knitting a life

As you may remember, I spent last week in St. Louis visiting the midwestern branch of my family.  It was the kids’ spring break and all of their friends had high-tailed it for Florida or other points south, so I was hoping to be able to provide some in-house entertainment.

The first part of the week passed swimmingly, but inevitably, there came an afternoon when vacation had obviously gone on long enough and I found myself in the living room trying to pry the children from the doldrums.  After my first ideas were rejected, my niece A suggested we “make something.”

My sister-in-law is a wonderful cook with a huge cookbook collection, so a short while later we were searching through baking books and websites seeking cupcake recipes.  In the end, I turned to my old standby, Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours, and her Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes.

The flavor of these cupcakes is a very grown up deep and rich bittersweet chocolate.  Luckily my niece and nephew are young chocolate connoisseurs.  To make them a bit more kid-friendly I sprinkled theirs with pink-coated mini-chocolate chips.  The few I reserved for adults I topped with my favorite chocolate flavor-enhancer: fleur de sel.

The recipe isn’t complicated, and like all of those in this collection, if you follow it carefully you’ll get perfect results.  I love a well-tested recipe!

Chocolate-chocolate cupcakes
(from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours)

For the cupcakes
1 cup all purpose flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
¾ cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

For the glaze
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces

Center the rack in the over and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  fill each cup in a 12-cup, regular-size muffin tin with paper muffin cups.

Make the cupcakes
Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until it is soft and creamy.

Add the sugar and beat for about 2 minutes, until it is blended into the butter.

Add the egg, then the yolk, beating for about 1 minute after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

Beat in the vanilla, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear.

Scrape down the bowl and add the buttermilk, mixing until incorporated, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients.

Scrape down the bowl, add the melted chocolate and mix it in with the rubber spatula.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 22 to 26 minutes or until the tops of the cupcakes are dry and springy to the touch and a knife inserted into their centers comes out clean. Transfer the muffin pan to a rack and let the cakes cool for 5 minutes before unmolding them.  Cool to room temperature on the rack before glazing.

Make the Glaze
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Transfer the bowl to the counter and let stand for 5 minutes.

Using a small whisk or rubber spatula, stir the confectioners sugar into the chocolate, followed by the pieces of butter.  If the glaze is too thin, stir it over ice water for a few seconds – less than a minute.

Dip the cooled cupcakes into the glaze, giving them a little twirl as you pull them out for nice squiggle of glaze in the center.

Top with sprinkles, or, if you are feeling very grown up, fleur de sel.