Happy Halloween !

We are in the final countdown now for Halloween and the kids are beyond excited! But something was missing. Something baked.

So in addition to decorating and pumpkin carving, I thought some devilishly rich chocolate cupcakes would be a welcome addition to the festivities. I was right.

Keeping with the gluten-free treats menu, this are again gluten-free with a base of coconut flour. The topping is a rich dark chocolate ganache. The little toppers are from a Meri Meri kit. I love Meri Meri products and these are perfect. An absolute hit with the kidlins!

My only beef is that the liners didn't retain their deep color during baking. So next time I will double up on them. I wish Reynold's would come out with Halloween themed staybrite baking cups but I couldn't find any on the shelves.

I recently made a similar cupcake recipe with a blend of chocolate and butterscotch chips but this time I used only dark chocolate chips. Instead of buttercream frosting I opted for dark chocolate ganache. A winning combo.


RECIPE:
*adapted source recipe for cupcakes only: Triple Chocolate Cupcakes, Gluten-Free Cupcakes by Elana Amsterdam

WHAT YOU NEED

CUPCAKES

1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, that darker the better
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
3 eggs
1/2 cup honey or agave nectar
3/4 cups dark chocolate chips

GANACHE

4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

MAKE IT

PREHEAT oven to 350F
LINE 9 muffin cups with liners

IN LARGE BOWL, whisk together first 4 ingredients
IN MEDIUM BOWL, thoroughly whisk together agave nectar and eggs
ADD WET INGREDIENTS TO DRY INGREDIENTS and whisk well until fully blended
FOLD in chocolate chips
DIVIDE batter between muffin cups filling each one 3/4 full
BAKE 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean

MAKE GANACHE

IN DOUBLE BOILER, melt chocolate with whipping cream, whisking continuously until chocolate is fully melted and combined with cream
REMOVE from heat
STIR in butter and vanilla extract ensuring butter is melted
SET ASIDE and let cool for 1/2 hour

SPOON ganache over cooled cupcakes
TOP with sprinkles

ENJOY !

It's Halloween Giveaway - WINNER

Finally, the winner has been selected ! I want to thank each and every one of your for your participation in this Halloween giveaway and hope you will join up again for the upcoming Christmas Giveaway as well. Now on with the show.

A quick recap of the prizes :

1. A fun set of test tube sprinkles by Wilton. The Creepy Sprinkles Lab contains orange sugar, white bones, green and black sprinkles, and finally green, orange and black sprinkles. I have my own set and recently used them to decorate my Chocolate Butterscotch Cupcakes.


2. A great set of 32 Spiderweb Baking Cups by Cupcake Creations. What makes these so great? Well they are super sturdy so you don't need to use a muffin tin at all. You just place the cupcake liners right onto a cookie sheet and fill with batter. Plus , there is a pumpkin spice cupcake recipe on the back of the package which I am hoping you will try !



3. A fantastic Linzer Cookie Cutter Set by Wilton. This set includes 6 different shapes: Bat, Pumpkin, Cat, Owl, Ghost and Witches Hat plus an easy-to-make cookie recipe and instructions on how to use the Linzer set to get great results!

I again used my preferred online giveaway tool, Random.org, to select the 1 winner!

And the winner is: Gail @ Faithfulness Farm!

CONGRATULATIONS!
Please email me at lemondropfoodie@yahoo.ca to claim your prize.

Linda @ Lemon Drop

Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Mud Pie

Rich, chocolatey goodness all wrapped up in a mud pie. What could be better? Well make the crust gluten-free and you have a top notch dessert that even someone with gluten intolerance can thoroughly enjoy.

Last week a lovely cookbook arrived in the post. One, to be honest, I had forgotten I had pre-ordered. I was grinning like the Cheshire cat when I opened the parcel and found this beauty of a book waiting for me!



This cookbook is absolutely gorgeous! It is jam packed with fantastic recipes, baking tips and stunning photos. For example:


But the recipe that caught my immediate attention was Mud Pie. Does it have chocolate in it? Uh, ya, LOTS of dark chocolate. A crazy amount in fact. The chocolate is melted with butter and then mixed with eggs and two kinds of brown sugar. The filling is then simply poured into a cookie crumb crust and baked to perfection for 50 minutes.

Which brings me to the crust. The original recipe called for chocolate digestive biscuits. I wanted to make this pie totally gluten-free so I was initially a tad stumped until I remembered the box of GF chocolate animal crackers in the pantry. I simply swapped out the digestive biscuits for the same weight in crackers. I used my trusty little food processor to grind them up to a fine texture them simply combined them with melted butter and pressed the crust into the springform pan. I was worried the gluten-free crackers wouldn't hold up during baking time or worse, fall apart when it was pie cutting time. I obviously had no reason to fear either because the pie turned out perfectly. If you want to use regular cookies though then just measure out 250 grams of chocolate biscuits or Oreo cookie crumbs. Grind whole biscuits to a fine texture.

I used this brand of GF cookies and they were wonderful.
I will definitely use these again in any crust requiring a cookie crumb base.

You can serve a slice of this pie plain but it is also lovely topped with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream drizzled with caramel sauce.

The family LOVED it and I can guarantee this is now on our list of fave desserts.

Are you ready? You will need your kitchen scale handy because all ingredients are weighed, not measured. Let's get baking !

RECIPE:
*adapted source recipe: Mud Pie, The Great British Bake Off, How To Bake The Perfect Victoria Sponge and Other Baking Secrets

WHAT YOU NEED

BASE
250 grams dark chocolate biscuits
50 grams unsalted butter, melted

FILLING
200 grams 70% dark chocolate, chopped
200 grams unsalted butter, cubed
4 large eggs at room temperature
100 grams light brown sugar
100 grams dark brown sugar
200 grams heavy cream (35%+ fat) - measure cream and leave out at room temperature for 1 hr before making the filling

MAKE IT

GREASE a 9" SPRINGFORM pan with cooking spray
PREHEAT oven to 350F

IN FOOD PROCESSOR, grind biscuits to a fine consistency
IN MEDIUM BOWL, stir together biscuits and melted butter
WITH FINGERS, press the biscuit mixture into the pan creating a crust - cover the bottom and 1/2 way up the sides with crust mixture
IN A DOUBLE BOILER, gently melt chocolate and butter . Stir to combine and set aside to cool
IN BOWL OF STAND MIXER, fitted with whisk attachment, beat eggs on high speed for 2-3 minutes or until frothy
ADD in sugars and continue beating on high speed for 5 minutes. The mixture will take on a thick mousse-like consistency
ADD cooled chocolate mixture and heavy cream
WHISK just until combined
POUR filling into crust
BAKE on middle rack of oven for 50 minutes
REMOVE pie and place tin on cooling rack
LET pie cool for 5 minutes then run a knife around the outside of the crust to help prevent breakage later on when removing from pan
LET cool completely
UNCLIP pan and gently release sides from pie

DIG IN !

Also seen here:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins

Start your morning off right with the taste of a cookie disguised as a muffin! These have all the great ingredients you would find in your beloved oatmeal cookie. Whole wheat pastry flour is used instead of all purpose for a little dose of " healthy". And of course, a full cup of oats doesn't hurt either.

I found this recipe after a search on foodgawker for an oatmeal muffin my kids would really enjoy. When I saw "cookie" in the title I knew I had found a winner.

This recipe makes 12 muffins but if you want a higher domed version, you may want to consider going with 10 instead and filling the liners up a bit more with batter. Just give them a little longer baking time.

Some advice: there is 1/4 cup of butter in the recipe and trust me, it does make the bottoms greasy post-baked. Therefore you may want to consider using foil liners or add an extra liner after they are baked.

I opted for semi-sweet chocolate chips but dark or even milk chocolate varieties would work well too. Even leaving out the chocolate and using raisins instead would be great.


Instead of reposting the recipe I will redirect you now to How Sweet It Is and her recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins.

RECIPE LINK: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins

ENJOY !


Also linked here:

Bite-sized Nutella Brownies

Want to make a treat that takes minutes to prepare and not that much longer to bake? Better yet, has only 3 ingredients? Then try this recipe for Nutella Brownies!

You will need some flour, an egg and of course, Nutella. Make these in your mini-muffin pan for the perfect bite-sized treat. The original recipe also calls for hazelnuts but my kids aren't fond of them so I left them out.

I did use the stand mixer to blend the batter but a whisk and a bit of labor will do the trick just as nicely.

Be careful not to over-bake these or they will run on the dry side. Lastly, a swirl of chocolate fudge frosting on these little guys would be a lovely addition.

Let's get started !

Ready for the oven

RECIPE:
*adapted source recipe: Desserts 4 Today: Flavorful Desserts with Just Four Ingredients, Abby Dodge

WHAT YOU NEED

1/2 cup Nutella
5 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 egg

MAKE IT

PREHEAT oven to 350F
LINE 12 mini muffin cups with paper or foil liners
IN A MEDIUM BOWL, blend together all ingredients until smooth
FILL cups 3/4 full with batter
BAKE 9-10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center still comes out a bit "gooey"
REMOVE brownies immediately from pan and let cool on rack

ENJOY !

Also seen here: