S'mores Cupcakes!

Yesterday was the St. Patrick's Day dinner with Daniel's family, and I wanted to bring a dessert. I tried to think of a recipe that would be appropriate for St. Patty's day... should it be green? Have bailey's irish cream in it? Shamrock shaped? In the end, I decided none of the above, and went for a random s'mores cupcake. I kinda made this recipe up as I went along... I took my crust recipe from my Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake to use as the bottom of my cupcakes. For the cupcake itself, I took my new favorite cupcake recipe, and added the rest of the crust mixture that was left over after filling the paper liners, (and then some more graham cracker crumbs for good measure). Topped it with chocolate ganache and toasted marshmallows and we were set...

Graham Cracker Crust for Cupcakes:
About a quarter of a package of graham cracker crumbs
Approx a quarter stick of butter, softened
1/8 C sugar

Combine all of the above ingredients until well combined.
Divide equally between 15 cupcake liners, and press firmly into the bottom of the liners.
Bake ~ 3 - 5 minutes at 350. Remove from oven and let cool.



Smores Cupcake Batter: adapted from Billy's Vanilla Cupcakes (see previous post)
The Remainder of the graham cracker crust crumbs (I had approx 1/4 C or a little less remaining)
1.25 C + 2 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour
1.75 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1 c Sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 C butter, room temperature (unsalted, cut into 1 inch cubes)
2 eggs
1/2 C whole milk (but we had no milk, so I used buttermilk!!!)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat to 325.
In bowl of electric mixer, combine flour, cornstarch, sugar, baking powder and salt, and mix on low to combine.
Add butter 1 cube at a time until coated with flour.
In a large measuring cup, whisk eggs, milk and vanilla. With mixer on medium, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition. But until ingredients are incorporated, don't overbeat.
Divide batter evenly among the liners with crusts, filling until ~ 2/3 full. Bake 17-20 min (or until cake tester comes out clean), rotating pans halfway through.
Transfer to wire rack to cool.



Chocolate Ganache: from The Baking Bible
(recipe scaled down by 1/3)
1/2 C heavy cream
2/3 Tablespoon butter
2/3 Tablespoon granulated sugar
1 C semisweet chocolate chips.

Place semisweet chips in a bowl.
In a small saucepan, bring the first three ingredients to a boil over high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
Pour cream mixture over chocolate and let stand 5 minutes.
Stir until smooth, let stand 15 minutes or until ganache reaches desired consistency (it will thicken as it cools more)
[But after stirring, I only let it sit about 5 minutes before applying it to my cupcakes because I wanted it to still be drippy when I put it on)
Spoon ganache onto cupcakes, and smooth with a small offset spatula.



For the toasted marshmallows, since I did not have a culinary torch on hand, I lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and lined up the marshmallows on it.
With the broiler on low, put the cookie sheet on the top rack of the oven while keeping a watch on it. It goes from toasted to burnt FAST! After some ::cough:: slightly too toasted mallows, I had it right.
It was difficult to move the mallows from the parchment to the cupcakes, so I'm still trying to devise a better way to do this.