27 Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

A friend of mine requested cupcakes for her son's birthday (in addition to a regular sized cake she asked me to bake). So, since these cupcakes were on my poll and I needed something kid friendly to bake, these were the natural choice.

The only thing I had to buy to make these cupcakes were the pre-made cookie dough. I've read a lot of recipes where you need to freeze the cookie dough first. Although for this particular recipe, you don't have to. The recipe calls for a tube of cookie dough. I bought the ready-to-bake dough that's already cut into little squares. The stuff that you just pull apart and place onto a cookie sheet and just throw into the oven. The pull apart stuff worked just fine, if not better, but the option is up to you.

This recipe was awesome. It had everything that my ideal chocolate cake recipe had: sour cream, coffee and pudding. Instead of using the instant coffee, I just used 1/2 of coffee we had left over from the morning. You could tell that the pudding was mixed in. The cake batter looked really pudding-y. I would not filling these as much as the recipe said, because most of mine baked over. If you divide the batter between only 24 cupcakes, they're already pretty full and then you're supposed to add a ball of cookie dough into that, they end up super full. I made 27 cupcakes, but you could probably manage 2 more cupcakes.

 

Since I used the pull apart cookie dough, it turned out pretty simple. I cut one square of dough in half, then I rolled it in between my hands into a ball. I just dropped it into the middle of the cupcake batter and used a spoon to cover it up completely and voila! That was that. I put them into the oven to bake. It took a little longer than the minimum 18 minutes, but if you make your cupcakes a little less full, it might just be enough time.

Oh No! The Cupcakes Baked Over!!

 

After this, I rolled the remaining cookie dough into little cookies. The recipe warns to stick the cookies on top before the icing hardens so I figured this would be the next appropriate step. It takes just as long to bake little cookies as it does big cookies... go figure.

Mini Cookies All Ready

I didn't particularly care for this icing. I followed the directions and it was a huge powdered sugar mess. And no matter what I did, it stayed super thick. I was afraid that it would be difficult to pipe. It was easier than I anticipated, but not how I would normally like my icing. After all that work, it just tasted like a normal butter cream icing. The cream cheese gets lost in all the powdered sugar and butter. Next time I would just stick with mixing the fail safe butter cream (2 sticks of butter, 4 cups powdered sugar, a capful of vanilla, and hot water to thin it out).

Weird Icing

These cupcakes were awesome. Because the chocolate cake had all the secret-y ingredients that I love, it was super moist. The cookie dough settled to the bottom and was a crunchy surprise after sinking your teeth through the soft cupcake. The icing went well with the cupcakes, not necessarily worth all the work though. And the tiny cookie on top of everything was adorable and an extra little treat. This cupcake was two very tasty desserts all kept together in a simple, white paper cupcake liner.

Chocolate Chip Cupcake Ingredients
1 package Devil's food cake mix
1 package chocolate pudding mix
1 c sour cream
1 c vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp instant espresso
1/2 c warm water

How to
1. Preheat 350. Line muffin tine with paper liners or spray with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, and vanilla in a small bowl. Combine espresso granules and warm water, stirring until dissolved. Add to cake batter and stir until fully incorporated.
3. Using a large cookie scoop, distribute batter between 24 muffin wells; about 3 tablespoons of batter per well.
4. Measure .4 oz balls of cookie dough (about 1 tsp) and drop a ball of dough into each cupcakes. Be sure to use a spoon to completely cover the ball with batter.
5. Bake in oven for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick entered into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
6. Remove cupcake from muffin tin and allow to fully cool on a wire rack. Once cupcakes are cool, prepare your frosting.

Frosting Ingredients
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 pounds powdered sugar
4-6 c heavy cream or milk

How to
1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Slowly add in sugar and continue until well blended.
2. Add salt, vanilla, and 3 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk. Blend on low until moistened. Add on additional 1-3 tablespoon of heavy cream or milk until you reach desired consistency. eat at high until frosting is smooth and fluffy.

For the Garnish
1. Garnish your cupcakes with mini chocolate chips and a mini cookie.
2. To make mini cookies, measure out 24 .4 oz (about 1 tsp) balls of dough and baked them according to the package direction (about 8-10 minutes). Allow mini cookies to cool completely before adding them to the cupcakes.

**NOTES**

• If you are choosing to garnish cupcakes, make sure you do this immediately after you frost your cupcakes. Once the top layer of butter cream hardens, nothing will stick to the frosting.
• If you do not have instant espresso powder, you can simply omit it from the recipe. You can typically find this in the coffee aisle of most supermarkets

from mybakingaddiction.com