I'm trendy, don't ya know?
Cupcakes have had their moment in the spotlight. And... as if I couldn't achieve anything more trend-following than a batch of phenomenal cupcakes... I went and made MINI cupcakes.
Ok. Fine. Not just cupcakes and their mini-me's, but salted caramel crested cupcakes. Then I sprinkled them with cocoa nibs.
(insert utterances of ecstasy)
Yep. That's how ultra-cool I am. *wink-wink*
(Honestly, if you follow pastry trends, French macarons are really the cutting-edge dessert. More on my adventures in baking those another day.)
These cupcakes bake up easily and are (in my humble opinion) a most-wonderful combination of satisfying crumb and moist cake- not too dense and sticky, but just a bit crumbly... and very, very chocolatey. I think the yogurt & olive oil add nice complexity, without distracting from the intent. Which is ultra-rich, indulgent, chocolate cake in a palm-sized package.
High-five!
makes 1 dozen
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) butter, cubed
4 Tbsp olive oil
3 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/2 c cocoa powder
3/4 c flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c sour cream
Preheat oven to 350degF. Prepare muffin tins with paper cup liners or cooking spray.
Melt butter, oil, chocolate, and cocoa powder in a double boiler, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat.
Combine dry ingredients.
Beat eggs with brown sugar and vanilla. Combine with chocolate mixture. Beat in half of sour cream, then half of flour mixture. Repeat. Mix until just incorporated.
Divide batter evenly amongst the 12 muffin cups. Bake for 15-17 min (or 10-11 min for mini-cupcakes), until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Remove muffins from tins to cool completely. Ice & decorate as desired.
A glimpse of the nearly-finished product:
The recipe for salted caramel swirled into meringue buttercream will have to wait for another day...
0 comments:
Post a Comment