Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

One recipe I will happily make repeatedly is my chocolate chip cookie recipe. I started with the standard Nestle Toll House, back of the chocolate chip bag recipe and have been altering it from time to time over the last 6 years. Some ideas I kept, some steps I added, and some things I will never try again.

A slice of my learning:

• If your cookies spread too thin during baking, increase your flour and don’t use an insulated cookie sheet.
• Refrigerating your dough for an hour or two before baking results in thicker cookies with better flavour.
• If someone tells you to replace your baking soda with powder, completely ignore them if you like  your cookies dense. Like cakey cookies? Go for it. Oh, and don’t eat my cookies.

I like my cookies thick, dense, and on the more undone side. Really, I like my cookies as undone as possible without still being dough.

Perhaps this means that the key to my happiness is an application of my cookie dough where it can just live on happily as dough, but in a way more sociably acceptable way than me on the couch with a spoon.

Not that that’s happened. Ever.

Moving on… this more sociably acceptable way involves vanilla cupcake batter.

Cupcake batter surrounding a nugget of my favourite chocolate chip cookie dough.

(Edit: Some people are asking me how to keep the cookie dough as dough, even through baking. The key point in the recipe for this is freezing the balls of dough for at least 2 hours. Then the baking time simply thaws the dough instead of baking it.)

Then baked and covered with a generous amount of rich chocolate frosting.

This cupcake looks lonely. Also, I know it has a gooey cookie center, but how will anyone else know? Maybe it needs a friend.

Like a little hinting friend, telling people what they might find inside.

There. Much better.

And if the hint isn’t understood, it will all soon become clear when they dig in.

Chocolate chip cookie dough surrounded by vanilla cupcake and chocolate buttercream. Even better than a spoon if you ask me.

Vanilla Cupcake recipe from Magnolia Bakery
Chocolate Frosting recipe from Bon Appetit

Want something even richer? Try it with your favourite chocolate cupcake recipe instead! Or with a vanilla buttercream. A brownie cookie dough. The best thing about this recipe is that you can customize it to your liking. The combinations are endless.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

• 2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used mini chips in this application to ensure good chocolate distribution in the smaller dough balls)

Vanilla Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Frosting

10 oz. bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Cookie Dough: Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
2. Divide dough into approx. 24-30 rounded 1/2 tablespoons and 24-30 rounded tablespoons (You need the same amount of each, for each cupcake). Refrigerate the smaller cookie dough for at least 1-2 hours and freeze larger dough for at least 2 hours.
3. Bake smaller dough balls in a 375 degree F oven for 7-8 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on pan for 5 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.
4. Vanilla Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners; set aside.
5. In a small bowl, combine flours; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla, and scraping down sides of bowl in between each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
6. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about two-thirds full. Place one frozen cookie dough ball in the center of each cupcake. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the side of the cupcake (avoiding the cookie dough) comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool in tins for 15 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tins, and cool completely on rack.
8. Chocolate Frosting: Place chopped chocolate in medium metal bowl; set bowl over saucepan of simmering water and stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Carefully remove bowl from over water; let melted chocolate cool until lukewarm, stirring occasionally.
9. Using an electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth and creamy. Sift powdered sugar over butter and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Add melted chocolate and beat until well blended and smooth, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl.
10. To Assemble: Apply frosting to cooled cupcakes using a piping bag or offset spatula. Place one small, baked and cooled cookie on top as decoration.

Makes approximately 24-30 cupcakes. Can be made a day ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

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