King Cake Cup Cakes

Fat Tuesday was last week and you know what that means.................

KING CAKE!!!

I wanted something I could easily take to work to share and I came across these beauties on Pintrest.
Here is the link to the original recipe: King Cake Cup Cakes

And here is the recipe. I know it looks like a lot but I had fun making them. But I'm pretty sure mine were WAY messier than they were suppose to be. Maybe my cream cheese was too soft or I tried to put in too much filling. I don't know. They were still really good though!!

Ingredients

For the dough:

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup sugar, divided

1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) yeast

1 egg

1 egg yolk

4 Tbsp butter, melted

3 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting work surface

1 tsp salt

Oil or cooking spray, for coating bowl

For the cream cheese filling:

8 oz cream cheese, softened (I used reduced-fat)

1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 rounded tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp melted butter

For the glaze:

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

3-4 tsp water

Decorating sugar in yellow, purple and green

Instructions

1. Add water and 1 Tbsp sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer. Sprinkle yeast over top and let stand for 10 minutes. (If your yeast doesn't get puffy, don't keep going - buy new yeast.)
2. Add melted butter, egg, egg yolk, remaining sugar, 3 cups flour, and salt, and then turn the mixer to low.
3. Add only enough extra flour to get the dough to clean the sides of the bowl but not come completely off the bottom - it should be only slightly sticky when you touch it.
4. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled (45 minutes-1 hour in my 100-degree oven). While dough is rising, make the filling.
5. Place filling ingredients into the mixer bowl (minus the melted butter) and mix on medium-high until completely smooth, 1-2 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 375 and line 2 cupcake pans with 18 liners.
7. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times.
8. Stretch to a rectangle about 18x12 and brush with 2 Tbsp melted butter, leaving the top 1-inch dry.
9. Spread cream cheese filling over the dough evenly, leaving the top 1-inch dry.
10. Starting with the long side of the dough closest to you, roll jelly-roll style, pinching the last inch of the dough onto the roll and placing seam-down on the counter.
11. Lightly pat/pull so that the roll is even diameter down its length.
12. Trim the scraggly ends and then slice into rounds that are ~3/4-1 inch thick. Take care that they don't get any thicker than that, the rolls should sit level/just below level of the cupcake pan. Any taller and they'll grow too tall in the oven and fall over.
13. Transfer the rounds to the cupcake pans and let rest while the oven preheats to 375.
14. Bake ~25 minutes, until lightly browned and nicely domed.
15. Remove from the oven and let cool ~10 minutes in the pan.
16. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
17. To make the glaze, whisk powdered sugar, vanilla, and gradually add the water until you get a smooth and thick but scoopable glaze.
18. Dip the tops of the cupcakes in the glaze (or spoon over top) and then sprinkle with decorating sugar. Like cinnamon rolls, they're best in the first 2 days. If you're bringing them to a party, ice/sugar them the night before. When stored in an airtight container for much longer than that, the sugar and glaze will begin to melt from the pastry moisture. Delicious still, just not as cute.

Yields: 18 cupcakes

Apparently I wasn't the only one at work who was thinking King Cake.

But I am the only one who brought beads straight from NOLA.

---Dare to Cook---

Southwestern Chicken and Black Bean Skillet

This is one of those recipes that at first I read and thought "man, I don't like that or that. I hope this tastes good." And I am so glad I made it!! This will probably be one of my "go to recipes" from now on!!!

Southwestern Chicken and Black Bean Skillet

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 point)
2 teaspoon canola oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 can (about 15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
½ cup chunky salsa
¼ cup fresh cilantro or thinly sliced green onions (optional)

1. Combine cumin, chili powder, and salt in a small bowl; sprinkle over both sides of the chicken.
2. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 4 minutes, turning once. Remove to plate.
3. Add onion to same skillet’ cook and stir 1 minute. Add bell pepper; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in beans and salsa.
4. Place chicken on top of bean mixture. Cover and cook 6 to 7 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center. Garnish with cilantro.

Makes 4 servings.

And according to the book I got this from it is ONLY 262 CALORIES!!

I haven't tried it yet but I be these left overs would make good nachos too!!

Yum!

Not my most fancy plating every but highly effective.

---Dare to Cook---

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Well, right on time, late as usual, as my mom would say. I made this soup over a week ago and I am just now posting it. This is one recipe I tried my make-it, bag-it, and freeze-it trick on. I made up three crock-pot recipes and put them in gallon size zip top bags. Then I put the bags in the freezer. When you're ready to cook one, no thawing needed. Just take the hunk of now frozen goodies out of the bag and put it in the slow cooker. My soup didn't even need any extra time. Wonderful trick!!
So now, here is the Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup (from a Crock-Pot recipe book).

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cans (15 oz each) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (4 oz) chopped mild green chiles, drained
½ to 1 cup chicken broth, divided
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
salt and black pepper to taste
4 corn tortillas, sliced into ¼-inch strips (I actually prefer flour tortillas.)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 avocado, peeled, diced and tossed with lime juice to prevent browning
lime wedges

I also added a can of whole kernel corn and a can of black beans. Plus I left out the avocado.

1. Place chicken in crock-pot slow cooker. Combine tomatoes with juice, chiles, ½ cup broth, onion, garlic, and cumin in small bowl. Pour mixture over chicken. Cover; cook on LOW 6 hours or on HIGH 3 hours, or until chicken is tender.
2. Remove chicken from crock-pot slow cooker. Shred with 2 forks. Return to cooking liquid. Adjust seasonings, adding salt, pepper, and more broth, as desired.
3. Just before serving, add tortillas and cilantro to crock-pot slow cooker. Stir to blend. Serve in soup bowls, topping each serving with cheese, avocado, and a squeeze of lime juice.

You want pictures? Sure!!!

Chicken Tortilla Soup with a little added salsa and sour cream just because.

Yeah the salsa and sour cream weren't in the ingredient list. It was a last minute addition... Also if you drain away the liquid the leftover make scrumptious nachos and quesadillas!!


---Dare to Cook---

Johnsonville

I made this video to help me increase my chances to win a host spot for the Johnsonville Italian Inspiration House Party. It also makes me think I need to do more cooking videos. It was a lot of fun.

Thanks to my camera woman Nicole!!

The Croissant Contingency

The other day I was faced with an issue. I didn't have anything to eat for dinner. Not really having the money to go out and buy something to eat I searched through what I had on hand. I found a tube of buttery croissants and a bunch of other random ingredients. Most of them were hit or miss but I did end up with a couple that I'd like to share.
At the end of the experiment I did sit down to consume copious quantities of carbohydrates.

Croissant Success #1
croissant plus cinnamon sugar

Croissant Success #2
croissant plus hickory smoked salt

Croissant Success #3
croissant plus cheese
-you can also add red pepper flake or Italian seasoning with the cheese

And finally Croissant Success #4 which I will now refer to as Quick and Easy Garlic Bread.
All you need is the croissant dough and garlic salt.

The directions for all of these yummies is the same. Roll out the croissant dough like usual. Sprinkle/place your toppings on the dough. Roll and bake as normal.

Now. Go get a tube of croissant dough and play around with the fillings. Let me know what some of your favorites end up being!!


---Dare to Cook---

Sneak Peak

Here is a Cookbook Sneak Peak now that I am about half way done. No more peaks until it's done!!

A tip for viewing. Make it full screen and select one page view. Then you might actually be able to read the type!


---Dare to Cook---

Good Eats Farewell

I just saw a tweet from Alton Brown. The last episode of Good Eats will air later this week.
Mark you calendars.

The final episode, 2/10/12 at 8pm.

This is a sad, sad day for me. Had it not been for Alton Brown and Good Eats I may have never developed a love of cooking. It is also sad because I do not get Food Network any more and I'm going to have to beg someone to either let me come watch it or record it so I can watch it later. I hope that soon Good Eats DVDs are available for sale again because I would sure like a full set.

Farewell Good Eats. I know you are only a TV show but you hold a special place in my heart.


---Dare to Cook---