black bottom cupcakes

Since I had some cream cheese leftover, I wanted to find a recipe to use it up.

I found a rather simple recipe on Leite's Culinaria, called Black-Bottom Cupcakes by David Lebovitz.

Here is the recipe: Black-Bottom Cupcakes from David Lebovitz' book, "The Great Book of Chocolate". Makes 12 cupcakes.

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, regular or reduced fat, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
2 oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

For the cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup unflavored vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:
Make the filling:
1. Beat together the cream cheese, granulated sugar and egg until smooth. Stir in the chopped chocolate pieces. Set aside.

Make the cupcakes:
1. Adjust the rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 350F (175C). Butter a 12-cup muffin tin or line the tin with paper muffin cups.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring until just smooth. Stir any longer and you will over mix the batter and end up with less-than-tender cupcakes.

4. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Spoon a few tablespoons of the filling into the center of each cupcake, dividing the filling evenly. This will fill the cups almost completely, which is fine.

5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown and the cupcakes feel springy when gently pressed. These moist treats will keep well unrefrigerated for 2 to 3 days if stored in an airtight container.

Notes: I don't think I had 8 oz. of cream cheese because my filling was very liquidy--either that or because it had been in the freezer, maybe the consistency changed after defrosting. Anyway, I ended up with a marble-y top, not the cream cheese filling in the center.

Another thing that I made a mistake with was the cocoa powder.
The only one I could find was a dutch processed one, Droste. (the nun/nurse on the package is quite scary looking...)

For the coarsely chopped chocolate, I used Dagoba New Moon bar which was a 74% cacao and because it was exactly 2 oz.

Also, I baked the cupcakes for about 30 minutes.

Still, the cupcakes came out moist and delicious! I'll definitely have to try this recipe again!