Brownie cupcakes with peppermint filling

Chocolate and mint.  I'm not sure how it all began but it is one of my favorite combinations.  And brownies are among my favorite things on earth.  I pretty much love all things chocolate!

I know it's been out for years but I only recently bought a copy of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.  While I love a chocolate cupcake with ganache frosting, I'm not a huge cupcake fan, mainly because I'm not a frosting - particularly, buttercream - lover (again, unless there's an overwhelming amount of chocolate involved).  But when I last flipped through the book, I couldn't help but notice many recipes I'd love to try eventually.  Plus, I can't go wrong with one of Martha's books.  It's always well organized, reliable, and I love that there's a photo for each recipe.  Ever since Cupcakes came out, I've been waiting for a "Martha Stewart's Cakes" book that has still yet to materialize; I would buy that in a heartbeat!

So from my copy of the Cupcakes book, I made a few brownie cupcakes with peppermint filling.  I love the promise of brownie cupcakes and there's no need for frosting here.  The surprise center is an embedded peppermint patty, which infuses the brownie/cupcake with a strong peppermint flavor. 

It's not quite a surprise filling, I find, since the peppermint patty "leaked" out of most of my cupcakes even though I was pretty careful to follow the instructions on hiding them.  I kind of like the volcanic look to them and really don't mind a little peppermint lava flowing out.  If you make these and get a particularly "runny" batch, maybe we could just rename them "mint lava brownie cupcakes".  You could tidy them up a bit or hide any filling poking out by dusting some cocoa powder over the top.  I think they're fine either way.

I really enjoyed these.  I love the crisp, shiny, crackly, almost hard tops on these brownie cupcakes.  Be careful not to overbake them so that the center is not only minty, thanks to a York peppermint patty, but also fudgy and chocolaty.  The brownie-cupcake batter was so good, I'd even make these plain, without the peppermint patty inside.  Or instead, I'd just add a touch of peppermint extract or almond extract to the batter.  And the thing that really makes this recipe a keeper is that these cupcakes retained their texture, staying moist and fudgy with a crisp top even on its third day!  They're also very easy to make.

The craggy, sunken tops seemed to call out for a scoop of ice cream.  That's probably over the top but I did it anyway.