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Please welcome guest blogger Stef from the Cupcake Project! Her blog is my go-to for cupcake recipes (her Ultimate Vanilla Cupcakes are my favorite vanilla cupcake) and she is constantly coming up with innovative ideas (she recently made homemade Spam and used it in Spam cupcakes). She brings us her answer to the Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge:

Hi, 52 Kitchen Adventures’ readers! Steph asked me if I would stop by and share my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe with you. Since I am a cupcake blogger, of course my chocolate chip cookies needed to be in cupcake form! I baked chocolate chip cookie cupcakes, topped them with cookie dough frosting, and topped the whole thing with a chocolate chip cookie. This is the dessert for the extreme chocolate chip cookie fan!

I don’t actually have a favorite chocolate cookie recipe, but I recently fell in love with the chocolate chip cookies my friend Brooke (famous for her customized wooden utensils) made for her annual crawfish boil. When I asked her for the recipe, she revealed that she didn’t use a chocolate chip cookie recipe. Huh? She used Paula Deen’s praline cookie recipe, but she added chocolate chips and browned the butter. Like me, unless you are told, you likely wouldn’t be able to identify that the cookies contain praline (ground candied pecans). However, their nutty caramel crunch adds a complexity to the cookies that – especially when combined with the richness of browned butter – makes the praline well worth the effort.

While I used Paula Deen’s recipe for my chocolate chip cookie cupcakes, you can use whatever recipe you like. If you want to use a different recipe, just fill the cupcake liners almost to the top with your cookie dough and reserve enough cookie dough to make small cookies to top the cupcakes.

On Cupcake Project, I have a post devoted to creating cookie dough frosting from any cookie dough recipe. You can use that post to create cookie dough frosting from your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough, or just use the frosting recipe below.

Recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcake Recipe

As noted above, this recipe uses Paula Deen’s praline cookie recipe as a starting point.

Yield: 12 cupcakes and 12 cookies

Praline Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 cup toasted pecans, finely chopped

Cupcake and Cookie Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Frosting Ingredients (double if you like a lot of frosting):

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• Approximately ¼ cup milk

Praline Instructions:

1. In a small saucepan on medium heat, heat sugar and water, stirring constantly.
2. Remove from the heat when the sugar/water mixture begins to boil (about 3 minutes).
3. Stir in toasted pecans and immediately dump the mixture onto a parchment- or Silpat-
lined cookie sheet.
4. Once cooled, if there are any particularly large clumps that have formed, place them in a
plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush them.
5. Set aside.

Cupcake and Cookie Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Melt butter over medium heat in a small skillet or heavy-bottomed pot.
3. Continue to heat the butter, stirring periodically, until it turns brown (10-15 minutes).
The butter will first boil with big bubbles (it’s not done then). Then, the bubbles will get
smaller and the whole thing will look more brown (that’s when it’s done).
4. Remove butter from heat and cool to room temperature.
5. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cooled brown
butter until just combined.
6. Mix in the eggs.
7. Mix in the vanilla, flour, and baking soda.
8. Fold in the chocolate chips and praline.
9. Fill 12 cupcake liners almost to the top with cookie dough.
10. Divide the remaining dough into 12 evenly sized balls and space them out loosely on a
cookie sheet.
11. Bake cupcakes for 18 minutes or until tops just begin to get dark brown.
12. Bake cookies for 13 minutes or until edges just begin to get dark brown.

Frosting Instructions:

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