Barefoot Contessa Choc. Cupcake w/ P.B. Frosting Recipe Help

[jmwally]

In Ina Garten's newest cookbook (B.C. at Home), there is a recipe I tried for Chocolate Cupcakes. Has anyone tried it? I made it yesterday and followed the recipe to the T. I even bought a dozen extra large eggs! Now I'm not baker, but I am capable of following baking recipes pretty well. The cupcakes were the DRIEST things I've ever tasted. Crumbly, very cocoa-y tasting, and just all around DRY. Is there something wrong with the recipe, or is it me???

[jeninftmyers]

for some reason, i feel that something is always left out. i'm no slump at baking but EVERY time i make something of BC's arsenal, its always DRY. cupcakes, cakes, cookies, and bar entities. don't worry jmwally.. its not you. or maybe its just us.

[toodie jane]

Unless the shortening amounts need to be adjusted, perhaps the methods need tweeking. Baking time and oven temperatures are pretty crucial to small items like muffins, cupcakes, cookies, etc. Place a small, inexpensive oven thermometer on your top rack for comparison to your oven's setting. Could be off.

Try monitoring the baking by using a tester and pulling the items just when the sheen on the top of the cupcakes begins to lessen at the edges, but is still slightly apparent in the middle. A toothpick inserted in the cupcake center and drawn out should have moist looking crumbs hanging on it, but shouldn't be completely covered with a wet-looking batter.

Cookies require constant vigilance as well. Don't overload your cookie sheet, cool sheets between batches, rotate top and bottom placement of sheets in the oven during a batch bake, and if you prefer chewiness to your cookies, pull a little early. Let cool slightly on sheet and then remove to a cooling rack.

We have a local "bakery C" that bakes sells tons of freshly made cookies every day. I work at "bakery A" where the cookies are almost always underdone. They are uncooked in the middle and the flour and sugar never melt and bake, and they often taste bland and raw. They often have a very poor appearance. I was told that the ovens are on timers.

I asked the 'local baker' what his secret to perfect cookies was and he said almost sheepishly, "I'm an oven man" meaning he knows his ovens well, but he watches things like a hawk and doesn't use timers to tell him if something is ready to come out of the oven.

This is often my own downfall, so I know to NOT be doing anything else when making cookies. Not even reading the paper.
I have a very short attention span, so making cookies is very hard for me, which is OK for my waistline!

[girlygirl]

Although I've never made anything from her cookbook or bought any of her mixes, I have made her chocolate white chocolate chip cookies recipe from the food network website and has, so far, came out quite yummy everytime.

[JudiAU]

Food and Wine had an excellent recipe for chocolate cupcakes with a peanut butter creme and chocolate ganache. Highly rec'd. Very moist cupcake with deep flavor. It was one of there end page recipes. Let me know if you don't have access and I wil paraphrase.

The recipe was good enough that I renewed my sub this year.

[eriberri]

Please paraphrase and post!

[chairmanpao]

Did you use a very high cacoa-content cocoa? (Like 70 percent or higher?) I've read that it can cause baked goods to dry out a little. Apparently you have to check them earlier and possibly adjust the baking time. You might want to try the recipe again using a lower-percentage cocoa. I tasted cupcakes made from this recipe with a 70-percent cocoa and noticed that they did have a strangely dry texture, though they didn't seem to be overcooked and were tender.

[jeninftmyers]

by lower percent... does that mean that i need to go elsewhere to look for cocoa? at williams sonoma or at sur la table all i found was 70%. does this mean i should go to the grocery store and use the hersheys? i am willing to do so. but with some reluctance.

[babette feasts]

70% cocoa? All unsweetened cocoa should be 100% (Cocoa is ground defatted chocolate liquor: unsweetened chocolate with the cocoa butter taken out). If you're talking chocolate, though, chairmanpao is correct. If a recipe was developed with say 55% semisweet and you use 70% bittersweet, you are adding more cocoa solids and less fat (cocoa butter) and sugar and will get a drier cake. I just read Alice Medrich's Bittersweet, she goes into a lot of detail on this and tells you how to adjust recipes for whatever percentage chocolate you want to use.

[chairmanpao]

You're right, babette -- I was mixing up chocolate and cocoa. Cocoa powder can actually have different amounts of butter fat (they don't press all of the butter fat out when they make the presscake that is ground into cocoa), but the difference (I've seen some at 10 percent, others up to 24 percent) probably wouldn't affect the product's moistness, since most recipes don't call for huge amounts of cocoa). So back to the problem with BC's recipe. Maybe the thing to do is ask Ina herself on her website...

[norjah]

Her cookbooks' aren't the most reliable. She has a section on her webpage where she tries to address problems people are having with them: http://www.barefootcontessa.com/qna.h...

Not sure if your cupcakes were on it.

[Chocolatechipkt]

If you're still willing to try her recipes, her chocolate cake recipe (from the first cookbook) works great as cupcakes--it's dark, rich, and moist.

[btnfood]

I've wanted to try this cupcake recipe but I am also pretty sure that it IS the same recipe as you are referring to in the first book.

For the original poster, I can understand your frustration. There is nothing worse than a dry cake. There are so many things that can go wrong when baking, so it's hard to tell if it's a problem with the recipe. When I get to try this, I will report back with my results.

As to the posters that have questioned the reliability of Ina's recipes, I must disagree. I've found her recipes to work extremely well, and am amazed how she even manages to give amounts for salt and pepper that are right on, even when multiplied for large quantities.

[Ida Red]

I suspect the problem (assuming you used cocoa powder) is the amount and kind of cocoa powder you used...
Dutch-processed cocoa powder will make some cakes too dry and just-not-right.
Also, cocoa powder can get really compressed sometimes, meaning that a measuring cup can vary greatly. That's why professional bakers weigh everything.

[iL Divo]

I made these 3 days ago and it's March 2007 now. I see this was posted a long time ago. I am not thrilled either. I think they're dry but I did use my cocoa which was a gift from a friend and it's from Amsterdam. So, that may have been my dilemma. I didn't grind the peanuts on top of the cupcakes after frosting them either, seemed like overkill to me. Not that fond of peanuts anyway. I am also not that fond of Ina's cooking style. Her meals that she prepares for friends are lack luster to me. There is never anything that seems like a complete meal to me, or else, I just make way too much stuff for dinner. I enjoy a diverse plate. She apparently likes her own cooking. Does she have kids? Is she really married to Jeffrey for about 35 years? I like her and think they're a darling couple.