Snickers Cupcakes

Still waters run deep.

See? Depth.

I seem to be on a run here.

Well, Halloween and all...there's lots of candy on top of my dish cabinet - but this isn't going to help you get rid of that. There is not a thing in the world wrong with cutting up candy bars and putting them into cupcakes...that's delicious and a good use of inventory. But, I wondered, as with the twix cupcakes - what if you could actually turn an established product (like a Snickers bar) into a cupcake? Well, why not?

I borrowed most of the components of this from other sources - I try to come up with recipes in my head, but frankly, I had no idea how to make nougat (I think my first thought was, "What IS nougat, anyway?") and was surprised at the answer. Nougat isn't hard to do at all. You just need to be able to pay attention and use a candy thermometer.

Put the children down for a nap, is what I'm saying.

The recipe I used made a LOT of nougat and caramel, so I went ahead and turned the leftovers into actual candy bars, as the author intended. But I figured that since I was going for the actual bar inside the cupcake, that was fine and dandy. 

And these did turn out well! Just like hiding a Snickers in a cupcake, but the flavors were so much better (ever hear anyone talking about a fresh vs. a stale candy bar? Here you go. Fresh.) and, to steal some more...Snickers really satisfies you. Especially in cupcake form. Heh. The subtlety of the caramel in the chocolate frosting really worked here too, and the dark chocolate cake played its own role but didn't try to upstage anyone. A good team effort all around.

This was admittedly a long process, so if I were to do it again, I'd probably make the cupcakes and frosting one day and the filling the next. But I did do it all in one day, with lots of time to wander off and do other things (but not during the candy making! Let me make myself clear about that - do not cook sugar on the stovetop and then leave it. Facebook can wait. Harvest your crops before you start this.

This made 21 cupcakes and about 18 smallish candy bars. I think I hear my dentist calling. I am fairly certain I will hear from my mother about this, too.

Make the cupcakes first and let cool while you prepare the filling:

Chocolate cupcakes:

• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup dark cocoa powder
• 1 cup hot coffee
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line 21 standard-sized muffin cups with baking liners.

Combine the chocolate and cocoa in a medium mixing bowl and pour hot coffee over. Let sit until chocolate is melted. Stir to combine; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. To chocolate mixture add vinegar, oil, eggs, and vanilla; mix well with fork to combine. Pour over flour mixture and stir well.

Pour the batter into the lined muffin tin (filling about 3/4 full). Bake at 350 for 15 - 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for about 10 minutes in pan and then cool completely on a wire rack.

Cut out the center of each cupcake, using a large knife. Make the hole as large as you want to stuff the filling in. You will not be keeping the tops for this one, try one to test the flavor, then discard the rest or put to another use (cake pops? ).

Look at that filling!

 For candy filling (borrowed, well, really, ripped off entirely from about.com ):

• 2 cups light corn syrup, divided
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 cups sugar, divided
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups roasted peanuts, chopped (I used unsalted)
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

For Peanut nougat:
Line a square pyrex pan with aluminum foil, and grease the foil well. Set aside.
Place 1 cup of corn syrup, the water, and 1 1/2 cups of sugar into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved, and insert a candy thermometer. Continue to boil the syrup until it reaches 246 degrees.
While the sugar syrup boils, place the egg white in the bowl of a large stand mixer. Whip the white on high speed until it forms stiff peaks. Stop the mixer once stiff peaks form so that the egg whites are not overbeaten and crumbly.
Once the sugar syrup has reached 246 degrees, remove it from the heat. Turn the mixer to high and, with the mixer running, slowly pour in the sugar syrup in a thin stream. Whip the whites for two minutes until it is well-mixed but still thin.
Add the peanut butter and vanilla, and turn on the mixer briefly to incorporate the ingredients. Once the nougat is mixed and homogenous, pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Let cool until you can handle it easily (but don't let it get too firm if you can help it, and for goodness' sake don't put it in the refrigerator...yet!)
For caramel:

Once the candy has reached the proper temperature, remove it from the heat and immediately stir in the peanuts. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the mixture into a large bowl and let it cool enough until it is still warm but won't burn you (about 5 - 10 minutes).

Scrape out about a teaspoon of nougat filling and press it into a disk with your fingers - drop it into the bottom of the hollowed-out cupcake. Repeat until all the cupcakes have nougat. Then, spoon in enough caramel-peanut mixture to fill to the top of the cupcake. Don't worry if the caramel mounds up a little; it's all going to be covered with frosting anyway. Place the cupcakes into the refrigerator to chill.

Before you do anything else, smooth the remaining nougat to mostly cover the pan that it's been cooling in. Spread the remaining caramel over the top of the nougat, and then remove to the refrigerator to deal with it later (see, you're getting candy bars out of this, too).

For frosting - sneaked from epicurious

• 23 ounces imported milk chocolate chips (2 11.5-ounce packages)
• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 1/4 cups whipping cream
• 21 mini snickers bars, halved diagonally

Combine milk chocolate and bittersweet chocolate in large bowl. Stir sugar and 1/2 cup water in medium saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Boil without stirring until syrup is deep amber color, occasionally brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush and swirling pan, about 10 minutes. Carefully and slowly add whipping cream (mixture will bubble vigorously). Stir over low heat until any hard caramel bits dissolve and mixture is smooth. Pour caramel over chocolate; let stand 1 minute to allow chocolate to soften, then whisk until chocolate is melted and smooth. Let chocolate mixture stand at room temperature until completely cool (about 2 - 3 hours), then beat with the paddle attachment of your stand mixture until it is fluffy and pipeable (or spreadable). If you're making the frosting in advance, put it all together and store in the refrigerator. Let it come to room temperature (about an hour) before proceeding to the beating step.

To finish: pipe the chocolate-caramel frosting on the top of each cupcake until the cake is completely covered, then top with two snickers halves. Store the cupcakes in the refrigerator, but let come to room temperature before serving or you are going to lose a tooth! But what a way for a tooth to go...

Okay, remember the pan full of nougat and caramel? Get that out now. Remove the candy from the pan by lifting out the aluminum foil; set onto a stable surface. Using your sharpest knife dipped in hot water, cut the square into long strips and then the strips into bars. This sounds really easy but you're going to have to put all your weight behind it, so be careful or enlist the help of your personal trainer (hi, Luke!). Place the bars in a single layer on a cookie sheet and return to the refrigerator while you get your dipping station set up and melt the chocolate.

Melt two 11.5-ounce bags of bittersweet chocolate chips in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each heating period. Place a cooling rack over parchment paper. Using a fork, carefully dip each candy bar into the melted chocolate and then place on the rack to let the excess drip off. Let the coated bars stand at room temperature to set, and then store in the refrigerator (again, letting come to room temperature before serving to save your teeth). 

Cook's bonus! Hooray!

 

Twix cupcakes

     There are certain sweets I do like, mostly because there is a contrast of flavors and textures. What I mean by that is I rarely get a craving for a Hershey's Kiss (unless there's an almond in it), but I do have a hard time turning down a Twix bar. Because if you think about it, it's not really even a candy - it's an elaborately topped cookie. And I can get behind that, because an elaborately topped cookie is just begging to be cupcaked. Yes, I just turned a noun into a verb. I have no editor here besides myself, and I'm probably not going to object too much.
     One of the things I like best about Twix bars is the cookie base, and I like incorporating that into my cupcakes as evidenced here and here. I like the surprise crunch of a cookie on the bottom of a cupcake, and having shortbread on the bottom just made sense.
     Then, I used a simply but moist vanilla buttermilk cake to top off the cookie, filled it with a gooey caramel sauce, and then...the frosting? I knew it couldn't be too dark, or rich, or heavy, and this is one of the occasions where milk chocolate did the trick.

     This makes 24 cupcakes, so plenty to share (and a bit of leftover frosting and caramel sauce to dip your leftover shortbread sticks in - cooks' privilege, you see?).

~Shortbread Cookie Base~
3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, chilled

Preheat oven to 350F.
In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, sugar and salt. Pulse a few times to blend.
Cut butter into large chunks and add to food processor. Blend for about 1 minute, until dough has a very sandy appearance and starts to clump together.

Line two standard 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners. Press about 2 tablespoons' worth of the shortbread mixture into each muffin cup, pressing down with your (clean!) fingers to form a solid layer.

You will have leftover shortbread mixture. This is awesome! Line a standard loaf pan with aluminum foil so that you have an overhang on two sides and dump the rest of the dough into the pan. Press it down evenly with your fingers. Using a sharp knife, lightly score the shortbread into bars and set it aside to bake after you bake the shortbread bottoms. When it is time, bake the bars in the oven for about 20 minutes or until starting to turn golden. Let cool for about 10 minutes in the pan, then using the foil as handles, remove the shortbread from the pan. Carefully cut into bars using your scoremarks as a guide, and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Bake the shortbread-lined tins in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until the cookie is just starting to turn golden. Set aside to cool while making your cupcake batter.

~Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes~

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk

Your oven is still at 350, right? If not, get it there.

In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix in eggs and egg yolk and then mix in the vanilla. Add 1/2 of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Combine. Add the buttermilk, mix and then dump in the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined and the batter is smooth. Spoon out batter into shortbread-lined cupcake pan, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake for about 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out with moist crumbs.

~Salted Caramel Filling~
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons salted butter cubed
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoons heavy cream, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt

Melt the sugar over medium high heat in a large pot. Whisk the sugar as it melts and cook until it becomes a deep amber color. Add the butter and stir it in until melted. Pour in the heavy cream (mixture will foam) and whisk until you get a smooth sauce. You may have some lumps but keep stirring until they have melted. Add in salt but don't taste it! Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Cut a small cone-shaped piece out of the tops of each cooled cupcake. Cut off the excess cone-part, leaving just the lid and pour in 1 teaspoon of caramel into the hollow of the cake. Replace the cake lid and set cupcakes aside.

~Creamy Milk Chocolate Buttercream~
(I'm told this is originally from Cook's Illustrated, but it was paraphrased on a website so I am not 100% sure; I adapted it a bit anyway)

1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
12 ounces milk chocolate
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 cup powdered sugar
2 sticks butter, cut into chunks

Heat cream with corn syrup and salt on stove until simmering. Meanwhile, chop chocolate in food processor. With the processor running, add the simmering cream slowly and process for one minute, until chocolate is melted. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and process again. Then, with processor running, add butter one piece at a time, waiting until the piece is incorporated before adding another. Cool until thick and spreadable (about two hours), then beat with an electric mixer until fluffy and spreadable. It can now be piped or spread onto the cupcakes.