Using Caramelized White Chocolate: Salty Caramel Cupcakes

Last week, I caramelized some white chocolate, and promised that I would use it. Use it in a recipe, and not eat it all. I’m sure that some were skeptical, but today, I present you photographic evidence that it was used in a recipe; specifically, I used it to make salty caramel mini-cupcakes.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp butter, softened

1/4 cup sugar

¾ cup caramel sauce*

2 large eggs

4 ounces caramelized white chocolate, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

¾ c cream

*In order to have time for the caramel sauce to set, you need to make that first, so here’s how it goes:

Ingredients

1.5 c sugar

½ cup butter

½ cup cream

1.5 tsp salt

Heat the sugar in a heavy-duty pot until just melted. Slowly add the butter, then the cream, and finally the salt, all while stirring the mixture.

You’ll have more than ¾ cup, but I am sure you can find another use for it. For reference, eating it straight up is a perfectly acceptable use of the leftovers.

Now that we have the caramel sauce slowly cooling off, we can get to work on the cupcakes. Pre-heat the oven to 325 F, and set out the cupcake liners in a mini-cupcake pan. Then it’s time to get down to business with your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt).

Wisk those guys together, and set them aside, and also set aside the measured cream, as this gets incorporated at the same time. Meanwhile, get to work with your other ingredients – the butter, sugar, eggs, and the caramel sauce, which should be cooled down by now.

Cream the butter and sugar until light, then beat in the eggs one at a time. As you do this, heat up the caramelized while chocolate over low heat until slightly softened, and get your vanilla ready, too.

Once the eggs are incorporated, add the caramelized white chocolate and vanilla. You now have a delicious-looking mixture of sugar and fat.

Sounds yummy, right? Take this mixture, and, in three additions, adding in the cream and the flour mixture alternately. Stir until the flour is just barely incorporated to avoid overmixing.

Take the completed batter and distribute it into the mini-cupcake liners so that the liners are each about ¾ full.

Toss the pan in the oven (ok, don’t really throw it) for 13-15 minutes, and find yourself greeted with a wonderful caramel aroma.

The mini-cupcakes tasted buttery and just a little salty; the caramel flavor was fairly subtle. The texture was rich and overall, just amazing. I give credit to the caramelized white chocolate for the richness.