Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies with Raspberry!!!!

So after all the flaming desserts at the beach, I was left in my apartment with a bad sunburn, leftover marshmallows, and a script hanging over my head that needed to be written.  

Since I had the script, I of course hadn't planned on baking anything but of course was suddenly very, very compelled to do so.  (I'm not the best at being a responsible student)  I looked around my kitchen and chocolate and marshmallows were really the only things I had, so I searched on the internet for chocolate marshmallow cookies.  I came across these lovelies at Stephanie's Kitchen, and had to have them.  And have them I promptly did.  Except I've never been fond of using that much confectioners sugar in frosting, so I used some leftover ganache I had sitting around instead of frosting.  Annnnd I added some raspberry jam as a little kicker underneath the marshmallows.  

Oooooh man they were sooo good - this was one of the rare occasions in my life where I end up eating more of something I baked than I give away to other people.  Yeah, I totally hoarded these cookies and they never even left my apartment.  My roommates had some...  hehehe.  

And here is the recipe, adapted from this one:

For the topping:

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup heavy cream

To make the ganache, place the chopped chocolates in a small mixing bowl.  Heat the cream until it begins to simmer, and then pour the cream over the chocolate.  Let stand for a couple minutes, and then whisk until smooth.  Use on the cookies while still warm, or make beforehand and warm it up again before using.  

For the cookies:

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup whole milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

about 15 marshmallows, halved

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.  

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the egg, milk, and vanilla to this.  

Add flour mixture to this about 1/2 cup at a time until it is all incorporated.  

Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing the drops about 2 inches apart.  

Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until firm.  Then, without fully removing them from the oven, quickly spoon some raspberry jam in the middle of each cookie, and follow the jam by pressing half a marshmallow into each cookie on top of it.  

Return to the oven and bake for 2 more minutes, or until the marshmallows are puffy and gooey.  

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes.  Then remove from baking sheets and spoon the ganache over each cookie, making sure to completely cover the marshmallows.  

Make sure to eat a couple while they're still warm, because the marshmallows and ganache will be gooey and warm!!  Once you've had your fill of that, store them in the refrigerator and see how long they last...

Beachy Delicious

Are you intrigued by this burning donut of a plate?  

I could say something profound right now about how behind every spectacular dessert, there are spectacular burns and spectacular damage, but it wouldn't be true.  

The truth is simply this:  fire + girls + yummy things to cook on fire + things to destroy = severe banana induced burns.  

Shortly after this picture was taken, we poured coke over a towel to save it from burning.  We're smart girls.  =)  And shortly after that, we ate theeessseee burning babies of yum:

They're bananas that we stuffed with chocolate and marshmallow, wrapped in tin foil, and let sit in the embers of our campfire.  Kind of like banana s'mores, only not really.  

Seriously, these were sooo good, and I don't even like bananas.  I think this must be a really common camping dessert, because I remember that we always used to make these on our girl scout camping trips when I was a little girl.  I think they're so much fun to make, just for the fun of wrapping up your dessert, sticking it in a nice fire, and then getting to unwrap it and see what it's become!  And sooo delicious!  I did put a little bit of cinnamon on mine, though... shhh don't tell!

And speaking of cinnamon, allow me to introduce you to my all-time favorite campfire dessert:

It may not look like much, but after one bite, you'll be hooked like a yummy salmon fish.  

Of course, this is another treat from my childhood camping times.  I used to go to summer camp, and at camp we called these Dough Boys and ate them all the time.

It's very simple to make.  You get some pre-made biscuit dough and mold it around the end of a roasting stick so that it won't fall off.  Then you roast it until the outside is mostly crispy and golden-brown.  Think that sounds good?  Here comes the real good part...

Once they come off the fire, you roll them around in butter!!!!

And then you roll them around some more in cinnamon sugar!!!!!!!!!!

And after that you die, because once you have 1, you'll have to have 6, I swear.  

And that is what I did this past Sunday.  The day before our first day of classes was a day at the beach.  I got my first sunburn in ages and I made myself sick on doughboys.  What a perfect start to a semester.  =)

Honeyed Fluffer Nutter Cupcakes

If I have ever met a cupcake that defined "finger-licking good," then this is surely it.  Sticky, gooey, moist, fluffy, completely drenched in marshmallow, laced with honey... yeah... holy taters.

When I saw that the theme for Quirky Cupcake's March Cupcake Hero Challenge was Marshmallow, the first thought that came to my mind was, "aaahh fluffer nuttersss."  Though I knew that many people would probably take the same path (since come on, it's a classic!), I really just had to do it.  And I am so glad I did, because seriously these cupcakes were amazing!

And as I was planning out my recipe, I kept on fantasizing about having the peanut butter and marshmallow cupcakes, and then drizzling honey all over them!  Oh, the scandalous fantasies I have sometimes...  What can I say, I am as big a fan of peanut butter and honey as I am of peanut butter and marshmallow!  So, why not combine them?  Instead of drizzling the finished cupcakes with honey (I thought this would be too messy and the sweetness would be unbalanced), I decided to add honey to both the cake and the marshmallow.  This proved to be a fabulous idea - the honey gave the cake extra moistness and deepened the flavor, and it just made the marshmallow about 10 times more decadent than it would have been otherwise.  I mean, just the thought of honey marshmallow almost puts me in a sugar-induced coma.  

So the cupcakes ended up being peanut butter honey cake, filled and smothered in honey marshmallow fluff.  As you can see above, I played around with different ways of topping these.  First I tried a peanut butter/marshmallow swirly piping, which looked nice, but in the end, the cupcakes tasted way better with just the marshmallow on top.  As you can see below, they weren't as pretty this way... but oh it really didn't matter.  The next day, most of the marshmallow topping had melted into the cupcakes (omg YES!).  Sooo I just spooned some more over right before eating them, and enjoyed the marshmallow soakage heaven.  

There's really not much more I can say about these cupcakes besides that I urge you to try them if you like peanut butter and marshmallow.  Every bite is packed with flavor.  I've described them as well as I can, but really you just have to taste them to get the full effect!  So on with the recipe!

Honeyed Fluffer Nutter Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

2 cups cake flour

1 cup boiling water

1 cup sugar

1 cup peanut butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup honey

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 F.  

Whisk together the eggs with the sugar.  Then add the honey and peanut butter and whisk to combine.  Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and then add them gradually to the wet mixture.  Once everything is incorporated, slowly pour the boiling water into the batter while whisking.  When incorporated, the batter will be very liquidy.  

Pour into lined cupcake tins and put in the oven.  Bake for 5 minutes at 375.  Turn the oven down to 350 and bake for 3 more minutes.  Turn the oven down to 325 and bake for 3 more minutes or until the tops are golden and an inserted knife comes out clean.  Let cool.

For the marshmallow filling/topping:

(adapted from this recipe)

2 egg whites

1 cup light corn syrup

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup honey

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

Beat the egg whites with the corn syrup and salt until soft peaks form.  

Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until combined.  

Beat in the honey and vanilla extract.

This makes way more fluff than you'll need for the cupcakes, so you might want to halve the recipe.  I like having the extra so I can add more to the cupcakes right before eating them.  Also, I used the rest of my extra fluff in another delicious creation that is in my oven as I write this!