S'mores Cupcakes

Happy Valentine's Day! I love Valentine's Day . . . all of this pink and red fluffiness in the middle of February is right up my alley. Every year I get rather amped for hugs and hearts on February 14th, and every year I continue to be surprised by all of the Valentine's haters out there. Come on, it's not SAD day, though admittedly it does seem that retailers would have you believe that. It's a day to embrace your inner first-grader:  decorated shoe box on the desk anyone? I'm only a psuedo-Singleton, but Dudley hates Valentine's Day and single red roses, candlelit dinners, and carriage rides are verboten around these parts. Actually, last year Dudley did attempt to take me to a very romantic dinner with everything but the carriage ride and it's probably the most awkward meal the two of us have ever shared. We did have a good time people watching in the midst of the awkwardness. Obviously I'm in touch with my inner first grader because I think it's hilarious when couples sit on the same side of the table and grope each other between courses. I know when I'm in between the scallops and the duck confit I sometimes pause and think, you know what would be great right now? A good grope. Ummm, not so much.

Tonight I'm going to do what I always do on Valentine's Day:  make heart-shaped pizza and then eat it! Unfortunately, Dudley isn't here to share it, but I have other great Valentines companions:

Oliver

Lucy

Not to mention Dr. and Mrs. M and the whole motley crew down here in the Lone Star State. Speaking of the gang, my sister saw the recipe for s'mores cucpakes in the January issue of Bon Appétit and she's been dropping hints left and right for the past month or so. I also saw and mentally flagged the recipe, so it was just a matter of getting my ducks in a row to bake the cupcakes. 

The cupcake is a graham cracker cupcake, and that aspect hooked me from the start. The marshmallow is found in the center of the cupcakes as well as in the marshallow on top, and then the chocolate is in the chocolate ganache. I love a s'more at any time of the year, and while I usually don't think that the imitations live up to the real thing, these cupcakes are every bit as good as a roasty, toasty s'more. They're also surprisingly simple to put together. I did cheat and use marshmallow fluff (the recipe doesn't call for homemade marshmallow but it's awfully tempting, don't you think?) for the center and the toasted marshmallow top. By the way, working with that marshmallow fluff is an exercise in sticky, sticky, stickiness. It's worth it in the end, but I felt as though sticky sugar was taking over my body while I was assembling the cupcakes. I followed the recipe to the letter, and the only thing I might change in the future would be to pipe the marshmallow on top of the ganache and then take a torch to it. I have to say, the marshmallow fluff run under the broiler tastes just.like a toasted marshmallow. 

As you can see, I eat like a first grader, too. I was devouring this cupcake trying to get a cross-section view of the cupcake and it just didn't work that well. The graham cracker base is incredibly moist (so, so, so very delicious!), and my ganache and marshmallow rather blended together while I was eating it. I've watched others eat it much more gracefully and the marshmallow filling is quite evident. 

When I finished assembling the cupcakes I was left with a dish of cupcake cores. I happen to love the inside of any baked good (read:  that brownie edge pan is not for me) so the first few cores ended up in my mouth. I saved the rest of them for Dr. M, and he devoured them in the first couple of hours he was home this afternoon. The graham cracker cupcake for this recipe is so fantastic:  it's moist and it tastes perfect. The marshamallow fluff and ganache are the literal icing on the cupcake, but it's the graham cracker cake that makes this recipe a winner in my book. This is a definite repeat at chez Singleton. In the meantime, happy red and pink fluff (what's left of it) to you and yours; I hope Valentine's Day is everything it's cracked up to be. 

S'mores Cupcakes

Bon Appétit January 2011

Recipe by Society Bakery, Dallas, TX

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 15 whole crackers ground in processor)
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped
• 1/2 cup (scant) heavy whipping cream
• 3/4 cup plus one 7-ounce jar marshmallow creme
• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 12 1-inch pieces broken graham crackers (for garnish)

• special equipment

  Apple corer (I just used a small serrated knife to cut out the cupcake cores.)

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk graham crumbs, flour, baking powder, and pinch of salt in medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating to blend between additions. Beat in vanilla. Add graham-cracker mixture in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with graham-cracker mixture. Divide batter among muffin cups.
• Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center come out clean, about 22 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to rack; cool completely.
• Place chocolate in medium bowl. Bring cream just to boil in small saucepan; pour over chocolate. Let stand 1 minute; stir until smooth. Cool ganache until lukewarm.
• Push apple corer about 1 inch into top of each cupcake; remove cake, forming hole. Spoon 3/4 cup marshmallow creme into resealable plastic bag, pushing into 1 bottom corner. Cut 1/2 inch off corner. Pipe into holes in cupcakes. Spread 2 teaspoons ganache over each cupcake. DO AHEAD Can be made 8 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.
• Preheat broiler. Coar rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Spoon dollops of marshmallow creme on sheet. Broil until slightly charred, 1 to 2 minutes. Spoon dollop of charred cremem over each cupcake; garnish with piece of graham cracker.