Chocolate Cupcakes

Are you a chocolate or vanilla person?

I know I love chocolate. Chocolate is my kryptonite.

I've tried a ton of chocolate cupcake recipes. And I love chocolate, but that doesn't mean I'm not picky about the chocolate desserts I eat.

Today's recipe is one for the very best chocolate cupcake recipe. Excellent on their own, but even more excellent topped with any kind of frosting.

While experimenting with various recipes, I tried Historias Del Ciervo's chocolate cupcake recipe. His recipe has an interesting touch to it. You add crushed chocolate on top of the cupcakes right before baking, so it melts and caramelises in the oven, giving the cupcakes an additional layer of melted chocolatey goodness.

I've incorporated that technique into this recipe, because it was life-changing. However, feel free to omit it if you don't have enough chocolate or time to chop it.

Ingredient substitutions:

All purpose flour: swap half for wholewheat pastry flour, oat flour, buckwheat flour, quinoa flour or any other grain flours
Butter: swap 1:1 for vegan butter alternatives or more vegetable oil, but at the expense of some flavour.
Egg: I would not recommend swapping the eggs out as they play an important role in maintaining the mouthfeel and texture of these cupcakes.
Sugar: swap white granulated sugar for any other type of sugar (brown sugar, coconut sugar, raw sugar etc). You can try swapping with sugar alternatives such as erythritol, but I personally do not bake with these so I can't promise anything. You would likely have to reduce the amount of sugar as sugar alcohols are usually sweeter.
Chocolate: use any chocolate you like. Dairy-free, vegan, sugar-free. Anything goes. Just know that your cookies are going to taste like the ingredients you put in, so use a brand of chocolate that you like! This recipe works best with 70% chocolate and above, so if you use chocolate with lower cocoa percentages, I'd recommend reducing the sugar a little.
Sour cream: swap 1:1 for lower fat alternatives, or even yogurt

Top tip:

Coffee enhances the flavour of chocolate. Use coffee (or diluted espresso) instead of water for that extra oomph. Or add 1 tsp of ground coffee/instant coffee. Just be careful not to add too much or it might overtake the flavour!

Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe

Adapted from Cupcake Project's The Best Chocolate Cupcakes

Serving size: Makes 16 cupcakes

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature 3/4 cup sugar 2 ounce chocolate (I use Valrhona 66% Caraibe) 2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

9 tablespoons vegetable oil (I use canola) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup sour cream (full-fat or low-fat, both works)

1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup cocoa powder (any brand, natural or ditched)

1/2 cup water room temperature, measured in a liquid measuring cup

50g crushed chocolate (chopped finely or grated)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F or 180˚C. Line your pan with cupcake liners.

2. Mix butter and sugar by hand in a mixing bowl with a whisk, or in a stand mixer until fully combined. The end result should look like wet sand.

3. Melt chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler. (To be honest, I don't own a microwave so I normally melt my chocolate in a small ramekin using my oven. I just stick it in there for a few minutes until barely melted, give it a good stir and let it cool while I prepare my other ingredients.)

4. Let chocolate cool. Once cool, add to butter/sugar mixture and combine.

5. Mix in eggs and egg yolks one at a time until just combined.

6. Mix in oil, vanilla, and sour cream until just combined.

7. Sift dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder into a separate bowl.

8. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in three additions, mixing until just combined after each addition.

9. Mix in water until just combined. Don't over-mix at this point.

10. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full.

11. Sprinkle crushed chocolate over the tops of the cupcakes.

12. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. If they are not done, check again every three minutes until they are done.

Other notes: Cupcake Project's blog post on these cupcakes has wonderful in-depth explanations about cupcake making. Do give it a read through to improve your cupcake mastery.