Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes with Creamy Chocolate Frosting

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes with Creamy Chocolate Frosting (from Allrecipes, Servings: 24, Total Time: 3-3 ½ hours)

Cupcake

Ingredients

·         1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

·         ¼  tsp. baking soda

·         ¼ tsp. sea salt

·         ½ cup butter, softened

·         ¼ cup white sugar

·         ½ cup brown sugar

·         1 egg

·         2 tsp. vanilla extract

·         1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

·         1 (18.25 oz.) box yellow cake mix (I used vanilla)

·         1 1/3 cups water

·         1/3 cup canola oil

·         3 eggs

Directions

1.      Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt; set aside. Beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg and the vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Form the dough into tablespoon-sized balls; place onto a baking sheet, and freeze until solid, about 2 hours.

2.      Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

3.      Beat 3 eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer to break up. Add the cake mix, water, and canola oil; continue beating for 2 minutes on medium speed. Spoon into the prepared cupcake liners, filling each 2/3 full. Place a frozen cookie dough ball on the top center of each cupcake.

4.      Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the cake portion of the cupcake (not the cookie dough ball) comes clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

While the cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting.

Frosting

Ingredients

·         2 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar

·         6 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

·         6 Tbsp. butter

·         5 Tbsp. evaporated milk

·         1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1.      In a medium bowl, sift together the confectioners' sugar and cocoa, and set aside.

2.      In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with evaporated milk. Blend in vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.

3.      When the cupcakes are cool, top with frosting.

I made these for my stepfather’s birthday party and everybody loved them!  They are dangerously addictive!  Although the recipe takes a while to make (because of the refrigeration of the cookie batter), I think it’s worth it.  Each bite was full of chocolate and vanilla flavor – absolutely delicious.  The frosting is not overly sweet, so it did not overpower the cupcake, it worked perfectly.  It did not add too much moisture to the cake, either.  It was so hard to eat only one at a time! 

While the cupcakes are baking, the cookie dough gets nice and soft, ending in a perfect bite after the cakes cool.  The dough just seemed to spread out and permeate each crevice of the vanilla cupcake.  As I’m sure you can tell, my mouth is watering as I relive the experience.  Oh, if only I hadn’t given up chocolate for Lent.  Come Easter, these will be tops on my list!

Cookie Dough Dip

Cookie Dough Dip (from Add a Pinch, Total Time: 10 minutes, Servings: 24)

Ingredients

·         1 8 oz. package cream cheese

·         ½ cup butter (I used margarine with no issues)

·         1 cup powdered sugar

·         2 Tbsp. brown sugar

·         1 ½ tsp. vanilla

·         2 cups chocolate chips

Instructions

1.      Cream together cream cheese and butter.

2.      Add all remaining ingredients and mix until well-combined.

3.      Serve with graham crackers.

Another easy recipe that I made for the neighborhood Progressive Dinner.  Since this uses cream cheese, I didn’t think that I would like it all that much, but it was so much better than I expected.  The dip does not have an overwhelming cream cheese taste – in fact, when I eat it, I taste more of the chocolate chips than anything.  It is very sweet!  I used 2 cups of chocolate chips instead of the 1/1 chocolate/toffee combo recommended in the recipe.   I think that I could have downsized that to about 1.5 cups – 2 is a bit too much and overwhelms the dip.  I don’t think that it  tastes like cookie dough, but that’s OK.   I received a lot of compliments on this one and somebody asked for the recipe!  My husband is a cream cheese fan, but he did not like it.  He didn’t tell me if it was taste or texture, but I expect it is the texture of the chips paired with the creaminess of the cream cheese dip.  I was surprised that he didn’t like it, but oh well.  I plan to make it again for my mother and step-father – I know that they’ll love it!