Chocolate Chipotle Cupcakes

About a year ago I went to Paciugo, a gelato shop in my neighborhood, with the intention of sampling a plethora of different gelato flavors. Little did I know that I would have the best gelato (or ice cream, for that matter) of my life and be haunted by the memory from that point on. The flavor: Chocolate Chipotle Butter Pecan. I know, I know…that doesn’t sound spectacular, but bear with me here. Just imagine the flavor of deep dark chocolate augmented by the smoky, subtle heat of the chipotle, with the nutty, buttery pecans cutting through all the richness. It was unexpectedly fantastic.

I’ve been in love with the chocolate-chipotle combination since. During a recent Chicago Women Cooks-in-Training meetup, I ventured to the Spice House in Evanston for the first time where I snagged some grey sea salt, dried lavender, green tea powder, and, of course, ground chipotle. I’d copied a recipe from one of my mother’s Sunset magazines some time ago – Mexican Chocolate Cakes – and I knew immediately that I would substitute their use of cayenne for the chipotle. The recipe itself is pretty simple, though I admit that I was impressed by their forgoing of creams and lots of eggs for oil, milk, and vinegar to create moistness and softness. I teetered a bit on whether or not to double the amount of ground chipotle, given that cayenne provides much more direct heat than chipotle, but remembering the moral of the Acorn and Butternut Squash Pie, I trusted my instincts and threw in another dose. I must say, I’m glad I did.

 

Upon first bite, you’re immediately greeted by the tender, rich chocolate cake, followed by a hint of smokiness, and ending with just a touch of the heat. Just a ¼ teaspoon of chipotle would have been too little. There’s also a hefty dose of cinnamon in the mix, giving the cake a nice rounded spiciness. I love that there are three distinct sensations here, hitting three different areas of the mouth. I don’t know that you’d be able to specifically identify the chipotle if you didn’t know it was there, but you would definitely be able to pick out the different flavors occurring therein.

If I were to serve this to someone, I think I’d top it off with a thin layer of dark chocolate ganache, sprinkled with some toasted chopped pecans. But for me, in my must-experiment-with-ground-chipotle-NOW! state, a dusting of powdered sugar was all I needed before devouring more cupcakes than I’d like to admit.

Oh, chocolate and chipotle. You are my new favorite flavor combination. (Don’t tell peanut butter.)

[I’ve decided to start sharing my recipes, so here you go:]

  

Chocolate Chipotle Cupcakes 

The original recipe was designed for a two-layer cake, but I halved it for my experiment and found it easily makes 16 standard cupcakes.

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
¾ tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground chipotle
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup olive oil
1 large egg
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
¾ tablespoon vanilla extract
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.

Whisk cocoa, flour, sugars, cinnamon, baking soda, chipotle, and salt in a bowl to blend. Add milk, oils, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla; whisk until smooth. Pour into muffin tins, filling no more than ¾ full.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in each cake comes out clean. [Okay, here is where I’ve goofed because I didn’t record how long I let the cupcakes bake. The original recipe calls for the cakes to bake for 45 minutes, but cupcakes take less time, rarely more than 20 minutes. Add to that the fact that I have one of those ¾-sized, small apartment ovens that makes thing bake a little faster than normal. I would say let them bake for 9 minutes, rotate the pan (You always rotate your baked goods, right? Good.), let them bake for another 7 minutes or so, then start checking them for doneness. The idiosyncrasies of your own oven always determines the final baking time.]

Let cupcakes cool in pan for 10 minutes. Invert on a wire rack and turn right-side-up to cool. Sift powdered sugar onto cupcakes or top with the frosting or icing of your choosing.