Whenever I get a craving for something sweet, I go through phases of what I want. Sometimes it’s cookies, other times cake, rarely pie and currently, it’s cupcakes. I don’t indulge in cupcakes very often because I’m too lazy to go out and buy one and making a dozen for myself is just too indulgent. Luckily, I had a bbq coming up this weekend so I decided to make a batch for my friends and I to enjoy. Now I didn’t want no ordinary cupcake, o no sir. I wanted this to be something that would hit the spot and satisfy my craving once and for all. The solution? Chocolate dipped nutter butter cookies with a vanilla butter cream frosting! These cupcakes are rich with multiple flavors all in one bite – just what I’m looking for.
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1/4 cup apple sauce
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1 cup all natural creamy peanut butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 pinch salt
- 12 regular sized nutter butter cookies, chopped
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 2 cups butter, softened at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3-4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 5 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 24 Mini nutter butter cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pan with muffin liners. Set aside.
- Beat together brown sugar, apple sauce, oil and peanut butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until incorporated. Stir in the vanilla.
- Combine dry ingredients from flour - pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Add alternatively with the milk to the peanut butter batter. Fold in the coarsely chopped nutter butter. Pour into prepared cupcake pan.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top of the cupcakes spring back when lightly pressed. Cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. Beat together powdered sugar with softened butter until well-combined, about 3 minutes on medium speed. Add vanilla and heavy whipping cream and beat for another minute. When cupcakes have cooled, pipe frosting onto cupcakes. Place cupcakes on a sheet pan and place in freezer for 30 minutes or until frosting has set.
- Make the ganache. Heat heavy cream in a medium sauce pan over medium heat until it begins to boil. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate. Mix until chocolate has melted. Let ganache slightly cool before dipping.
- Remove cupcakes from the freezer. Carefully dip the cupcakes one at a time into the ganache. Top with mini nutter butter. Repeat with remaining cupcakes. Let set before serving.
**Helpful tips and common mistakes
To create these dipped nutter butter cupcakes, I put together a peanut butter cupcake for the base, topped it with a basic vanilla frosting and dipped it in chocolate ganache. What makes it a nutter butter cupcake? The addition of the cookies in the batter, of course! I tried nutter butters for the first time for these cupcakes and man, oh man, are they delicious! Sure, they’re just peanut butter cookies, but there’s something about them that make them very addicting. Now if you’re more sensitive to sugar, you can skip the dipping part and finish the cupcakes with the frosting. I wanted to make these cupcakes a bit more special so I froze them until the frosting was set, than dipped them a lovely ganache.
Make sure the frosting is fully set before dipping or the chocolate will melt the frosting right off.
Top them with a mini nutter butter and the cupcakes are finished! These were best fresh as are all cupcakes. I tasted one two days later and because the cupcakes were refrigerated, the nutter butter garnishes had softened and the cupcakes themselves were a bit on the drier side. However, make these fresh and serve them to your guests and there won’t be any leftovers to worry about!
A peak into the inside…yum…
Now for a little something fun…I was fortunate enough to be contacted by Besty, a website that provides lists of the best restaurant according to the cuisine and location. They spent some time and made a short video about Cherry on My Sundae! Check it out here to see the video!
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