7 ingredient, super simple Chocolate-Marshmallow cupcakes (And homemade pizza)!

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I hope your holidays were great!  Now, to business. :)  Today I made Chocolate-Marshmallow cupcakes, and homemade pizza!  Let's start with the cupcakes...  My friend sent me this recipe to make, and when I looked at the ingredients to start making a grocery list, I realized that I had all the ingredients, and they are all items that people typically have on hand!  It was the icing on the cupcake (pun intended!) :)  These cupcakes are absolutely DELICIOUS, and really easy to make!  Definitely going to become a go-to dessert!  I'm planning on trying variations; Nutella, caramels, Rolos, etc **.  We'll see how it goes!   I think mini marshmallows would work better than the regular sized ones, because I had to cut my marshmallows in smaller pieces to fit.  But these cupcakes are amazing, trust me!

**Update on different insides:  I made another batch a few days later, this time half with Nutella, and half with a caramel inside and sea salt on top.  It was amazing!  But for the caramels, make sure to either eat them all warm out of the oven, or pop it in the microwave.  The caramel hardens as the cupcake cools.  I must say, I liked the variations better than the original!

Melt the chocolate and butter (it's okay if it looks a little weird, don't worry!)

Finished!  The recipe made six, but they got eaten before I remembered to take the picture!

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)
• 1/4 cup (1/8 lb.) butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar (since my chocolate was sweeter, I did a skimpy 1/3 cup)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• mini marshmallows

Preparation

1.  In a small saucepan over very low heat, stir chocolate chips and butter until melted and smooth. Pour into a bowl and whisk in granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla until well blended. Stir in flour.
2.  Spray ramekins with nonstick cooking spray (or butter and flour them).  Fill six ramekins (1/2-cup capacity*) about halfway. Press a couple marshmallows into the center of the batter in each ramekin. Spoon remaining batter equally over marshmallows, completely covering.
3.  Bake in the center of a 350° regular or 325° convection oven until tops are puffed up and crackly, 13 to 17 minutes. Let cool about 10 minutes, then run a knife along inside of ramekins and invert to release cakes. Place right side up on plates.

* If you don't have ramekins, you can use muffin pans (about 1/2-cup capacity, but mine were about 1/3 cup capacity, so I just poured less in, and it turned out fine!!).

These were supposed to be Molten, but my marshmallow dissolved.  I could still taste it a little, and it gave it a great, moist texture!  Either way, I LOVED these!  Hope you do too!


 Next was the pizza!  I decided to make my own pizza dough, using our bread machine!  It did take a while, but it was delicious!  Since I love my meat, I made a BBQ chicken and bacon pizza!

Before the oven...

Perfection!!

Homemade Pizza Dough, Bread Machine (I got the recipe from Allrecipes)

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup water
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp white sugar
• 1 Tbsp dry milk powder
• 2 1/4 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp dry active yeast

Directions

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough cycle; press Start.
2. Remove dough from pan after rise cycle and use for your favorite pizza recipe.

 My dough took about 2 1/2 hours in the bread machine, but the machines differ.  The recipe made 1 big pizza, and it had a thick crust!  My pizza took about 10-15 minutes to cook, at 400* F.

Hope you are having a great year so far!  Keep cooking!