Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough High

In which I feel bad for my gluten-free sister.

This past weekend we celebrated, in true close-together birthday style, the birthdays of my oldest nephew on my side (4 already!!) and my dear hubby (27 already!!)

I love these family dinners with two of my four fabulous sisters, especially after a couple years away from them, even if we do spend a good part of the time refereeing as my sharing-challenged daughter pushes the boys around.

I had the pleasure of making dessert, and having to please both the kid crowd and the adult contingent, and having recently printed a must-try recipe for cupcakes, and picked up some adorable little cupcake papers, I got to work.

These. are. ridiculous.

Innocent looking enough, right?  But little do you know…the cupcake is cookie dough flavoured, the center is ooey-gooey cookie dough, and even the ICING is cookie dough flavoured!  In fact, aside from my favourite brownie icing ever, this is probably the best icing I have ever tasted.  But then, I love cookie dough, and if I can have my cookie dough and no raw eggs too, I am in.  Really, who am I kidding, I was in raw eggs or not.

The recipe looks long but I promise every step is extremely easy and well worth the effort.  Having said that, the cupcake itself was not my very favourite, only because it was a little dense and “muffin-y” for my liking – in fact, I plan to make them as muffins for breakfast.  What better way to start your day than with cookie dough?  Really any plain cupcake, vanilla or chocolate, with a few chocolate chips thrown in, would be delicious with this filling and icing, but I’ll include the original in case you want the full cookie dough experience.

Looks like breakfast to me!

Also, a word of warning before you get started: when you take out the centers of the cupcakes and it looks like just a little bit to pop into your mouth, have some water handy, because by the time you pop that 24th center into your mouth you are THIRSTY.  And your brain is starting to catch up to your stomach and tastebuds, and you are starting to feel a little comatose.  Still, it’s important for quality control purposes to test each one, so don’t give up on me!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH CUPCAKES

Cupcakes: (makes 24 cupcakes…can easily be halved).

1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ½ cups light brown sugar, packed

4 eggs

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Filling:

4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature

6 tbsp packed brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour

7 oz sweetened condensed milk (approx 12 tbsp)

½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Frosting:

1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

3 ½ cups icing sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

¾ tsp salt

3 tbsp milk

2 ½ tsp vanilla extract

Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350F.  Line 2 cupcake pans with paper liners.  Beat butter and brown sugar on medium until light and fluffy, about 3 min.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add to wet ingredients alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients, mixing each addition until just incorporated.  Blend in the vanilla and fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Divide batter evenly between cupcakes and bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before removing to rack to cool completely.

Filling: Combine butter and sugar; cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until smooth.  Stir in chocolate chips, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour to let it firm up a bit.

To fill the cooled cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped portion out of the center of each cupcake and eat the resulting crumbs J  Fill each hole with a chunk of the cookie dough filling mixture.

Frosting: Beat together butter and brown sugar until creamy.  Mix in icing sugar until smooth.  Beat in flour and salt, then add milk and vanilla and beat until very smooth.  Frost and decorate as desired.

Cupcake casserole anyone?

Aw, hello little reject plate. I promise to love you as much as your better-looking siblings.

I found this recipe on Annie’s Eats (Check out her blog for much nicer pictures – I wasn’t ambitious enough to make the tiny chocolate chip cookies to perch on top!)  Don’t wait for a birthday to make these, whip some up for breakfast.  Just go easy on the icing and have a good side of fruit or something 🙂