Pies & Prejudice

Adventures of a Geeky Pie Baker

Baking

Boozy Cupcakes: Spiced Rum & Eggnog–with an Eggnog Buttecream

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Hi Folks, I hope you’re all doing great and not overly disappointed that winter is here…especially after such a relatively mild, dry Fall (at least here in Ontario). Just when I was hopin’ for a green winter…curses! 🙂

The snow has, at the very least, thrown me right into holiday baking mode. Okay, okay I’m always in baking mode but—right now it’s ALL about the cinnamon, the peppermint, all those fun cookie shapes and, of course.. the Egg Nog!

How about one of these to make your holiday season Merry & Bright? Spiced Rum & Eggnog Cupcakes with a whipped eggnog buttercream…

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This doesn’t look like a bad way to drink all that Holiday ‘Nog, right?

This year will be my first Christmas with my baking biz so I’m pretty excited. I’ve gotten a couple orders already (woohoo!) but now that I’ve got my holiday menu out, I’m hoping to be baking non-stop ’til Christmas Eve. Since this blog is moving toward baking & food, I thought I’d share some of my favourite holiday recipes with you guys. This is the first recipe of my 12 Treats of Christmas!

As many of you know, I bake exclusively gluten-free these days. I love creating copycats of all the classic faves and coming up with new creations, too. Many folks who have tried my goodies tell me they can’t tell the difference (from regular gluten ones) so I’m taking that as a sign that I’m on the right track. Regardless, I’m having fun creating and taste-testing. If you don’t need to avoid gluten, just swap regular flour for the GF flour in any my recipes. I always try to come up with very versatile, allergy or diet-friendly recipes and give as many options/substitutions as possible.

Today I’m sharing these fun cupcakes that will defintely put you in the Christmas spirit. Add a bit of booze to the eggnog buttercream as well (for adults only, of course) and you’ll REALLY start feeling the Christmas spirit 🙂

It just ain’t the holidays without copious amounts of eggnog, at least for me anyway. Even if you can’t have dairy, there are several great dairy-free options (homemade or store bought) these days so you never have to go Nog-less. I generally don’t drink a lot of dairy myself so I’ve tried quite a few of them. My absolute new favourite is the So Delicious Coconut Nog. It tastes just like regular eggnog (and not coconut-y, either–surprisingly) and it’s absolutely delish. I don’t care for the soy milk ones (good thing because I usually avoid soy like the plague) and the almond milk nogs I’ve tried aren’t amazing, but not bad either. But don’t worry, you can add any eggnog to these festive cupcakes and they’ll still be amazing!

Here’s a funny story about when I was a kid and spent a few months drinking eggnog as meal replacements because I wouldn’t eat real food (just scroll down if you want to jump right to the recipe):

When I was about 8 years-old, I suddenly started worrying that I was going to choke on my food. It would take me hours to eat a meal, especially if it was something chewy like meat. My mom would sometimes have to put my food in the blender (Ugh!) and she also made me fresh eggnog when I wouldn’t eat breakfast or lunch. I wasn’t eating a whole lot (and I was super skinny to begin with) so she really wanted to make sure I got enough protein/nourishment. The eggnog was quick and easy to make and there was no chewing involved whatsoever.

My parents were still worried though, so I eventually saw the doctor who thought maybe I was anorexic (I wasn’t). If that had been the case, though, I would have made history as the youngest person ever (at 8 years old!!!) to have an eating disorder. I didn’t have one, fortunately, but I went to see a counsellor anyway so we could figure out what was going on. Shortly after, my whole paranoia somehow passed and I was back to eating normally again.

I eventually figured out why I was so paranoid and it had to do with a story my brother had told me awhile back: One of his friend’s had almost died from choking whilst eating a hot dog!!! I guess at the time I didn’t realize how much it freaked me out, but that explains the panic I was feeling each time I ate anything (except for chocolate or cookies—for some mysterious reason). I must have just forgotten this story or somehow didn’t attribute it to my fear—until I put two & two together (much, much later). 

People were actually quite surprised I was afraid of choking because I used to partake in food-inhaling contests with my friends (stuff like ‘who could eat a bag of marshmallows the quickest? yikes!). We’d barely chew our food so we could get it down fast to win the race. So clearly I wasn’t always afraid of choking on food, else I wouldn’t have been swallowing marshmallows whole….at lightening speed, even!

Aside from this brief episode of weird paranoia, I have always been a pretty happy eater.

See….

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always talking or eating (or sometimes trying to do both) not much has changed. I’ve always loved food! Excuse the photo quality, this was the late 70s/very early 80s.

The eggnog that my mom made did help during that time and I always enjoyed it as it was always fresh, homemade and super tasty (I’m glad we didn’t worry about raw eggs back then or I wouldn’t have had the eggnog, either).

Moral of this story (besides never listening to your brother, or at least the scary stories) is that I was introduced to FRESH EGGNOG at a fairly young age. Sure the store-bought ones are pretty tasty, they just can’t really hold a candle to homemade ‘Nog. If you haven’t made homemade Egg Nog before, you are missing out and maybe you should add that to your list of fun things to do this Christmas.

If you like Eggnog (and rum), you’ll love these cupcakes. Even gluten-free, they’re moist and very delicious. Don’t worry, you won’t get tipsy after eating one of these because the alcohol in the rum cooks off during the baking process and it leaves just a hint of tropical flavour behind. You can use any spiced rum you like or just leave it out (gasp!), if you prefer.

The buttercream is a cooked frosting with a splash of eggnog. If you prefer, just use your favourite recipe and use a bit of eggnog for some of the milk or maybe try my yummy vanilla buttercream I posted awhile back that goes with my coconut cupcakes (just sub ‘nog for some of the coconut milk and use all butter). This frosting (below) is incredibly tasty, less sweet than a typical frosting, and has a wonderful whip cream-like texture. It’s similar to an Italian buttercream, but since I don’t like eating egg whites, I find this an awesome alternative. It takes a bit more work than your standard buttercream but it’s soooooo worth it. There are plenty of versions of this type of buttercream…just google ‘flour frosting’ and you’re bound to find tons of great recipes.

Hope you are all having a wonderful start to the holiday season! Happy ‘Nogging and let me know if you like the cupcakes. It’s not Santa that you have to worry about stealing these…you’d better hope Captain Jack Sparrow doesn’t find them first. Arrrrr  😀

xo Dana 

Double Chocolate Scones…you won’t find these at High Tea!

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Who here likes chocolate? How about scones? While you don’t see both together very often (especially at high tea) it’s actually a great combo. It’s chocolate overload– in delicious scone form.


Before I get to my scone recipe, I’ve got some great news! As you may have read in my last post, my little pooch just had major surgery to remove a mass (and her spleen) a few weeks ago and she’s doing great. Fortunately the mass (which is malignant 70% of the time in older dogs), seems to be benign and the operation went well. Woohoo!

She’s not 100% recovered yet, but she’s doing much better. Particularly given that she’s   a senior dog (just turned 13). I’m so relieved.

Here she is almost back to normal with ‘those eyes’–begging me for a liver treat.


Now it’s time to tell you about these chocolate scones.  These are SO delicious that you’ll probably want to make them regularly. Especially if you’re a  chocoholic, like me.

If you’re not a big teetotaler, don’t worry–you don’t have to hold High Tea to partake in these scones. And, I may be biased since I’m a huge coffee addict, but these go fabulously with a cup of dark roast coffee. Hopefully they will be your cup of tea, too. (er, I mean coffee).

You do have to like chocolate though (duh) because these ooze chocolatey goodness with both dark and semi-sweet chocolate. Double the chocolate, double the fun–right?


These scones are slightly sweet (especially if you add the glaze) with a delicious buttery, moist and crumbly texture. Then you drizzle ’em with a coffee glaze and dark chocolate flakes (so then, essentially, tripling the chocolate fun). Perfection!

While I’ve been able to re-create GF versions of many of my favourite recipes, scones have been a bit harder to replicate. In my experiments, most of the scones I’ve made are dry, gritty, or overly rice-y. So I was happy to finally created a fairly moist, yummy gluten-free scone. And the chocolate chips in these help adds richness, too. A few of my friends (aka my best ‘taste-testers’)  who do not need to avoid gluten (lucky ducks) had  no idea they were gluten-free!  If you can eat gluten/wheat without a problem,  just use regular all-purpose flour in this recipe (below) instead.

Don’t be tempted to skip the glaze!!  Scones (usually) have a lot less sugar than say– cupcakes, so I don’t feel bad (at all) about adding some sweetness on top.  These were inspired by one of my favourite Tim Horton’s Old Fashioned chocolate donuts, which I’ve really missed since cutting out gluten.

For more of a chocolate fix (because is there ever enough chocolate?), melt some dark or semi-sweet chocolate and drizzle it on top of the scones after you add the glaze.

I hope you guys enjoy them,. If you give them a try, please let me know. I would love the feedback.  Have a great rest of the week!

Love, Dana xo

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Double Chocolate (Gluten-free) Scones

 Delicious Double Chocolate Scones with a Sweet Coffee Glaze (and more chocolate on top)

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups Gluten-free flour (store-bought or your own mix)
  • 1/3 cup good quality cocoa
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon espresso powder (optional)
  • ½ cup cold butter
  • ½ cup cream (whipping cream or coconut cream)
  • 1 egg (room temperature)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla bean extract (or reg vanilla)
  • ½ cup chopped semi-sweet good quality chocolate or chocolate chips
  • 1/3 cup dark chocolate, melted (optional--for drizzling on top)

For the Coffee Glaze:

  • 1 cup icing sugar
  • 2 Teaspoons vanilla bean extract
  • 2-3 Tablespoons coffee (cooled)

Instructions

Instructions

  1. Preheat Oven to 400F, Place parchment paper on a baking sheet.
  2. In large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and espresso powder (if using). If you're using gluten-free flour, I recommend whisking vigorously as I find it helps combine the mix of flours better.
  3. Cut or grate butter into the flour mixture. If using coconut oil instead (again you'll have to experiment if you're brave, I haven't tried coconut oil in scones yet), make sure it's thick (like butter in texture---just place in fridge or freezer until it solidifies) and cut it into flour mix
  4. In a separate (small) bowl mix together wet ingredients: egg, cream or coconut cream and vanilla bean extract.
  5. Pour wet ingredients into flour mixture and stir just until it's mixed. If the dough looks too dry or tough, add a bit of extra cream (or milk of any kind is fine) until it comes together. If dough seems wet, add a tablespoon of flour. I find different flour mixes (especially store-bought) can vary quite a bit and some are thirstier than others
  6. Add chopped chocolate or chips.
  7. Make a big ball out of the dough and then flatten into a disc. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet and cut the dough into 6 wedges, flattening the disc a bit if it's too tall. If you like smaller scones, you can cut into 8 pieces instead. I usually like to pull the pieces apart a little so they cook more evenly.
  8. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick or knife comes out relatively clean (careful not to over-bake these as they tend to dry out very quickly, especially if you're using gluten-free flours).

Glaze (optional): In a medium bowl, mix together icing sugar, 2 tablespoons of coffee and vanilla extract. Add another tablespoons of coffee if you'd like to thin the glaze a little. After taking scones out of oven, let them cool for about a minute and then either dunk scones in the glaze or brush it on the top (and sides) of scones. (I find the brushing easier, and way less messy). Allow glaze to cool for a few minutes.

Chocolate Drizzle (optional) If you like dark chocolate, drizzle the top of these scones to add even more yummy chocolate flavour.

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