Cookie Dough Cupcakes...to be exact

Yesterday I was musing on the differences between baking in England and baking here in Turks and Caicos.  U.K eggs are brown, here they are white...U.K butter is yellow, here it is white but one of the biggest differences is our measuring systems.  Here, like in America they use cups.  Whilst back in England I used measuring scales and everything was weighed out in grams.  What got me thinking was a rather interesting science project Crazy about Cake's daughter did on measuring variations in flour when making bread.  She made three different batches of bread, one had 6% too little flour, one had 6% too much and one had the exact amount the recipe called for.  The results showed that whilst all 3 batches tasted good every taster picked out the batch of bread with the correct percentage of flour as their favourite! Can you believe that such a small error in measuring could produce those results!

It got me thinking about my baking, using cups is not really an exact science.  When that flour comes charging out of the bag as I'm filling up my cup do I scrape off the excess dome that has gathered on top? No, I just throw it all in! When that recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon of salt, I think salt? really? in my baking...I'd rather not, and I leave it out.  The baking I produce usually tastes good but does it taste the best? because that's what I'd like to aim for! So I decided that in the spirit of Erin's experiment I'd like to start baking with exactness and sticking to recipes down to a tee, to make the BEST cupcakes I can make! Unfortunately whilst I brought half a suitcase full of baking goodies out here with me, I left my electronic scales behind - school boy error! So, I will have to begin baking with exactness still using cups and just making sure I get better at levelling out and compressing my cup full down when I'm measuring things like packed sugar! 

I have had this recipe bookmarked for about 8 months! along with the hundreds of other recipes that are bookmarked neatly in their little subfolders: truffles/pops, brownies, pies, cookies, layer cakes, cupcakes etc...and the list goes on! Maybe one day when I stop working or something I'll get around to making all of them! 

It has been circulating the blogging world for a long while now, and luckily for me Tracey decided to bake them up this week and when they popped up on my blog reader I decided enough was enough and it was really time I gave them a go! 

Considering there are four different components, they really didn't take as long as I expected and they turned out amazing! When it's a chocolate chip cupcake, filled with raw cookie dough, topped with brown sugar frosting and finished with a mini homemade cookie - how could they not be amazing?!

The chocolate chip cupcakes baked up like a dream and are such a lovely texture and still fresh as can be one day later.

The cookie dough was super quick to throw together, it was my first time using sweetened condensed milk in a cookie dough.  My guess is it's instead of the eggs so that it's okay to eat the cookie dough raw.

I baked up little mini cookies to adorn my cupcakes with and filled all the cupcakes with it raw and I still have loads left over in the fridge! Perhaps I didn't fill them as generously as I should have, either way there's going to be lots of cookie Sundaes made this week in our house!

The frosting was a brown sugar one, and it called for flour!!! Flour? I hear you say! Yes, I had never put it in frosting before either....but with my new goal in mind of baking with exactness I decided to put my trust in Tracey and follow the recipe and it turned out great! 

Tracey finished her cupcakes off with mini chocolate chips.  Here in Turks & Caicos, bags of chocolate chips cost over $6 so there was no way I was buying one bag of regular size chips and a bag of mini so I went for the pikey option and just chopped up the bigger chips into quarters to make small chips to sprinkle on top! and finished off with that cute little cookie!

I decided ruffled frosting might be becoming my new favourite way to decorate!  If you are looking for a truly indulgent cupcake in every sense of the word then you won't be disappointed with these! Happy baking!

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Makes 24 Cupcakes

From Annie's Eats via Tracey's Culinary Adventures

For the cupcakes:

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

For the filling:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

For the frosting:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
3½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
2½ tsp. vanilla extract

For decoration:
Tiny chocolate chip cookies (I made mine using the leftover cookie dough)
Chocolate chips

Directions:
For the cupcakes: preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners (24 total).  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar.  Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.  Stir together to blend.  Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated.  Blend in the vanilla.  Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners (filling about 3/4 full).   Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the cookie dough filling: combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a bit, about an hour. I refrigerated mine over night and just took it out of the fridge for 30 minutes before I filled my cupcakes.

To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped portion out of the center of each cupcake.  Fill each hole with a chunk of the chilled cookie dough mixture.

For the frosting: beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy.  Mix in the icing sugar until smooth.  Beat in the flour and salt.  Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.

For the cookies: Make 2p coin size balls of dough, (or quarters size if you're American) and flatten them with the palm of your hand.  Place them on a baking sheet and bake in a 350° F oven for about 8-12 minutes, keep checking them as they bake fast 'cause they're so tiny!

Frost the filled cupcakes as desired, sprinkling with mini chocolate chips (or regular ones if you don't have mini's - you can even chop regular ones into quarters) and top with the mini chocolate chip cookies for decoration.