Thursday, December 27, 2012

Dark-Chocolate Cupcakes

I found this cupcake recipe in the Wall Street Journal just after Hostess closed down. I'm not a fan of Twinkies, but those cupcakes are another story. My daughter likes them too, and requested them for her birthday--without the filling.

Below is the recipe as I made it. The original is linked above, if you want to know how to make the white-chocolate mousse filling. We thought these were rich enough all on their own.

The original recipe called for preparing "a 12-cup muffin pan." That made me think that the recipe would yield 12 cupcakes. The amounts of ingredients seemed awfully high for only a dozen cupcakes, so I wasn't too surprised when I had to pull out extra muffins pans--not once, but twice. I got 3 dozen cupcakes from this recipe, and since I'd accidentally overfilled some of the muffin cups, the yield would probably be closer to 3 1/2 dozen.

DARK CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
(makes about 3 dozen cupcakes)

CAKE:
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 TBL baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
4 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups strong brewed coffee, warm
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 TBL butter, melted

GLAZE:
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp butter

Preheat oven to 325. Whisk together sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt & cocoa into a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together eggs & egg yolks, buttermilk, coffee and vanilla. Slowly add egg mixture to dry ingredients, whisking together. Add butter and stir until just combined.

Prepare muffin tins with liners or grease muffin cups. Fill each cup halfway with batter. Do not fill more than halfway or things will get messy. Bake until cooked through, 18 to 20 minutes. (Mine took 22.)

Allow to cool to room temperature before glazing.

In a small pot, bring cream to a simmer. Place chocolate, salt and butter in a bowl. Pour in simmering cream and allow to sit 1 minute. Whisk until smooth. (I had to microwave the mixture for 20 seconds to melt the last of the chocolate bits.)

Dip tops of cupcakes in glaze and place on tray. Top as desired.


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