Celebrating with Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes

These cupcakes!  Oh boy...I could say so much about them but basically, they are just ridiculously good!  Cooks Illustrated calls them "ultimate chocolate cupcakes with ganache filling" and I have to agree...they deserve "ultimate" status.  They are really something else!

Because take a look inside...these intensely-chocolate cupcakes not only feature a sturdy, dark, chocolate cupcake base, they have a dollop of chocolate ganache filling baked within them!  Finished with a top-hat of rich chocolate frosting, it is an ultimate chocolate cupcake experience.  

There are not many things I love more than chocolate and I'm pretty picky when it comes to chocolate treats, and I can tell you I was highly impressed and totally smitten with these.  They also brought back a good personal memory, of chocolate cupcakes my husband used to get for us at a bakery in Tribeca called, Umanoff & Parsons, that's been closed now for over 10 years.  Those chocolate cupcakes, which we still think about, live in my mind as the "ultimate" and this version comes very close (because it's hard to dethrone a memory that can no longer be tested)!

Talk about 'better late than never'...it took years for me to finally make these cupcakes!  I remember first seeing them in the magazine and then a post from Brown Eyed Baker cemented them in my mind.  But I have to confess that making cupcakes is not my favorite thing to do.  These cupcakes were a bit of a commitment but you'll be happy and thankful you made the effort when you taste it!

Recently, I finally grabbed a good opportunity to make them...in celebration of this blog's 6th anniversary!  Yes - hard enough as it is to believe - I'm still trying recipes, taking photos, and writing about some of them here in this little corner.  It's been a rewarding hobby and a creative outlet, a happy place where I indulge and make delicious discoveries such as these chocolate cupcakes!  

So let's pop a candle on top of one of these ultimate chocolate cupcakes and celebrate!  To those of you who take the time to visit, leave a comment when you can, I really appreciate your encouragement and kind words!  I don't know how much longer or at what pace this little blog will continue for but I hope I'll stay busy and make tasty discoveries for many years to come.  I can't believe the little treasure trove of recipes I've amassed here that my family and I truly love and enjoy over and over again.  It has been a real treat!

To all my fellow chocoholics out there, roll up your sleeves and tackle these cupcakes. You'll wonder if it's worth the effort and when you're done and finally sit down and take a bite of these deep, dark, rich (not particularly sweet), unabashedly indulgent cupcakes, you will think that "yes, they were totally worth it!"

I made these cupcakes a few weeks ago...on a snow day in mid-March. I thought it would be a good day to tackle (a few) cooking/baking projects.  It made for fuel for the boys' snow-shoveling efforts.  Given the snow and ice we got that day, my husband (who did 99% of the cleanup work) worked off his cupcakes in no time!

So I've been sitting on these cupcakes for a few weeks but that's nothing compared to the years it took me to finally try the recipe.  I'm glad to finally spread the love about them now.  We seriously couldn't get enough of them!

These cupcakes aren't hard to make but there are a few steps involved.  For starters, I recommend some organization/prepping ahead.  When I have a recipe like this one that involves a few steps, I start by figuring out/setting aside what I'll need and chopping the chocolate the day before.  This recipe requires quite a bit of chocolate (11 ounces in total even after I scaled down the frosting a bit) so it's good to get that prepared and set aside, ready to go.

I'm no expert on anything, including making these cupcakes.  But despite that, I enjoy the ability, via this blog, to share my experience with trying out a recipe.  This is a forum where I can share what I learned and "figured out" in a recipe.  I know that sometimes I'll look at a tempting recipe but have questions, and it helps when I read about someone's else experience.

So with regard to this recipe, I had a few questions that held me back from making these cupcakes sooner.  The ganache filling, for one.  You make a basic ganache formula of chocolate and cream and let it chill for "no more than 30 minutes" but what texture should it be, exactly?  I figured it should be firm (not a flowing liquid) but not a solid truffle texture either.  If you make ganache, you know it turns from one state to the other very quickly.  In the end, I dolloped the ganache into my cupcakes in the consistency you see above (after cooling for just about 30 minutes).

Here are my dozen cupcakes out of the oven.  The cupcake batter rises around the ganache filling as it bakes, and the ganache ended up near the bottom.  I imagine that if your ganache filling was a little looser, it might spread more within the cupcake and perhaps stay better suspended.  I was happy to get a clear marking of the ganache filling so I could distinctly enjoy it!

Bread flour gives these cupcakes more sturdiness than using all-purpose flour but alas, they do sink in the center as they cool.  I fantasized and imagined modestly domed cupcakes with a perfect ganache center but the reality (in my experience, at least) is they do sink, making a little well in the center to hold even more frosting!  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  I'll let you decide...

And I'll wrap up with a word on the frosting.  When I originally saw this recipe from Cooks Illustrated, the frosting was a Swiss meringue type that starts with warming egg whites and sugar.  I decided to go with the version posted by Brown Eyed Baker that was far easier and allowed a food processor to do the work (cleanup is on us though).  And boy, is this frosting decadently good!  Yes, there's corn syrup, plenty of butter and sugar, as well as melted chocolate, involved.  Be forewarned and I hope you enjoy every bite like we did!  You'll enjoy it if you like creamy, smooth, dark, and rich truffles.

Believe it or not, I actually scaled down the frosting recipe by 25%.  I still managed to frost my dozen cupcakes quite generously, as you can tell.  Though my husband might not agree with me, you can easily be content with a more modest amount of frosting if you want.  If you plan to pipe the frosting (I used an round open tip for most of them), you'll need more frosting than if you were to simply spread a layer on top with an offset spatula.  I'll leave the decision/discretion to you.  

These are cupcakes truly worthy of a celebration and they were a decadent enterprise. I really adored these chocolate cupcakes more than I thought I would!  I found myself looking forward to my cupcake at the end of the day, until, all too soon, there were no more.

Maybe it's a good thing these cupcakes are a bit of a project to make because they are irresistible and a person can make a habit out of eating one everyday.  I know I'll be feeding off the memory of these knockout chocolate cupcakes for a long time to come...they are that memorable!

Recipe:

Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Filling
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated via Brown Eyed Baker

- For 12 cupcakes - 

For the ganache filling:
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar

For the cupcakes:
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/3 cup (1 ounce) Dutch-processed cocoa powder 
3/4 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
3/4 cup (4 1/8 ounce) bread flour
3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounce) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoon vegetable or canola oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the chocolate frosting:* 
15 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch-processed cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

* This is 3/4 the original frosting recipe and it makes enough to generously frost the dozen cupcakes like I did here.  If you are looking to frost the cupcakes a bit more modestly, here are are the amounts for half the original recipe: 10 tbsp butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 6 tbsp cocoa powder, pinch of salt, 6 tbsp light corn syrup, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 4 ounces melted dark chocolate.

Make ganache filling: Place ingredients in a small bowl and heat in the microwave until mixture is warm to the touch, about 30 seconds.  Whisk until smooth then place bowl in the refrigerator to sit until just chilled, no more than 30 minutes.  (In my experience, you're looking for the mixture to no longer be liquid, to hold some shape but is not yet firm enough to form into truffles.) 

Make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a standard muffin pan with 12 paper liners.  

Place chocolate and cocoa into a medium heatproof bowl and pour the hot coffee on top. Let it sit, covered, for 4-5 minutes, then gently whisk together until smooth. Refrigerate the mixture to cool completely, about 20 minutes.  

Whisk flour, sugar, salt and baking soda together in another bowl.  Remove chocolate mixture from the refrigerator and whisk in the oil, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla.  Add the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 cupcake liners.  Place one slightly rounded teaspoon of ganache on top of each cupcake.  Bake until cupcakes are set and just firm to the touch, about 17-19 minutes.  Let cupcakes sit in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan on to the rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.

Make frosting: Place butter, powdered sugar, cocoa, and salt into the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth, about 30 seconds, scraping the bowl as needed. Add corn syrup and vanilla until just combined, 5-10 seconds.  Scrape the sides of the bowl, add the chocolate and pulse until creamy and smooth, about 10-15 one-second pulses.  

Frost the cupcakes as desired.  Frosted cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.  I stored them in the refrigerator, bringing the cupcakes up to room temperature before serving.  Enjoy the "ultimate" chocolate cupcake!