MSC: Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes

Wow, it's already been a month since we made those Strawberry Cupcakes? I can't believe it! It's time once again for a cupcake from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes! This month, the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club is making Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes.

These flour-free confections were chosen by Lauryn over at Bella Baker. They are very simple to make, and don't really take much time at all as long as you have a powerful mixer. You start out by melting together some chocolate and butter. I used Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips, because I find that those work best for me when I need a good quality chocolate but don't want to pay an arm and a leg for it. While the chocolate/butter mixture cools slightly, you whip 6 egg whites in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. You add a bit of sugar while they are whipping. You want to eventually have stiff, glossy peaks in the mixing bowl.

Once the chocolate is cool enough to add egg yolks, you add the 6 reserved egg yolks (from separating the whites from the yolks) to your chocolate. Once it's all mixed together, you gently fold this mixture into your egg whites. Fill cupcake tins 3/4 full with batter, and bake!

Once they are out of the oven, the perfectly formed dome tops on the cupcakes start to sink almost immediately. Martha says that this will happen, so I wasn't concerned about it. However, when everything was said and done, mine didn't really look like the picture in the book. Martha's had gotten all crackly on top, and then the cracks had sunk into the cupcake. Mine sunk in a more uniform fashion, and were still perfectly smooth and flat on top. The process of the cupcakes shriveling a bit also had the effect of making the cupcake liners sort of pucker in a bit in places, and this made the cupcakes almost look like little flowers. It was kind of cute!

I don't know if I did something wrong somewhere along the way, and this is why they didn't turn out looking exactly like Martha's. I don't think it really mattered for the overall flavor of the cupcakes, though. They were very tasty! I haven't ever eaten a cupcake with this sort of texture before. They are light as air, as opposed to a denser brownie, but the taste is similar to that of a brownie. It's almost like eating a chocolate souffle; each bite just melts in your mouth.

We kept it simple; no garnishes or ice cream on ours. I am sure they'd be fabulous with something on top, but they were just wonderful on their own. Thanks to Lauryn for the selection this month! I don't know if I ever would have made these from the cookbook on my own, but I ended up loving them! The Flourless Chocolate Cupcake recipe can be found on Martha's website, here. Check out the MSC blogroll to see how the other bakers fared!