Snickers Cookies and Marathon Running

I officially lost my mind a couple of weeks ago ... more than usual, I mean.

My sister got a charity place with the Salvation Army on the London 2012 marathon and had been trying to convince me to do it with her. "No way Jose" was my (very sensible) reaction. I've always wanted to run a marathon - just once - and boy will I milk that one time marathon every day for the rest of my life.

"When I ran a marathon ..." will be how I reply to questions from friends about where we should go for dinner.

"I learnt several things when running a marathon; the most important of which ..." will be how I start the debate with my future toddlers about why they should eat their vegetables. 

You get the point :)

Anyway, I wasn't ready to run a marathon just yet. And then I spoke to my sister one day and she gave me a spiel about how this wasn't just any marathon but it was LONDON TWO THOUSAND AND TWELVE, Olympic year, no London marathon would ever be the same ... blah blah. Long story short, don't ever give my sister the chance to convince you to do something because ... oh, sorry, went off on a tangent there, long story short, on the 22nd of April 2012, I will be running the longest I have ever run in my entire life. Hey, if a 100 year old man can do it, I can too right? Right?

Anyway, the only plus side to running a marathon is I've heard that with all the training, I can pretty much eat what I want without putting on weight; which will mean lots of cookies whoop whoop. Check these out - if you like Snickers, the big soft biteful in the middle of these cookies is amazeballs :)

Recipe from Bakers Royale who adapted it from Cook's Illustrated.

Makes 24 - 30 3inch cookies

Prep: Heat oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5/ 375F. Line baking tray with grease proof paper

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

227g butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 tsps vanilla extract

2 large eggs

5 Snickers bars, each sliced into 6 pieces

1 cup chocolate chips

1 - Combine flour and baking soda in a bowl; set aside

2 - Place 140g of the butter in non-stick saucepan over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking and using the handle of the pan to swirl the butter around. Swirl butter constantly until it becomes dark golden brown in colour and gives off a nutty aroma; 1 - 3 minutes. 

3 - Remove saucepan from the heat and transfer browned butter to a large heatproof bowl. Stir in the remaining butter into the hot butter until completely melted. 

4 - Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to brown butter mixture and whisk until full incorporated. 

5 - Add eggs and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds.Rest mixture for 3 minutes, then whisk for another 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. 

6 - Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

7 - Scoop out 2 tablespoons of dough, flatten it into a round disc and place a Snickers slice on top. Fold edges over Snickers to seal it. Place cookies 2 inches apart on grease proof paper lined baking trays.

8 - Bake cookies one sheet at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, about 10 to 14 minutes. Cool cookies.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting

To set the scene for today's post, I must tell you two very important things about me.

1. I am addicted to Twitter
2. I know very little about children. In my defence, I just don't have very many in my life. Please do take this as a HUGE hint my married sister and friends :)

So when I invited a friend and her two kids over for lunch one Sunday after church, I had a bit of a dilemma. And naturally, as with all important life decisions, I decided to ask for help on Twitter.  Here is the conversation I had with one particularly helpful friend of mine.


Me: Forgive my ignorance but do kids eat the same food as full grown people??
T: No. They eat specially created food from specially created specialist children's shops
Me: Dammit. That's what I was afraid of. Where are these shops ;p
T: There is one near Hogwarts and another half way up Jack's beanstalk. Next to the pub called the white nosed rhino.
Me: Hogwarts is way too far. I might have to feed these kids some adult food. Thanks for your help though!


To this day, I can't rid myself of the niggling feeling that he was mocking me. So yeah, thanks for nothing Trey! 
All by myself, I came up with a menu of meatballs cooked in tomato sauce in the oven with pasta, salad and these cupcakes for dessert.


It all went down pretty well even if I do say so myself. The kids wanted to come round again the following Sunday. That's good huh? But I think the highlight were these cupcakes. Yum! The cake itself is moist, soft and not too sweet at all! And the frosting ... wow! Brown butter frosting is a revelation. It tastes ... it's difficult to describe the taste, it's a fusion of subtle spice and it's a bit nutty and a bit caramelly and a whole lot of incredible! Thank you Brandy for submitting this recipe to 'Frosting for the Cause'!

Makes 20 cupcakes


Ingredients - for the Pumpkin Cupcakes


1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
113g unsalted butter, softened
2 cups plain flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup pumpkin puree (In the UK, you can buy this in Waitrose)


1 - Preheat oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4 / 350F
2 - Combine the dry ingredients (Except for the sugar) together in a bowl
3 - Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy; about 4 minutes
4 - Add eggs one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition
5 - Add the flour mixture, milk and pumpkin in the following order - 1/3 flour, milk, 1/3 flour, pumpkin, last 1/3 flour - mixing after each addition until just combined. Scrape the bowl after the last addition of flour to make sure all the ingredients are well combined
6 - Line the cupcake tins with liners and fill each liner until 2/3 full with the batter. 

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

7 - Leave cupcakes to cook on a rack and make the browned butter frosting in the meantime


Ingredients - Browned Butter Frosting
1 cup of brown butter (Instructions to make follow)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup of whipping or double cream (more can be used depending on the consistency you want)


To make the brown butter
1 - Start with 1 cup of unsalted butter, cut into chunks. Put it in a small saucepan and boil on medium low heat until it slowly cooks and boils and results in a golden/brown colour

2 - Let the brown butter cool. Once cooled add to the mixer with the cinnamon and vanilla. Mix until just combined
3 - Add the icing sugar one cup at at time. Once it is all added, it will be very dry and crumbly
4 - Add the whipping cream while mixing on low until combined and smooth - about 4-5 minutes. If still too thick to frost, add whipping cream one tablespoon at a time till you reach your desired consistency

5 - Frost cupcakes