Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

Hey guys!! 🙂 Lisa here.

Hope y’all have had a wonderful week so far. Jordan and I have both been so crazy busy with school, work, and travel. Jordan is actually in New York for the week spending some time with her family. Lucky girl!! 😉

I’ve spent my entire week trying to keep up with my Calculus II class; I finally found a summer class that is semi-difficult, and I’m loving it. The homework is killing me though. Sorry about being MIA on the blogosphere guys 🙂

So I pinned this yummy looking recipe almost a year ago (Are y’all on Pinterest?! I’m so obsessed. Follow me!), and we just got around to making it. It makes a dense orange cake, the marshmallow melts into the cake to give an added sweetness, and the buttercream frosting is seriously perfection. You’ve got to try this one!

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

adapted from this recipe

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
Zest of 1 large orange
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed

7oz marshmallow fluff

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with paper liners.

Combine butter, olive oil and sugar and mix on medium high speed about three minutes until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs and mix about one more minute until well incorporated. Stir in orange zest. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Separately combine heavy cream and orange juice. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of the cream mixture and repeat, finishing with the flour. Mix until just incorporated after each addition.

Scoop batter into prepared liners, filling about 2/3 of the way full. Bake about twenty minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool.

Once cooled, cut a slit into the top of each cupcakes. Using a frosting bag (or plastic bag with the corner snipped off), pump the filling into each cupcake.

Orange Buttercream:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
Zest of 1 large orange
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar

Beat butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Add orange juice, zest, and vanilla and mix until well combined. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing until incorporated to reach desired consistency. Whip on medium high speed about two minutes until smooth and creamy. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with desired tip and pipe onto cupcakes.

Don’t mind the blurry phone picture. Also, don’t mind my large cupcake vs. Jordan’s mini cupcake. She’s health conscious, and I could probably just swim in buttercream frosting for the rest of my life… what diet?? 😉 I really love these cupcakes, and I hope y’all do too! Let me know if you make them.

Have a good week guys!

-L

Cheesy Garlic Bread

Hi again! 

The phrase “too much cheese” does not exist in my vocabulary, and probably never will! Zackary, my boyfriend, LOVES garlic bread so this recipe was paired with the Chicken Alfredo Pizza (previously added today) to make a lovely meal for him and my family. It is a great bread recipe that does not include too many steps. I have made it twice also and have had great success each time. 

Without further ado, I give you… Cheesy Garlic Bread! 🙂 

Begin by mixing water, yeast, and honey together. Stir, and let sit for 5 minutes. 

That looks yummy right? No worries, it soon will 🙂 Once the yeast has started to foam, add the salt and flour. Be sure to do this in 1/4 cup increments. 

Keep the speed slow, and keep adding the flour! After all the flour and salt is added, the dough with then pull away from sides. When this happens, set a timer for 5 minutes and let the mixer do its magic! After the time is up, the dough should be smooth when you touch it, and no dough should stick to your fingers. 

Then grease bowl and dough, cover with plastic or a dishtowel and let it rise for 1 hour. ( I placed mine outside, which helped it rise better). 

Once the dough has doubled in size, split it into two equal pieces. Twist them into baguettes the length of the cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees while keeping the cookie sheet close by. This will help them to rise even more. By the time it is done, they should double in size again. 

After the oven has preheated, then drop the temperature to 350 and bake for 20 minutes. While the bread is in the oven, mix up some garlic butter and slice your cheese. The recipe calls for a stick of garlic butter. But I was unable to find that, so I just melted some butter and added garlic salt and powder till it tasted like I wanted it too 🙂 

Then, once the bread is done, take it out of the oven and make slits throughout the loaf. Spread garlic butter over the loaf and within the slits. Then, put the cheese slices into the slits. 

Place the bread back into the oven for 5-7 minutes. And then the bread is ready! 

YUM! 

Cheesy Garlic Bread, found at www.laurenslatest.com 

Ingredients: 

1 cup warm water

1 Tablespoon Honey 

1 envelope Active Dry Yeast (2 1/4 Teaspoons) 

1 teaspoon salt 

3 cups Bread Flour 

Olive Oil, For Greasing surfaces

1/3 pounds Sharp White Cheddar, or any other cheese you prefer

1/2 cups Garlic Butter

Directions: 

In a large bowl, stir water, honey and yeast together. Let yeast proof 5 minutes. Once you know yeast is active, stir in salt and the flour in 1/4 cup increments. If you are using a stand mixer, be sure to not increase your speed higher than a 2 or ‘stir’. Once dough starts pulling away from the sides and the bowl seems to be pretty clean, set a timer for 5 minutes and walk away. After 5 minutes, dough should be smooth and tacky but when touched should’t leave any dough on fingers. Grease the bowl and the dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size. 

Punch down dough and cut into two equal portions. Form into two long baguettes the length of the cookie sheet. Cover the plastic wrap and rise 30 minutes. Start to preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and place the dough close to the oven. Once oven is preheated, remove plastic wrap from the dough, reduce oven to 350F, put the bread into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. 

In the meantime, slice the cheese into thin slices and melt the butter. Pull loaves of bread out of the oven after 20 minutes and brush with the melted garlic butter. Bake another 5-7 minutes or until bread begs to turn a golden brown. Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes. Cut 1 inch slices 3/4’s of the way through the loaves. Brush garlic butter in between each slice and fill with a slice of cheese*. Bake another 3-5 minutes or until cheese is completely melted. Serve immediately. 

* I combined these two steps. I was running low on time. It worked perfectly fine putting the cheese in the slits at the same time as basting it with garlic butter. Either way! 🙂 

Have Fun! 

– J 

 

 

Chicken Alfredo Pizza

Hi Everyone 🙂 

This has been a nice, relaxing weekend full of family and friends. I hope that yall’s weekend has been lovely as well 🙂 I am loving being home for the summer. Moving away was always something I looked forward too. I wanted to know I could make it on my own, and so far, I have loved it! But, it sure has taught me the importance of family and home. I miss Mississippi very much when I am gone. Especially my kitchen 🙂 (I live in a dorm…with a SMALL kitchen.) 

One of the best things about summertime is that I get to spend time with my boyfriend, Zack. LIke Lisa, he also attends a university in MS. Every time  I am home, I cook him a meal consisting of anything and pretty much everything he wants. He is a pretty simple eater and his wishes usually  contain anything to do with Alfredo sauce or garlic bread. So this time our menu was Chicken Alfredo Pizza with Cheesy Garlic Bread and a salad. 

The pizza is really simple to put together. And by using a rotisserie chicken and Pilsbury Pizza Crust, I cut the prep time by a good 30 min. My favorite part of the pizza is the Alfredo sauce. It is SO easy to make and it tastes like it came from Olive Garden. 🙂 This was the second time I have made this recipe, and it has been Zackary approved both times! I hope you enjoy as well! 

SInce I used a Pilsbury Pizza Crust (I used thin crust), and did not have to make the crust, I began by making the garlic butter. All you do is melt the butter and then add some rosemary, garlic, and salt. Once done, remove from heat, cover, and let cool.

Then I began the sauce. Working with ingredients on the stove that can burn so easily make me nervous. But not a bad nervous, more like a thrilling nervous. For some reason I see this type of cooking as a challenge. So challenge accepted! For convenience, I went ahead and measured everything out into separate bowls so I could just pour it when it was needed. 

Start  with melting the butter, then add the salt, pepper and flour.  Next,  stir in the milk and cheese. Stir CONSTANTLY until it thickens up! Which it should then look like this: 

Perfect thick and creamy Alfredo sauce 🙂 Once it has thickened up, remove from heat and cover. 

The next step is preparing the chicken. All you do is tear up the rotisserie chicken (be careful to remove ALL bones, the small ones can hide sometimes) and season it with rosemary, thyme, poultry seasoning, garlic powder, and some salt. Mix that up real good and set aside. 

I had a helper for this part.. my sweet puppy was there to make any fallen scraps were taken care of.  How could I say no to this face? Some pieces might of fallen on purpose… maybe. 

Anywho.. the next and final step is putting it all together! Roll out the pizza crust, cover with the garlic butter and then Alfredo Sauce. Then bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and add the chicken as well as some graded cheese. Place the pizza back in the oven for another 5 minutes. 

 

And viola! A beautiful and delicious Chicken Alfredo Pizza 🙂 

Chicken Alfredo Pizza, adapted from Allrecipes.com 

Ingredients: 

Sauce: 

4 Tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 dash ground black pepper

4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour 

1 cup milk 

3/4 cup Romano Cheese (I used parmesan) 

Garlic Butter: 

2 tablespoons butter

1 clove garlic, minced 

1 pinch dried rosemary 

1 pinch salt 

Chicken:

1 rotisserie chicken, medium size

1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary 

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme 

1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning 

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1 Pillsbury Pizza Crust (thick or thin) (thick crust might need longer in the oven) 

Directions: 

1. To Make Garlic Butter: Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Blend in the garlic, rosemary, and salt. Cook, stirring constantly, until garlic is tender but not browned. Remove from heat, cover, and set aside. 

2. To Make Sauce: Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Blend in salt, pepper, and flour, then stir in the milk and cheese. Simmer, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove from heat, cover and set aside. 

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Season the roasted chicken with rosemary, thyme, poultry seasoning, garlic powder and salt. Chop or shred and reserve. 

4. Assemble the Pizza: Spread dough out on prepared pizza stone*. Top with cooled garlic butter, covering entire crust. Next, spread with Alfredo Sauce (if necessary, warm to spreading consistency), leaving crust edges. 

5. Bake for 15 minutes, take out of oven and top with chicken. Place back in oven for 5 minutes. 

* The original recipe on Allrecipes gives directions for making your on pizza dough. I have tried this recipe once and it is very good and easy! But as I have stated, the Pillsbury dough worked great and it does save a few minutes. Feel free to do either! Let us know how it works for you 🙂 

Hope you enjoy 🙂

– J