After secretly stalking and anxiously awaiting the reveal of new challenges for months, I finally went and joined the Daring Bakers for myself! It was a good thing too because for this challenge we had to make chocolate eclairs, but not just any chocolate eclairs! Oh no, sir! These sugarcoated little creatures come from none other than Pierre Hermé, a famous and fantastically gifted French pastry chef that’s an inspiration for me and I’m sure for many, many more.

Before I go any further, I’d like to note that I wrote this entire entry and then Firefox screwed me over and I lost it all. Yes, Firefox, I am very angry at you right now! If your rival IE didn’t suck so much I’d probably make him my new best friend instead. WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT, FIREFOX!?

Anyways, this challenge was hosted by Tony and Meeta. You can go to their blogs in order to view the original recipe because it is incredibly long and I am feeling way too lazy to post all it. (However, do not let the length discourage you from making these eclairs because they are fantastic and definitely not as hard as they seem. In fact, I’d say this is was one of the easier challenges I’ve seen the Daring Bakers do so far.) Their posts are also much more graphic than mine would have ever been and having a visual is always a good thing when baking something foreign.

For this challenge we were allowed to change one of two things. We could choose our own glaze OR our own filling, but we couldn’t change both. I decided to change the filling because I hate having too much chocolate (although I definitely regret this choice). Instead of the chocolate pastry cream (which sounded deliciousss), I made a vanilla bean one. Also, because my favorite donuts are the ones with maple glaze, I made that as well to stripe over the eclairs.

I thought I’d really like this vanilla pastry cream, but it just reminded me of the pastry cream that they use in donuts, which I have never been a fan of. Actually, now that I think about, I’ve never really liked cream filled anything.

Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream

(From Joy of Baking)

• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup granulate sugar
• 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
• Scant 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1-1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

1. In a medium-sized stainless steel bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together with a wooden spoon. (Never let the mixture sit too long or you will get pieces of egg forming.)
2. Sift the flour and cornstarch together and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste. Set aside.
3. Meanwhile in a saucepan combine the milk and split vanilla bean on medium heat until boiling. (The milk will foam up to the top of pan when done, so watch carefully.) Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.) Remove vanilla bean, scrape out seeds, and add the seeds to the egg mixture.
4. Place the egg mixture back into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 – 60 seconds until it becomes very thick and it is hard to stir.
5. Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Beat before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.

Maple Glaze

(From Pastrywiz)

• 1-1/4 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1. In a bowl, combine confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Gradually whisk in enough maple syrup to make a smooth, thick glaze. (I think I actually added more confectioners sugar than required.)

Although these eclairs were good, I do not think I’ll ever make them again, or at least not for myself. Like donuts, I am not a fan of anything cream filled and eclairs were no exception. I’m really not sure why that is. Maybe I just don’t like pastry cream?

If you’re really interested in making these for yourself I’d definitely suggest going to the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll and visiting some of the other blogs. Everyone gets so creative and I’m sure there were MANY variations to these eclairs that would suit almost everyone’s fancy.

I do not have the pleasure of baking as often as I’d like because my family is often always on some sort of diet. As much as I’d enjoy eating a plate full of cookies or a dozen deliciously unhealthy cupcakes, I’d much rather eat one and share the rest with other people. Luckily, this weekend was father’s day weekend, my father’s birthday, AND my friend’s birthday. That meant my father would be allowed to break his diet and have whatever I baked AND I could give some of the extras to my friend.

So as usual, I went on my almighty quest to find the next type of cupcakes that most appealed to my fancy. With so many amazing types how was I ever going to choose just one? After countless of long and brutal browses through cupcake images on Flickr and many voyages deep into the vicious jungle of baking blogs, my journey was complete! I finally found the cupcakes I wanted to make!

Turtle & Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes!

Turtle Cupcakes: Dark chocolate cupcake, caramel filling, dark chocolate ganache, vanilla buttercream frosting, caramel drizzle, pecan pieces, and some Valrhona chocolate shavings.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes: Dark chocolate cupcake, peanut butter filling, dark chocolate ganache, peanut butter frosting, Reese’s peanut butter cup pieces, and chocolate drizzled on top.

They were both absolutely amazing. I’m actually not sure which one I liked the most because they each contained something I definitely love (peanut butter and caramel). The cupcakes came out moist and delicious and coupled with the filling made them even better. Although, I’d definitely suggest eating the peanut butter cup ones with a big glass of milk because all that peanut butter is sure hard to swallow!

The recipe I used was a combination of many recipes from many other websites. There is a list to where I got them all at the very end and I would certainly urge everyone to check out the sites because they are all fantastic (especially Chockylit’s Cupcake Blog).

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

(About 16 cupcakes @ 350 degrees)

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
• 2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used 56% Valrhona)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Chop the chocolate and place into a double boiler.
3. Add butter and cocoa and stir until the chocolate melts and the mixture fully combines.
4. Remove from heat and set aside to cool until just warm enough to touch. (About 10 minutes.)
5. Sift the flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a small bowl and set aside.
6. In an electric mixer beat eggs well for a few seconds.
7. Add sugar, vanilla, and salt and beat until well combined.
8. Add cooled chocolate mixture and beat until well combined.
9. Add about one-third of the dry ingredients into the mixture and beat briefly until combined.
10. Add about half of the sour cream and beat until combined.
11. Continue adding, alternating between the dry ingredients and sour cream, and finish with the dry.
12. Stir in chocolate chips. (optional)
13. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for about 18-20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Chocolate Ganache

• 1/2 cup dark chocolate, chopped (I used 56% Valrhona)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

1. Chop the chocolate into pieces and place in a small bowl.
2. Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan until it just starts to boil.
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until blended. Let the ganache cool for 15 minutes or until it begins to thicken before spreading on cupcakes.

Turtle Cupcakes

Caramel Filling

• 3/4 cup evaporated milk
• 7 oz (or more) wrapped caramels, unwrapped

1. Combine evaporated milk and 7 oz of caramels in double boiler over medium heat.
2. Stir until caramels are melted and the mixture is smooth.
3. Continue adding more caramels in order to achieve the desired consistency. I ended up using about 2/3 of the Kraft caramel. (optional)

Vanilla Buttercream

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar

1. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy.
2. Add the milk, vanilla extract, and 2 cups of powdered sugar and beat at low speed, occasionally stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, until light and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar to arrive at the consistency and sweetness you like.

Assembly

1. Using a small pairing knife, cut out a circular cone from the top of the cupcake and slice off pointy end.
2. Fill the hole with caramel filling and replace the top.
3. Scoop ganache onto cupcake and smooth evenly with an icing spatula.
4. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes in order for the ganache to harden a bit.
5. Pipe vanilla buttercream frosting onto cupcake and add extra toppings if desired. (I drizzled on some of the caramel filling, sprinkled on Valrhona chocolate shavings, and topped a few with pecan pieces.)

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Filling

I had intended to use the peanut butter frosting as a filling, but the first frosting recipe I chose turned out rather thick (maybe because I used natural peanut butter for it). The recipe can be found here if you want to use it, but otherwise you can simply use the frosting recipe I later chose as a filling instead.

Peanut Butter Frosting

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl and set aside.
2. In an electric mixer at medium-low speed, combine butter, peanut butter, and sugar until well blended.
3. Add heavy cream and increase speed to high until frosting looks light and fluffy

Assembly

1. Using a small pairing knife, cut out a circular cone from the top of the cupcake and slice off pointy end.
2. Fill the hole with peanut butter frosting and replace the top.
3. Scoop ganache onto cupcake and smooth evenly with an icing spatula.
4. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes in order for the ganache to harden.
5. Pipe peanut butter frosting onto cupcake and add extra toppings if desired. (I drizzled on some melted semi-sweet chocolate and sprinkled on pieces of chopped up Reese’s peanut butter cups)

Recipe resources:

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes: smcgee’s cupcakes

Chocolate Ganache: Cupcake Project

Vanilla Buttercream: Cupcake Bakeshop

Peanut Butter Filling: Eggs on Sunday (It’s their frosting recipe)

Peanut Butter Frosting: Slashfood

All gone!