Raspberry Truffle Brownie Cupcakes

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Adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

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Brownie layer
1/4 c. Unsalted butter, melted
1/3 c. Unsweetened applesauce
2/3 c. Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 c. All purpose flour
1/3 c. Unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp Salt

Raspberry truffle layer
1 c. Semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 pkg (250g) Cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 c. Seedless raspberry jam (or strawberry jam)

White chocolate topping
3 oz White chocolate
2 tsp Butter

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Whisk together the melted butter, applesauce and sugar.  Beat in one egg at a time and mix well.  Add vanilla.

Combine flour, cocoa and salt in a separate bowl.  Add to butter mixture and whisk until just combined.

Divide the brownie batter into 12 muffin cups lined with paper cups (fill ~ 1/3 of the cups).  Bake for 10-12 min.  Insert a toothpick to check for doneness; there should be little clumps on the toothpick.  Do not overbake.  Set brownies aside to cool.

While the brownies are baking and cooling, prepare the raspberry truffle layer.  Begin by melting the semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Allow the chocolate to cool until it is warm to the touch.

Using a handheld beater, whip the cream cheese until fluffy (~ 3-5 min).

Add sugar and raspberry jam.  Beat until incorporated.

Stir in the melted chocolate and mix until combined.

Spread the truffle over the cooled brownies.  Chill for 1 hour.

For the white chocolate topping, melt the white chocolate with the butter.  Mix well.

Drizzle white chocolate over the truffle layer and spread with a fork.  Keep in refrigerator until serve.

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My comments:

I spend a lot of time surfing the internet, reading recipes and drooling over the pictures.  I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I see something I like and I can't stop thinking about it until that recipe appears in food form on my table (or some version of it).  The name of this dessert alone was enough to rope me in; let's face it, who can resist a food that has the words "truffle" and "brownie" in its title?

When I wrote down the recipe, I had every intention of following it to the dot.  But I am notorious for making substitutions and modifications to recipes even before trying the original recipe once.  My little changes don't always work but I like experimentation.  I guess it is an occupational hazard, me working in a research lab.

I love my brownie recipe.  I use it for everything that calls for brownies as part of the finished product.  However, I did substitute 1/2 of the butter for applesauce.  The reason I used 1/3 cup of applesauce instead of 1/2 cup is because I noticed the volume of the melted butter is closer to 1/3 cup.  I read somewheres that you can actually substitute all the butter in the recipe with applesauce, but I am not convinced that it'll taste as good.  I figured this is a brownie afterall, a little butter is ok.  If I'm really concerned about eating healthy, I should not be eating brownies at all.

The taste of my brownies were pretty good, except I overbaked the brownie bottom in the cupcakes and that made the brownie tasted more like a dense chocolate cake.  My second batch of mini-brownies were much better.  Also, I tried using whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour and I must admit, I am not a fan.  I guess the moral of the story is that I should just stick with an evil brownie recipe, enjoy it but eat less of it.

Making these brownies into cupcakes worked out well but I found the size a bit too big.  Even with the reduction in sugar, this cupcake is very rich.  I find myself feeling chocolated-out after one cupcake, instead of feeling satisfy with a desire to have more, which is the feeling I have when I enjoy the perfect dessert.  I will have to try this recipe again and make the brownie squares so that I can cut them into more desirable sizes.

I was quite happy with the white chocolate topping; it paired very well with the raspberry truffle.  I had some white chocolate lying around, the type that has a high cocoa butter content, perfect for melting.  The melted chocolate was a tad grainy, probably because I used a microwave instead of a double-boiler.  But once solidified, the white chocolate tasted pretty great.


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Comments

Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} said…
Glad you liked them. I've done that too. Sometimes if I overmicrowave the chocolate it will get grainy. You are so creative! I wish I could improvise more with recipes.
15/2/11 9:47 AM
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