chocolate cupcakes stuffed with cookie butter crunchies

One bowl baking, one bowl cuppycakes?  What's not to love?
I finally got around to making/testing the wonders of one-bowl baking.
And guess what?
It's all in one bowl!  I know duh right?
But I decided to take this whole one bowl mixing to another level and try one of Martha Stewart's chocolate cupcake recipes to see if it would hold up to the theory of one bowl.
It did.
Not truly shocking, but I kind of figured it would.

Oh and I wanted to see if it all could be made by hand, without the use of a mixer, so I mixed it all by hand. Yes by hand.
I know the crazy things we do when the perils of winter cabin fever hits.
Or rather let's call it a better foodie term like "will the recipe stand up to one-bowl mixing".
With Martha's recipe, using one giant mixing bowl, I mixed all the wet ingredients first, then added in
all the dry ingredients and mixed again.  Perfect.

And they came out perfectly.
So if you're ever crunched for time and need a fast chocolate cupcake recipe keep this one in mind.
The idea of adding cookie butter comes from my obsession on baking with cookie butter.
If you don't like cookie butter you can use peanut butter or use a cadbury egg, a hershey kiss?
You get the idea.....

I also used some of the batter to make mini loaves.





Isn't the mini loaf adorable?

chocolate cupcakes filled with cookie butter crunchies

cupcake base from martha stewart

print recipe

3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 ts baking soda

3/4 ts baking powder

¾ ts s alt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup warm water

3 TB safflower oil

1 ts pure vanilla extract

for the filling:

½ - ¾ cup cookie butter

¼ cup or more (depending on your desired level of crunch) of finely crushed graham crackers

hefty pinch of salt

for the ganache:

6-8 ounces of semi sweet chocolate chips

a teaspoon or 2 of heavy cream

Cook notes:

You can do as I did and make this all in one bowl or you can follow Martha’s original instructions.  I used semi sweet chocolate for the ganache, you can use milk if you want, but it might be too sweet. 

Also, save a little bit of the cookie butter filling to top the tops of the cupcakes as decoration.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Make the filling by combining all ingredients in a bowl and mixing well. Set aside.

Make the cupcakes by lining 12 – 18 muffin cups with baking cups.

Sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and 3/4 teaspoon salt into the bowl of a mixer. Beat on low speed until just combined.

Raise speed to medium, and add eggs, buttermilk, water, oil, and vanilla. Beat until smooth, about 3 minutes.

(or do as I mentioned above and do this all in one bowl).

Fill each baking cup halfway with cupcake batter, add in a round ball of the cookie butter filling. Don’t press down.  Fill the baking cups with remaining batter, almost to the top. Cupcakes will rise a bit so don’t overfill the cups.

Bake until tops spring back when touched with a finger, 20 to 23 minutes. Let cool completely.

To make the ganache, melt the chocolate chips with the heavy cream until glossy and smooth. 

Using a spoon dollop the ganache over each cupcake and top with a couple crumbles of the cookie butter filling as decoration.

Should make 16-18 cupcakes (or as I did 12 cupcakes and 2 mini loaves).