nutella cupcakes... seriously

A few weeks back I spent a Sunday afternoon baking at Deb's place... and I meant to add this recipe to my blog then, but it seems that life gets in the way of blogging sometimes :0) so without much further ado - here is the recipe for my Nutella filled chocolate cupcakes.

I found this recipe in my cupcakes recipe book by Susannah Blake - her gooey chocolate and hazelnut cupcakes recipe. I thought this could be very interesting (and delicious)...

I made the nutella at home the day before - I figured if I was making "homemade" cupcakes the entire thing might as well be made by me... and I have to say - SUCCESS!! I was very pleased with the result of my nutella. I'll post that recipe separately since I don't want this entry to be too long :0)

Chocolate Nutella Cupcakes
ingredients:
1/4 c. bittersweet dark chocolate, chopped
4 tbsp butter, at room temperature
1/2 c. b. sugar
2 eggs
3 tbsp blanched hazelnuts, ground
3/4 c. self-rising flour, sifted
1/2 c. Nutella
3 tbsp blacnhed hazelnuts, toasted and cut into large pieces - for decorating

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray or line with paper liners.

To blanch the hazelnuts - heat them in a pan over medium heat. Remove from heat after a few minutes (they should get quite hot and smell nutty) and place on top of a clean hand towel. Fold the towel in half so that the nuts are covered and rub well. The skin from the hazelnuts should rub off. Don't worry if some of the skin doesn't rub off.

Melt the chocolate in a metal bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Once all the chocolate is melted, set it aside and prepare the rest of the batter.

Beat the butter and sugar together so that they become fluffy. Beat in the eggs - one at a time. Stir in the ground hazelnuts (a food processor will grind the hazelnuts well). Then add the flour to the mixture and fold in. Finally add the melted chocolate to the batter.

Drop 1/2 heaped tbsp of the mixture into each muffin cup, flatten a little to make an indentation in the centre of each cupcake. Fill that indentation with a tsp of Nutella. Top all cupcakes with the remainder of the batter.

Bake for about 18 minutes (I start with 15 minutes). The cupcakes should spring back when gently pressed. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool.

While they cool you can mix up a Chocolate frosting. I decided to use my Tofu Chocolate Frosting - see my Chocolate Strawberry torte with Tofu recipe from February for the recipe.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, spread the frosting over each individual one and then arrange the hazelnuts that you saved for decorating.

Deb, Julie and I really enjoyed them that afternoon. And if you wanted to sweeten it up a little more - use milk chocolate instead. I used dark chocolate for everything (Nutella, batter and frosting) so it certainly made it a dark chocolate lovers delight! Enjoy.