Adventures in . . . Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

I tried to capture the essence of "fall" in this photo, but it didn't really work out. Oh well, the cupcake looks good!

Let me start out by saying that I hate everything pumpkin. I hate pumpkin pie, I hate pumpkin seeds, I hate anything with the word pumpkin anywhere near it. And, all of that being true, these are the best cupcakes I've made so far. They are so unbelievably delicious and moist. The pumpkin flavor is subtle and tasty.

I've started writing out recipes in a way that I find much more helpful--since I never measure out ingredients beforehand, this way I don't have to keep looking back to the ingredients list. This recipe is from Country Living, but I found a different frosting to pair with it. It makes A LOT of cupcakes. The recipe didn't say how many, and it made 24 regular size ones and 16 minis. I frosted them with a Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting that was pretty good, and then I grated some bittersweet Scharffen Berger Chocolate on top--I know, excessive.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 375. Remove 3 sticks butter, 1 package cream cheese, 5 eggs, and 3/4 C buttermilk from fridge. Line pans.

In large bowl, sift:
2 1/2 C + 2 T flour
1 C + 2 T cocoa
1 T baking powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
2 1/4 t ground cinnamon
3/4 t ground nutmeg

In medium bowl, combine:
3/4 C buttermilk
1 1/2 C pumpkin purée
1 ½ t vanilla

In another large bowl, mix on medium speed:
2 1/4 sticks butter
1 1/2 C dark brown sugar
1 1/2 C sugar

Add 5 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until mixture is smooth and light.

Alternately add the dry mix and the wet mix, blending well after each addition.

Scoop ¼ C batter into each cup. Bake for 22 minutes.

Here's a close-up:


Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
In medium bowl, beat together:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick + 1 T unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 C powdered sugar
1/4 t vanilla
1 t ground cinnamon
1/8 t ground nutmeg

Adventures in . . . Vegan Apricot Almond Cupcakes

Today I tried 2 recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. It is an amazing cookbook, and I can't wait to try every recipe in it. These first two did not dissapoint. They were ready in a flash (no eggs and butter to cream), and they came out perfectly. I was skeptical because the batter was much more liquid-y than that of non-vegan cupcakes, but fear not!

Apricot-Glazed Almond Cupcakes (makes 12)

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tin.
In large bowl, combine:
1/3 C canola oil
3/4 C granulated sugar
1/4 C soy yogurt (sort of yicky, but I tried not to look at it!)
2/3 C almond milk
1 t vanilla extract
2 t almond extract

Sift into that same bowl:
1 C + 2 T all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

Mix until batter is smooth.

Add:
1/3 C almond meal + mix until combined.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full.

Then this is the fun part: "Using a 1/2 t masuring spoon, add apricot preserves to the center of each cupcake. Tap lightly on the preserves to get them mostly level with the cupcake batter." (p. 89)

I baked them for 24 minutes. They will still look very light (they won't get golden), but they were definitely ready.

Apricot Glaze:
Boil 1/3 C apricot preserves and 1 T water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. (This is slightly less apricot preserves than the cookbook recommends, but I think it was all that the cupcakes needed.) Bring to a boil, stirring often. Boil for a minute. Turn the heat off and stir the glaze for another 30 seconds.

I used a flat wooden spoon to apply a small amount of glaze to the tops of the cupcakes, and then I put a layer of slivered almonds on top.

Adventures in . . . Coconut Cupcakes

Ina Garten's Coconut Cupcakes are just perfection. Pictured above in mini form.

Here's the recipe, adapted to make 12 cupcakes + a handful of minis:

Preheat oven to 350. Remove 3 sticks butter, 3 eggs, ½ C buttermilk, and ½ package cream cheese from fridge. Line muffin pans.

Sift:
1 ½ C flour
½ t baking powder
½ t baking soda
¼ t salt

In another bowl:
Beat 1 ½ sticks butter and 1 C sugar on medium speed for 5 minutes.
Reduce speed to low; add 3 eggs, one at a time, scraping sides of bowl after each addition.
Add ¾ t vanilla extract and ¾ t almond extract.
Beat well until blended.

Add dry ingredients alternately with ½ C buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. [dry ingredients, buttermilk, dry ingredients, buttermilk, dry ingredients.] Beat just until blended after each addition.

Add 3 ½ oz coconut, and beat until blended. Scoop into tins. Bake for 25 minutes.

Cream Cheese Icing

Beat:
4 oz (1/2 package) cream cheese, softened
6 T butter, softened
¼ t vanilla extract
1/8 t almond extract

Gradually add:
about 1 2/3 C powdered sugar, sifted

Adventures in . . . Chocolate "Friands"

My new cookbook obsession is "Tartine," from the unbelievable bakery of same name in San Francisco. In the past few days I've made apple-pear galettes and chocolate croissants from it, but by far the best--and easiest--thing I've made has been these mini chocolate cupcakes. They are as easy to make as vegan cupcakes--it's amazing how much time you save when you don't have to cream butter and eggs--and they are as rich and intense as a flourless chocolate cake. I made them in very mini size, and I don't think that one could handle much more than that.


Here's the recipe for the mini cake:

Tartine Chocolate Friands (makes 24 very mini muffins--this is 1/2 of their recipe, which they claimed made 24, but those must be 24 medium-sized muffins)

Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 mini-muffin-cup tins, or butter and flour baking sheets.

Chop 3 oz bittersweet chocolate, and place in medium mixing bowl. (I put it in a giant measuring cup, so that I could pour straight from the cup. If you do this, they become pretty much one-bowl cupcakes, which is sort of fantastic.)

In a small saucepan, melt 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter over medium heat.

While it's melting, combine in a medium bowl:
3/4 C + 1 1/2 t sugar
1/4 C + 1/8 C flour
1 T cornstarch
1/8 t salt

Pour butter over chocolate, and whisk until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture in 3 batches, whisking well after each addition. Add 1 egg and whisk until combined. Then add 1 more egg and whisk just until incorporated.

Fill cups 3/4 full. Bake until cakes start to crack on top--I baked them about 12-13 minutes.


Now, for half of the cupcakes, I just left them as they were and sifted some powdered sugar on top, and they were terrific. I highly recommend this option.

For the other half, I tried to make them look like the ones in the book, and topped them with a chocolate ganache. Then I REALLY tried to make them look like the ones in the book, which had a light brown stripe on them.

I was very annoyed that the book didn't explain what was used to make that stripe, but I experimented by pouring some boiling cream over some heath-bar chunks, and then sticking them in the microwave to melt some more. This didn't really melt the heath bar, but it melted it enough that I could put it in a makeshift pastry bag and squeeze enough out to make the pretty decoration. Anyway, I think this was overkill, and that the plain ones with powdered sugar were perfect as they were. But here's the recipe for that:

Place 2 oz bittersweet chocolate in one bowl, and 2 oz heath bar chunks in another. Bring a little more than a 1/3 C of heavy cream almost to a boil, and pour most of it over the bittersweet chocolate, and some over the heath bar. Whisk the chocolate to form a ganache. Then put the heath bar in the microwave for 30-second increments, stirring or whisking at each interval. Scoop it into a ziplock and trim a teeny hole in one corner, and pipe it in a thin line on the side of a cupcake. Honestly, I don't think it's worth it, but I'm just letting you all know how I did it.