Coffee Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes, Part 1
Cakey or fudgy? That's always a question when it comes to chocolate, right? And each side has its many embattlements, its many defenders.
If you've read enough of this blog, you know I'm all about the crunch. So you might think I was a cakey kind of guy: the little edges that have a bit of crunch.
Except no, I'm all about the fudgy, moist consistency. Which could explain my devotion to thick, rich chocolate pudding. Or these cupcakes. Today, we're going to make them. Tomorrow, we'll frost them.
So off to it!
First, position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Line sixteen standard muffin tin indentations (probably from two tins) with cupcake liners--or lightly grease those indentations, probably with some vegetable oil on a crumbled piece of paper towel.
Don't have two muffin tins? After baking the first batch of muffins, you'll need to let the tin cool completely, about 30 minutes at room temperature, before you use the rest of the batter.
Next, you've got to get together your three separate ingredients. To start, melt 1/4 pound unsweetened chocolate (sometimes called baking chocolate) in the top half of a double boiler set over about an inch of barely simmering water or in a heat-safe mixing bowl set over a saucepan with a similar amount of simmering water underneath. In the latter case, the bowl cannot touch the simmering water.
You can do this task in the microwave with this advice: run the machine on high in small bursts, no more than 12 seconds each. When half the chocolate has melted in the bowl, remove it and continue stirring until all the chocolate melts. If you don't, some of the chocolate can superheat, singe, and turn bitter around the inside rim of the bowl.
In a second bowl, whisk 2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Set aside.
Finally, whisk 1 cup strong, brewed coffee (preferably espresso) with 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, and 2 large eggs in a third bowl until creamy.
Whisk the melted chocolate and the sugar-and-flour mixture into the coffee mixture until there are no white streaks of flour or distinct lumps. Don't go nuts--too much whisking can elongate the wheat glutens and produce tough cupcakes--but do make sure you get all the flour dissolved, even the stuff down in the bowl's bottom corners.
Divide this mixture among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake until a cake tester or a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then remove them and continue cooling them on the wire rack until they're at room temperature, about 1 hour.
What's next? The frosting, of course! Check it out here.
Mark Scarbrough | Posted on Monday, April 5, 2010 at 10:05AM | in Cake, Chocolate, Desserts, Fabulously Empty Calories
Reader Comments (10)
good heaven above, i have to make this today. except i have to wait for that frosting, and i only have bittersweet chocolate in the house. any way i can adapt the sugar quantity to accomodate that?
p.sp.: used the filling from your fig cookies in a babka. that stuff is good, eventhough i had to adapt to what i had - only black mission figs, golden raisins, and about 4 oz dried apricots to make up for less figs. and grand marnier instead of brandy. it's not the most inspired idea i ever had, because the filling is on the heavy side, so i had some air pockets in the dough, but it was tasty!! what can i say, it had to be tried! next time i'll stick to your biscotti approach!
Dana: I'm afraid you need the unsweetened. Otherwise, the baking formula will go off. Sorry to be the bearer of that bad news. But the good news is, you can hold for the frosting and make the whole thing at once. (And just wait for that frosting!)
I love that fig filling--and I tried to get Bruce to put it in a babka! Ha! That's so funny. He insists on the old cinnamon route. But still. . . .
M.
I was just about to ask about that. Baking chocolate, aka unsweetened chocolate, appears to be a completely American thing - we don't have anything like it here in Oz, nor do they have it in the UK I believe. The closest we can get easily is an 85% cacao bar by Lindt, but most dark chocolate is 70% or lower. When I bake US recipes that call for unsweetened, I usually sub 70% - not at all because I want to mess with the recipes, but because we don't have any option here. I'm guessing there's no way this would work with unsweetened cocoa?
Thanks, Celia
Cocoa wouldn't do at all, Celia. I did a little research among Aussies with your same complaint and I found this:
"Anyway, you can get excellent unsweetened bakers chocolate in 5kg blocks for $75 from Jimele Distribution in Slacks Creek in Brisbane."
Or there's this: http://www.tava.com.au
Do either of those make any sense?
M.
(And I ask you: where you do get service like this on a blog?!?!?)
Dear Mark, nowhere else does one get service like this on a blog! Hehehe...
Forgive me if my unwavering loyalty to your recipes doesn't extend to shipping 5kg blocks of an unknown brand of unsweetened chocolate from another state. But I will keep hunting for a small scale alternative. :)
Celia
Ha! Nor should you. But I thought perhaps if someone is doing it in Australia, maybe others are--like on that tava website.
That all said, you can try to substitute the highest cocoa solid chocolate you can find--but there will still be subtle differences, based on the increased fat (often more cocoa butter in those bars) and sugar.
M.
Fudgey is always the answer! That frosting looks amazing.
I'm so happy to have stumbled upon this blog! I lost a chocolate cupcake recipe that I absolutely loved which lead me to google the ingredients in hopes of finding a similar formula. This sounds like what I'm looking for, except for the oil...The recipe I used had melted butter instead of oil. Could I substitute the 1/2c vegetable oil for 1/2c melted butter or will that mess the formula up? Either way I'm happy to have found this.
Belinda: In theory you can--but we haven't tried it, in all honesty. However, neither Bruce nor I can think of a reason not to. Let us know how it turns out!
M.
So, I tried this formula substituting the oil for melted butter ( I added 2 Tbsp more) and it came out beautifully. The crumb was moist and delicate, absolutely perfect. Thank you for posting this recipe.