Courtney's Kitchen

With Ryan gone during the weekdays, my goal to cook something new each week has kind of gone out the window. It's just a pain making a big meal for one (and a half) person(s). Instead, I've started baking something new every week. It's a lot easier to just eat one (or two, or three, or four) cookies/cupcakes/etc. and give the rest away. Last week I tried a chocolate chip cookie recipe my friend Abby has been raving about... and for good reason. This CCC recipe was awesome. It's from Jacques Torres (famous chef). Check out the recipe here. Abby had suggested underbaking the cookies a couple minutes, which was a great little piece of advice (especially if you like your cookies a little chewy like I do). I also didn't use the gourmet chocolate disks, but instead used high-quality chocolate chips that I could easily find at the grocery store. Anyway, you have to try these. You won't be disappointed. Thanks again, Abby!

This week I decided to give Red Velvet Cupcakes a shot. I've never made Red Velvet Cupcakes but they're my favorite kind of cupcake. I particularly like ones that have a strong chocolate flavor, so as I researched recipes, I looked for one that had the greatest amount of unsweetened cocoa powder. Most of the recipes I came across (Martha, Bakerella, etc.) only had a couple tablespoons of the cocoa... not enough. I finally found this recipe at Confections of a Foodie Bride and decided to try it because it had a quarter cup unsweetened cocoa powder and sour cream (always a good addition for a moist cake). It was definitely moist, but still DID NOT have enough chocolate flavor for my taste. Ugh!

If you have a good Red Velvet Cupcake recipe, (one with more of a chocolate base), please, please, please share with me.

Next week's baking adventure... pink lemonade cupcakes. YUM!