Snickers Cupcakes

So, I'm not really sure why, but I got bit by the bug this weekend and ended up baking and cooking a whole bunch of things. Oh yeah, this is Matt by the way. I started with Snickers Cupcakes, courtesy of Food Network Magazine, continued with some tasty Chocolate Malt Cookies, and just finished the weekend with some homemade Carolina BBQ sauce. So, here is the deal for the Snickers Cupcakes. I have to say that parts of them are phenomenal, but with a couple tweaks, they'll be perfect. So, let's go....



For the cupcakes:

2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
2-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
10 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole milk
2 cups chopped salted roasted peanuts (we'll talk about this later.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Separately, beat the eggs and both sugars until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in the melted butter and vanilla. With the mixer on low, add half the dry ingredients, then the milk, then the remaining dry ingredients. Fold in the peanuts, but do not overmix.

Divide the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups, filling each about halfway. Bake 20 to 22* minutes (I disagree) until a toothpick comes out clean.

*Salted nuts tend to dry out a batter drastically, which causes the cupcakes to end up a lot drier than I like. I would start checking the cakes at about 17 to 18 minutes to ensure they do not get dry. If you would prefer, you can omit the nuts and bake them as directed, but the nuts really
added a yummy texture to the cakes.

For the frosting:

6 ounces chopped milk chocolate
4 ounces chopped semi sweet chocolate
2-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup whole milk
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

Put both chocolates in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on 50% power for 1 minute. Stir and continue to microwave until melted. Add the sugar, milk, butter, vanilla, and salt and beat until smooth and creamy.

*This frosting really is the star of this recipe. It is chocolately, smooth, and delicious with the whole milk. Use good quality chocolate for this one. I used bars of Ghirardelli, which is really my favorite baking chocolate.

For the nougat:

2-13 ounce jars marshmallow creme
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
Pinch of salt

*The nougat is very good too! The leftover frosting and nougat are in our fridge being eaten on the end of a spoon whenever we need a sugary pick me up!