This recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes was inspired by some similar cupcakes from Trader Joe's. They are moist chocolate cupcakes filled with a peanut butter cream and topped with ganache.
Melted Chocolate and Dutch Cocoa Powder
As you can see from the photo, I used Trader Joe's brand dark chocolate. The recipe also has melted dark chocolate in both the cake and the ganache. In addition to the melted chocolate, there is Dutch process cocoa powder. I originally called for Hershey's Dark, but these days I would change brands of Dutch since Hershey's changed their formula. I still love their "natural" but the dark cocoa is not quite the same.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes Yield
I am very happy with the recipe. The downside is that it only makes 12, but that might also be an upside as it's always nice to have a mix of different cupcakes, so you could throw together a batch of these and then do some vanilla or carrot cupcakes.
Recipe
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cake:
- 3 oz dark chocolate chopped (I used Trader Joe's Dark)
- 5 tablespoons Dutch process cocoa
- ¾ cup hot brewed coffee
- ¾ cup bread flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Peanut Butter Buttercream
- ⅓ cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt plus more to taste
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream at room temperature
Chocolate Ganache
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 4 oz chopped dark chocolate again, Trader Joe's
- 2 ½ teaspoons softened butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 standard size muffin cups with paper liners.
- Place chocolate and cocoa in a mixing bowl and pour the hot coffee over. Whisk until smooth then cool.
- In another bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda together, set aside.
- Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar and vanilla into the cooled chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the flour mixture. Divide batter between the baking cups.
- Bake 17-19 minutes, until cupcakes are set and just firm to the touch. Cool completely on a rack.
- Next, make the ganache. It needs time to cool, so I like to make it early on.
- Heat the cream in a microwave-safe measuring cup (I use a 2 cup Pyrex) just until it begins to boil. Add the finely chopped chocolate and stir. Let sit for a few minutes, then stir again until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in the softened butter. Let cool for about 10 minutes, then pour into a pastry bag or a heavy duty freeze bag and let cool and thicken.
- Make the peanut butter filling, combine the butter and peanut butter and beat until creamy. Add the confectioner’s sugar gradually, beating until well mixed, then add the salt, vanilla and cream and beat until smooth.
- Carve a small well in each cupcake and fill with peanut butter filling. You can spoon it in or pipe it out of a snipped freezer bag.
- At this point the ganache should be cool and slightly thick. If it's not, throw it in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes. Snip the tip off the decorating bag (or Freezer bag) and pipe the ganache over the cupcake.
- Pipe or spoon a little dab of peanut butter in the center.
Michelle @ My Gluten-free Kitchen says
Drooling! You had me at chocolate and peanut butter! These look fantastic. I'd love to try this combo with my gluten-free chocolate cupcakes.
Anna says
Shari, I like cookie butter but not with chocolate, so I really can't say.
Shari says
Would it work to substitute cookie butter for the peanut butter? If we're going for full on TJ's theme here...
Anna says
Sarah, I had a lot of fun with the ganache. I normally drizzle it over things, but this time I (patiently) waited for it to thicken and had no problems piping it out. By the way, I had to use crunchy peanut butter because that was all we had, but I think creamy peanut butter would be even better.
Sarah says
Wow, these look amazing! I can't get enough of the chocolate cake/ganache lately, so will definitely be trying these:)
Anna says
The extra gluten in the bread flour is supposed to keep the cupcakes from being too crumbly. Not all cupcakes need bread flour for structure, but this one's composition is such that the extra gluten in the flour kind of helps with the overall structure.
Jeryry says
Why bread flour??
Anna says
Katherine, I am working my way through their wines. I like the
La Granja 360 Tempranillo - $3.99 (has a pig on it)
Archero Nero d'Avola - $4.99 (but I like almost all Nero d'Avola and am not picky)
Lagranja 360 Tempranillo/Garnacha Blend -- $6.99 (Has a zebra on it)
So far the only one I didn't care for was the "Happiness". I got lured in by the smiley face on the bottle, but it wasn't for me.
katherine says
These look delish! I really like Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate too. Which wines do you buy? Always looking for good TJ's recommendations. Thanks.