DARK CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

First of all let me just say that one of my favorite cook books to use is The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. I love it. It was gift from my husband's grandmother and honestly one of the best gifts ever. It gives all kinds of tips and hints which the authors have tried. I made dark chocolate cupcakes out of this book. They are so rich and good.

I made them quite a while ago, just never got around to posting.

So, first, make sure you read through every recipe BEFORE you begin. That way you make sure you have everything and it gives you a clear idea of what to expect. Then gather all your ingredients.
For 24 cupcakes you will need the following:

16 Tbsp of unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut up

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I am cheap and used regular old unsweetened cocoa powder)

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

4 large eggs, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup sour cream

Microwave the butter, chocolate and cocoa in a bowl stirring often until smooth and to prevent burning. Then set it aside to let it cool until just warm.

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

Then whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and set it aside.

Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a large bowl and slowly whisk in the sugar until combined. 

Whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture slowly. (Remember to cool the mixture, you don't want scrambled eggs in your cupcake.)

 Sift one third of the flour over the batter and whisk.

 Whisk in the sour cream. Then whisk in the remaining sifted flour mixture. The mixture will be nice and thick, you can still mix it together by hand. Your arm will only be a little sore when you are done. But, nothing a dark chocolate cupcake can't fix, right?

Fill the cupcake liners with batter to about 2/3 full. The best way is with an ice cream scoop. I prefer the red #24 scoop that I bout at Smart & Final.

Bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean, about 18-22 minutes. Technically you should rotate the pan half way through baking but I usually don't. As much as my electric oven sucks, it does cook pretty evenly.
Let them cool on a wire rack for a few minutes in the pans then, remove and cool completely before icing.