19 November 2011

Pumpkin brown butter cupcakes

Having someone staying for a visit always is a perfect excuse for baking something. Not that I really needed an excuse but it's always nice to have one that you can shove into your conscience's mouth when it starts nagging.
And yes, it's yet another pumpkin recipe. You'll just have to live with it. The pumpkin madness will only continue for a few more days because next weekend it's the first Advent and that means the beginning of christmas biscuit time. Lots and lots of baking. Can't wait.

Back to the recipe. I've been wanting to make pumpkin cupcakes since September but never found a recipe I really liked. This one is adapted from Bake Me Blush and has just the perfect balance of moisture, spices, sweetness and pumpkin taste. Unfortunately, it contains an awful lot of butter and sugar... But it's totally worth it, trust me.


Fresh from the oven, iced and sprinkled. I don't really like those extremely sugary sweet icings, so I substituted maple syrup for half of the icing sugar. The sprinkles were my flatmate's idea, though. Credit where credit is due.


Yum!


I (or my camera) didn't manage to capture the fabulous colour, they look much more intensly orange on the inside. Well, I should say, "they looked". They're already gone.

Pumpkin brown butter cupcakes
(adapted from Bake Me Blush)
Makes for 14 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
165 g/0.75 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for tins
165 g/1.6 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
225 g/1 cup pumpkin puree
200 g/1 cup packed brown sugar
115 g/0.5 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
 
For the filling:
55 g/0.25 cup unsalted butter
60 g/0.5 cup sifted icing sugar (I was out of icing sugar and used normal caster sugar which worked out OK, but I'd still recommend using icing sugar.)
120 ml/0.5 cup maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 Tbsp milk, plus more if needed

Preheat oven to 180° C/325° F. Grease your muffin tins or insert baking cases.
In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Cook until butter turns golden brown, stir from time to time. Remove from the heat and let cool. 
Mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. In another bowl, mix pumpkin puree, both sugars, eggs, and brown butter mixture. Add flour mixture and whisk until just combined.
Pour the batter into the muffin tins, filling each almost to the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean, about 30 minutes. 
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and cook until brown. Remove from the heat, add icing sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon milk, and combine. 
Ice the cupcakes while still warm and put some sprinkles on top if you feel like it.
Eat. Warning: They're addictive.

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