I used 2- 12 ounce packages of blueberries from Trader Joe's, lemon juice, a little more than 1/2 cup of sugar, and the right amount of salt. The frozen berries went right in the pan along with everything else and cooked for a few minutes before I did the smashing. I don't have a potato smasher so I had to mush up the blueberries with a spatula, which was stupid but it turned out fine. This recipe doesn't have any pectin, which is what makes jam all jammy, so this turned out more like delicious blueberry syrup. I'm tempted to try with other berries but I'm worried that blueberries have some magical ingredients that make them more suitable for this kind of "jam," but then again, the worst thing that can happen is that I'll make soupy but delicious berry syrup. Probably worth a go.
Spiced Chocolate Stout Cupcakes from Rachael Ray
And then, I tried a recipe from Rachael Ray for spiced chocolate stout cupcakes. The cupcakes sounded amazing and looked super clever. Plus, I wanted to make a fun treat for St. Patrick's Day, despite my lack of plans for green beer or whiskey drinking. The cupcakes turned out tasting overly beer-y and not spicy. Then, the frosting was not think and also tasted overly beer-y since it had been reduced and was extra pungent. I tried adding lots of spices and some vanilla to fix the taste but nothing made it better. I ended up dumping half out and trying over and over to get it to something that would not make me feel like I was licking the bottom of a 20 year old keg with a sprinkle of sugar. It was a total fail, most of the cupcakes went in the trash. I did eat a couple because it was my off day from my eating plan, but I did rip off the tops and put almond butter on them instead of the frosting and to cover up some of the bitter beer flavor. This is not the first time I've been disappointed by Mrs. Ray, I'm afraid she might be too cheap to fully test her recipes and too lame to explain things properly if she has any tips/tricks and not good at baking. I lamented this to Sweet Rush and Pretty Pie herself, and we all agree that she sucks. I might give old standby Martha Stewart a try for some plain chocolate cupcakes, these One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes were suggested by Pretty Pie and like something I could do...although, how hard was it to replace water with beer and somehow those were gross but I truly blame the suck factor on Rachael Ray.
Do you trust Etsy? I'm not convinced that I do, but I might enough to try this recipe for chocolate stout cupcakes with whiskey spiked buttercream: http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2013/chocolate-stout-cupcakes-with-whiskey-spiked-buttercream/?ref=fp_blog_title
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