Pears in mulled cider

Given how much leftover wine we have in the house (I'm also a wine writer for those of you who don't know) I normally poach pears in red wine but I tried them again the other day in cider and I'm not sure I don't prefer them that way. It seems to preserve the pear flavour better. (You could also use an off-dry perry, of course)

This is a great way to use those greenish brown conference pears which never look very appealing but have a superb flavour. You want them not quite ripe enough for eating but not rock-hard either. I'd pick them out by hand rather than buy a bag of them even though they tend to be cheaper that way. You can tell the stage they're at by pressing the top of each pear gently by the stem. There should be a tiny bit of give.

A great dessert for when you've had an indulgent carb-laden main course like a pie!

Serves 4

4 evenly sized, not quite ripe conference pears
330ml medium dry cider
4-5 heaped tbsp unrefined caster sugar
A fine strip of lemon peel + a little lemon juice to taste if needed
1 small cinnamon stick
Pouring cream or vanilla ice cream to serve

Keeping the pears whole remove the peel carefully with a small sharp knife, leaving the stalk on. Fit them side by side in a medium-sized saucepan and pour over the cider. Add enough water to cover the pears. Remove the pears from the liquid and set them aside.

Add 4 heaped tbsp of unrefined caster sugar and place the pan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Taste the liquid and add a little extra sugar if you don't think it's quite sweet enough (ciders vary).

Return the pears to the pan along with the lemon peel and cinnamon stick and bring the liquid to the boil. Turn down the heat, cover the pan and simmer for about 45 minutes until the pears are soft. Remove them carefully from the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer to a shallow glass dish.

Remove the lemon peel and cinnamon then turn the heat up and boil the remaining liquid by about two thirds until thick and syrupy. Check for sweetness adding a little lemon juice if needed. Pour the syrup over the pears and leave to cool.

Serve just warm or at room temperature with double cream or vanilla ice cream and some crisp home-baked biscuits or shortbread.

Oh, and a happy Thanksgiving to my American readers. I suppose this should have been a pumpkin pie really but I'm sure you've got zillions of recipes for that. This might make a nice change ;-).

Cleaning up vegetable scraps

It is a bad idea to leave vegetable, fruit, and meat trimmings sitting in the garbage pail for too long, as they will begin to break down and smell. To solve this problem, wrap the handles of a plastic grocery bag around the corners of a drawer beneath her work surface and closes the drawer. The bag stays open so that scraps can be swept right in. when she is finished, she simply ties the handles together and disposes of the whole package.

Chef Osama  

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Filled Fudge Cookies Revisited

I originally published this recipe in December 2010, and recently cooked them again, with a friend. Just for experience, she made them at her house before our baking session, and found that she had some difficulties with the dough.  I could tell immediately that she had overcooked the cookies, but when she described how dry her dough was, I knew that there was probably another problem.  We made them again, using the ingredients she had brought and found that the dough was way too dry.  The culprit seemed to be the flour.  The recipe called for unbleached flour, and that is what she had brought, but it was Gold Metal - Better For Bread, unbleached, and this flour has too much protein in it  for the dough to work (we know this because we made them again with Pillsbury unbleached and it worked fine).  I have changed the recipe to reflect this - it now calls for all-purpose flour - either unbleached or bleached will work fine, and will be less confusing to those who can only find unbleached bread flour.  The other issue was with the 1/2 can of condensed milk.  I, of course, did this by weight, using 7 ounces of the condensed milk - which actually turns out to be more than half of the can - even though the can says that it is 14 ounces.  The recipe now has a more precise measurement for this.  Lastly, we wanted the cookies to look more elegant so we drizzled them with dark and white chocolate.  I don't have a picture of the result, but they really looked wonderful.

This recipe is based upon a 1995 $50,000 Pillsbury Bake-off winner called Fudgy Bonbons.  It was a really good  confection, but not a great one, because the dough was kind of greasy and the filling bland.  The original recipe called for using chocolate chips, which got melted together with some butter and then mixed together with condensed milk and flour.  Because there was not a very large amount of butter, every time I made the cookies, the chocolate mixture seized - that is, it got stiff and grainy very quickly.  The quick fix to this was to melt the chocolate and butter separately, and then to combine the chocolate with the very large quantity of condensed milk, which worked beautifully (as long as the milk is at room temperature!).  I also thought that the dough would be smoother  and less greasy with less butter in it.  In addition to these problems, the original recipe called for using milk chocolate kisses in the center.  So here you had a rather sweet wrapping around a mediocre piece of chocolate candy, rather than having a contrast between the two and a superb chocolate candy center.  The last problem with the bon bons was that, although they tasted good the first day, after that the candy center hardened and then it was more like eating a wrapped candy, rather than a cookie.  All of these objections were easy to fix as you'll see in the following recipe.  In my opinion, I've turned a $50,000 bonbon into a $100,000 cookie!  Love to have your opinions!

Filled Fudge Cookies
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped ( I used Ghirardelli)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
7 ounces (2/3cup) sweetened condensed milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour, measured by fluffing, scooping and levelling

30 Dove Promise candies, Caramel or Peanut Butter (or solid)

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, for decorating
2 ounces white chocolate, optional (to get it to melt thinly, you need  white chocolate with more than 31% cocoa butter (more than 15g/40g chocolate)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. with a rack in the center of the oven.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Place the chocolate in a large microwave-safe bowl, and heat it on medium power (5) for 1-1/2 minutes.  If the chocolate isn't yet melting, heat it for another 30 seconds.  Stir, and see if the mixture needs more heating or if it can rest and continue melting on its own.  Continue, heating, stirring and resting until the chocolate is melted and smooth.  Set aside to cool briefly.

Meanwhile, place the butter in a small microwave-safe bowl and heat it on 10 seconds to melt the butter.  Stir the condensed milk and vanilla into the chocolate and  then stir in the melted butter.

Add the flour and stir, and then knead the dough until all of the flour has been incorporated.

     

Keep the dough covered as you are making the cookies, and if it starts to crack a lot as you are making the cookies, drizzle  and knead in a little more condensed milk.

To make the cookies, pull off a small ball of dough, and flatten it in the palm of your hand or on a board until it is a scant 1/8-inch thick.  There are a few different shapes that you can make, and I use them to differentiate cookies that have different fillings.  This time, I used round shapes for cookies filled with solid chocolate ( I didn't like those for the reasons mentioned above), square shapes for the caramel filled cookies and triangles for the peanut butter filled cookies. 

For round or square shapes, set the Dove Promise square in the center of the dough you have just flattened, and then bring the sides up over the dough to encase the chocolate.



Once the dough is encased, you can squeeze and pat it in our hand and use your thumb and forefinger to shape the round.

 

For square shapes, tamp the cookie on its ends.

For triangles, I like to cut the Dove Promises in half.  If using the caramel filled ones, they will need to be frozen first.  I usually start with the same piece of dough as in the above examples, but I square it up on the work board and then turn it so that the pointed side is up.  I put the piece of candy in, wrap the top edges around the candy, estimate the amount of dough needed to finish the wrap, and then cut off the excess dough at the bottom. (When I try to cut it into the triangle shape first, I always seem to end up with too little dough, but you can do it anyway that gets the job done). 

The last thing to do is to seal the final edge, and I usually do that with a decorative rim.

Set the cookies on the prepared cookie sheet and bake them for 4-6 minutes.  DO NOT OVERBAKE. Cookies will be soft and appear shiny, but the bottoms will just be showing signs of being cooked and will look like barely-cooked brownies. Slide the parchment onto a cooling rack and let the cookies cool.  

The cookies aren't that attractive without some sort of decoration, and cookies that don't look great won't be perceived as great, even if they are! I usually just melt the 2 ounces of semisweet chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl for about 1 minute on power 5 or until melted.  I then make a little cone out of a plastic bag, snip off the tip and pipe some horizontal lines on the top to cover up the cookie blemishes. You can repeat the process with the white chocolate.

How long to let the cookies cool is definitely a matter of preference. After about 2 hours, the cookies will be cool, but the centers will still be totally liquid .  I prefer them after about 6 hours when the chocolate has firmed up a bit, but isn't yet hard.  By the next day, the centers will have firmed back to their original state.  You can put them back onto a cookie sheet and set them in a 100 or 200 degree oven for a minute or two to re-soften the centers slightly.

The cookies do freeze, although they are always much better when freshly made. Set the frozen cookies in a 300 degree oven for 5 minutes to defrost the dough and soften the centers.

Makes about 30 cookies

jellyfish part 2

Vancouver Aquarium. 2010.

2012 Food & Dining Trends

In no particular order, here are my predictions with a tiny sprinkling of wishful thinking...

Yes, please!


More transparency and labeling in the food system
Have you been to a supermarket lately? All the seafood is now labeled so you know where it comes from and whether or not it is farmed and if color is added. That is amazing considering that not long ago seafood had barely any labeling at all, but it's just the beginning. I believe consumers will demand labels on produce and meat too. Food contamination and security issues are only a few of the issues driving this trend.




Foraging, hunting and wild food
Wild and foraged ingredients are showing up on more and more menus and there are classes and books to help you learn about this return to a more primal way of eating. The poster boy for this trend is Hank Shaw. The poster Girl? Georgia Pellegrini!

Local culture on the plate
Rene Redzepi the chef at NOMA, (the world's number one restaurant according to one survey) has inspired countless chefs and delighted diners. He uses local ingredients to create a unique cuisine that is a reflection of a singular time and place. This is where high end dining is going. Something that can only be found in one spot is the ultimate in exclusivity.

Honey
The world's first sweetener and a product from bees who we are dependent upon for pollination of fruits and vegetables from avocados to watermelon. Bees have already been in the news because of colony collapse but I think their honey will get some more attention soon too, now that the scandal of widespread bogus honey has been revealed. Honey is an unrefined sugar and a true expression of flora. Trying and learning about honey is as exciting and never ending as learning about wine or coffee.




Digital cookbooks
Epicurious is leading the way here with ecookbooks, offering a variety of best selling cookbooks you can now save to your 'recipe box.' Since we are already using our computers in the kitchen and to look for recipes, this makes a lot of sense. It makes finding, sharing and using recipes much easier.

Lamb, goat, rabbit and bison
I'm sorry to disappoint any vegan activists, but it's just not likely that Americans are going to give up eating meat. However I do believe they are going to think about sustainability and start making more informed choices. Goat is the most popular meat in the world, we already love goat cheese, the meat can't be far behind. Likewise lamb, rabbit and bison represent more sustainable and ecologically friendly choices than industrially raised pork, beef or chicken.








Chia
I'm seeing chia everywhere. It's a fascinating seed, considered a superfood by some, loaded with vitamins and minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, protein and fiber. It creates an amazing gel like texture but can also be used like a grain in baked goods. I hope chefs are as inspired to play with it as I am.

Chefs doing good
As we get more and more tired of the endless self promotion associated with celebrity chefs (not to mention some food bloggers) I think chef charities will gain in visibility as a way of chefs getting limelight, but for all the right reasons. Great examples include the Mario Batali Foundation, Jamie Oliver Foundation which includes Fifteen and the Ministry of Food, and Rachael Ray's Yum-o!

Handmade sodas
More and more restaurants are offering housemade soda as a non-alcoholic option. Sophisticated and not overly sweet, I expect we will see a lot more of them. Some good local ones try include Jesse Friedman's seasonal offerings from SodaCraft.

Deli
Perhaps the David Sax book Save the Deli led to a resurgence in interest in Jewish delicatessen food. While LA style Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen failed to knock my socks off, the excitement over their pop-ups indicates a real desire for it. I do believe good deli is on it's way. Perhaps it's the new charcuterie?

Lower alcohol wines
I think this year in Napa might be the turning point. It was a cooler than normal growing season and vintners found that lower brix in this year's vintage meant an opportunity to craft more elegant and lower alcohol wines. We will see how consumers react. But I hope they can learn to appreciate something beyond the big fruit bombs Napa has become known for producing.

Small plate breakfasts
Ok I admit it, this is wishful thinking. But a girl can dream can't she? After having the most spectacular brunch ever at Michael's Genuine in Miami, I just hope this idea catches on. Imagine instead of a big stack of pancakes, just one. Plus a single egg benedict, and a house made pop tart? Heaven.

The other Mediterranean
Perhaps I am just inspired by my trip to Morocco, but I can't help think that Moroccan, Egyptian, Tunisian, Algerian, Lebanese and Turkish food will be on the rise. They are part of the Mediterranean but often get overlooked in favor of French, Italian and Spanish cuisine. Think of them as the new frontier. At very least, recently released cookbooks by Mourad Lalou and Paula Wolfert will fuel the interest in Moroccan flavors.


No thanks, I've had enough


Bacon
When bacon made it's way into lip balm, I think it jumped the shark. It's not that bacon will ever go away, but I think we are ready for something else. Kale perhaps?

'Farm-to-table' 'natural' and 'artisanal'
They have all become virtually meaningless. When is food not farm to table? When it's factory to table? Natural has no legal meaning and once Round Table Pizza used the word artisan to boost sales, we knew it was over.

Celebrity chefs
Perhaps it all started with that iconic Gourmet magazine cover of chefs as rock stars. But enough is enough. The endless self-promotion has gotten tiresome. So have celebrity chef feuds.

Agave syrup
I never really understood the hype. This may be a marginally better type of sugar, but it's still sugar. It lacks the depth of molasses, sorghum or honey. There are some benefits, but they aren't enough to convince me to use it.

Mexican coke
Admit it, hipsters drink it because they think it's cool. Gimme a break. It's not cool. It's sugar water for chrissake. Hopefully this is the year they will stop paying $5 a bottle for it.

So what do you think the trends will be? Share your thoughts in the comments!

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION! ©2011 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may NOT be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. If you are reading this post somewhere other than Cooking with Amy, the Oyster Local blog or Gather.com, then the site where you found this post is illegally publishing copyrighted material.

The Three Must Buy Cookbooks of 2011

I always write a series of 'best of' cookbook posts around this time of year. I've recommended a lot of cookbooks in 2011*, but there are three, you simply must add to your collection. They are written by three amazing women who I admire tremendously and feel honored to have gotten to interview or at least meet. They are not just wonderful cooks and writers but cultural anthropologists who dig deep into how people cook, preserving traditions and making food from other places accessible. These books would make great gifts, but really, I recommend buying them for your own collections, that's how good they are.


There are lots of books about Spanish food. I know, because I have plenty of them, but The Food of Spain is truly the mother of all Spanish cookbooks with over 600 pages. It has stories, history--it's a true treasury that took years of work to complete. I know this because Claudia Roden told me about the work that went into the book when I interviewed her last year (Claudia Roden interview part 1 and 2)

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Claudia Roden's recipes work. They make sense and give just the right level of detail. In this massive tome she uncovers so many more recipes than what you will find in run of the mill restaurants. In The Food of Spain you will discover many fascinating cultures that have influenced Spanish cuisine and recipes both familiar and rare. It's as much a book about food as it is a cookbook.

Dishes you will want to try include Eggplant with Bechamel and Cheese, Fish Stew with Peppers and Tomatoes, Migas with Bacon, Onion Coca.






What can I say about Paula Wolfert that hasn't already been said? She is the most well-known authority on Moroccan food and The Food of Morocco is one of her most important books. Having lived in Morocco for years, she has a depth of knowledge that is just unparalleled. But if you have spent any time with her, you will be struck by her genuine enthusiasm for capturing the details of the cuisine and her drive for perfection. Her recipes are meticulous. Like Claudia Roden, she goes well beyond the surface to discover the history and varied influences that make for such a rich cuisine. Her latest book is over 500 pages. You can read my interview with her from 2009 here.

The book also has plenty of tips and advice to help you get it right, from the different types of couscous to explanations as to why steaming is better than boiling. There are lots of shopping resources too.

Dishes you will want to try include Lamb with Onions, Riffian Split Pea Soup with Paprika Oil, Almonds and Hard Cooked Eggs, Double Cooked Red Chicken Marrakech Style, Barley Grits Couscous with Fresh Fava Beans





It might seem surprising that I put Lisa Fain in the same category as Claudia Roden and Paula Wolfert, but if you spend some time at her blog or reading her wonderful cookbook, The Homesick Texan, you will see why I do. Lisa Fain's passion and connection to her Texas heritage and food shines through in everything she writes. She treats the cuisine of Texas with such respect and warmth that you can't help but appreciate it too, even if you are not 'homesick' for it.

Unlike Roden or Wolfert, Lisa Fain is not an outsider, but a native who shares her own personal stories. And if she can make Texas recipes work in a New York apartment kitchen you have to know they will work for you too. Her book is a little over 350 pages.

Dishes you will want to try include Calabacitas (Squash and Pork Stew), Poblano Macaroni and Cheese, Coffee Chipotle Oven Brisket and Watermelon Salsa.


*Other cookbooks I reviewed and recommended in 2011:
Cooking My Way Back Home, Kokkari, Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food, The Family Meal:Home Cooking with Ferran Adria, 100 Perfect Pairings, Basic to Brilliant, Y'all


The Homesick Texan and The Food of Spain were review copies, I purchased The Food of Morocco

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION! ©2011 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may NOT be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. If you are reading this post somewhere other than Cooking with Amy, the Oyster Local blog or Gather.com, then the site where you found this post is illegally publishing copyrighted material.

SuperFoods for Babies and Children

If you have a kid, you gotta feed them. It can be stressful when you begin introducing solid food into your babies diet, worrying that you're choosing the right foods at the right time.

A great resource for starting out, or adding more variety to your child's diet is SuperFoods for Babies and Children, by Annabel Karmel.

SuperFoods covers nutrition from 6 months to 3+ years. And what is great about this book, among other things, is it holds the belief (as I do) that children shouldn't be fed separate meals from their parents, that everyone can and should eat the same things. Things like more fruits and vegetables and less foods that come out of cans. Annabel discusses Superfoods, foods by color categories (Red, Green, White, etc), and the ingredients of a proper diet. But this book isn't boring or preachy. The information is well laid out and informative.

So far we've made 4 dishes from the book, out of the 1-2 Years chapter:

Easy Salmon Croquettes (pg 106)

This one was for Scott and Paxton as I don't like salmon. It uses a can of salmon and was incredibly easy to make (4 ingredients) and they both loved it. Scott said it would really only be as good as your salmon is, so use as good a quality as you can afford.

Oven Fried Root Vegetables (pg 107)

My favorite of the 4. Roasted potatos, yams and carrots with a dip of cream cheese and ketchup and green onions. I must admit I didn't think the dip would be very good but it was. A good way to sneak in some extra calcium.

Meatballs with Sweet and Sour Sauce (pg 102)

Meatballs made with ground beef, onion and apple in a sauce with tomatos, bell peppers and a bit of sugar. A little finicky to make, but delicious.

Cheese and Zucchini Sausages (pg 100)

Meatless sausages made with cheese and zucchini and bread. You definitely want to make these ahead and chill them in the fridge so they hold together during cooking. Paxton really liked these alot, all 3 of us did.

My one quibble with this book has to do with the last 2 recipes above; both used bread or bread crumbs, and both recipes called for white bread or bread crumbs. I found this a little surprising in a book about eating well and teaching children good nutritional habits. I used whole wheat bread and crumbs in both recipes. I don't know. Why wouldn't you?

I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone with a small child. We all gotta eat and it might as well be good, fun healthy food, right?

Thanks, Simon and Schuster!

All about Fava Beans

When I lived in Italy there were all kinds of lovely things to eat that I never saw back home. Fortunately three of my favorites – fava beans, Tuscan kale and baby artichokes are now as common here as they were over there. Fava beans also known as broad beans take a bit of work to prepare, but are totally worth it. They are super tasty and healthy too, a good source of protein, fiber, iron and folate. Young fava beans are tender, have an unmistakeable buttery texture, an appealing herbal/bitter edge and cook up in no time. Older fava beans can be very starchy and are kind of earthy, but make a great addition to braises, soups and stews.

You can cook fava beans in the pod if they are very young and fresh. You can broil them, grill them, saute them in a pan with oil and salt or braise them in broth. But the more typical way of cooking them is to remove the beans from the pods, boil them for 3-5 minutes then pop the bean out of its thick skin (opening the skin then pinching the bean works best for me). I put the beans in a bowl of cold water to cool them down, it also makes them easier to handle. It takes about a pound of fava pods to yield a cup of beans. Just remember, smaller beans will be sweeter, larger beans will be starchier. Fava beans are so delicious you really only need a smattering to add color, texture and flavor to your recipes.

If you have lots of fava beans, consider making a mash or puree. You can serve it as a side dish, as a sauce for pasta or on crostini. I included a recipe for Fava bean and ricotta crostini with fresh mint in the book I wrote for Williams-Sonoma. While associated with Spring, you may find them well into late Summer. According to Ocean Mist, the ones grown in Castroville, California are in season from May through November, but you may be hard pressed to find them beyond September. Because they are somewhat delicate in flavor, pair them with mild or seasonal ingredients like fennel, lemon, seafood, morels, lamb, or fresh cheeses like mozzarella, feta and ricotta.

Other ideas for fava beans:

* Make a salad with fava beans, feta and vinaigrette

* Toss them in creamy risotto with shrimp

* Add them to bean salads

* Saute with garlic and onions in olive oil

* Serve on top of fried mozzarella, dress with lemon and extra virgin olive oil

* Use as a garnish to chicken and vegetable soup

* Serve with gnocchi or ravioli and butter

* Add to cold rice, bulgur, quinoa or barley salads

* Puree along with chickpeas to make hummus

Some enticing fava bean recipes

Garlicky broiled fava beans from Local Lemons

Spring fava bean fennel salad from Simply Recipes

Stewed artichokes with fresh fava beans from Hunter Angler Gatherer Cook

Turkish fava beans with garlic yogurt sauce from Opera Girl Cooks

Braised fava beans with prosciutto from What did you eat?

My thanks to Ocean Mist for sending me some fava beans earlier in the season

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION! ©2011 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may NOT be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. If you are reading this post somewhere other than Cooking with Amy, the Oyster Local blog or Gather.com, then the site where you found this post is illegally publishing copyrighted material.

Filled Chocolate Cupcakes - The recipes - revised January 2011

This is an update to this recipe which was put up in September. I was making them again recently (January '11), and realized that there was an error in the ingredient section (probably, because as you can tell from the following text and photo, I had trouble reading my soiled recipe copy).  The gram weight of flour was correct, but the corresponding cup measurements were not.  If you have printed out this recipe, please check the updated ingredients. 

In addition to this, if you read the prior post, you might have noticed that I wasn't happy with how tender the cupcakes were.  This time around, I did some more experimenting and found that using bread flour instead of all-purpose made for a sturdier cupcake, and, I added another egg.  This made the cupcakes firmer, also helped them rise higher and allowed me to get the cupcakes out of the liners more easily.

The following is the original post, with the appropriate corrections made to the ingredients.

----------------

I've been trying to get this post done since the summer, but I had to grab a few minutes late at night to write up my recipes, because the days were filled with BCC Rally auction stuff.  Now that the auction is over, I finally have time to post.  But when I go back to see what I've done, I can hardly read the recipe because it's covered in chocolate! 

That's why you need a CD-rom cookbook (mine, of course).  Because instead of having a cookbook that's covered in chocolate, you can have a few recipe pages that you've printed off, and when you're done, you toss the messy things out!  But now, on to the recipe!

The Cake
The first time I made the cupcakes with Veronica and Jasmine (see Filled Chocolate Cupcakes, Part 1, I used a light version of my Chocolate Layer Cake.  They were delicious, but a bit too tender.  I think they were so tender because we used the maximum amount of milk (3/4 cup) and because we mixed them by hand.  When I made them again, I used just a bit more than the minimum, and they came out much better - a little denser, which held up better for a pick-up type cake.

Makes 42 mini-cupcakes or 12 regular cupcakes

2-1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon oil

1 cup minus 1-1/2 TB (122 grams) bread flour, measured by fluffing, scooping and levelling*
2 tablespoons  unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons (2.5 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons and at room temperature
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sour cream, room temperature

1/3 cup cup milk (skim or regular), room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. with an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Line muffin pans with liners.

You can see that they sort of pop up and don't stay down in the cups.  Just give them a good shove from above, and let the sides pleat.  When you add the batter, they will stay down.
Place the chopped chocolate and the oil in a microwave-safe container. Micro-cook on medium (#5) for 1 minute. Stir and then reheat in 15-second increments on medium power until the chocolate is melted.

In a small bowl sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set it aside.

In a mixer bowl, combine the butter and both sugars. Beat on medium speed for 3-5 minutes until the mixture is uniformly smooth and creamy, and well aerated. Beat in vanilla. Add the eggs, beating for 1 minute after the addition of each egg, and scraping down the bowl a few times.

On low, beat in the sour cream and chocolate. On low, in 4 additions, beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, starting and ending with the flour. (This is actually easier to do by hand, because the batter doesn't tend to separate when you do it by hand, but it does make the cake more tender when done by hand).

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, using one spoon to scoop up the batter and the other to push the batter into the pans. Fill the cups 1/2 to 3/4 full.

Bake for 8-11 minutes for the minis, or 15-20 minutes for the full-size cupcakes, until a tester comes out clean. Set the tins on a wire rack until the cupcakes are cool, and then remove them from the pans.

The Filling
I used whipped cream to fill the cherry-topped cupcakes, and Simple Vanilla Buttercream for the ones that look like Hostess cupcakes.  The cream was easier to make, but the buttercream tasted far better. I've been making my buttercream a little thicker and sweeter lately, by adding a little powdered sugar to my basic recipe, but for this I wanted a filling that was very creamy - again so that it would be reminiscent of Hostess cupcakes. To do this, I used less than half of the powdered sugar as usual.

It's ultra important that the butter be at the right temperature for this recipe to work, AND THE ROOM!  If the room is too hot, the buttercream will never form.  The room should be no warmer than 74 degrees - and colder is even better.

To get the butter the right temperature, cut it into tablespoons and let it stand on a cutting board until barely soft. Using your thumb, push down on each pat to flatten it into the board (it will still be very firm, and will split when you press down on it). In 3-5 minutes the butter should be ready. If you press down on it with your thumb, it should yield readily, but should not be soft and melty. If the butter is a little firm, it can always be beaten a little bit more, but if too soft, you'll have to refrigerate it, and start over. I always aim for a little bit harder, rather than too soft.

2-1/2 sticks (20 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
1 pound jar Marshmallow Fluff (this is a natural product containing only eggs, corn syrup and flavoring - so don't use another brand unless you check the ingredients)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons sifted powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons corn syrup, to taste
2-3 tablespoons milk to soften the buttercream, optional

Now that the butter is at the proper temperature, scrape the butter into a mixing bowl and beat it until creamy (1 or 2 minutes.) Scrape down the bowl. Beat in the powdered sugar until fluffy. Add half of the Fluff, and beat on medium high until blended. Add the remaining Fluff, and continue to beat, on medium-high, for 2-5 minutes or until the frosting is fluffy and light and no longer marshmallowy.
This is what it should look like.

If the buttercream, does not form after beating for 5 minutes, place it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes, and then try and beat it again. After the buttercream forms, beat in the vanilla, corn syrup and milk, to taste.

If you put a coupler in the pastry bag before filling it, you'll be able to try tips to find the one that works best with the size cupcake you are making.  The piece on the left goes into the pastry bag, and then the tip gets put on, and the nut, in the center, keeps the pastry tip tight.

Choose the tip that fits the size of the cupcake  (I used Magic Tip #8 for filling, and Wilton #21 star for filling)

Stick the tip into the bottom or top of the cupcake, depending on how you finish them (if you plan to add chocolate icing instead of having the frosting come out of the top, fill from the bottom, otherwise you will see the dimple where the frosting went in.  It's easier to fill them from the top.  For one thing, you don't have to take them out of the wrappers, which give some support to the cupcake so it doesn't split as you fill it.  You can also feel when the cupcake is filled with the buttercream, and can stop before the cupcake starts to split.

You can see they look great with nothing more than some frosting coming out the top.  But they're also fantastic, and  look like mini Hostess cupcakes if you frost them with chocolate icing and vanilla icing decoration.

Chocolate Icing

My notes didn't say if the following recipe is  the right amount to frost all of the cupcakes (sorry - I either post it now, or you have  to wait another year until I make them again!)

3/4 cup whipping cream

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons hot water

Heat the cream in a small microwave-safe bowl for 30 seconds. Stir in the chocolate.  Let it stand for a minute and then stir.  If the chocolate isn't completely melted, heat in 10-second increments on power 5, stirring between each, until the chocolate melts completely and the mixture can be stirred into a smooth glaze.

Sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl. Stir the chocolate into the powdered sugar. Stir in half of the hot water.  The mixture should be thin enough to fall off of the spoon in a steady stream.  If it isn't, add the remaining hot water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time.

Dip the cupcakes into the glaze.  Turn the cupcakes right side up and let the glaze firm up a little.

 In the photo below you can see that I filled the cupcakes from the top, and I wasn't able to get the top level, so that the chocolate dips down  in the center.  You can add a decorative design, as I have here, to cover the dip, or you can add the vanilla glaze

Vanilla Glaze

1 cup  powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons whipping cream

Sift the powdered sugar into a mixer bowl.  Whisk in the vanilla and the cream.  The glaze should be thick enough to pipe.  Add a little more sugar or cream, if necessary to get the proper texture.

For this amount of glaze, you'll need a very small piping bag.  You can make one out of a plastic storage or zip-top bag.  Cut the bag in half, horizontally.

Put the bag into a small glass, and then fill the bag

Hold the bag closed at the top, with the filled part resting in your palm, and your thumb and index finger holding the top (you can put a rubber band around the top if it is easier).  Gently squeeze the filling toward the tip.  Make a very tiny cut in the tip with scissors.  Pipe on the decoration, and then refrigerate until 30 minutes before serving.