S’mores seem to be THE dessert for camping trips, but you don’t have to be camping to enjoy a chocolate dipped s’mores cupcake. Actually, I highly recommend that you aren’t camping (unless you made them in advance and brought them with you).
Back in May, I wanted to give meringue frosting a second try, so to help me decide which kind of cupcake I’d make–lemon meringue pie or s’mores–I put it up to a vote from my taste testers. The lemon meringue pie cupcake won, but I knew I’d need to find the time to tackle s’mores eventually.
As I thought about how I wanted to approach this recipe, I knew I wanted to skip the chocolate cake. Instead I did a little research into graham cracker cakes and figured out a good amount to test (I HIGHLY suggest doing small batch tests!) before scaling up. I added graham cracker crumbs, which I made myself, and a bit of cinnamon to my favorite vanilla recipe, and I’m rather pleased with the results. Moist, grahamy (how else do you describe graham crackers?), with just a touch of cinnamon. Yes please.
Making graham cracker crumbs yourself is so easy and so worth it, considering that you’ll save at least $1 or more than buying a box of crumbs. All you need to do is process them in a food processor to a medium-fine crumb. If you don’t have a food processor, you could crumble them by hand, then place them into a ziploc bag and roll over them with a rolling pin–though the results won’t be as consistent, I’m sure they’d still work well.
The S’mores cupcake progression: meringue, toasted meringue, chocolate dipped!
Possibly my favorite part of this cupcake is the marhsmallowy meringue frosting. It piped beautifully and toasted up even better. Unfortunately, because I dipped the frosting into the chocolate (actually, wait, how is THAT unfortunate?!), you don’t get to see the lovely toasted meringue. But that’s why I took pictures and made the animated gif to the right. Because you HAVE to see what the frosting looks like, pre-chocolate. It’s just so divine.
So, these might not be fresh off the stick warm and gooey, but I think they’ll do. If you bake them, let me know in the comments how they turned out, or send me some photos, which I’ll feature on the site!
Ingredients
Directions
For the cupcakes, heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and position the racks toward the center. Line cupcake pans with papers.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir in the graham cracker crumbs and set aside.
Whisk the eggs for 20 seconds, then add the sugar and whisk an additional 30 seconds until thick and frothy.
Add the oil and vanilla extract, and beat until combined.
Alternate the flour mixture and buttermilk and beat until combined.
Divide the batter between wrappers in cupcake tins and bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack completely before frosting and dipping.
For the meringue frosting, first, make sure all of your equipment is clean and grease-free. Meringue can be finicky, and it will not turn out correctly if there is anything in the bowl or on the whisk.
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer (or favorite stainless steel mixing bowl) and whisk by hand until well combined.
Fill the bottom of a double boiler or pot with water, 1/3-full. Make sure that the bowl can sit on the pot without the bottom of the bowl touching the water.
Bring the water up to a steady simmer, then place the bowl in the pot and whisk the mixture steadily. Do not let the mixture boil.
Whisk until all the sugar is dissolved in order to avoid a grainy frosting.
Continue whisking until the meringue reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit on a candy thermometer. The frosting, at this point, should have thickened and look fluffy--almost creamy.
Take the bowl off the double boiler or pot, and wipe the bottom of the bowl (just to keep things neat).
Using the whisk attachment of your stand mixer or a hand mixer, whisk the meringue frosting until stiff peaks forms and it has a glossy look. This will take approximately 15-20 minutes (trust me, a stand mixer is VERY handy here).
To assemble, pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes, then toast evenly with a hand torch.
Freeze the frosted and torched cupcakes for 10-15 minutes until slightly firm (some might be a little sticky, but that's ok).
While the cupcakes are in the freezer, prepare the chocolate dip.
Place the chocolate chips and oil/shortening in a microwave-safe dish covered with parchment paper and microwave in 30 second increments until melted.
Set aside and let cool slightly (if this cools too much and begins to harden, microwave it for 15 seconds).
Working with one cupcake at a time, dip the top of the cupcake into the chocolate, submerging the top (but avoid getting the cupcake wrapper all chocolatey).
Once dipped, turn upright immediately. Put back in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to set the cupcake.
To garnish, sprinkle a little leftover graham cracker crumbs on top.
October 19, 2012 at 9:32 pm
That looks Yummy! I wish i were in Philly today to try that!!!