Sour Cream, Berry Tequila Pops

Sour Cream, Berry Tequila Pops (adapted recipe by Fany Gerson)

I made these for a friend's baby shower recently and they were a hit! They seem intimidating to make, but it was actually pretty simple.  Your friends will be impressed, I promise!

For amazing popsicle molds, I used these ones on amazon for about $20.  

• 8 ounces fresh or frozen berries... I used Costco's Nature's Triple Berry
• 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons silver or blanco tequila
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream

Put the berries in a nonreactive saucepan with the confectioners sugar and cook over medium heat. Stir until the mixture comes to a boil and the sugar has dissolved. Lower the heat, stir in the lemon juice.   Simmer, stirring often, until the syrup has thickened and has a consistency like maple syrup. Remove from the heat, stir in the tequila, and refrigerate until completely chilled.
Next, drain the berries, reserving the liquid for another use (soda or punch?!).
Combine the milk, granulated sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture just comes to a boil.
Remove from the heat, add the sour cream, and stir with a whisk until completely smooth. Stir vanilla extract in.
Put a bit of the sour cream mixture into each of your molds, to a height of about 1 inch. Freeze until the mixture begins to set, about 30 minutes. Divide the drained berries among the molds, then pour in the remaining sour cream mixture, dividing it evenly among the molds.
Freeze until solid.
Enjoy!

Sincerely, Malia

Chocolate chip cupcake cookies

I'm excited to bring my one of my all-time favorite recipes to this blog. My mom used to make these morsels-of-goodness and call them "bomb" cookies (A term used back in the 1990's, when "bomb" was used to describe anything amazing). I have never seen anyone else make them, nor have I seen another recipe out there like this.

These cupcake cookies have all of the chocolate chips located in the center, so there is an explosion of chocolate flavor in the center of each cupcake cookie.

Here is the recipe:

Cookie Dough:
1 cup Butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Filling:
1 cup of packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 pinch of salt
12 oz bag of chocolate chips - you can mix up the type you like (I used a combo of chocolate and butterscotch).
1 cup walnuts -optional
1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS:
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cookie Dough portion:
-Beat sugars, eggs, vanilla and butter until creamy and well mixed.
-In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and salt.
-Combine dry ingredients slowly into egg/sugar/butter mixture until well mixed.
-Fill a mini-cupcake tin with paper liners and place enough cookie dough mixture in each liner to reach about halfway full.
-Bake for 10 minutes in oven.

Next, mix the filling ingredients together.  It will look egg-y like this and that is okay.

 

After cookie dough has baked for 10 minutes in the oven, remove and scoop about a tablespoon of filling into each cupcake.

Once all are filled, return to the oven for 15 minutes.

Voila! Yummy cookie cupcakes! Everyone loves them.  I must try to eat only one.