Chocolate cupcakes with Nutella icing

I hope you’re all outside enjoying this amazing weather. Hello sunshine! Yay!!!

SD arrived and one of her top requests was to make cupcakes. Usually we make these but I fancied something different (ie: chocolatey) and I remembered some Nutella cupcakes I’d had at a friends a few years ago.

I found this recipe on-line, from an American site, and I think it’s going to be my go-to recipe for chocolate cupcakes. The buns themselves are delicious, but the runaway star of the show is the light-as-a-feather Nutella icing. Thanks to Jen the Beantown Baker for sharing!

Nutella cupcakes

50g of dark chocolate, broken into bits
55g of cocoa powder (I used Nesquik; no, it’s not cocoa, but it worked fine)
230g of fine-ground sugar
115g of soft butter
78ml water
117ml milk
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla
230g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a heatproof bowl, combine the chocolate and cocoa powder.

In a saucepan over medium heat, heat the granulated sugar, butter, and water, stirring occasionally, until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Pour the butter mixture over the chocolate and whisk until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth.

Whisk the milk, egg, extra yolk, and vanilla into the chocolate mixture until combined.

In a bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until blended. Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth.

Let the batter sit at room temperature for 1 hour or cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days. I've now made the cupcakes with and without the resting, and experience shows that it works. Resting made a huge difference to the end result. 

Heat your oven to 180°C. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Jen says to bake the buns for 30 minutes or until the tops spring back when pressed lightly with a fingertip – I found that this took between 20 and 25 minutes, so keep an eye on them. Set on a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

I halved this icing recipe, and happily (and copiously) iced 7 buns with enough left over to ice the other 5. This is the recipe as Jen gives it. Note that I don’t have an icing bag or tube so I spooned the icing on top of the buns, and so didn’t have any waste from the lost bits of icing that always fall on the ground/get trapped in the folds of the bag etc… The leftover icing is currently in the freezer, so I’ll let you know if this is usable as soon as I take it out (probably in a couple of weeks).

Nutella icing

225g of soft butter
190g icing sugar
2 tsp of vanilla extract
125g of dark chocolate, chopped, melted and slightly cooled
100g of Nutella
1 tbsp milk
pinch of salt

In a bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine the icing sugar and butter and beat on low speed for about a minute.

Add the vanilla, and beat on low speed until well combined. Add the melted and slightly cooled chocolate and beat on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Add the Nutella, milk and pinch of salt, and beat on med-high speed for another minute.

The mixture was wonderfully fluffy and light. We decorated the iced buns with some hearts and some m+m’s.

Incidentally, I saw this article in the newspapers. I definitely agree that baking is good for your mental healh. And if you're mad with someone, bake bread (by hand). All that kneading is great therapy.

And in other (non-kitchen) news, I also saw these, and I'm waiting with my eyes on sticks for them to appear in the Belgian shops. 

Christmas is coming! Paul Hollywood's Christmas buns

Christmas is fast approaching and to celebrate the season, I made these Christmas bun’s from Paul Hollywood’s ‘How to Bake’ at the weekend.

Christmas buns

The list of ingredients looks long, but you probably have most of these knocking around your cupboards, or at least some good substitutes.

I ended up making them with wholemeal flour, thanks to some short-sightedness in the supermarket <<must go to Specksavers>>.  The dough was a bit – dense – but this could also be because I baked them in a 20x20cm tin and they didn't have a lot of room to expand in.  They were all eaten pretty quickly.

Dough:

300ml full-fat milk

40g softened butter

500g strong white flour

10g salt

10g instant yeast

1 egg

Filling:

25g melted butter

75g soft brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

100g dried cranberries

100g dried apricots (I am not a fan of apricots so I used 100g of raisons AND 100g of pistachios, so I'd 300g of filling in all instead of 200g. Hey, it's Christmas)

Extras:

75g (or 9 half-teaspoons) apricot jam (I used some rhubarb jam I had in the fridge)

100g icing sugar

1 tablespoon of hot water

the fine zest of a lemon

Warm the milk and the butter in a saucepan until the butter melts and the mixture is lukewarm.

If you haven’t already, wash your hands.  Then, in a large bowl, mix the flour and the salt and then add the yeast. Mix in the milk and the egg with your hands until the dough starts coming together. 

Flour your worktop and tip the dough onto it and knead it until it’s smooth and soft. This should take about 5-10 minutes. If you start getting tired, you’re kneading the dough too intensely, so lay off a little ;-)

Oil the bowl and put the kneaded dough back in. Cover it with clingfilm and leave in a warm place to rise until it’s doubled in size, which should take an hour or two.

When you’re ready to start working again, line your baking tray with some baking paper. As I said, I used a tin which is about 20x20cm, which was too small.

On your floured counter top, shape the dough into a rectangle about 30x20cm – your dough should be about 5mm thick (about the thickness of a coin).  The 30cm side should be nearest you. Stick this side down by pushing the dough into your counter top.

Rolled out Christmas buns dough

Brush the dough with the melted butter, then sprinkle this with the brown sugar, cinnamon and then the dried fruits and nuts.  Leave about 1-2cm clear at the side nearest you – as you roll the dough up, the filling will push in front of the sausage and this gap means that you waste as little filling as possible.

With all the filling - and the 1-2cm gap 

Right, time to roll. Take a deep breath and take the edge of the dough furthest away from you and fold it about 2cm in to start the roll. You have to roll pretty tightly, so don’t be afraid. If the roll is too loose, all the filling falls out. Keep going until you’ve got a sausage shape.

When you’ve got your sausage, divide it into 9 pieces. Place these, cut side up, onto your prepared baking tin, cover with a towel and leave to relax for 30 minutes.

Relaxed dough ready to go into the oven

After your 30 minutes, heat your oven up to 190°C. Bake the buns for 20-25 minutes.

When the buns are done take them out of the oven and put them n a cooling rack. While they are still warm, heat the jam slightly in your microwave and brush the tops of the buns with it. Make your icing by mixing the icing sugar with the water in a cup and trickle this over the buns.

The buns are quite deep – about 5-6cm high, so if you prefer a more Danish pastry sized treat, cut the sausage into more pieces and use a bigger baking tray.

Photos were all taken with my phone, so apologies for the bad quality!

"Low-fat" baking

Over the summer, an extra 3 kilos crept onto the bathroom scales. The time has come to do something about these, before they start getting too settled in and claiming squatters’ rights.

I like a little sweet hit during the day, so I was looking for something low-ish fat that would hit the spot and found these.

Chocolate and cranberry skinny muffins

250g self-raising flour

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

85g brown sugar

85g dried cranberries

25g dark chocolate, chopped

125g tub low-fat Greek yogurt

125ml skimmed milk

3 tbsp of melted butter (the original recipe uses 3 tbsp sunflower oil, but I find that this makes the buns rubbery)

1 egg, lightly beaten

Skinny chocolate and cranberry muffin

Heat oven to 180° Celsius. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and cranberries. I then melted the chocolate and the butter together in the microwave as I thought that this might lesson the chances of the chocolate curdling.

In a jug, stir the yogurt, milk and the egg together. I then mixed the buttery chocolate mixture through this. Make a well in centre of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix to combine. Spoon the mix into the muffin cases and bake for 15-20 mins until risen and firm to the touch.

I’m not sure if these still classify as being low in fat, but they were tasty. For more of a chocolaty hit, substitute some of the flour with some more cocoa. Of the two muffins I baked, these were the most flavoursome and the most satisfying.

Hairy dieters skinny lemon muffins

200g self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

75g golden caster sugar

100g blueberries

the juice of one lemon

2 large eggs

150ml low-fat Greek yogurt

4 tbsp semi-skimmed milk

50g of butter, melted (the original recipe has 50ml sunflower oil)

Skinny lemon muffin mixture

Heat your oven to 200°Celsius and line your muffin tray with bun cases.

Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl and stir in the sugar and blueberries. Make a well in the centre.

In a jug, beat the eggs, and add the yogurt, milk and melted butter with the lemon juice until well combined. Stir into the flour mixture with a large metal spoon until very lightly mixed.

Fill the bun cases with the batter and bake in your oven for 16–18 minutes or until the cupcakes are well risen and golden brown. Transfer them to a wire rack and leave to cool.

You could put some icing on these, but I figured they were sweet enough.

They were not very lemony and the taste wasn’t amazing, but they are enough to get something sweet into your day, so they are useful. 

Apple buns

These just might replace the custard buns as favourites. Might.

250g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

a little allspice or cinnamon or nutmeg or ginger

70g brown sugar

1 egg

150ml milk

85g melted butter

2 peeled and grated apples

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add all the wet ingredients and mix to combine. I’ve heard that the secret to good buns and muffins is to not over-mix the mixture, so really, less is more here.

Spoon into a lined bun tray and cook for 20 minutes at 190°. Cool on a wire rack.

A couple of custrad fairy cakes (pre-icing) and one of the apple muffins

Buns!

A few buns are a great thing to have in your freezer on standby, and everyone seems to love them. A bun is the perfect size for when you want something sweet, but not something as big as a slice of cake. A friend introduced me to this type, made super unctuous through the addition of a little custard powder. Keep a close eye on the timing, as over-cooked, they become dry. I reckon keep them to 12 minutes at 190° and they will finish cooking (dry off???) outside the oven.

140g soft butter

140g vanilla sugar

100g flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

3 eggs

25g custard power

To make them, tip all the ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined. Spoon into a lined bun tin and cook for 12 minutes at 190°.

Remove the buns from the tin and leave to cool. Once cold, you can decorate then if you like with a little icing (combine icing sugar with a few drops of hot water), sprinkles, jam or anything else you have lying around. I guess if you’re so inclined, you could spread a little Nutella over them.

I’ve also added a few dried cranberries to the mixture before spooning them into the tin.