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Last night it was cold. Our heater is not working, so I decided running the oven would at least keep warm while I was in the kitchen. But after midnight, options are limited to what I have on hand for baking. I first contemplated making coconut macaroons but we still have tons of cookies form when Mike's parents visited. Plus I wanted something just a bit sweeter.
From Whole Foods I had a 32 ounce jar of dark sweet pitted cherries and some rich European style butter. I also had a package of my absolute favorite type of baking chip - Akoma Extra Semisweet Baking Chip from Guittard. They are 55% cocoa, and Fair Trade certified from West Africa. The flavor is deeper, more complex than other chips I've tried. Chocolate and cherries - perfect. I only had eleven cupcake wrappers but that wasn't going to stop me. It just meant I might have some leftover cake batter to lick out of the bowl.
Chocolate Cherry Filled Cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
9 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
14-16 ounces of cherries
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line the cupcake pan. Drain the cherries and save the juice in a cup or bowl.
Melt the chocolate chips and butter together. This can be done on the stove top, or in the microwave on low heat in thirty second intervals. Keep stirring until smooth. Beat in the sugar, vanilla and eggs until glossy. Stir in the flour until just mixed - you don't want to keep pounding away at the batter.
Put a spoon full of batter in each cupcake wrapper. Then drop in about ten chocolate chips and three cherries. Cover them up with the remaining batter and toss them in the oven. I cooked these for about twenty minutes, until the tops appeared to be puffy and cracking. They can go as long as twenty five minutes, but it is better to under cook than overcook with these cupcakes.
The cake has a nice crumb, not too moist and not too dry and with a good density to have some chew without being like glue. The best part is the chocolate chips that melt around the cherries and into the cake. It is a truffle like center.
They will appear like these:
Let the cupcakes cool completely if you want to frost them.
I love frosting, so I made a quick one with some of the liquid from the cherries, butter and powdered sugar. Essentially I beat a stick of butter with about two cups of powdered sugar and about a cup of the cherry liquid. It's about the simplest, sweetest buttercream type frosting there is - your capacity for sugar may vary.
After frosting and more cherries, they look like this!
Nom nom nom! I ate one for breakfast.
From Whole Foods I had a 32 ounce jar of dark sweet pitted cherries and some rich European style butter. I also had a package of my absolute favorite type of baking chip - Akoma Extra Semisweet Baking Chip from Guittard. They are 55% cocoa, and Fair Trade certified from West Africa. The flavor is deeper, more complex than other chips I've tried. Chocolate and cherries - perfect. I only had eleven cupcake wrappers but that wasn't going to stop me. It just meant I might have some leftover cake batter to lick out of the bowl.
Chocolate Cherry Filled Cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
9 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
14-16 ounces of cherries
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line the cupcake pan. Drain the cherries and save the juice in a cup or bowl.
Melt the chocolate chips and butter together. This can be done on the stove top, or in the microwave on low heat in thirty second intervals. Keep stirring until smooth. Beat in the sugar, vanilla and eggs until glossy. Stir in the flour until just mixed - you don't want to keep pounding away at the batter.
Put a spoon full of batter in each cupcake wrapper. Then drop in about ten chocolate chips and three cherries. Cover them up with the remaining batter and toss them in the oven. I cooked these for about twenty minutes, until the tops appeared to be puffy and cracking. They can go as long as twenty five minutes, but it is better to under cook than overcook with these cupcakes.
The cake has a nice crumb, not too moist and not too dry and with a good density to have some chew without being like glue. The best part is the chocolate chips that melt around the cherries and into the cake. It is a truffle like center.
They will appear like these:
Let the cupcakes cool completely if you want to frost them.
I love frosting, so I made a quick one with some of the liquid from the cherries, butter and powdered sugar. Essentially I beat a stick of butter with about two cups of powdered sugar and about a cup of the cherry liquid. It's about the simplest, sweetest buttercream type frosting there is - your capacity for sugar may vary.
After frosting and more cherries, they look like this!
Nom nom nom! I ate one for breakfast.