3.22.16
I had to go for the pun in the title right? Like it’s food blogger blasphemy if I don’t, do they take away my card?
Welcome back to your regularly scheduled chocolate program. I was all ready to give you a week of chocolate stuff and then boom it’s pie day! So it threw me off track, and everything last week had to change. But now chocolate is back to reclaim the week I took away from it. And we’re starting with S’more Cupcakes.
So where did s’mores come from? Well technically no one knows exactly where they started. But apparently the first recorded recipe appeared in the Girl Scout Handbook in the 1920’s. And their name was derived from the exact reason everyone would think, that once someone tried it, they wanted ‘some more,’ which was the original name – ‘Some Mores.’ The contracted name didn’t appear until the 60’s. [Thanks internet for a lovely history lesson!]
I love s’mores and campfires and things that make me think of summer and camping and being a kid. I don’t think I’ve really camped since I was in Girl Scouts, and the bonfires I’ve been around as an adult have sadly not involved s’mores. So this is a chance to make up for lost time, to make some cupcakes that take you back to childhood. It’s even more fun if you have a mini torch (like me) and get to toast the marshmallows yourself. It may not be a fire pit in your apartment, but it’ll do for now.
For the Cupcakes
If you wanted more of a melty middle, I’d melt chocolate separately, then core out the center of the cupcakes and fill before topping with marshmallow to melt. I liked biting into the cupcake with that soft piece of chocolate.
And maybe to you it seems obvious, but be careful of the paper when hand torching these!!!! It didn’t even occur to me and on a couple of them I had to do a quick extinguish of a flame that had caught the cupcake liner. Only you can prevent cake liner forest fires.
These cupcakes were quite the hit at my job, and there’s something about the gooeyness of the marshmallow that is so fun. It really does make you feel like a kid again. My chocolate week continues, onward!
S’Mores Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup graham crackers, broken up
- 12-14 pieces of chocolate
- 12-14 marshmallows
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin pan with liners
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt, set aside
- In a small saucepan, bring 1/2 cup water to boil
- In a stand up mixer with paddle attachment, combine canola oil, and sugars
- Add in eggs, yolk and vanilla one by one, allowing each to be combined before adding the next
- Alternate adding in dry mixture and sour cream, on slow speed, ending with dry mixture
- Pour in hot water, this will significantly thin out batter
- Gently fold in graham cracker pieces, either on stir setting with mixer for about 10 seconds, or by hand with a spatula
- Fill liners 3/4 way with batter
- Take one chocolate piece per cupcake and push down into the center of the batter
- Bake for 15 minutes, until tester comes out of the middle clean
- Allow to cool slightly, then move to wire rack
- Once cool enough to handle, place cupcakes on cookie sheet and top each with marshmallow
- Carefully place back in the oven for 2-3 minutes, marshmallows should become very soft, almost melting
- Remove sheet from oven and gently press down on each marshmallow to flatten on top of cupcake
- Use a baking torch to scorch the tops of each marshmallow by hand, or turn on broiler in oven and place back under broiler for 1-2 minutes. Keeping a careful eye, they burn quickly
P.S.
*This recipe makes 12-14 cupcakes, depending on how consistent you are with filling the liners
*If you’re feeling lazy, throw the graham crackers in a food processor and pulse a few times to break them up, don’t let them get crumbly. I broke mine up by hand and it was pretty quick and easy
