Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

Cupcakes With Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

I usually only make two kinds of chocolate frosting/icing:
1. Butter Cream  with melted unsweetened chocolate added
2. Texas cake icing, made in a saucepan with cocoa for the chocolate flavor.

Perpetual efforts to avoid sugar/weight gain keep me from making cake very often, even to the point of usually buying birthday cakes from the store, but it was the evening before my husband's birthday and I had some complications to my day and didn't get out and shop, so I decided to make cupcakes with a french vanilla cake mix I had in the pantry. I didn't have a can of frosting because I don't like canned frosting, not even a little bit, and they don't put enough in the can to fully  frost a cake, and frosting is easy to make and so much tastier, I would rather do my own.

However, I was out of unsweetened chocolate, and I wanted a butter cream texture to pile on to the cupcakes, so I looked for something I could make with chocolate chips, which I make sure to never run out of. (Is there a Chocoholics anonymous?)  Even though I wasn't sure about a saucepan frosting being thick enough, I decided to take a chance on this recipe from the red and white 1981 Better Homes and Gardens cook book. It turned out fantastic!

When I make butter cream I often use yogurt in place of cream because I like the play of the sweetness and chocolate with the little bit of  sour cream type taste the yogurt adds. This frosting has the same delicious combination of flavors.

This recipe says it frosts two 8 or 9 inch layers. It was perfect for 24 cupcakes, but I might increase it by a third for a layer cake. I will provide those variations since I did make the batch larger just in case and ended up having some left over. It was after midnight when I made it and only the late hour and my dedication to my weight loss coaching group kept me from sitting down with a spoon and eating the leftovers.... Hubby had to have one immediately-after all it had officially been his birthday for 20 whole minutes, and he seemed to like it OK....

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting-original recipe
Frosting becomes stiffer when refrigerated
 One 6 ounce package (1 cup) semisweet chocolate pieces.
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup dairy sour cream
1/4 tsp salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
In a sauce pan melt chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring frequently. Cool about 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream, vanilla, and salt. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating by hand till smooth and of spreading consistency. Store in refrigerator

Variations and Tips
To make a larger batch:
8 oz chocolate chips
6 tablespoons butter (I don't use margarine-butter tastes and keeps better)
3/4 cup sour cream (My favorite sour cream is Tllamook natural, which has less additives)
3-3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, adding the extra gradually to get the texture you want.

-I was a little short on the sour cream and filled in with Plain Greek Yogurt. Yogurt will lower the fat content and Greek yogurt has less water in it, so it is closer to the texture of sour cream. You might be able to experiment with using all Greek yogurt in this recipe. I don't like most Greek yogurt and am not sure how different brands would affect the taste, so I recommend Tillamook brand which is much milder and more pleasant tasting.

-If you are cutting fat you cold also try using lower fat sour cream

-I used a two quart saucepan and beat in the sugar with a good wire whisk. You could put it all in a mixer, but that would make more dishes to wash. Hand whisking was easy and the frosting turned out perfect! Just be sure to get around the edges of the bottom of the pan so it is all mixed evenly. I'm sure you cold mix with a spoon too, but I think the whisk gets out lumps better and also you then have the frosting covered wires that need licking...

-I didn't sift the sugar and the wire whisk created a smooth, lump free texture with very little extra effort.

-I like to take a bowl or pan that needs that kind of stirring to my kitchen table because the height is more comfortable and the beating is more effective and efficient when the mixture is lower to my body than counter height, so my elbows aren't very bent, so experiment to see what height works best for you!  I'd say the whole beating part took less than two minutes. I was able to make the frosting start to finish in about 15-20 minutes.

Turkey Stuffing Recipe

Here it is, the recipe everyone wants me to bring to our holidaydinners...
 
Turkey Stuffing

1-1   1/8 cups butter

1-2    

¾ cup chopped onions

4 ½ quarts bead squares (18 cups)  you can use regular white bread, or deli bread, but they will cook down and make a softer stuffing. French bread works better, but my preference is a substantial Italian bread,  round loaf (best) or long oval loaf, something with a solid springy feeling,  I don’t like to use sourdough bread.

½ cup finely diced celery

1 ½ teaspoons Poultry seasoning

½ cup chopped parsley or 2 Tbs dried parsley

¼ teaspoon ground pepper

1 Teaspoon salt

Heat butter in large deep kettle and sauté onions and celery until onions are tender

Stir in seasonings and add bread cubes a quart at a time and stir to coat with butter mixture.

Stir thoroughly until cubes are evenly coated and mixed with the butter mixture.  This also serves to heat the bread.

Turn off the burner and transfer the stuffing into a 13X9 pan or use to stuff the turkey. 

If cooking in a pan, drizzle with about a cup of  pan juices from the cooked turkey or commercial chicken broth.

Cover pan with foil and put in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, then remove foil and continue baking 20-30 minutes or until tops of bread cubes are toasty crisp and browned. 

Chicken Stuffing-This turns out almost the same as the turkey stuffing but makes a smaller amount

1 ½ quarts bread cubes

½ tsp poultry seasoning or dried thyme, marjoram or sage

1 tsp celery seeds           1/8 tsp pepper                ½ tsp salt

½ cup butter       ¼ cup minced onion       3 tbsp chopped parsley or 1 tbsp dried parsley

So Yummy I just had to share

The other night I pulled out whatever veggies I had on hand to put together as a stir fry with some sliced barbecued beef leftover from one of Harry's efforts on his new pellet fed grill. The result was so colorful and fresh, and tasted so good, I just had to grab the camera and make a record of it. This is the start with the veggies, a package of Birdseye stir fry I got free with a coupon, mushrooms and fresh red bell pepper. I'm sauteeing in a little high oleic safflower oil.

Here I'm adding the meat.

Finishing off with a cup of brown rice and some teriyaki sauce, since the rice and meat were pre-cooked and the veggies were either frozen or quick cooking, this went together really fast. There were no leftovers.

Food can be soooo fun!

I saw this, and thought it looked like a lot of fun. I don't do this kind of thing ever, and I really admire those creative women out there that come up with stuff like this.