Strawberry-White Chocolate Snack Cakes

I meant to post these ages ago...  While what i thought were the last strawberries were kicking around the greenmarket...

However, during my last trip there, i noticed something strange - a lot of people still had strawberries...  strange but true.  Therefore, rather than save this for next summer, i'm sharing it now, at the end of this summer...
I suspect you could make these with any kind of berries, so while the it may be late in the season for strawberries, i'm still recommending you find a way to make these...  because summer's nearly over and big chunky sweaters are all the rage for fall (so say the fashion blogs) and whats better for hiding a few extra lbs than big chunky sweaters?

So even if you think that you detest white chocolate, do yourself and those around you a favor and make these anyway.

Thank me later.

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Strawberry-White Chocolate Snack Cakes
courtesy of Cake Keeper Cakes, via All that's left are the crumbs, with modifications by me

1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
2 tsp vanilla extract

1.5 c all purpose flour, divided
1.5 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c sugar

8 oz strawberries, stemmed and sliced
3/4 c white chocolate chips

***

Heat the oven to 350°F.

Prepare a regular-sized muffin tin (i used cupcake liners...)

Combine the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric beater until fluffy. 

Combine the egg, egg yolk, sour cream, lemon zest and vanilla in a separate bowl

Combined 1.25 cups of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

With the mixer on medium-low speed, pour the egg mixture into the butter/sugar bowl in a slow stream and beat together until combined.

Then, turn the mixer down to low speed and add the flour mixture, a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Once all of the flour has been added, mix for 30 seconds on medium.

Combine the strawberries and remaining 1/4 c flour in a bowl and toss to coat. Add white chips in and toss again.

Gently fold the berries and chocolate into the batter.

divide batter between 12 muffin cups.

bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, ~22 - 25 minutes. 

Allow to cool some before eating.

epic FAIL*

After seeing them just yesterday, I tried to make these Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes at 11pm last night. I was that excited to make them that it seemed reasonable to cook at 11pm.

Tried being the operative word...

I'm not sure exactly what went wrong - i'm thinking it had something to do with expired oil? (who knew vegetable oil expired??? how come no one ever told me this before???)

They look pretty - i wish they tasted that way...

(*edit: ok, they seem to be better - but still not great - the second day... yes, even though i hated them, i brought them to work anyway... I think unexpired oil, cut down by just a little, would be a big improvement... also, the addition of ice cream would help...)

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Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes
courtesy of David Lebovitz’s The Sweet Life in Paris, via Smitten Kitchen, minor changes by me

7 ounces (200 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (125 ml) vegetable oil
1/2 cup (125 ml) plain, 2% greek yogurt
1 cup (200 grams) sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups (200 grams) flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F , line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cupcake liners

Melt the chocolate with 1/4 cup of the oil, via microwave - first microwaving for 35 seconds, stiring, and then 1x or 2x more for 15 seconds each, stirring inbetween.

In another bowl, mix the remaining 1/4 cup oil with yougurt, sugar, eggs and vanilla and almond extracts.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the yogurt mixture. Stir lightly a couple times, then add the melted chocolate and stir until just smooth.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until they feel barely set in the middle and a tester or toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack before serving

low maintenance

before i decided that i needed to cook, and especially before i decided that i needed to blog about cooking, most of my meals were fairly low maintenance. i pride myself on being a low maintenace girl (in general life), so it really only made sense that english muffins with a little butter and mozzarella qualified as dinner in my book... or that cereal was mostly eaten at 7pm instead of 7am...

so this next recipe - its simple, not fancy... there are no funny stories, no little ancedotes about how i screwed it up... the fact of the matter is, i had recently bought a new loaf pan and wanted to break it in. that little betty crocker fall baking book that i'd gotten on that last target trip (see pear thingies) had a recipe for Chai Spiced Bread and it looked really good. and they listed prep time as 15 mins.








while i know you can drink chai tea any time of the year, i do associate it more with fall & winter. and even though NYC is the new SoCal and its been 78 and sunny for the last million days, i really wanted to welcome october with something a little more... well, fallish.


It turned out that i didnt have enough butter to make the full loaf, but i also have a few mini muffin pans that are so cute and i love to make cute little things in them... and mini muffins are easier to bring into work...

so 1/2 of the recipe worked out perfectly.

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Chai Spiced Muffins
Courtesy of Betty Crocker - Fall Baking (doubling of the butter & other slight modifications by me)
Click here to import recipe directly into Pepperplate

muffins:
3/8 c sugar
1/2 c butter (1 stick, pref. unsalted), softened*

1/4 c prepared tea (i used chai. it made sense)
1/6 c light cream (i actually just poured until the tea + the cream made 1/3 c, which is slightly more than 1/6 c of cream.)
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

1 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/16 tsp ground cloves

***

Heat oven to 400°. Prepare minimuffin pan by spraying with cooking spray for baking

beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy (med speed).
beat in tea, cream, vanilla & egg (low speed).
the resulting mix will look gross and curdled. thats fine.

whisk all dry ingredients together - flour, baking powder, cardamom, salt, cinnamon, cloves - and then mix the dry ingredients into the wet, by hand, mixing until just combined.

fill mini muffin cups about 3/4 full. bake approximately 15 mins, cake tester will come out clean.
remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

glaze:
1/2 c powdered sugar
1/8 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp light cream
1 tbsp water

additional cinnamon for decoration (optional)

mix first 4 ingredients until no lumps. if too watery, add a little more sugar. if too dry, add a little more water. you want something spreadableand a little drippy, but not a liquid. maybe like honey-consistency?

spread glaze on mini muffins after they have cooled for 10 mins or so. allow to cool some more. sprinkle with additional cinnamon, if desired.


*11/7/07 - it was recently discovered why these ROCK. i accidentally doubled the amount of butter in the original recipe - which means i could have made the loaf. duh... so, anyway, they're low fat and all that ;)