Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

Active time: 45 minutes | Bake time: 15 minutes | Yield: about 30 cupcakes

Freeze-dried fruit is kind of an awesome ingredient to use in baked treats. It is an excellent way to get an authentic fruity flavor into a dessert, without watering down your baked goods! Baking is, of course, a form of chemistry, so adding watery fruits to certain recipes can totally alter the texture and affect the way it bakes. That’s where freeze-dried fruit comes in! Once it is crushed up, it has a very similar consistency to flour, making it tres perfect (I’ve been watching too much Emily in Paris) to bake with! This particular recipe was inspired by Chocolate covered strawberries, one of the most wonderful combinations.

The chocolate ganache filling is totally optional, so if you’re looking to simplify these a bit, just skip the filling, the cupcakes will still be a showstopper.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

• 113g (½ cup / 8 tbsp) butter, melted & cooled

• 1 cup milk, room temperature

• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

• 2 large eggs, room temperature

• 260g (2 cups + 2 tbsp) all purpose flour

• 30g (2 cups) freeze-dried strawberries, crushed into fine crumbs, plus extra for dusting

• 400g (2 cups) granulated sugar

• 1 tbsp baking powder

• 1 ½ tsp salt

• Red food dye, optional - the cupcakes are a very light pink naturally, so you may want to use food coloring if you’re looking for a deeper pink color

• 1 cup hot water

For the chocolate ganache:

• ⅔ cup heavy cream

• 88g (¼ cup) light corn syrup

• 170g (6 ounces) semisweet or dark chocolate (chips or finely chopped baking chocolate)

• 1 tbsp butter

For the Icing:

• 12 tbsp (170g / 1 ½ sticks / ¾ cup) butter, softened

• 80g (1 cup) cocoa powder

• 450g (3 ¾ cup) powdered sugar

• ½ cup milk or heavy cream

• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

• ½ tsp salt

Directions:

1. For the cupcakes: Melt your butter in a medium microwave safe bowl, let sit for at least 10 minutes to cool.

2. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Prepare 2 cupcake pans with liners.

3. Pulse your freeze dried strawberries in a food processor until fine crumbs. Alternatively, you can place them in a double zip plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. Make sure the crumbs are very fine.

4. In the large bowl whisk the melted butter, milk, vanilla, and eggs until combined.

5. Add the flour, freeze dried strawberries, sugar, baking powder, and salt, whisk until dry ingredients are just incorporated.

6. Slowly pour the hot water into the batter and whisk until the batter is thin and smooth.

7. Fill cupcake liners about ¾ full and bake for 12-16 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean, or with a few crumbs (if you see any liquid batter on the toothpick, continue to bake for 1-2 more minutes and check again.

8. Remove the cupcakes from the ocean and allow to cool for about 15 minutes in the cupcake pan, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before icing and filling.

9. For the ganache: While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare your ganache.

10. Heat heavy cream and corn syrup in a saucepan until bubbles appear at the edge of the pan.

11. Remove from the heat, pour the chocolate overtop. Let stand for 2 minutes.

12. Add butter, whisk until smooth.

13. Once the cupcakes have cooled, remove the centers with a cupcake corer or apple corer and fill the centers with the chocolate ganache.

14. For the icing: Place the butter and cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Start by mixing on low speed until cocoa is incorporated into the butter, then increase to medium-high speed for 1 minute.

15. Add the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix on low speed until ingredients are incorporated, then increase to medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.

    1. If the icing is too thin at this point, add 1-2 tbsp powdered sugar and mix on medium speed to combine.

    2. If your icing is too thick at this point, add 1-2 tbsp milk and mix on medium speed to combine.

16. Transfer your icing to a piping bag and pipe onto your cupcakes. Alternatively, you can spread the icing onto the cupcakes with a butterknife or even scoop it onto the cupcakes with a cookie scoop.