Those of you who follow me on Twitter might remember my excitement a while back over getting a new neighbor. You might also remember that we had dinner a few weeks back. You might even remember that at this dinner we both confessed to being Twitter nerds and... well... tweeting about each other.
If you don't remember any of that, then I'd say you're either not reading or not retaining. Both things you should work on. Until then... I'll show you some pretty pictures and flashy videos and catch you up on what April, Amanda, and Amanda (mmhmm... we share a name) did last night.
(if you're not about to click through that recipe link, I'll give you a heads up on the main ingredients: refrig pizza crust, sour cream, mozzarella, ground turkey, cucumber, tomato, feta, red onion)
While we digested, we gasped and cursed our way through Session 9:
A good time was had by all. We also exchanged Twitter info so that we can be real (internet) friends.
On Tuesday, I told you about my almond butter fiasco. Well... after that disaster, I found almond butter at Bi-Low. (Who knew?!) I used the almond butter to put together my Cupcake Hero November: Nut Butter entry. Blackberry Almond Cupcakes A moist, vanilla almond eggless cake topped with almond nut butter icing and a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
But wait... just beneath the surface lurk...
Two different fillings. I was inspired to double fill these cupcakes by a donut I had at a Tim Hortons in Maine. This ridonkulously decadent donut was filled with both jelly and icing. Having enjoyed the experience very much, I decided to cupcake it. And why not cupcake it with a nut butter icing?
For the icing bit, I made up a thick almond butter icing. To complement that icing, I chose a blackberry jam.
As you can see, the result is visually fantastic. And though one taster thought the effect was a bit peanut butter and jelly, she loved the flavor of the almond butter icing.
All other tasters were unavailable for comment, as the cupcake rendered them speechless. There were a lot of "oh man"s and "wow"s and "ungh"s. High praise indeed.
1 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup almond meal 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1/3 cup oil 1 cup almond milk 1/2 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar together in a large bowl.
Whisk oil, almond milk, and vanilla bean paste together in another bowl. Then pour into a well in dry ingredients. Stir until mostly smooth and pour 1/4 c of batter into each liner. (Cupcakes will dome up nicely.)
Bake 20-22 minutes or until cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup almond butter 1 cup confectioner's sugar 1 tablespoon almond milk (use more if icing is too thick to use as filling)
Debate worthiness of different fruit jams as they pair with your vision of an almond butter cupcake.
Pull jam (any jam) from the shelf, examine it at length, replace it on the shelf, and leave the grocery store with a jar of Blackberry Jam. Almond Butter Icing (for frosting) adapted from this girl
Take remaining almond butter filling and slowly add almond milk until icing is thin enough to spread easily.
Let me start by saying how much I love you guys. Some of my favorite guesses: Chick-fil-A nuggets (literally my first thought and I knew what it was), homemade pork rinds (that's possible?!), squid (you guys really overestimate my bravery), and breaded cauliflower (mmm... but no).
I think that the people who came closest were Kate ("It could also be some kind of dough") and Ash ("Perhaps something sweet?"). Close, ladies, but no cigar.
The bowl of mystery food is actually a mid-process shot of...
SUGAR/GINGER SNAP MASH-UP COOKIES
Right? Right? Look at this stack. Now look back at the bowl. See it?
For those of you who don't, follow me.
I originally named these "mash-ups" in the musical sense. As in taking two fab songs and mixing them together.
(Fun, isn't it? There are some pretty great mash ups out there. This one is only okay... but YouTube is tough.)
But... now that I am sitting down to blog the recipe, I can see that these cookies only really have one step.
And that step involves mashing up these two things.
I had a leftover half-log of sugar cookie dough that was begging for a bit of a spruce up. And since I first made Oreo Chocolate Chip cookies way back when, I've been dying to try a Ginger Snap infused something-else cookie.
*Light bulb.*
Literally just smash some ginger snaps in a plastic bag and dump them down over the sugar cookie dough. I probably used 1/2 cup of crumbs, I'd guess.
I broke up the cookie dough with a spoon and gave the dough a toss in the crumbs.
Voila! Mystery food. After taking several pictures of the mystery food, I mixed the dough and crumbs by hand. I then reformed the dough into two smaller logs and put it in the freezer for a few minutes for easy slicing.
Counter-clockwise from logs: Sugar/Ginger Snap Mash-Up Logs, 2-Layer Paula Dean Chocolate Sybil Turtle Cake (yes, friends), pizza crust, chicken breasts that will likely never be thawed and eaten, lemon sorbet, Tart with Honey frozen yogurt, Jack D.
After a quick slice and bake according to package directions, these cookies were done and fantastic.
He floats through the air with the greatest of ease...
(No? Just me? Okay...)
These cookies are tasty and really quite rewarding for the amount of work (not) involved. The ginger flavor is still strong even though it's dispersed throughout the sugar cookie dough. I like ginger snaps, so I'm not surprised that this sweeter version is okay by me too.
So what's the word? Are you disappointed with the reveal? Would you have rather seen me really jump out of the box and tackle squid? Or pork rinds?
