, I ended up feeling the need to bake this evening, even though I was not even remotely attracted to the idea of eating anything that I might make.  But I decided that I wanted to make some sort of a cake. With mint.  I'm only slightly obsessed with the mint plant I bought not too long ago.  I don't have any milk and didn't feel like wasting gas on a trip to the grocery store, so I needed a cake recipe that didn't call for milk.  So, I went with a spin-off of my olive oil beer cake.  I made a Mint-Guinness cake.  With olive oil. 

2 eggs

1/4 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1/2 c Guinness

1/2 c olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

1+ tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp peppermint extract

small handful of mint leaves, chopped

1/2 c wheat flour

1 scant c flour

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

I didn't do anything fancy for the topping of the slice pictured above.  I will probably melt some dark chocolate to make a glaze for the rest of the cake later.  The topping above was just some chocolate that had seized on me awhile ago, and I had stashed in the cupboard to try to save someday.  I melted it with a bit of water and it came out...tolerable. You can definitely tell that the chocolate isn't tempered. 

I haven't quite decided if this cake is actually good or not.  I might just be pretending to like it because I don't want the ingredients to go to waste.  It is certainly interesting-tasting.  

Mojitos in Jars

Mojitos are the perfect summery drink.  They are light, refreshing, and delicious.  This year, I have my own mint plant on the kitchen windowsill, and I love being able to just pull a few leaves off to whip up a quick mojito on a hot day.  This evening, I wanted to make mojitos for a bunch of people, but I didn't have a pitcher that was easily transportable.  I did however, have 11 jam jars that I had saved from the jam I put on my pancakes.  So I decided to make individual mojitos.  They were definitely a hit!

Step 1  

Put a scant 1/2 tbsp of brown sugar in each jar.

Step 2  

Chop up a lime and squeeze one slice into each jar. 

(and drop the slice into the jar after you squeeze the juice out of it)

I also poured about a tbsp of lime juice into each jar, but you could use extra fresh lime if you wish.

Step 3  

Add a few mint leaves.

Step 4  

Muddle the contents of the jar.  Use a pestle to bruise the mint leaves, crush the stems, and stir up the sugar/lime juice to dissolve as much of the sugar as possible. 

Step 5

Add 1 shot of vodka or rum to each jar.

Step 6

Add 2-3 shots of club soda.

We didn't have any ice tonight, but ideally you want to add some ice to keep the drink chilled while you sip it.  Either way, it's quite refreshing.  I love mint.

Mint Chocolate Truffles

1/2 c heavy cream

3.5 oz. chocolate (70%)

1/4 tsp peppermint extract

Heat the cream, stirring constantly, until it starts to simmer.  

Add the peppermint extract and chocolate.

Remove from heat and stir til smooth. 

Set aside to cool.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate til hardened. 

*I melted 3 tbsp butter with the cream.  It separated from the final mixture, and I ended up having to skim most of it off of the top before putting the mixture in the fridge.  I had to scrape the rest of the butter off of the top of the chocolate after I removed it from the fridge.  

Use a melon-baller to scoop out truffles from the bowl of hardened chocolate. 

Melt 3.5 oz chocolate (70%).  Use a fork to drop the truffles in the melted chocolate, turn them until coated, then place them on a baking sheet lined with foil. 

Eat the leftover melted chocolate. 

Refrigerate the truffles until the chocolate has hardened.  

Mint Chocolate Chip Brownies

Best. Brownies. Ever.  

I can't believe I haven't posted this recipe yet!  I was in the middle of whipping up a batch to take to the bike shop this morning, and suddenly realized that I hadn't added them to the blog.  So here they are.  

RECIPE

4 squares of baker's chocolate

1 1/2 sticks of butter

3 eggs

2 c sugar

1 tsp peppermint extract

1 c flour

1/2 c chocolate chips

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Strawberry Mint Sorbet

RECIPE OF DELICIOUSNESS

-boil 1 c water with 1/2 c brown sugar, 1/4 c white sugar, and a bunch of fresh mint, and 1/4 tsp salt.
-clean, de-leaf, and puree 2 qts of strawberries. 
-once the sugar water has boiled, remove it from the heat.  Fish out the mint leaves and throw them in the blender with some of the strawberries.  If your blender is better than mine, you probably won't end up having to fish out any intact stems or leaves...like I did... but most of the mint broke down small enough that I could leave it.
-mix everything together in a big glass bowl, add about 1/4 qt of chopped strawberries
-cover with plastic wrap and freeze.  If you have time, stir every hour or so, so that it doesn't freeze solid into ice.  I only got to stir mine once before bed, and then again in the morning when I woke up.  If I had used a shallower bowl, it would have been frozen pretty solid by morning.  Lucky me, I used a bigger bowl so the middle was actually still soft enough to stir. 

simple (minty) syrup in the making

go blender go!

the red sea...of strawberry goodness

contemplate the deliciosness

mmm strawberry chunks

let the freezing begin!

a whole bunch of ice fell off the plastic wrap when I opened it...I had to pick it off with a fork...then I used the fork to "fluff" the sorbet.  I had to use a knife on some of the chunkier parts.

Dessert tonight is going to be epic-ly delicious!

By the way...this is by far my most successful sorbet ever.  Not too sweet OR too salty!  And not frozen solid as a rock either!  Hooray!

Beer-Batter Chicken and Minty-Smash Peas

Sound appetizing?  Because it was definitely a delectable dinner.

I threw together some leftovers for lunch this afternoon, and was looking for something to watch on Netflix instant while I was eating, since I had finished a book earlier, and didn't feel like starting a new one right away.  I found something called Oliver's Twist in my list of recommended TV shows.  I read the summary, and it was about FOOD.  No need to look further.  I clicked on it, and watched the first episode, in which Jamie Oliver made beer-batter fish & chips, and this smashed-pea thing.

After spending much of the morning thinking about what I wanted to cook for dinner (I was pretty sure I was going to make sweet-potato soup...), I threw it all out the window and decided to make some beer-batter chicken.  (Chicken, becuase I'm not a huge fish fan, but I loooove chicken.)  Also, the smashed-pea thing sounded incredibly interesting, so I decided to make that too. 

I already had chicken in the fridge, but did not have the necessary ingredients for the peas, so I stopped at Kroger on my way home from visiting Pony.  (The fact that I was driving by Kroger anyway justifies the fact that I made an unnecessary grocery stop...right?)

BEER-BATTER CHICKEN
     Beer-Batter
1) in a bowl, mix approx. 1/3 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2-1 cup flour, some beer (I used about 2/3 bottle of Samuel Adams Summer Ale...should have used less, I had to add more flour than I had planned, and I have a lot of leftover batter to play with at dinner time tomorrow...), and an egg yolk.  Beat the egg white seperately with some salt until stiff. (This is how Jamie did it on the TV show...I could not get the egg white to stiffen.  I gave up eventually and just poured it into the flour mixture. Whisk it all together, should be kinda thick.
    Chicken
1) heat about 2 inches of vegetable oil in a saucepan on the stove (you probably want to turn on the fan now...there will be some smoke when you drop in the chicken...)
2) clean a B/S chicken breast (chop off all the fat if you're obsessive about stuff like that...like me...)
3) cut the chicken into pieces (I cut mine into strips that were probably about an inch wide)
4) put the chicken pieces in the beer batter, swirl them around some, drop them in the oil (watch out for the oil splashing...it kinda hurts.  I've been splashed by burning oil so many times I hardly notice it any more)
5) let the chicken fry for a few minutes (3-5?) then fish it out and put it on some paper towels to soak up the extra grease  (ewwwwww grease)

MINTY-SMASH PEAS
I think Jamie Oliver just called them "smashed peas."  BORING.   Minty-smash peas sounds way cooler. 
1) Put about 2 tbsp olive oil in a small saucepan on medium heat. 
2) Chop up some green onion and fresh mint.  (How much?  ummmmm I'm gonna guess here, cause I have no idea how much I threw in that pot.  Maybe 1/4 cup chopped green onion and...1/8 cup chopped mint leaves?  You decide.  Measuring is boring anyway.)
3) Let the onion and mint cook for a bit til they're kinda soft/wilty.  Add some frozen peas.  I added 1/2 a bag.  How big was the bag? Um, I don't remember.  Let's say I put in about a cup and a half of frozen peas.
4) Add some more olive oil if you think it's necessary ( I did), put a lid on the pot, and let the peas cook.
5) When the peas are done cooking, transfer the contents of the pot into a food processor, and blend it up. 

DINNER

As a side-note, I would like to say that I am somewhat appalled that I not only made deep-fried food in my kitchen, but also ate it.  Me?  Eat deep-fried food?  But...but...but...it's soooo not healthy!  Oh well.  Guess I should live a little once in awhile.  At least I put some vegetables on the plate with the deep-fried chicken...

Beer-batter chicken on a bed of alfalfa/radish sprouts, dollops of minty-smash peas, and tortilla chips

And I would be lying about my meal if I didn't admit to the side dishes...

Mashed avocado for the chips, and honey mustard for the chicken.  Mmmmm I love honey mustard.