Flourless chocolate cupcakes
It’s hard for me to get excited about wheat-free baking, because I’m a flour snob. I know, I know, I don’t like to admit to my faults as much as the next person, but I am. I like to buy nice flours and then read about how the protein contents differ from brand to brand. I like to use old-school bread making methods that require elaborate starters, so that the flavor of the yeast will not mask the flavor of the flour. I have at least six different kinds of flour sitting in our kitchen as I type. I am a flour addict.
So it was with great difficulty that I averted my eyes and picked a wheat-free recipe for part two of the May Baking Project: flourless chocolate cupcakes. I used this Epicurious recipe for flourless chocolate cake, but baked them in muffin tins and topped them with sweetened whipped cream and a strawberry.
The result was about what I expected, given my past experiences with flourless chocolate cakes. The cakes were very, very rich, with an intense chocolate flavor that was almost too much for me. I like chocolate, but I’m actually more a fan of milk chocolate than dark chocolate (foodie sacrilege, I know. But what can I say? It’s my enormous sweet tooth). The cake, flavored with bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder, was too dark for me. The texture was dense and fudgy, but the cakes had a thick, tough crust on top, which I wasn’t a huge fan of.
The cupcakes were fine, they were serviceable, and they’ll do in a pinch if you need to whip up some treats for an unexpected gluten-intolerant house guest. But they gave me the feeling that I often have when eating wheat free baked goods – it was a shadow of what I really wanted.
Which brings me to one final request – to my wheat and gluten intolerant readers, do you have a great wheat-free dessert recipe that you think I should try? I know that there are excellent ones out there, and I would love your help with ferreting out the best of the bunch. Leave your recipes and links in the comments.
Maybe, with your help, I can get over my flour snobbery after all.
Recipe: Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted from Epicurious.
Makes seven cupcakes
Ingredients for cupcakes
4 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened)
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Ingredients For Topping:
1 cup heavy cream
2 tsp sugar
7 strawberries
Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter a muffin tin and line seven cups with paper liners.
Melt chocolate and butter together in a small saucepan over low heat until melted and combined. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar. Whisk in eggs. Sift cocoa over chocolate mixture and mix until just combined.
Pour batter into cups and bake for 25 minutes, until the tops have formed thin crusts. Cool cupcakes in pan on a rack 5 minutes. Then, remove cupcakes to cool on a rack.
While cakes are cooling, whip your cream and sugar until stiff peaks form. Spoon or pipe onto slightly warm cupcakes, garnish with a strawberry, and serve.
ModernDomestic 
Alice said
I’m guessing the best wheat-less recipes are going the be the ones that wouldn’t normally have flour – puddings, custards, fruit … What about flours that don’t have gluten? Does graham have gluten? You could do a pie with a graham cracker crust maybe?
moderndomestic said
Graham flour is actually a type of wheat flour, but I bet it would be possible to find a gluten-free version. I was actually thinking cheesecake with a nut crust or no crust could be cool.
Baking without flour is hard because it’s the gluten in flour that gives it so many of its spring, stretchy qualities. Something like rice or potato flour just isn’t the same.
Perhaps Cupcakemonsterlee will weigh in? She brought some pretty kick-ass gluten free mint chocolate cupcakes to a party last year, that were truly fabulous.
Nina said
Hi!
I am wheat and dairy free and have a baking blog: The Mini Canteen where I post my recipes.
epicureious said
your snobbery is misplaced.
Bateman said
hi, this recipe looks good. i have a question, do these cupcakes rise? should i not fill the cupcake batter all the way to the top of the liner?