Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cupcakes

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I do hope that after reading this post, you'll do as I say and not as I do. I was in a rush this morning and trying to get these cupcakes made before we had to leave for the day. I quickly assembled the ingredients and at the last minute discovered that I didn't have paper liners for my muffin pans. We all know what I should have done, but that didn't happen. Rather than dash to the store for the liners, I decided to grease the muffin cups and let it go at that. Big mistake! Half of the cupcakes clung tenaciously to the pan and those that did release looked like the had gone 9 rounds with a young Mohammed Ali. Normally, I would have scrapped the batch, but I started to nibble at the crumbs and they were so delicious I couldn't bear to throw the cupcakes out. These are really good and I know you will enjoy them - if you can get them out of the pan. They are nearly effortless to make and the cupcakes are moist and delicious. Be forewarned that the batter for the muffins will be dense and fudge-like until the zucchini is worked into it. The moisture in the zucchini loosens the batter and makes it more malleable. Be sure to line your pans with paper liners and then spray the liners with a nonstick spray. The muffins are worth the aggravation. I will be making these again. The recipe, which came from Gourmet magazine, appears below.


Chocolate-Chip Zucchini Cupcakes...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Gourmet magazine

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 pound zucchini, coarsely grated (1 cup)
1 (6-ounces) package semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.
2) Whisk together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3) Beat together sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer until thick and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes.
4) At low speed, mix in flour mixture until just incorporated. Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips.
5) Divide batter among lined muffin cups and bake until tops spring back when lightly pressed, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then turn out to cool completely. Yield: 12 servings.

If you have enjoyed your visit here, I hope you'll take a minute to...

      

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Pumpkin Muffins

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...While I'm not usually a contrarian, I decided to make muffins for a Christmas bake sale this week. I was working on the theory that there would be cookies galore and it might be nice to have something less seasonal to sell. I also wanted to test a recipe developed by a chef I truly admire and the sale was a perfect opportunity to do that. I've had Thomas Keller's new book Bouchon Bakery on reserve at the library for a while now and my name finally reached the top of the list. I spent a wonderful evening paging through the book and knew I'd be making these muffins the first chance I got. The bake sale gave me that opportunity. I love recipes like the one I'm featuring tonight. When a recipe calls for 1 cup + 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of flour, you know you're in the company of genius or dealing with a chef with a borderline obsessive-compulsive disorder. Rest assured, Mr. Keller is a genius. He really wants us to measure ingredients by weight rather than volume, but he's a realist and understands that not everyone has scales, so he uses precise volume measures for equivalency.  While pumpkin is an ingredient that we most associate with Thanksgiving, it is available year-round and there is no reason we can't bake with it more often. The Bouchon version of these muffins is baked in Texas-size muffin cups and the frosting is actually piped into, rather than spread over the muffins. That wouldn't work for the bake sale, so I made a couple of small changes to the recipe. I used standard rather than Texas-size muffin cups and that cut baking time in half. I also decided to frost the muffins rather than fill them and that gave me flavor without fuss. I really enjoyed these and I will make them again. They are nicely spiced and the cream cheese icing has a near perfect ratio of cheese to sugar. I hope you will give them a try. Here's the recipe.

Pumpkin Muffins...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite inspired by Thomas Keller

Ingredients:
Batter
1-1/4 cups + 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 + 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons pure canned pumpkin puree or fresh pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1/2 cup + 1/2 tablespoon golden raisins
Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

Directions:
1)Place flour in a medium bowl. Sift in baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice. Add salt and whisk to combine.
2) Combine sugar and oil in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment and mix on low speed for about 1 minute. Add pumpkin, increase speed to medium-low, and mix for about 1 minute, until smooth. Reduce speed to low and add eggs in two additions, mixing for about 15 seconds after each, or until just combined.
3) Add dry ingredients in two additions, mixing on low speed for about 15 seconds after each, or until just combined. Remove bowl from mixer stand and scrape bottom of bowl to incorporate any dry ingredients that may have settled there. Fold in raisins, if using. Transfer batter to a covered container and refrigerate overnight, or for up to 36 hours.
4) When ready to proceed, preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin pan with paper liners and spray the papers with non-stick cooking spray. It is important to spray paper liners.
5) Spoon batter into lined muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.
6) Put pan in oven, lower oven temperature to 325 degrees F., and bake for 25 to 28 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and a skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Set pan on a cooling rack and cool completely.
7) Meanwhile, place cream cheese in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment and mix on low speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl, add sugar, and pulse on lowest speed to combine. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean, add them to mixture, and mix for 2 to 3 minutes, until completely smooth. Frosting can be used at this point or refrigerated for up to 3 days. If it has been refrigerated, let it sit at room temperature until just cool to the touch, then transfer to a mixer fitted with paddle attachment and beat until smooth.
8) When muffins are at room temperature, frost each of them with cream cheese icing and refrigerate briefly to set. Serve at room temperature. Yield: 12 muffins.

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Applesauce Spice Cakes

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This simple recipe makes one of the best applesauce cakes I've ever tasted. The cake was originally featured on Food52 where it was drizzled with a caramel glaze. I prefer to serve it with a butter cream icing or, better still, warm and naked from the oven with a scoop of good ice cream alongside. Because there are usually just two of us to enjoy a cake like this, I make cup cakes rather than a single large bundt. What's not eaten is frozen and saved for another day. The recipe for the cake as it was featured on Food52 can be found here. My abbreviated version appears below. The only change I've made to the original ingredient list is to substitute nutmeg for the allspice. My palate is especially sensitive to allspice and I replace it with nutmeg or mace whenever I can. I hope you'll give this cake a try. It is quick, easy and delicious. I know that those of you who try this will be very pleased.

Applesauce Spice Cakes...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Food52

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1-1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
1) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 10 Texas-size muffin cups. Fill remaining two cups with three tablespoons each water.
2) Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, pepper and spices and set aside. In a large mixing bowl or bowl of a standing mixer, beat eggs with both sugars until light. Mix in applesauce, oil and vanilla until smooth.
3) Using a spatula, fold in dry ingredients, being careful not to over-mix. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 25 to to 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cakes for 10 minutes before turning out. Cakes can be served warm with ice cream or frosted when completely cool. Yield: 10 servings.








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Cherry Cupcakes - Pink Saturday

Photo courtesy of Photobucket - Creative Commons Attribution

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...A bit of chocolate is good for the soul and mine is happy right now. These cupcakes go together quickly and are better for you than most. That's not to say they're better for you than an apple might be, but the folks at Eating Well have managed to reduced the fat and calories and still deliver something you'll enjoy. If you need to take the edge off a sweet tooth, give these a try. I'm happy to report that despite what's been taken from them, enough remains to make these a really nice snack. If you object to the use of food coloring, by all means omit it. It adds nothing but a lovely pink hue to the cupcakes. It is Pink Saturday, so I decided to use it. Here's the recipe.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Eating Well

Ingredients:
Cake
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour (see Note)
3/4 cup cake flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk
1-1/2 cups chopped pitted cherries, fresh or frozen (thawed and drained), plus 12 fresh cherries with stems for garnish
Frosting
6 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese (Neufchâtel), at room temperature
1 /2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 cup packed confectioners’ sugar
Red Food coloring
Milk for thinning

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 (1/2-cup) muffin cups with paper liners.
2) Whisk whole-wheat flour, cake flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
3) Beat granulated sugar and oil in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla until well combined. With mixer on low, alternately mix in dry ingredients and buttermilk, starting and ending with dry ingredients and scraping sides of the bowl as needed, until just combined. Fold in chopped cherries until just combined. Divide batter among prepared cups (they will be full).
4) Bake the cupcakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 22 to 26 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
5) Meanwhile, beat cream cheese, sour cream and confectioners’ sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add a drop or two of red food color to tint icing. Refrigerate frosting until very cold, about 2 hours. Thin with milk if necessary to spread on cooled cupcakes. Garnish with a cherry on top. Yield: 12 cupcakes.

You might also enjoy these recipes:
Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Frosting - One Perfect Bite
Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes - Sugar Plum
Raspberry Cup Cakes - My Kitchen Treasures
Red Velvet Cupcakes - What's for Dinner Across State Lines
Carrot Cupcakes - Christine's Cuisine
Owl Cupcakes - Sinfully Southern Sweets
German Chocolate Cupcakes - Barbara Bakes

This post is being linked to:
Pink Saturday, sponsored by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.