Chocolate Irish Stout Cupcakes

 Ingredients:

(For the cupcakes)

• 1 cup Irish stout (Guinness, Murphy's, etc)
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream

(For the filling…chances are, this will be more than you need. Please use this as an excuse to liberally taste-test, and/or overfill your cupcakes. It is entirely your call.)

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons room-temperature, unsalted butter 

(For the frosting)

• 4 oz Cream Cheese, room temp
• 1/2 stick butter, room temp
• 1/2 lb powdered sugar
• 3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream

Instructions:

Make the cupcakes:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut the butter into large chunks. In a large-ish saucepan, over medium heat, bring the butter and stout to a simmer. 
3. While the butter melts, in a larger-than-the-saucepan-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. The butter and stout should be simmering by now; remove them from the heat, add the cocoa and whisk together until smooth. Allow this mixture to cool for a few minutes.
4. While you wait for the butter-stout-chocolate mixture to cool, mix the eggs and sour cream with an electric beater until smooth. Pour in the butter-stout-chocolate mixture, and mix until just combined.
5. Pour this thick, chocolatey goodness into the previously-whisked flour–sugar-baking soda-salt bowl. You’ll probably want to break out your spatula at this point. Stir until just combined.
6. Put paper liners in a mini cupcake tray. Trust me. You can oil/grease/spray all you want, but you will still leave chunks of cupcake behind when you remove them. I know this. Fill the cups 3/4 full of batter and bake for 12 minutes. Rotate the pan half way through for even baking.
7. After the cupcakes have cooled, poke a hole in the middle. You could also use the end of a wooden spoon or even your finger. If you go with that approach, spray a little Pam on it beforehand. Also consider washing it.

Now make the filling:

1. Put your bittersweet chocolate in a bowl. This is easy when you use bittersweet chocolate chips. If you’re using a bar of chocolate, chop it roughly. Or gently. Your call.
2. In a medium-sized (maybe even the same one that you used to melt the butter and stout previously) pan, bring the heavy cream to a simmer.
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate, add the butter and stir until smooth and combined. Refrigerate, stirring every 10 minutes, until it’s pourable but not too runny.
4. To fill the cupcakes, spoon the ganache into a frosting bag or a plastic ziplock with the one corner cut off. Gently squeeze the ganache into the holes in the cupcakes.

Now make the frosting:

1. Put your room temperature butter and cream cheese into a large-ish bowl. It’s about to get messy, and you’ll want room to add sugar and whip the snot out of it.
2. With an electric beater, whip the butter until it’s light and fluffy.
3. Slowly add 3 cups of the powdered sugar, a little bit at a time. This keeps the frosting from getting grainy, and also allows you to spend more time playing with your electric mixer. Both are very important.
4. Add 3-4 tablespoons of the Baileys, depending on the level of flavor you want.
5. Add more powdered sugar if the Baileys has made it too runny
6. Frost those babies.

The Actual Best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World*

Ingredients

• 2½ c flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 c butter (at room temperature)
• 1½ c firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
3. Beat butter, brown sugar, and vanilla with a mixer on high speed until well blended. Add eggs, mixing well.
4. Add flour mixture gradually to incorporate, then beat to blend well.
5. Drop batter in 2-tbsp portions about 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. [1]
6. Bake about 6-7 minutes, until edges of cookies are brown but an area about 1 inch wide in the center is still pale. If you are using two pans in the oven, switch positions at about 3 minutes.
7. Let cookies cool on pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack or baking mat.

Makes about 30 cookies. Which is not enough.

---
*As found by Kim Walter, who has been doing her research since high school, and recently corroborated by Piera.

[1] ok, this is important: at this point I'm always like "yeah, yeah, dough on sheet, pop in oven, okay" and just wing it. For this recipe I actually measured out the cookie dough size and spaced them out on the sheet as directed, and I swear I've never made more perfect cookies. I highly recommend following steps 5-7 as directed.

The Brownies

Ingredients

• ½ cup + 2 tbsp (a total of 10 tbsp) salted butter, melted
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup melted chocolate chips
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper.
2. Pour melted butter into a large mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar by hand until smooth, 30 seconds.
3. Add in eggs and vanilla extract. Whisk 1 minute.
4. Whisk in melted chocolate until combined and smooth.
5. Use a rubber spatula to stir in flour, cocoa powder, and salt until just combined. Stir in whole chocolate chips.
6. Pour into prepared pan and smooth out.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool in pan 30 minutes before slicing.

---

Original recipe: The Stay at Home Chef

Posted by Piera

Puppy Chow

Emilee's HERETICAL Recipe

Ingredients:

• 9 c rice Chex
• 1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips or 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
• 1⁄2 c smooth peanut butter, melted
• 1⁄4 c butter, melted
• 1 -2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1⁄2 c powdered sugar
• Paper bag

Directions:

1. In a microwave safe bowl (or on the stovetop with a double boiler) melt chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter together.
   
   If using the microwave, set for 30 second intervals, stirring in between until combined.
   
   If using stovetop, stir occasionally until combined.


2. Add vanilla to chocolate/butters mixture
3. Coat rice Chex with the delicious goop
4. Dump all of this into the paper bag
5. Add powdered sugar
6. While holding the bag closed, and supporting the bottom, shake vigorously to evenly coat all rice Chex
7. Enjoy!

Deirdre's Recipe (the correct way)

Ingredients

• 7 c rice Chex
• 1 c semisweet chocolate chips
• ½ c peanut butter (chunky is better but either works)
• 1 stick (½ c) butter
• 2 c powdered sugar (or as much as needed)

Directions

1. Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter and mix until smooth.
2. Pour over Chex (in a paper bag or a large bowl). Stir to coat.
3. Add powdered sugar and mix/shake until perfectly coated and beautiful.

Note: The smaller box of Chex is about 10 cups total, so I like to do 1.5x the original recipe and use the entire box.

Edit: so after some experimentation I have determined that the Family Size box of Chex is something like 16c of cereal. Which means it breaks down nicely into two batches, if you're a little generous with your measurements. I've also determined that with my particular set of bowls, it's easier to mix/shake a 7c batch than a 10c one. IN CASE ANYONE WAS WONDERING.

---

Original Recipe: unknown

Posted by Emilee and Piera, respectively

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 c salted butter, softened
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1 (3.4 oz) pkg. instant vanilla pudding mix, dry
• 2 eggs (at room temp)
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 c milk chocolate chips
• 1 c white chocolate chips (could also substitute for more milk chocolate chips)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Stir in pudding mix (dry) and vanilla.
3. Beat in one egg at a time.
4. In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking soda and baking powder. 
5. Slowly stir into the wet ingredients. Then stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Line baking with baking mat and then spoon cookie dough onto the baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are set. You want the center to look a little underdone. Let sit on pan for 2 minutes, and then remove to a cooling rack.

---

Original Recipe: unknown

Posted by Emilee