Cookie Dough

I don't know about you but I have always been a big fan of licking the spoon after making brownies or eating the dough off the beaters when making chocolate chip cookies.  I know what some of you are thinking, "There are raw eggs in there!".  But it's just too hard to resist.  I try not to eat a lot of it, maybe just a few bites. :)  Now every time I bake chocolate chip cookies it brings me back to being a kid again.

One of my fondest memories is making chocolate chip cookies with my mom.  This was before we had our handy KitchenAid Mixer and we just had the old standby Sunbeam hand mixer.  We would follow the recipe off the back of the Nestle Toll House bag and together we would mix together the best batch of chocolate chip cookies ever or at least we thought they were better than the rest.  Now a days I have the luxury of owning my own KitchenAid, which makes the job just a little easier.  I actually asked for one for Christmas in the 10th grade and luckily Santa was listening because that's exactly what I received that year.  After 12 years (wow, it's really been that long?!) it's still running strong but I hope to one day soon upgrade to a bigger version.  Anyway, I seem to have digressed from the focus of this post, Cookie Dough! 

This past week I had another birthday to celebrate, my good friend Emily's 30th birthday.  About a year ago she accompanied me when I entered in a Holiday Cupcake/Cookie Challenge.  Well needless to say I did not win but we were both lucky enough to taste some of the competitors goodies and one treat we came across were Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes.  I'm sure most of you are either disgusted by that or are wondering what the heck is vegan.  I won't get into the details of what makes them vegan but they were absolutely amazing and Emily was a huge fan of them.  So I decided then I would need to find a similar recipe so I could make them one day.  Fast forward a year later and I discovered a great recipe, non-vegan, that looked just like what we had eaten.  I was reading one of the blogs I follow and stumbled upon it on the blog, Annie's Eats.  I didn't do a trial run before I made them for her birthday so I was a little concerned how they may turn out.  Well, they turned out just as good maybe even better.  I think Emily was pretty happy with the results as well.  Now these are not made for the diabetic, they are loaded with so much sugar and chocolaty goodness that you feel like your on a bit of a sugar high after eating one.  I warn you, they are addicting, so I would recommend having enough people around to share.  Serve with a tall glass of cold milk or maybe even a little champagne for the adults and these will bring you back to being a kid again and licking the dough off the beaters.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Recipe courtesy of Annie’s Eats

Yield: 24 cupcakes (I halved the recipe)

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
• 4 large eggs
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 cup milk (I used fat free)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

For the filling:

• 4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 7 oz. sweetened condensed milk (I used fat free)
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• ¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

For the frosting:

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
• 3½ cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ tsp. salt
• 3 tbsp. milk (I used fat free)
• 2½ tsp. vanilla extract

For decoration:

• Tiny chocolate chip cookies
• Mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners (24 total).  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar.  Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.  Stir together to blend.  Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated.  Blend in the vanilla.  Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.
3. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners.   Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. To make the cookie dough filling, combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a bit, about an hour.
5. To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped portion out of the center of each cupcake.  Fill each hole with a chunk of the chilled cookie dough mixture.
6. To make the frosting, beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy.  Mix in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth.  Beat in the flour and salt.  Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.
7. Frost the filled cupcakes as desired, sprinkling with mini chocolate chips and topping with mini chocolate chip cookies for decoration.