Tag: Key Lime

Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream Frosting

November 18, 2015February 11, 2017

I know, it’s fall. Or basically winter. It’s cold and blustery here in Portland. The gray and rain have settled in, and I personally am loving it. There’s lots of tea and squash in my life and that’s just my favorite. And yes, probably most blogs are (sensibly) posting all those rich fall recipes that you’ll make for Thanksgiving. This is not one of those recipes. It could be, I suppose, but then your family might get mad that there’s not apple pie AND pumpkin pie AND pecan pie. But they wouldn’t be too mad, because they’d be eating these graham cracker cupcakes. With lime buttercream frosting. How could you be mad?

My friend Mac’s birthday was on Monday, and when I asked him what kind of birthday treat he wanted, he gave me three options: coffee, peanut butter, or lime. What with all the rich, sweet treats that around this time of year, I wanted to go with something bright, something that got me excited about all the winter citrus that my grocery store will soon be carrying. So after a little digging around, these are what I made. You should think about making them too.

Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream Frosting

Makes 12-14 cupcakes | Adapted from Bon Appetit + My Recipes

Ingredients

Graham Cracker Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (from about 12 graham crackers, pulsed in a food processor), plus 2-3 Tbsp for dusting
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
zest of 1 lime
3/4 cup whole milk

Lime Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp lime zest (or the zest of one lime)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 16 oz package of powdered sugar
3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1-2 Tbsp whole milk

Instructions

Graham Cracker Cupcakes

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. In a small bowl, combine the 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and lime zest, mix to combine. Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk (which you’ll add in two additions), mixing to combine after each addition.

Put roughly 1/4 cup batter in each cupcake liner. Bake for 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, rotating halfway through. Allow to cool in the pan for 3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to finish.

Lime Buttercream Frosting

While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, lime zest, vanilla, and salt until creamy. Alternate adding the powdered sugar and lime juice in three additions (so you’ll add roughly 1/3 of the box of powdered sugar, mix to combine, then add a tablespoon of lime juice, mix to combine, x3). Then add 1 Tbsp of milk and mix to combine. If the frosting is still too thick, add milk a teaspoon at a time, beating after each addition, until you’ve reached your desired consistency. Frost your cupcakes, and sprinkle with the remaining graham cracker crumbs.

Friday Finds 8:30:13 (a day late)

August 31, 2013February 5, 2017

Friday Finds have gone on a little break as I’ve been adjusting to a new home and a new schedule. But we’re back! And hopefully will be more regular from here on out. Here’s what I’ve found this week (and the two weeks before that).

1. Popsicle Week on Smitten Kitchen

Friday Finds // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler — Popsicle week on Smitten Kitchen!

It’s popsicle week over on Smitten Kitchen, and these treats are not only perfect for the hot weather (not that we’ve been having too much of that in Portland), but look delicious enough to eat year round. Flavors include Pink Lemonade, Butterscotch Pudding, and Key Lime Pie.

2. Tomato Tatin

This Tomato Tatin recipe looks killer good and pretty dang easy. I’ve been craving tomatoes left and right, so this seems like a perfect dish to make to satisfy my tomato-tooth. It also led me to my next discovery…

3. Whip + Click

This week’s discovery of Whip + Click, a pastry chef/photographer duo has me head over heels. With truly beautiful food photos and awesome recipes (roasted peaches with honey and rosemary as summer winds down, or maybe sweet potato handpies for the fall table), this is some really inspiring work.

4. Guacamole Saver

This tip for saving guacamole is about to change lives. For real. I’m not even kidding.

5. Cocktails

Why don’t I make more of them? They are so fun and easy and you can try so many new flavor combinations. I’ll tell you why. Liquor is expensive. But if I did have all the money and liquor I wanted, you can bet I’d head over to There Will Be Bourbon to make me one of these Bufala Negras.

6. Cheese and fruit crostini

I have been seeing these kinds of recipes all over the place: roasted grape and ricotta crostini, roasted apricot and goat cheese crostini, fromage blanc and roasted ANY KIND OF FRUIT crostini. These are so incredibly easy and make a good impression on guests.

Key Lime Meltaways

February 27, 2012February 2, 2017

So, I had gone over a week without baking. OVER A WEEK. That’s a long time for me. Seeing as we’re trying to cut down on our sweets intake, I was trying to be good and, for the most part, succeeding. But the time came when all I wanted to do was to try out a new cookie recipe and I just couldn’t help myself. I had been stalking this recipe for Key Lime Meltaways from Smitten Kitchen for quite some time, and I finally decided to make it. We had everything except the limes, so I just popped over to the store and grabbed a couple (we were going anyway to get ingredients for a delicious dinner that will be posted shortly). The recipe recommends key limes, but I didn’t want to buy an entire bag of them, so I just bought a couple of small limes (and ended up only using one actually). I used bread flour because I’m still trying to work my way through that giant bag Jonah bought me. I also halved the recipe, but I’ll give you the full recipe because…well…sometimes more is just better.

These cookies were so good, sweet at first and then sour, and the zest were these little crunchy bits from being baked… Yum! We made a half a batch which yielded 2 dozen cookies, and they were gone quickly. A little too quickly for my liking. But what can you do. Enjoy!

Key Lime Meltaways

Makes 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Grated 2 (small) limes
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (I added a little extra because I like sour stuff)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Put the butter and 1/3 cup of the powdered sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer and cream until it’s nice and fluffy. Then add the lime zest, juice, and vanilla and beat it until fluffy again. For me, the mixture wasn’t absorbing all the liquid (the lime juice and vanilla), so I just continued on my merry way without worrying about it.

In another bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until combined. Now, the recipe says to roll the dough into two 1 1/4-inch-diameter logs between two pieces of parchment paper. I didn’t have any parchment paper, so I wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and rolled it out in that, which worked just fine. Now, throw the logs in the fridge for an hour to chill.

When you pull out the logs, start heating your oven to 350 degrees. Either grease your cookie sheet a little bit or line it with parchment paper. Put the rest of the powdered sugar (2/3 cup) in a ziploc or other resealable bag. Take the plastic wrap or parchment paper off the logs and slice them into 1/4 inch thick slices. Put the rounds on your baking sheet about 1 inch apart and bake them for about 15 minutes (I turned mine part way through baking because the back right corner of my oven is hotter and I wanted them to be evenly cooked).

Take them out of the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool. After cooling for a few minutes, but while they’re still warm, put cookies in the ziploc baggie of sugar 3 or 4 at a time. Seal up the bag, and toss the cookies around to coat them in the sugar. Remove the cookies from the bag and put them on a plate to serve!