Monday, December 7, 2009

Chocolate Spice Cupcakes

Once a week, we have a meeting at work where we discuss cases as well as any office business. It usually lasts about an hour, and we have discovered it goes faster if there is food. This week, I brought these cupcakes.

There was no special reason I decided to make these cupcakes. Except that it only made 12, which made it a perfect recipe to take to work. According to the cookbook, Martha's most popular recipes are those that combine chocolate and spice. These also have molasses, which I have never used for baking, but now own.

These made for a good cold weather recipe. And I have decided it's pretty hard to go wrong when you cover anything in chocolate ganache.

They also call for crystallized ginger. It's got a bit of a kick to it. Of course, I associate the flavor of ginger with Japanese cooking, so it makes me think of sushi. I hope that doesn't ruin crystallized ginger for anyone.

Chocolate-Spice Cupcakes (makes 12)

5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for tin
1/4 c. Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder, plus more for tin
1 tsp. baking soda
2/3 c. boiling water
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 c. packed dark-brown sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2/3 c. unsulfured molasses
candied ginger, finely diced, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350. Brush a standard muffin tin with butter, dust with cocoa powder, tapping out excess. Stir baking soda into the boiling water. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg. Add molasses and baking soda mixture, and beat until combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add flour mixture, and beat until well combined (batter will look lumpy).

Divide batter evenly among prepared cups. Bake about 20 minutes. Let tin cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert the cupcakes onto the rack and let cool completely. To finish, spoon glaze over cupcakes. Garnish with candied ginger before serving.

As you can see from this photo, I did not butter the pans as well as I should have, and some of the cupcakes stuck to the pan. Fortunately, when they were covered with the glaze, no one could tell.

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