Confession time: I love cookie dough.  And cake batter.  And brownie batter.  Probably more than I love the baked versions of these treats.  Every time I mix up a recipe, I have to fight my inner-5-year-old to NOT eat all of the batter so that at least some of it makes it into the oven to share with my husband.

Judge if you will.  I’m not ashamed.  Be honest:  how many of you also secretly love cookie dough?  And yet, for some reason, it’s not “socially acceptable” to show up to a party with a bowl of cookie dough rather than a plate full of cookies.  Maybe it’s the whole salmonella scare.  Maybe it’s just messier to eat than the baked version, or we look less dignified eating a hunk of dough off of a spoon than taking a bite of a cookie.  Whatever the reason may be, cookie dough eating seems to have been deemed only appropriate after a bad breakup, when eaten in bed with a spoon from a store-bought roll of the stuff, accompanied by a box of tissues and a chic flic.  There’s no shame in that, girlfriend.  No shame.

But secretly, don’t we all wish we could eat a little more cookie dough?

Never fear, my friends, never fear!  I’m about to share with you my most-requested recipe of all time.  The recipe that puts people into a state of euphoria at first bite, and has them coming back begging me over and over for the recipe (Can I hear an ‘amen’?!  Leave a comment if you’re one of these people!  It’s finally here!)

What if I told you I could make eating chocolate-chip cookie dough socially acceptable?  What if I told you it had been turned into a finger food that no one would look twice at you for eating freely and in public?  What if I told you it contained no raw eggs, so you could even eat it when you’re 6 months pregnant and craving cookie dough, or you want to share it with your little ones (or your wife/sister/friend who is 6 months pregnant and craving cookie dough)?

Ladies and gentlemen, please meet the cupcakes sent from Above:  Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes.

But you have to do me one favor, ok?  Promise promise promise me that you will NOT add up how many sticks of butter are used in this recipe total.  I think there’s a strategic reason that the recipe is broken out into 3 parts…  🙂

What are those 3 parts?  These cupcakes feature (as all good cupcakes should):

• Cupcake:  a chocolate-chip cookie-dough flavored cupcake
• Filling: an eggless cookie dough filling (secret ingredient:  sweetened condensed milk)
• Frosting: a to-die-for cookie dough frosting.

Are you sold yet?  Good.  Don’t put this off – find an excuse to makes these – SOON.  I’ve made them for dinner parties, showers, you name it.  I’ve even made them in mini-cupcake tins for baby showers, and they’re always a HUGE hit!  (They’re so rich that a mini-size is kind of perfect.)

I do feel like they should come with a few warnings:

• This recipe will annihilate your kitchen.  Flour, butter, sugar, bowls and beaters everywhere.  It’s a baker’s paradise.  But a messy paradise.  A beautiful mess, shall we say? (wink wink) 🙂
• You should probably make sure you have plenty of milk on hand.  These beauties are rich, sweet, and delicious, and go down perfectly with a glass of milk (just like their good old fashioned cookie ancestors).
• It makes 24 cupcakes – and believe me, you will NOT want to eat 24 yourself.  Well, ok, you will want to eat 24 yourself.  But you’ll probably regret it at some point.  So plan on sharing. 🙂

Enough talk.  Let’s get down to business.  I’ve shared a few photos and tips along the way, with the full recipe at the bottom.  Happy no-shame cookie dough eating!

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There’s something beautiful about a recipe when all 3 parts to it begin with creaming brown sugar and butter.  I love butter; but if anything can make it even more wonderful, it’s brown sugar.

I’ve used both regular and mini-chocolate chips in all 3 of the parts.  I generally prefer the mini’s for both the filling and the frosting.  If I’m doing full-size cupcakes, I’ll usually use regular chocolate chips in the cupcake batter itself.  If I’m doing mini-cupcakes, I’ll use mini-chocolate chips in the cupcake batter.

(And yes, I did lick the beater.  No shame.

And no, Oliver did not.)

Once everything’s mixed up, you load up your muffin tins and bake away!  (Lori’s tips:  Through many years of failed messy muffin making, I’ve found that a ¼ cup measuring cup sprayed with non-stick cooking spray is my preferred method for filling muffin tins.  Not that I use exactly ¼ cup of batter for each cupcake, but it’s a great delivery vehicle to get the batter from the bowl to the pan.  I’ve also used an ice cream scoop with fair success, though it usually can’t hold as much batter at once.)

Pop those suckers in the oven, and wait oh-so-patiently for them to be done.  (This is always the hardest part for me!)  I’ve found that mine often take longer than the 18-20 minutes listed in the recipe – I think mine actually took upwards of 25-28 minutes last time.  Trust the toothpick test (if it comes out clean, they’re done).

Let them cool completely – this is important!  Then, using a decently sharp knife (be careful!), cut a cone out of the center of each cupcake.  As a reward for this most tedious part of the recipe, be sure to eat some of these centers as you go (use the others for some other delicious purpose – this time around, we’re planning on blending them into a milkshake with the leftover filling – yum!).

Then mix up the filling.  The most annoying part about this is that you only need ½ can of sweetened condensed milk.  I find SCM to be far too messy to try to measure it, so I just eyeball it.  (The next challenge is finding a way to use the remaining ½ can of SCM!)  But oh, so worth it.

Side note:  When I made the mini-cupcakes, I thought about skipping the filling.  I mean, how much filling can you actually fit in a mini-cupcake?  Will it even be enough to taste?  But I opted to keep it in – and it was worth it.  The frosting carries a great cookie dough taste, but the filling carries that thick, gritty cookie dough texture.  (Plus, I’m principally against cupcakes with no filling.  But that’s just me.  I won’t judge if you don’t use the filling.  Especially if you’re making mini cupcakes.)

Generously fill the center of each cupcake with the filling.  (We used a baby food spoon and it worked like a charm!)  🙂  You will likely have some filling left-over .  Get creative with how to use it, and share any great ideas you have with me!

Then, mix up the frosting.  It will seem very dry and thick before you add the milk.  I’d suggest that you start with just one tablespoon of milk, then add more a little bit at a time until you reach your desired consistency.  Depending on how I’m frosting it, sometimes I want my frosting to be a little sturdier.

Now, the big question with the frosting is:  Do I mix the chocolate chips into the frosting, or do I just sprinkle them on top?  Or both?  Up until this time, I’ve always mixed them into the frosting, but I’ve had a heck of a time trying to squeeze those little punks out of my frosting tip.  They always seemed to clog it up and make my frosting job look ugly (and being self-conscious about my frosting abilities already, I didn’t need any help in the ugliness department there).  This time around I bought a bigger frosting tip, but I still opted to not mix the chips in and just sprinkle them on top.  I loved it – it made frosting the cupcakes go so much smoother.  But you can decide what you prefer.

I usually have extra frosting, too, but with the larger tip I was finally able to do the cool twisty-ice-cream-cone-looking frosting job, and ended up using every last bit of frosting.  Not too bad for a self-consciously frostingly-challenged amateur baker, wouldn’t you say?

And once you’ve taken one bite of these, you won’t even remember what the frosting looked like.

Happy socially-acceptable cookie dough-eating!

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Based on a recipe found on See Brooke Cook
Prep time: 1 hr 15 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Yield: 24 cupcakes (or 48+ mini-cupcakes)

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet; mini or regular, depending on size of cupcake)

Eggless Cookie Dough Filling:
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 Tbsp light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz sweetened condensed milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Frosting:
3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
3½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp salt
3 Tbsp milk
2½ tsp vanilla extract
Mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Cupcakes: Preheat your oven to 350° F. Prepare cupcake pans with liners and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixe, or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

In a medium bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to combine. Combine the milk and vanilla extract in bowl or measuring glass. Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, and alternating with the milk, add both to the butter mixture, mixing each addition until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepped cupcake liners. Bake for about 18-20 minutes (mine generally take at least 5 minutes longer than that), or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cookie dough filling: Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla beating until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Frosting: Beat together the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until creamy. Slowly add the confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt, then mix in 1 tablespoon milk and the vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.  Slowly add in up to 2 more tablespoons of milk until you read your desired consistency.  Add a cup or so of mini chocolate chips to the frosting if desired (if piping the frosting you will want to take that in to consideration when choosing a tip).

To assemble, core the center of completely cooled cupcakes, fill with a scoop of the cookie dough, then frost. Sprinkle with additional chocolate chips if desired.