How to Bake Maple Cupcakes With Chocolate Ganache
Yields: 12 cupcakes
Preparation time: 50 mins
Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients needed to make Maple Cupcakes With Chocolate Ganache:
For the cupcakes:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 10 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
For the chocolate ganache:
- ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 ½ cups milk chocolate chips
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Dash of salt
For the topping:
- 10-12 bacon slices
- 1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
Cooking instructions for Maple Cupcakes With Chocolate Ganache:
- To make topping, position the oven rack at the upper portion of the oven and preheat it to 400 degrees F.
- Spread a sheet of aluminum foil across a rimmed baking sheet and place it on another rack, kept inside the warm oven.
- Toss the pepper and brown sugar together in a medium bowl and throw in the bacon slices.
- Toss further to coat well with the blend and spread them across the oven rack, in a single layer.
- Sprinkle any leftover brown sugar on top and bake in the oven for half an hour or until they brown.
- Remove from heat and chop them into smaller pieces once they are cook enough to handle.
- To make the cupcakes, position a baking rack midway within the oven and lower the temperature setting to 350 degrees F; preheat it.
- Line two large 6-cupped muffin moulds with paper liners and keep them aside until required.
- Sift a mixture of flour, salt and baking powder into a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- Cream a mixture of butter and brown sugar in another bowl, using an electric mixer, at moderately high speed until they are properly blended.
- Crack the eggs into it and add a splash of vanilla extract; continue to whisk the mixture until they turn pale and creamy.
- Fold in half of the sifted mixture onto the whisked egg, followed by milk and process them at the same time until they are well combined.
- Beat in rest of the dry mixture, along with the maple syrup and process similarly until all of them are incorporated into the mixture to form a smooth, uniform batter.
- Pour 1/3 of it into each muffin cup until ¾ of it is filled up.
- Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until their surface sets and they are baked through.
- Set them aside on a cooling wire rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, to make the ganache, melt butter in a 2 quart saucepan and whisk in the cream.
- Cook until it is heated through but doesn’t boil.
- Remove from heat and fold in the chocolate chips until they form a velvety, shiny mixture.
- Whisk in the vanilla along with a pinch of salt and tip it into a medium bowl.
- Refrigerate for an hour to set and beat for a couple of minutes at moderately high speed until they form a thick and creamy blend.
- Scoop out generous amount of the ganache on top of each cupcake and top it up with 1 heaping tsp of the bacon chunks.
- Serve and have fun!
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
