German Chocolate Cupcakes


Hello all! With Thanksgiving and applying to grad schools, I haven't had a lot of time to bake for myself recently or experiment with recipes. But, if you've been keeping up with my Instagram stories, then you know I had quite the baking adventure on Friday night. One of my co-workers recently requested German chocolate cupcakes, which I love. But I wanted to do something a little bit different so I made a German chocolate cupcake and then experimented with the toppings. For half of the batch, I made a coconut, pecan, brown sugar topping. For the other half, I filled them with a coconut, pecan filling and then topped them with a chocolate ganache. I thought there would be one clear winner, but I really can't decide which one I like better! As this is my own recipe and my own creation, if you make it, I would love to hear your feedback. Plus, if you think one sounds better than the other, let me know!

Ingredients

Cupcakes:
1/2 cup water
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups and 3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Coconut, Pecan Filling and Topping:
4 egg yolks
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1/2 tsp salt

Chocolate Ganache:
1 cup heavy cream
12 oz. semi sweet or dark chocolate

Directions:
So the first thing I made was the cupcakes because I wanted them to be cold before I started frosting or filling. 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line your muffin tins with cupcake liners. These are a dense cupcake and you need the liners to make sure they stay together. For me, the recipe made 24 big cupcakes and 48 mini cupcakes. It would probably make 36 big cupcakes.
Bring 1/2 cup water to a simmer in a saucepan. Reduce the heat to low and add the 6 oz. of chocolate. I used semi-sweet because the topping is so sweet I didn't want milk chocolate. I would really recommend semi-sweet or even dark chocolate for this recipe. Whisk until smooth and then cool.
Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder in a bowl. In a separate, larger bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy with an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until completely incorporated before adding another egg. Beat in the melted chocolate and vanilla. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add the dry ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk. Fold in the remaining chocolate chips with a spoon at the end.
Pour the batter into the cupcake liners until they are 2/3 the way full. Don't over fill these! Bake for about 15 minutes depending on your oven. Just wait until a toothpick comes out clean. They really do need to cool so maybe make these ahead of time or the day before.

I filled the cupcakes with the same pecan, coconut mixture that I frosted the half with. For it, whisk the egg yolks, evaporated milk, and brown sugar together in a large saucepan. Add the butter and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves completely and the butter is fully incorporated. Stir this constantly so nothing sticks or burns. Continue cooking this until it is thick. If it doesn't thicken up, add some more brown sugar. Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla, salt, coconut, and pecans.

For the chocolate ganache, all you have to do is bring the heavy cream to a boil. Then pour it over the chocolate chips and let it sit for 4 minutes without mixing it. Then whisk until it is completely combined. Allow it to cool a little.

Construction:
So for half of these I simply used the coconut, pecan filling as a frosting. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop them on the top and then refrigerate so that they stay together.
For the other half, I first scooped out the middle and filled them with the coconut, pecan filling. I then froze them for about 20 minutes so it wasn't too liquid-y. Then I put a spoonful on the top of each one and spread it around.

Until next time,