Cookie Dough Cupcakes

It appears to be a bit of a right of passage for a baking blog to feature a cookie dough cupcake recipe. I've staked a number of them on pinterest, (like this one and this one and this one), and they came in two varieties-- the kind that stuff with dough post-baking and the kind that freeze the dough and bake it inside. I opted to go the route of freezing the dough, so that it really goes in the middle and so that you can get a little in every bite. Consequently, I also went about deciding how to make my favorite cookie dough egg-less, as the dough stays doughy and I have no desire to send anyone into the grips of Salmonella, or any other brand of food poisoning. This post by The Girl Who Ate Everything gave me the idea to substitute the egg with sweetened condensed milk, which worked perfectly. I combined my newly egg-less dough with my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe, doctored up a little vanilla butter-cream to hold a more cookie-like flavor, and DONE. They are delicious.

You'll notice that this vanilla cupcake recipe is the same one I've used as a base for a lot of recipes. I like it because it is consistent and easy. I have a few other recipes I'll bust out for you at another time, but I specifically chose this one for these cupcakes because the batter is thick. It's the same one I use as the base for my cupcakes with Oreos baked inside. You need a thick batter when you want something to bake in the middle-- this helps prevent the stuff in the middle from sinking to the bottom.



(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
Cookie Dough Cupcakes - Yield 24-28 standard cupcakes
Cupcake batter adapted from the Magnolia Vanilla Cupcake recipe posted on the Food Network.

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk


Cookie Dough Filling:

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Icing:
1 cup butter
2 pound bag or powered sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar dissolved in 3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (For garnish only)


Step #1 - Make cookie dough first. Make sure you do this with enough time for the cookie dough to freeze. To make the cookie dough, combine all ingredients and mix will. Since you are not baking the dough in the traditional format, the order in which you add them is not that important. The easiest thing to do is mix all the wet ingredients, then add the dry ingredients. Add the chocolate chips after all the other ingredients are well combined.

Step #2- Shape the cookie dough into small discs. The best way to do this is to make a ball about the size of a walnut, then flatten it to about a 1/3 of an inch thick. You can leave them as balls if you prefer, but I find the discs easier to deal with when baking the cupcakes.

Step #3 - Lay dough discs on a cookie sheet and freeze until solid. (Overnight is best)

Step #4 - After dough is frozen, preheat the over to 350* F.

Step #5 - In a small bowl, combine both flours.

Step #6- In a large bowl, use a mixer to cream the butter until it is smooth. Then add in the sugar and beat until it is fluffy (about 3 minutes).

Step #7 - Add the eggs and vanilla to the sugar/butter mixture, one at a time, beating well after each egg.

Step #8 - Add the four mixture and the milk to the egg/butter/sugar mixture. Alternate adding four with adding liquid, starting and ending with the flour. Make sure you mix it thoroughly; don't leave lumps.

Step #9 -Fill baking cups 1/4 of the way full with batter, then place cookie dough on top of each one. Let the cookie dough sit on top of the batter, don't squish it down to the bottom of the cup.

Step #10 - Cover the dough with batter and then bake cupcakes for 17-20 min. The middles on these tend to sink/not bake evenly. (You can see this in the pictures.) This is because there is a frozen glob of dough lowering the temperature. I found that if you rotate the tray multiple times during baking, the middles baked better.

Step #11 - Allow cupcakes to cool. They cool best when removed from the pan and placed on a wire rack.

Step #12 - Make icing. The icing is easy! Just blend all the ingredients using a mixer until they are smooth. This is a very sweet, very thick icing designed to echo the cookie dough flavor. If you are spreading the icing on the cupcakes as opposed to piping it, you may want to cut the icing recipe in half; it make a lot of icing.

Step #13 - Ice the cupcakes! I piped mine with a Wilton 1M tip and garnished with mini-chocolate chips.