Brownie Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting

If there are two things I love it's brownies and marshmallows. Okay okay there are a lot of foods I love and adore but two of them are definitely brownies and marshmallows. I also love the combination of the two. The chocolate just compliments the marshmallows perfectly. Like a S'more or a chocolate covered marshmallow, they just wouldn't be what they are without the chocolate. 
This cupcake took three attempts to get the cupcake base just where I wanted it. I don't like a brownie that's so chocolaty rich I can only eat a bite or two. I also don't like a brownie that has no body to it and it's completely gooey. It's needs some chew and bite to it. Basically I'm more of a traditional, milk chocolate brownie kind of gal. 
Just an fyi these cupcakes aren't a fluffy dome like cupcake. They will likely sink just a bit in the middle once they are removed from the oven, that's supposed to happen. If they don't then it's a sign they are likely over-baked and dry. The marshmallow frosting is delicious toasted but it most definitely doesn't have to be. Toasted or not this frosting reminds me of the soft center of a gooey marshmallow that was slowly roasted over the hot coals of a campfire. It is fluffy, dreamy, bliss in frosting form and it is actually incredibly easy to prepare. The stand mixer does most of the work. Enjoy!

Brownie Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting
Yields 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp milk

Marshmallow Frosting:
4 large egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, light-brown sugar and cocoa powder. Pour in melted butter and use a wood spoon to stir until combine. Mix in eggs and vanilla extract. Stir in milk. Add dry ingredients and mix just until combine (batter will be thick). 
Divide batter among 12 paper lined muffin cups filling each about 2/3 full (about 1/4 cup batter in each). Bake in preheated oven 16 - 20 minutes (lesser for gooier brownies). Allow to cool in muffin tin several minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Cool completely then pipe Marshmallow Frosting over cupcakes and toast edges of frosting with a kitchen torch if desired.

For the Marshmallow Frosting:
Add egg whites, granulated sugar and cream of tarter to a heat proof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a saucepan filled with a few inches of simmering water.  Heat mixture, whisking constantly until egg whites are very warm to the touch, about 4 minutes (mixture so register 160 degrees on a candy thermometer). Remove from heat and transfer bowl to electric stand mixer fit with a whisk attachment. Beat mixture beginning on low speed and gradually increasing to high speed, until stiff glossy peaks form, about 6 - 8 minutes. Add vanilla during the last 10 seconds of mixing. For best results serve immediately.

Recipe Source: Brownie Cupcakes - Cooking Classy, Marshmallow Frosting - Martha Stewart

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Queso Blanco Dip

If I had to choose one type of food to live on for the rest of my life it would probably be Mexican food. I could hardly live without it. Lately I've been looking for a good Queso Blanco Dip recipe, just like what you get at a Mexican restaurant. Most of the recipes I found contained White American cheese in them. I'm not a big fan of processed cheese so I decided to go with one of my favorite cheeses that is commonly found in Mexican cuisine - Monterrey Jack cheese. It melts smoothly, it has a wonderful flavor and of course, it's not processed. 
I created my own recipe and decided to start the recipe out with a roux, not only to thicken the cheese sauce but to add a starch to the mixture to prevent it from separating and curdling. You can easily adjust this recipe to suite your taste. For example if you like a little heat you could saute some diced fresh jalapenos along with the onion or add pickled jalapenos at the end of cooking. If you don't like jalapenos you could just use cayenne pepper for a little heat. You could even replace the optional ingredients with a bit of chunky salsa (just strain of some of the liquids). And as noted below you can leave out all the chunky ingredients if you just want a simple and velvety smooth cheese sauce.
This dip is unbelievably good and it's surprisingly so simple to make. I'm pretty sure it would be hard to find someone who didn't love this dip at the next party you're hosting. Cheesy, carb heavy, Mexican food goodness. Enjoy! 

Queso Blanco Dip
Yields about 2 cups

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup finely chopped onion*
1/4 tsp crushed garlic*
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups whole milk (for thicker sauce use lesser portion)
8 oz. finely shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Optional ingredients:
1 Roma tomato, seeds removed then diced
2 Tbsp canned, diced green chilis
1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until soft about 4 minutes, adding garlic during the last 30 seconds of sauteing. Whisk in flour, and cook stirring constantly, about 30 seconds.  Slowly pour milk into mixture, while whisking vigorously. Bring mixture just to a gentle bubble stirring constantly, then reduce heat to low. Allow to rest over low heat 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in finely shredded Monterrey Jack cheese and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until cheese melts (it will take the cheese a minute to melt, at first it may look curdled but that just means the cheese hasn't fully melted yet so continue to cook until completely melted). Stir in optional ingredients. Serve warm with tortilla chips (or serve over tacos etc. Note that it will thicken as it rests so reheat to thin if desired).

*For a smooth cheese sauce without the chunky ingredients, omit the chopped onion and crushed garlic. Replace it with 1/2 tsp onion powder and a generous pinch of garlic powder. Since you won't need to saute simply melt the butter then add the flour, garlic powder and onion powder and continue as directed and omit the optional ingredients.

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Pumpkin Cookies with Browned Butter Icing

Once again I found myself needing to use some pumpkin I had sitting in the fridge so I decided to try a new recipe and found these over at Martha Stewart (note that if you are ever using left over pumpkin puree that you are preserving in the fridge, be sure to thaw it at room temperature until adding it to your recipe - unless of course it calls for chilled pumpkin). These cookies had my name written all over them with their pumpkin and browned butter combo, it's what I live on lately. I made several of my own adjustments to the recipe such as slightly altering the spice amounts, replacing some of the brown sugar with granulated sugar, using salted butter and reducing the amount of salt added and omitting the vanilla from the icing (because really all you need is the browned butter flavor). Then the biggest change I made was replacing the evaporated milk with a smaller amount of sour cream in the cookie dough batter and replacing the evaporated milk in the icing with half and half. These cookies are Heavenly! They are so soft, pillow-y and moist. The icing, which is more of a frosting really, reminds me of a caramel or penuche frosting. I love how browned butter combined with sugar can instantly create a caramel like flavor. 
You wouldn't believe how quickly these cookies disappeared! Everyone loved them including me. I love trying a new cookie recipe and finding it is a definite keeper. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cookies with Browned Butter Icing
Yields about 4 1/2 - 6 dozen (depending on how large you make them)

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup salted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree
1 recipe Browned Butter Icing, recipe follows

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt, set aside. In the bowl an electric stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment and set on medium speed, whip together butter, light-brown sugar and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 - 4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition until combine. Mix in sour cream and vanilla extract, then mix in pumpkin puree. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add dry ingredients and mix until combine (be sure to scrape down bowl throughout entire mixing process).
Transfer 1 1/2 cups of the cookie dough to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip and pipe 1 1/2-inch rounds onto a Silpat or parchment paper lined cookie sheets, spacing cookies at least 1 inch apart*. Bake in preheated oven about 12 minutes until tops spring back when touched. Allow to cool several minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack. Cool completely then prepare icing and spread icing over cookies. Store in an airtight container in a single layer in refrigerator and rest at room temperature before serving.

*Alternately you can drop dough by the tablespoonfuls onto the lined baking sheets (they just won't look as nicely circular). You can make them larger than listed in the recipe (which is what I did after the first batch because the 1 1/2-inch rounds yields pretty small cookies). If you do decide to pipe them bigger just allow a little more space between each cookie.

Browned Butter Icing

Ingredients:
4 cups powdered sugar
10 Tbsp salted butter, diced into 1 inch pieces
1/3 cup half and half

Directions:
Measure 4 cups of powdered sugar into a mixing bowl, set aside. Brown butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling pan occasionally (butter will melt, after a few minutes it will splatter, then it will foam, then golden brown flecks will begin to appear in the center of the foamy bubbles. This is when you remove it from heat - I wait for for the flecks to expand to about a 1 1/2 to 2-inch circle over the foam then immediately remove). Carefully pour browned butter over powdered sugar in mixing bowl, use a rubber spatula to scrape any excess butter and browned bits from pan. Add half and half and stir mixture until smooth. Spread over cookies, adding additional half and half, about 1 - 2 tsp at a time, to icing mixture to thin as it will thicken as it sits.


Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Martha Stewart

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