Chocolate Cupcakes. Peanut Butter Frosting.

I haven't posted in a while because I've been working on my chocolate cupcake recipe (and also S'mores, but they deserve their own post or two...). I've never been completely happy with most chocolate cupcake recipes I find: most have a pleasing crumb but weak flavor or intense flavor but are way too fudge-like and dense for my taste. My fix to this is simple: cooking cocoa, butter, and a liquid together to fully activate the deep chocolate flavor in cocoa without making the cake texture overly dense.

Oh, and there's peanut butter frosting. What can beat that?

Chocolate Cupcakes
yield: 2 dozen cupcakes

1 cup coffee or beer (like Guinness)
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3 tbsp powdered buttermilk, optional*
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

3 extra-large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a pan over medium heat, melt the butter with the beer or coffee. Once melted, add the cocoa and whisk to combine. Continue to heat just until it begins to break; this indicates that the cocoa has been heated sufficiently. Let cool before continuing. And don't worry, the mixture will come back together when mixed with eggs.

Meanwhile, line two cupcake tins with liners and preheat the oven to 350 degrees (325 if you have dark pans like me). Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl, set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs and vanilla together just to combine. Add the cocoa mixture, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Mix until homogeneous. It should only take a minute to come together. Add the dry ingredients gradually, mixing to combine. Again, this should only take a minute.

Divide among the cupcake liners and bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Frost with Peanut Butter Buttercream.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups natural peanut butter
3/4 tsp salt
5 - 6 cups powdered sugar
 6 - 8 tbsp cream

Cream butter, peanut butter, and salt until lightened and homogenous (natural peanut butter may take a minute or two to mix with butter). Add in 3 cups of confectioner's sugar gradually. By the time you've finished, the frosting should be fairly stiff. Add in 4 - 6 tbsp of the cream to lighten it up again.

Add in another cup and a half of confectioner's sugar and taste the frosting. I usually never add more than 5  cups total because the peanut butter flavor comes through better in a slightly less-sweet frosting. Depending on how much more sugar you add in, you may need to add more cream to keep it spreadable. Pipe or frost onto your cupcakes and enjoy!

*Seriously, guys, find powdered buttermilk at your store. It keeps for a very long time in the refrigerator and makes baking on the fly easier because I either find myself with no buttermilk or bad buttermilk because the last time I used it was months ago for another recipe. You mix the powder into your dry goods and add a cup of water (or other liquid if you're adventurous) to your wet goods. Easy!

Cinnamon Browned Butter Cupcakes

...with Cookie Butter Buttercream and Apple Butter Buttercream frostings. I don't think these need much more introduction.

Cinnamon Browned Butter Cupcakes

1 cup butter, divided

2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup dark brown sugar

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

Prep:
Before getting started, brown the butter and cool it. Place 1/2 cup of the butter in a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. Stir the butter constantly to ensure even browning (a silicone spatula works wonders here). When the milk solids reach an even amber color, pour the browned butter into a bowl to cool completely. The total process typically takes me about 8 minutes. This can be made well in advance and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before continuing.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 if using dark pans) and line two cupcake tins with 24 liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Process:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and browned butter until smooth and creamy. Add the sugars and cream until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium-high speed.

Add the eggs to the butter-sugar mixture, one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add in the vanilla and mix. The mixture may look curdled at this point; don't let that bother you.

Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, until everything is incorporated. Scrape down the bowl of the mixer as needed.

Divide the batter between the cupcake liners and bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Because of the darkness of the batter, these don't appear to brown too much.

Cookie Butter Buttercream

1/3 cup cookie butter
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioner's sugar
3-4 tbsp cream

Cream the butter and cookie butter until light and fluffy. Add in 1 cup of the confectioner's sugar. The mixture will be stiff. Add in 3 tbsp of the cream to lighten. Add in enough of the remaining confectioner's sugar to meet your sweetness/consistency desires. I wound up using about 1 3/4 cups in total.  Frost 12 of the cupcakes with this mixture. I then topped the cupcakes with a sprinkling of gold sanding sugar and cinnamon.

Apple Butter Buttercream

1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tbsp apple butter, plus extra for filling
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups confectioner's sugar

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add in the apple butter and cinnamon. Mix to combine. Add in the confectioner's sugar gradually until desired consistency and sweetness are reached. Again, I used about 1 3/4 cups sugar, but I tend to like frosting less sweet than some. Frost a ring of frosting around the outside of the 12 remaining cupcakes. Fill the center with a dollop of apple butter.

I've noticed myself moving away from filling cupcakes. While not every cupcake needs to be filled, the apple butter adds excellent flavor and texture to the apple butter frosted cupcakes. But of course, it's completely optional.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Chocolate and salted caramel is no new combination. However, I feel like I am forever on a quest for the perfect chocolate cupcake.

A popular method of chocolate cupcake making is the "Hershey's" method that involves the use of only cocoa in the cake and the application of water or coffee to make a thin batter. The result is deep cocoa flavor and an overall light cupcake. However, this was not the type of cupcake I wanted to pair with salted caramel frosting.

This recipe produces a denser, fudgey cake. It is not quite "brownie-like" in it's texture, but it gets close. This is the sort of cake that requires a glass of milk along side it. If nothing else, the salted caramel sauce and the resulting frosting are perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Chocolate Cupcakes
yield: 24 cupcakes


1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled

4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (or 325 if using dark pans). Line 24 cupcake tins with paper liners.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes at medium speed. Add in the melted chocolate chips and cream until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Add to the butter mixture and cream until homogenous.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients to the batter. The resulting batter will be quite thick, sticky, and gloppy. Divide the batter among the cupcake tins. Bake at 350 for 15 - 18 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.*

*I will likely revisit this recipe in the future. I think a little buttermilk, and maybe reducing the cocoa powder, could go a long way towards making the batter more manageable and the end result chocolatey without being overly dense.


Brown Butter Salted Caramel Sauce
yield: about a cup of caramel

2 tbsp of butter

1 cup of sugar
1/4 cup water

1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp sour cream
1/2 tsp finely ground sea salt

Begin by browning the butter in a saucepan. Set aside to cool. In the same pan (if you're bold and confident in your caramel-making abilities) place the sugar and water and bring to a boil, stirring only until the sugar dissolves. Swirl the pan intermittently to prevent scorching and encourage even browning. After about 6-7 minutes at a steady boil, the mixture should be golden. Continue to boil for another minute or two until the mixture is a deep amber. Deep amber is the goal regardless of how long it may take to get there.

Remove from heat. Add in the cream all at once. The mixture will spit and sputter; just whisk it until it calms down. Add in the sour cream, salt, and reserved brown butter. Whisk to combine. Cool the mixture before making the frosting. This can be done in the refrigerator, whisking regularly, in about an hour. Otherwise, make the caramel the night before and let it cool overnight.


Salted Caramel Frosting

1 cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup caramel sauce
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

3 - 4 cups confectioner's sugar

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until light and whipped. Add in the caramel, beating slowly at first until incorporated. Increase speed to whip the butter-caramel mixture until light. Add in the vanilla and salt with the first cup of confectioner's sugar. Beat slowly, then increase speed to whip the frosting. Add in two more cups of confectioner's sugar slowly at first, then whipping.

After you've added in 3 cups of the sugar, taste the frosting for sweetness. A buttery taste in a caramel frosting can be quite pleasant if you prefer a less-sweet frosting. Add in as much more sugar as necessary to meet your taste (I added in another 1/2 cup). Finish the frosting by scraping the bowl well and beating at medium speed for at least one minute to lighten and whip.

Frost cupcakes. Drizzle remaining 1/4 cup of caramel over the cupcakes. Sprinkle with sea salt. Enjoy!

Lavender Vanilla Cupcakes

Taking a cue from the lavender vanilla macarons from a couple posts ago, I decided to translate this flavor combination into a cupcake. I honestly did not find too many recipes for lavender frosting out there, so I was wary at first. Two primary ways to infuse the lavender flavor involved soaking lavender buds in milk or using an extract made from lavender buds soaked in vodka. My traditional vanilla frosting recipe uses cream, so I decided to use that as a way to convey lavender. Soaking the buds overnight gave a very pleasant flavor that worked out just right in the frosting.

Lavender Cream

1 tbsp dried lavender buds
4 tbsp heavy cream

Combine the buds and cream in a small bowl, stirring to fully submerge the lavender. Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours, though longer won't hurt.

Vanilla Cupcakes
yield: about 18-20 cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar

3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla

2/3 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, 325 if using dark pans. Line cupcake tin with 24 liners.

In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes on medium speed. With the mixer running on low speed, add in the eggs one at a time, waiting for each to be incorporated before adding in the next. Finally, add in the vanilla. Make sure to scrape down the bowl regularly. The mixture may look curdled, but that's not a concern.

Add in the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, scraping down the bowl as needed.

Divide the batter amongst the cupcake liners (about 1/4 cup batter per cupcake) and bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Lavender Frosting

1 cup butter, softened
3 1/2 - 4 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
1/2 tbsp vanilla
4 tbsp lavender cream

Cream the butter in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add in the confectioner's sugar gradually, mixing and scraping the bowl as necessary. After half of the confectioner's sugar is added in, add the vanilla and half of the cream. Mix well. Add in the rest of the confectioner's sugar, reserving about a 1/2 cup. Add in the remaining lavender cream, mix well, and test the frosting for sweetness and spreadability. If necessary, add in the remaining sugar. Otherwise, omit it.*

*This seems like a strange process, but this is how I always make a light and fluffy frosting. I hate frostings that are too sweet, but confectioner's sugar is necessary to make the frosting spreadable. My "add a little cream then a little sugar" testing method, along with omitting the final 1/2 cup helps me to get the frosting just the way I like it.

Compost Cupcakes

While I'm very proud of my own recipes, I can't help but get ideas from elsewhere at times. These cupcakes come courtesy of The Pink Patisserie. I have made only slight modifications to the recipe. I removed chocolate chips from the batter in favor of chopped chocolate, recommend different beer, and have adjusted amounts so that the recipe yields an even 2 dozen cupcakes. I could check out the original recipe though. It is inspired.

Compost Cupcakes
yield: 2 dozen cupcakes

8oz brown ale (or other darker beer)
1 cup butter

2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tbsp finely ground coffee

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream

1/3 cup each quick oats, crushed plain potato chips, finely chopped chocolate crumbled cake or cake donut, shredded coconut*

In a medium saucepan set over medium temperature, heat the ale and butter until the butter is melted. Once the butter melts, add the cocoa and coffee, whisking to dissolve. Let it cool for about 30 minutes.

In the mean time, preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 if using dark pans). Line cupcake tins with 24 cupcake liners. In a large bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs and sour cream until homogenous. With the mixer running on low, slowly pour in the beer/butter mixture in a steady stream until incorporated. Gradually add in the dry ingredients (either in 3 separate additions or gradually with the mixer on low). Finally, fold in the odds and ends, everything from the oats to the coconut.

Pour roughly 1/4 cup batter into each cupcake liner. Bake for 17-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to rack to cool completely. Frost with vanilla frosting.


*This is the general mixture I use when I make these cupcakes. I highly recommend trying out other odds and ends. Crumbled pretzels would work great in place of chips, for example.

Vanilla Frosting

1 cup salted butter, softened
3 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
4 - 5 tbsp heavy cream

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add in 2-3 cups of the confectioner's sugar. Add in the vanilla and half the cream. Add in the remaining confectioner's sugar. Add cream until you've reached a spreadable consistency.

Garnish

An incredibly tasty way to garnish these guys is to pulse some coffee, potato chips, and coconut in a small food processor or coffee grinder. You wind up getting a powdery garnish that tastes like the cupcake filling and looks a bit compost-y. I suppose it depends how you want the cupcakes to look though.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know, I know: how much more basic can you get? But these are my basic chocolate chip cookies. You will not find pecans here. However, you will find browned butter and smoked sea salt. So while these might be basic, they are certainly not boring.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
yield: about 16 rather large cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cornstarch

3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 tbsp vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips
sea salt or smoked sea salt (optional, but recommended)

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cornstarch.

In a pan over medium heat, brown the butter. Here's a helpful how-to if browning butter is new for you. Pour the browned butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and let it cool for 15 minutes or more. Add the sugars and mix until a wet sandy mixture forms. Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, beating for 30 seconds to a minute on medium speed until creamy and the mixture is lightener in color. With the mixer running on low speed, add the dry ingredients gradually until combined. The dough should be stiff. Finally, add in the chocolate chips. Scoop dough into about 16 balls and sprinkle with sea salt. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Drop chilled dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake cookies for 15-17 minutes until barely browned around the edges and still a little puffy in the center.

Alternatively, once the dough balls have chilled for an hour or so, wrap them in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and freeze them. When ready to bake, place desired number of cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place sheet in the oven and set to 325 degrees F (don't preheat the oven - the gradual warming helps to thaw the dough). Bake for 21 - 24 minutes. Enjoy!

Macaron Flavors

As the holidays approach and I fill macaron orders for friends and family, my thoughts have turned towards flavoring macarons. Initially, I came across a few blog posts that focus on the filling. Flavoring the shell usually requires adding liquid, which can damage the meringue and/or effect the end result. I even started not using any flavoring at all until my shells turned out right.

But since I've gotten more comfortable with these confections, I've branched out into flavoring both the shell and the filling. These are basically just notes and ideas that I've tried.

Lavender Macarons with Vanilla Buttercream

Fresh and Dried Herbs

Herbs are a great way to flavor a macaron shell. You never end up adding a large quantity, so you get a lot of bang for your buck. Not adding much (and the fact that herbs are basically dry) also means not affecting the consistency of the batter. These are a great place to start experimenting with flavors.

Lavender Macaron with Vanilla Buttercream Filling 

• Add 1 1/2 tbsp dried lavender to 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Process in a food processor or use a mortar and pestle until the lavender is ground and the sugar is fine. Sift if larger bits remain before using in the recipe.
• Replace the 1/4 cup superfine sugar called for in the recipe with the flavored sugar
• Fill with your favorite vanilla buttercream:

Vanilla Buttercream

1/4 cup salted butter, softened

1 cup confectioner's sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 - 2 tbsp heavy cream

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add in the confectioner's sugar to make a stiff frosting. Add in the vanilla and half the cream to loosen frosting. If needed, add more cream to attain desired consistency.

Citrus Zests

Much like herbs, zest of lemon, orange, and lime are an easy way to pack your macaron shells with a ton of flavor without changing them much. Mixing in the zest and the sugar can cause the meringue to deflate (as it just did for me when I tried to make lime macarons). Folding in some zest 1/2 - 1 tbsp after the meringue is complete but before the almond flour mixture is incorporated is the best way to add zest.

I'm still figuring out the best fillings for these, so I'll just provide some warnings based on my experiences: jams and curds, on their own, can soften the macarons because of their liquid content. Additionally, jams aren't usually tart enough to offset the sweet shell. I've tried a citrus buttercream, and it kind of worked, but I'm still figuring this out.

Spices

Spices can be added to the meringue along with the sugar with reckless abandon. 2 tsp of cinnamon or 1/2 tsp of nutmeg (or both) won't do anything to damage the meringue, but they will definitely add a lot of flavor.

Cinnamon Macarons with Browned Butter Buttercream

Cocoa and Coffee

For my first attempt with cocoa macarons I recall the Angel Food Cake rule I learned in high school home economics (believe it or not). To make a chocolate Angel Food Cake, you simply add 1/2 cup of cocoa but remove 1/2 cup of flour to compensate. I took the same tactic here and had some success:

In my macaron recipe, use a scant cup (just under a cup) of powdered sugar and and add in 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder (do this before blending the powdered sugar and almond flour together, obviously). Blend the cocoa, almond meal, and powdered sugar together and continue with the recipe as normal.

Coffee can be a bit trickier. There are coffee extracts out there and instant coffee, not to mention coffee liqueurs. Personally, I use instant espresso (1 1/2 tsp dissolved in 1 1/2 tsp vanilla) to make a strong coffee flavoring.

Naturally, coffee and cocoa do go well together, so I've used both of these techniques at once. I think the extra cocoa helps to cancel out any liquidity provided by the coffee.

Cocoa Macarons with Chocolate Buttercream  (though a chocolate ganache would have been better)