German Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe

Hey, I'm John Kanell. And today on Preppy Kitchen, we're making some decadent, delicious German chocolate cupcakes. So let's get started. First off, set your oven to 350 so it's nice and hot. Line your cupcake tin with papers, and now we'll be sifting the dry ingredients into a bowl. Starting with one and a half cups or 180 grams of all-purpose flour. Too much. We use a scale so we don't have this problem. Flour is not delicious. Nobody is sneaking a bite of flour. It holds everything together and provides structure. So we only want to use just enough so that your cupcake is a cupcake and not a pool of chocolate. For some chocolatey flavor, three tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder. This is pure rocks. One, two, and three. That's 18 grams, by the way. To buff things up, two teaspoons of baking powder. One, and two. German chocolate cake is one of my all-time favorite things. The recipe I have on the blog and on the channel is something I worked so hard on because it has just enough flour to hold it together. And it's this really delicate cake because there's a lot of frothed egg whites as well as some baking powder. So it's light, chocolatey, and the perfect vehicle for the frosting. This is the cupcake version of the recipe and it is much faster and easier. So I highly recommend both, different occasions. A quarter teaspoon of salt. Scale's done for a bit. Now we're gonna sift this out. Really, you're sifting because of the cocoa powder. Look at this, this is nonsense. Just push all those rocks through. And by the way, if you like my videos, hit that subscribe button. There's two new recipes every week. And shorts too. So sad, I have occasional comments like, oh my gosh, I haven't seen one of your videos in years. I'm like, you've been missing out. Okay, grab a whisk and give this a good mix. Okay, all mixed up, set this aside. Now we'll be doing a little bit of prep. German chocolate cupcakes need German's chocolate. It's actually a branded thing. Grab a knife and a cutting board. Occasionally I will get confused by polite German people saying, excuse me, this is not a German recipe. I live in Germany and I've never seen this in my life. What do you want about? And the thing is that this is not a German recipe. This is a recipe that makes use of German's chocolate. Samuel German developed this chocolate, which is a bit sweeter than normal chocolate for the baker's company. We'll be using half a bar or two ounces of German's chocolate. Honestly, if you can't get a hold of this though, I think semi-sweet chocolate would do just fine. Don't tell the ghost of Samuel German I said that. All right, give this a nice chop. We'll be melting this in some hot coffee. And we just don't want any giant chunks that won't melt. So this chocolate's from the 1800s. Fast forward to the 1950s in Texas, Miss George Clay submitted the recipe for German's chocolate cake, which used this chocolate to make a delicious chocolate cake with a coconut pecan gooey icing. And these people are making out like bandits because that cake is so popular and it specifically calls out this chocolate. Very lucky. I hope she got paid for that, but I don't think she did. Okay, pop this into a small bowl. To this, you'll add a quarter cup of hot coffee. The coffee is not gonna make this into a mocha cake. It's going to amp up the chocolate flavor. If you're anti-coffee, I get it, use a quarter cup of hot water. Let this sit for a few minutes and then we will whisk it and it should be nice and melty. If not, we can pop it back into the microwave, 30 seconds at half power. Set this aside, clear some things away and grab your stand mixer or a big bowl if you're using a hand mixer. Into my stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, I'm adding six tablespoons or 84 grams of unsalted room temperature butter. Pop your paddle on and we're gonna beat this until it's just nice and creamy. While that mixes up, let's give our chocolate a swirl. Okay, nice and melty. It's time for one and a quarter cups or 250 grams of granulated sugar. There we go. I'm gonna have this on medium speed and let it mix for three to four minutes until it's smooth and fluffy. While this mixes, I'm gonna crack two eggs into a small bowl just so I can do a really good shell check. Nice. I also have a third of a cup or 80 grams of sour cream. This gives us a lot of moisture, a little tang and a more delicate crumb, which I love. I'm gonna mix that with half a cup of whole milk. Mix that together until it's nice and combined. You can whisk it if you'd like. This will be alternating with our flour mixture into the butter towards the end of the recipe. But everything is set and ready to go. Now we'll add our eggs in one at a time. Two. Definitely time for a scrape down. You can mix your little heart out when you have the wet ingredients in the bowl. Once the dry ingredients go in, it's basically over. Just stirring until it's combined. So really make sure your consistency is right before you add the flour. A teaspoon of vanilla for some flavor. Now we can add our chocolate coffee mixture, which is cooled enough that it's not going to disturb the butter. It's slightly warm at this point. Yes, let's scrape that down. Mix this on medium until it's fully combined. Now I'm gonna reduce my speed to the lowest setting. And add the flour in three additions, alternating with my milk mixture. So half of the milk and sour cream. Another third of the flour. The rest of the milk. And the last bit of the flour. And here I'll stop it. It's not fully mixed at all. You can see all the flour here. But I'm gonna finish it off by hand. Grab your spatula and we'll fold this together, scraping the bottom of the bowl down as we go, so that everything is nicely mixed. Your cupcakes will have a more delicate texture if you're not overmixing. If you overmix, they're gonna be denser and more gummy and bready. Lovely chocolate cloud texture over here. It's time to fill our cupcake trays up, so grab a triggered scoop and let's get to work. This recipe makes 16 cupcakes, so divide your batter evenly. And I have a trick for you on what to do with these empty wells, because they can cause problems. All my cupcakes are filled, but I still have a little bit of batter left. I'm going to just try and even things out, because some got a bit less than they should. Our cupcakes are ready to go into the oven, 350 for about 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. They'll bake up with a flat top so they can get loaded with all of the delicious frosting. You'll probably have some empty cupcake wells. Fill them up halfway with water, and this way, everything will bake evenly. If you don't, these get too hot. Making the frosting is quite easy. The only thing is you have to let it cool down. That's the hardest part. Into a medium saucepan, I'm adding one cup plus two tablespoons of light brown sugar, packed. That's 250 grams. Lovely. One 12 ounce can of evaporated milk. If you haven't had German chocolate frosting, oh my gosh, it's so good. It really tastes like a gooey caramel with tons of sweetened shredded coconut and lots of pecans. So it's crunchy, has the substantial bit from the coconut, and gooey and melts in your mouth all at the same time. Three egg yolks will help hold this together. I would describe it as a cross between a caramel and a custard. So one yolk, two, and three. You'll also want three quarters of a cup of unsalted butter. That's 170 grams. And I will tell you, this is easier if it's not ice cold. So room temperature would be great. That's one and a half sticks if you're measuring it like a normal person would. For some balance, I want a quarter teaspoon of salt. Before this goes onto the stovetop, you'll want one and a half cups of chopped toasted pecans. Toasting pecans brings out the flavor, makes them even more crunchy, and it's so easy. Give your pecans a chop, put them on a baking tray, and then pop them into the oven at 350. Stir every four minutes or so, and once they're fragrant, maybe in eight minutes or less, they'll be ready to go. Just don't burn them. Now, onto medium heat we go. And grab a whisk while you're at it. You will be whisking constantly over medium heat for about five minutes, or until this starts to bubble and thicken. So the main thing is stir quickly as soon as this goes onto heat so the yolks don't cook in a weird way. And then we wanna get all the butter melted, and it will be nice and bubbly. Here you can see the butter's all melted, and we'll just be on stirring patrol until this heats up, starts to bubble, and thicken. Make sure that you're getting the corner of the pot too, otherwise things can scorch. That's why I like to use a narrow whisk. It's been about five minutes, and you can see it's starting to bubble and thicken, so I'm gonna stir it for a few seconds, and then take it off heat. Now we can mix in a teaspoon of vanilla, a little extra. The signature flavor here is the coconut. Three and a half cups, or 300 grams, of sweetened shredded coconut. My mom used to love to make German chocolate cake for us, and my brother and I used to love to sneak big handfuls of this, so there was not enough when she wanted to make the cake. And we can add our chopped pecans as well, nicely toasted. And as a reminder, it's one and a half cups, or 188 grams, of those pecans. Stir that together now. The smell is indescribably delicious. This is delicious, however, it is molten hot right now, so transfer this to a bowl so we can pop this into the fridge and chill faster. This needs to cool down until it is nice and spreadable, so it'll take about 30 to 60 minutes. I would pop it into the fridge, and just stir every once in a while, because the outside will cool faster. We'll be right back. Once your frosting's cooled, we can make the ganache. It is so easy. By the way, it's optional. You don't have to have a ganache here. It just adds some richness, and it's really pretty drizzled on top. Into a small pot, I'm adding half a cup of heavy cream. You could also microwave it, if that's more convenient. Gonna place this on medium heat so it gets nice and steamy. Keep an eye on that, because it will boil over. Now, I also want one cup, or 180 grams, of semi-sweet chocolate. You could use chocolate chips if it's easier. Today, I'm gonna cut up a bar. So here, we just wanna have nice, even pieces, so they all melt together. Chop, chop, chop. Keep an eye on that cream. Okay, I hear bubbles. My chocolate is chopped, so now, I'm gonna add the chocolate into a heat-proof bowl. Pour the steamy cream over the top. Here's a little tip. Your counter is usually cold. It will drain the heat so your chocolate doesn't melt. If you did this method to heat the cream up, just place the bowl on top. Steam and residual heat will keep this nice and warm, so your chocolate will be more likely to melt. Let this sit for a few minutes, and then whisk it together. You can totally stuff these cupcakes out. The frosting will last up to five days in the fridge. The cupcakes that are unfilled will last up to five days in the fridge, or you could freeze them for two months, and then just assemble them when you're ready. And the finished cupcakes will last five days in the fridge as is, so you can make these well in advance in pieces or as a unit, and just keep them in the fridge, and they'll be delicious. While that's sitting over there, let's core your cupcakes. I actually have a cupcake corer someplace, but I cannot find it. An apple corer will work really well. Here we go. Grab the center, pull the top out, and now we have a little reservoir where we can add our ganache. If you don't have either of these tools, a knife will work just as well. Just carefully cut out a little hole, pull it out, ganache goes in, et cetera. You're just keeping the cap. Pull that out. These are really delicate, so the top is just coming off, but we're not using this piece. This will be replaced with ganache, and it's for snacking. The cupcakes are actually so nice on their own. A couple are already missing because I was hungry. So keep the cap, keep that, and just continue on. If you don't wanna make the ganache, you could also just core these cupcakes and then add more of the German chocolate filling in here. These are all ready, so let's give our ganache a stir. Give it a whisk. Lovely. This ganache is nice on its own. Would it be better with a tablespoon of bourbon whipped in? I think so, but you don't have to, especially if you're serving this to children. Right now, you could use a piping bag to pipe these full, or just grab a spoon and add a nice healthy dollop right inside, and place your cap back on. Perfect. And by the way, you don't have to put the cap on if you don't want to. You could just eat that too. It doesn't all get covered with frosting. Fill these up, just like a little delicious assembly line. It's time to grab a nice triggered scoop, if you have one, or just spoon this on. Scoop your frosting, and then plop it right onto your cupcake. Your assembly line goes back into action. Just keep scooping, and if the top is a little bit messy, we can smooth it out, don't worry. These cupcakes look so good, but prepare for them to look even better. We're gonna drizzle the rest of the ganache all over the top, and then, if you'd like, either a toasted or a candied pecan to seal the deal. So, all I'm doing is going back and forth, and you can go in one direction, you can change it up. There's no rhyme or reason, and if you want to, you could skip this and just have them plain. They're your cupcakes. Pecans go on, and just like that, they're ready to enjoy. Now, the only challenge is taking a bite. Ooh, these are huge. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. They're really delicious. These are closer to mini cakes than cupcakes. So, grab a fork and knife, but any way you cut it, these are beyond decadent. The cupcakes melt in your mouth, the ganache is so silky and rich, and the frosting, you will just eat this frosting by the spoonful. It is amazing. I hope you get a chance to make this delicious recipe. If you like my videos, hit that Subscribe button and check out my chocolate playlist.