Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes

A recent foodie magazine printed a recipe for Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes.
A few friends have made them and have had trouble with the recipe. The cakes rose quickly and then imploded. Tasty I'm sure but not what was expected.

We have had a chat about the recipe and suggested alternative ways to make it. I have contacted the magazine who will check the recipe for typos etc and get back to me.

After looking at other recipes for brownies, including the one I make all the time, which I think may have been the first entry on this blog, I attempted the recipe today.

They worked

Left cake was a half filled case, the right cake was a three quarters filled case.

I tried two three quarter filled cases. The others were half filled as I would usually do.

This is the recipe straight from the magazine. My variations are below.

Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes

170g dark chocolate chopped
120g unsalted butter
1 tbs golden syrup or light corn syrup
3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup (80g) coarsely chopped walnuts
8 small strawberries

Frosting
250g cream cheese at room temp

1/3 cup (115g) golden syrup or light corn syrup
120g dark chocolate chopped

Position oven shelf in the centre and preheat oven to 180
Line a cupcake pan with 8 paper liners.
Stir chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water) until they melt and the mixture is smooth.
Stir in the golden syrup and a pinch of salt.
Remove from the heat and set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar and eggs in a large bowl for 2 minutes or until the mixture is thick and light.
Stir in the chocolate mixture.
Add the flour and the baking powder and stir until just blended, then stir in the walnuts.
Divide the batter equally among the cupcake liners, filling them completely.
Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the cupcakes puff and crack on top and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with fudgy crumbs attached.
Remove the cupcakes from the pan and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Meanwhile for the frosting, beat the cream cheese in a large bowl with electric beaters until it is light and fluffy.
Add the golden syrup and beat for a further 3-5 minutes.
Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water).
Stir constantly until the chocolate melts.
Add the melted chocolate to the cream cheese mixture and beat until blended and fluffy, stopping the machine and scraping the bottom of the bowl to ensure that the mixture is well blended.
Spread the frosting generously over the cooled cupcakes.
Garnish each one with a strawberry, then serve.

My variations

1. I used 3 eggs

2. Oven at 160C, cooked for 30 minutes

3. I used a melt and mix method.

I melted the butter and chocolate together (m/w 3mins MED)

Stir in salt, sugar and golden syrup

Stir in eggs

Stir in flour and baking powder

Stir until well mixed

Pour into muffin cases

Bake at 160C for 30mins.

They look good. We haven't taste tested yet. If there are any left they will be iced with regular chocolate icing.

Banana Bread #8

Banana Bread #8 has been deleted from the experiment. On reading it a little closer it is a recipe for a cake. So somehow it snuck into the list while I wasn't looking.

There are now four recipes left to taste test so I better have a look in the bottom of the freezer for some bananas as there haven't been many left to grow old in the fruit bowl lately.

#9 is a recipe using golden syrup
#10 is one of the most popular recipes from www.taste.com.au
#11 is from a little cook book of newspaper columns
#12 is my 'wild card' and is called banana parkin and contains oats.

A parkin, according to Wikipedia, is a soft cake made with oatmeal and molasses, originating in Northern England and most often associated with the area around Leeds.

Banana Bread #7

This recipe is from an older Women's Weekly cook book. It was selected as being a 'regular, traditional' style recipe.

I've used this recipe before and once again had the same problems with it, hence the quest for the best banana bread.

Nice looking as it comes out of the oven

But here is the problem, cakey at the top and dense and almost undercooked at the base.

This cake came out of the oven slightly too brown on the top. The recipe suggested an hour but I took it out at 50mins. The recipe also suggests icing the cake. When cut, it was cakey and moist at the top, but quite dense and almost undercooked at the base. It tasted better when buttered. The butter just added that little bit extra.

The Recipe

125g butter, chopped
1t vanilla
1/2 C caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 C mashed banana
1 1/2 C SR flour
1t bicarb
1T milk

Grease a 14 x 21cm loaf tin.
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl of an electric mixer
Beat at low speed until combined, then beat at a medium speed until mixture is smooth and has changed colour
Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake in a moderate oven for 1 hour
Turn onto a wire rack to cool.

So I still have the problem of the cooked top half and the stodgy undercooked bottom half - but only with this recipe. Interestingly this recipe is the only one that uses a free standing cake mixer. All the others are mixed by hand and this one also has bicarb and SR flour, like the previous one, but no smell of bicarb overload - interesting.

Score 6/10

Looks Good, Shame About the Taste

I had high hopes for banana bread # 6.


It looked great coming out of the oven, it made a large cake so ideal for the family, but ugh!, it tasted just revolting. The bicarb taste was so strong this cake smelt and tasted like fish!

It looks great straight out of the oven

Good texture inside.

The Recipe

2C SR flour

1t bicarb

1t ground nutmeg

1/2 C brown sugar

3/4 cup chopped walnuts (not used)

1 C milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1C mashed banana

1T raw sugar

Preheat oven to 180C

Grease and line a large loaf pan

Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl

Stir in sugar (and walnuts)

Combine milk, eggs and banana and stir into dry ingredients

Spoon into prepared tin

Sprinkle with raw sugar

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean

Stand 5 mins before turning out onto a rack to cool

Slice and serve fresh or toasted with butter or jam.

This one went straight into the bin. I was so disappointed as it looked so good. I wonder why they added the bicarb when the recipe had SR flour? If there is a next time, and I would like to try this one again as it was a good sized loaf, I might leave out the bicarb and maybe use buttermilk or yoghurt in place of the milk.

Score 3/10

The One That Nearly Didn't Make It

Banana bread #5 is one of those recipes that I instinctively shy away from. Anything that calls for egg whites and oil scream of healthy, low fat and generally dry and cardboardy. This recipe is from BBC Australian Good Taste magazine and is from the kids cooking section.

The Photos

Fresh out of the oven

Can you see the lumps of flour?

The Recipe

2 egg whites, lightly beaten
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
¾ C brown sugar
¼ C rice bran oil
1 ½ C plain flour
1 ¼ t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
½ t bicarb soda

Preheat oven to 180C and line a loaf tin.
Combine egg whites, banana, sugar and oil in a large bowl.
Sift dry ingredients.
Fold together until just combined and spoon into prepared pan.
Bake 1 ¼ hours until a skewer comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve warm, cold or lightly toasted with butter or cream cheese spread.

The Results

Believe it or not, this banana loaf is the best so far. I was so surprised. It makes a small loaf and I used a smaller tin than the others so it filled the tin nicely. It cooked in 55 minutes, rather than the 75 minutes suggested by the recipe. It was crunchy on the outside, sweet and bananary on the inside. It was nice with butter or eaten plain. It toasted well, but was as nice to eat fresh.

The Score

9/10. The best by far.

Banana Bread #4

The picture


The recipe
This recipe comes from the Canadian Food Website - Food Network Canada, and is a recipe from Christine Cushing.

Banana Bread
2 or 3 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup/250 ml)
1/4 cup honey (60 ml)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla (7 ml)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (60 ml)
1 cup plain yogurt, full fat (250 ml)
2 tbsp vegetable oil (30 ml)
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (375 ml)
2 tsp baking soda (10 ml)
1/2 tsp salt (2 ml)
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 180C
Lightly grease a 4-inch X 8-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mash bananas.
Add the honey, vanilla, sugar, yogurt and oil. Mix with a spoon or spatula to combine.
Sift flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg onto parchment paper or another bowl. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the banana mixture until just combined.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
Bake 40 to 50 minutes, until golden and tester comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes.
Flip onto a wire rack and cool completely.

The results.
As you can see there is no picture of the completed loaf, I was too eager to try it.
The cake was soft and moist, with quite a cakey texture. There was very little banana or spice flavour and that horrible bicarb after taste.

The next day it was still very moist but the bicarb after taste was just too much and I couldn't eat it. Although it was soft and cakey it toasted nicely and this hid the bicarb taste. I enjoyed it toasted.

The score 4/10
Although this loaf was nice toasted it was inedible when fresh because of the bicarb taste.

This Is Starting To Look Better

Banana Bread #3
This recipe comes from Donna Hay's new book 'No Time To Cook'
It is one of four recipes on a page and is just written as a paragraph, rather than all the ingredients listed, followed by a small picture.

The Pictures.

We were into this one before I remembered to take a photo

All looked good inside

The Recipe
1 2/3 C plain flour
1 ½ t baking powder
1/3 C caster sugar
1/3 C brown sugar
1 t cinnamon

Combine the following in a jug
1 t vanilla
2 eggs
½ C vegetable oil
3 mashed bananas

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients
Add the wet ingredients
Mix to combine
Pour into a greased loaf tin 20cm x 10cm x 10cm
Sprinkle with brown sugar
Bake at 160C for 60 mins or until cooked when tested.

The Comments

As you can see from the first photo we were into this before I remembered to take a photo.

It was cooked in 55 minutes so I took it out of the oven earlier than the 60 suggested.

The brown sugar sprinkled on the top gave a lovely crunch.

The batter was very stiff and I wondered if it could do with a half cup of milk or yoghurt.

This is a delicious banana loaf and if my investigations had to stop here I would be pleased with this recipe. However I'm not sure I could stop myself giving it a little tweak, as per the above point.

It was very tasty with and without butter.

It is quite firm, definitely a loaf or a bread in texture.

It was nice toasted but I didn't think this improved anything.

The Score

7 ½ /10

I'm a bit hesitant to give it an eight as there are still a few more to go.

To be 'good', future banana breads will be referenced to this loaf.