Chocolate Zucchini Fudge Cupcakes

I'm about to enter the next phase of my health-kick. Step one was to eat healthier, specifically by eating more whole grains and vegetables. Step two is to limit baking sweets to one day a week, no Oreos, AND workout at least 3 days a week. I'd really like to make that last bit "do a cardio workout at least 3 days a week and do yoga at least twice," but that's pushing it. I did more exercise this past week than I've done the past month (thankfully that's an exaggeration)! I went to tap twice, did yoga 3 times, swam around the pool for awhile one afternoon, went for 1 run, and biked to work 3 days. I'm quite proud of that.

In terms of my baking limitations, I succeeded this week. Last Sunday, I made Rhubarb and Sorrel Scones. On Tuesday evening, I baked, but I made buttermilk oatmeal sandwich bread to use up buttermilk. I don't count that as "baking sweets" because the whole loaf of bread only had 3 tbsp. honey and I used it for sandwiches (ok, and for French toast on C's day off). I made it all the way to this Sunday before I baked again. One of C's favorite doctors is leaving the clinic where he works once a week. He wanted to make her something as a goodbye/thank you gift. She loves chocolate. This inspired me to make chocolate zucchini cupcakes, only to realize that he needed to take at least a dozen/the entire batch. I convinced him to make his own brownies for clinic so that I didn't have to give up all of my delicious cupcakes.

More on the cupcakes! I first made chocolate zucchini cupcakes (or more aptly, chocolate zucchini and carrot cupcakes) while I lived in St. Louis. I can't remember why I made them, but I did and frosted them with a super fudgey chocolate frosting. One of my classmates said they were her favorite chocolate cupcakes. For her birthday, I made another batch and they were equally as delicious. I don't like making the same recipe twice, but when someone requests something, or when I have a recipe someone really likes, I'll make exceptions. Since I'd made this recipe twice already, I knew I wouldn't be satisfied making it again unless I tried to improve it. I spent the afternoon flipping through cooking magazines looking for chocolate recipes and stumbled upon a recipe for chocolate cake with a fudge ripple. Immediately, I knew what I had to do: add a fudge ripple to these already delicious cupcakes. Oh, and add some whole grains.

Objective
Make my usual chocolate zucchini cupcake recipe, but add more chocolate to make it even better.

Materials
10 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup grated zucchini
1/2 cup grated carrot (or chop finely in a food processor)
1/4 cup half-and-half
4 oz. semi-sweet/bittersweet chocolate

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350º.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Transfer to a sifter and set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Continuing to mix on medium-low speed, add the egg, then add the vanilla.
4. Sift half of the flour mixture into the wet mixture and mix until just incorporated. Add the yogurt, then the rest of the flour mixture, mixing after each addition until the ingredients are barely homogenous. Stir in the grated zucchini and carrot. Set aside.
5. Place the bittersweet chocolate and the half-and-half in a microwavable container. Stir every 30 seconds and microwave only until the chocolate melts. Note: chocolate chips wont work as well as chocolate. If you only have chocolate chips, it's fine if they are still a tiny bit chunky, as long as they are soft. Fold this mixture into the cupcake batter, trying to leave ribbons of fudge without blending it in completely. (Alternatively, fill the muffin tin then add about 1/2 tbsp. per muffin cup and use a knife to mix it into the batter.)
6. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin. Divide the cupcake batter evenly between the cups.
7. Bake for about 18 minutes. When done, the tops should spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean (though the fudge ripple might make the toothpick-test a bit challenging). Remove the cupcakes from the oven and cool 15 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Loosen the muffins from the pan by running a plastic knife around the edge. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Results
These cupcakes have a rich chocolatey flavor and aren't too sweet to prevent the chocolate from being the star. The "fudge ripple" adds moisture and eliminates the need for frosting. You can see the zucchini and carrot if you look for them, but you certainly can't taste them. They are very rich, so you'll probably need to wash them down with a glass of milk.

Discussion and Future Directions
This was a huge success. In truth, I was worried about my "fudge ripple" because a lot of it was sitting on top of the cupcakes when I put them into the oven. That made them look a little less than perfect, but it made them taste a lot more perfect. If you're a chocolate lover, I suggest these cupcakes over the Chocolate Zucchini Cake I made last summer. The fudge ripple is really the star. I'm disappointed that I didn't think of this before! I don't think I'll ever put chocolate chips into my chocolate zucchini cupcakes/cake again because the fudge ripple leads to a far better texture. But, if you're looking for a frosted cupcake, these are a little too rich. Chocolate frosting would probably turn them into a new version of "death-by-chocolate." Plus, they're delicious as is, so why add the extra calories? But, just in case you want it, I put the recipe for my fudgey frosting in the supplementary materials.

Next time you have zucchini, carrots, or half-and-half that need to be used up before they go bad, I suggest you make these cupcakes. You could use cream or even try whole milk for the fudge ripple if that's what you have in the fridge. Even if you aren't a cake-lover, you might still like these. If you aren't a chocolate-lover, you will hate them. Really though, zucchini season is quickly approaching. As you're about to start your yearly battle of what-on-earth-am-I-going-to-do-with-yet-another-zucchini, I suggest you add this to your arsenal.

Supplementary Materials

Fudgey Chocolate Frosting
(makes enough for a 9x13" cake or 24 cupcakes)
Sift 2 3/4 cup powdered sugar and 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. cocoa powder into a small bowl and set aside. Add 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp. milk and 1 tsp. vanilla to a liquid measuring cup and set aside. Cream 6 tbsp. butter, then alternatively beat in the dry ingredients and wet ingredients. Continue to beat until fluffy.

Rhubarb and Sorrel Scones

Last weekend at the farmers' market, I saw bunches of sorrel for sale. I had no idea what it was. In my head, I thought it was a type a mushroom, but I could clearly see that it was a leafy green of some sort. I didn't think much of it. This weekend, I saw it again and decided I wanted to try it. I still had no idea what it was, but I knew there was a recipe for Rhubarb and Sorrel Crisp in the cookbook C gave me for Christmas, Simply in Season. However, in my mind, crisps are more of a fall food. So, how was I going to use this large bunch of sorrel?

I had a stalk of rhubarb leftover in the fridge from the Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake I made for Memorial Day. One end was starting to get mushy, so I knew I needed to use it or risk losing it. I also had about 3/4 cup cream in the fridge on its "Best By" date. My plan for the rhubarb and cream was to make scones. Since rhubarb and sorrel pair well for a fruit crisp, I didn't see why I couldn't put them together in a scone. Plenty of people make savory scones with spinach, so why not sorrel?

What is sorrel anyway? Sorrel is a perennial herb that is related to buckwheat and rhubarb. Like rhubarb leaves, it contains oxalic acid, which can cause kidney failure by chelating metals and precipitating crystals in the kidneys. Luckily, sorrel contains less oxalic acid than rhubarb leaves and is safe for consumption (but can be lethal if high quantities are eaten). Lots of foods we eat other than rhubarb, buckwheat, and sorrel contain moderate levels of oxalic acid, for example: black pepper, parsley, spinach, beets, nuts, berries, and beans.

Objective
Make Rhubarb & Rye Scones from Apt. 2B Baking Co. with chopped sorrel.

Materials
2 stalks rhubarb (~4.5 oz), chopped to 1/2" pieces
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
zest of 1 lime
1 oz. sorrel, cut in half lengthwise then chopped
4.5 oz. rye flour (or another whole grain flour: barley, whole wheat)
6 oz. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, cold and cut into 1/2" cubes
4-6 oz. heavy cream (1/2-3/4 cup)
2-3 tbsp. turbinado sugar (or other coarse sugar), for sprinkling

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix the chopped rhubarb with 2 tbsp. white sugar and the zest of one lime. Place the chopped sorrel on top of the rhubarb, but don't mix it in.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Use a pastry blender to cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly with the butter well-distributed.
4. Find your small bowl of rhubarb and sorrel. Give the mixture a stir to combine the sorrel and rhubarb and distribute the sugar and juices. Scape the vegetables (yes, they are both vegetables) with the sugary juice into the bowl with the dough and stir to mix.
5. Pour the cream in slowly as you gently stir the dough. You only want to add enough to bring the flour together into a dough. Once you get there, stop.
6. Gather the dough together in a ball. I suggest dumping the dough onto saran wrap and pulling the wrap up and around the dough to shape it into a ball. Then, still on the saran warp, flatten the ball to a 1" thick disc. Cut the disc in half, then continue making cuts until you have 8 triangles. Place the triangles on the prepared baking sheet with at least 1" of space around them (see the pictures in Supplementary Materials to see how much they expand). Brush the tops of the scones with cream and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400ºF. If you can see unbaked dough in any of the cracks, continue to bake. When they are done, the tops should be lightly golden. Remove the scones from the oven. Slide the parchment paper from the pan onto a wire rack and allow the scones to cool. Best served fresh.

Results
The scones are very light and moist. The sugar topping adds a nice crunch. The sweet to tart ratio is great. The rhubarb broke down to "little jammy pockets" just as Yossy from Apt. 2B Baking Co. said it would! The sorrel lost its bright green hue and broke down quite a bit, but maintained its flavor. 

Discussion
I tried my first scone just a few months ago. I always thought scones were dense, dry, and hard. Maybe I was confusing them with biscotti, which I have had and do not like. I made a recipe for cardamom and orange scones with orange blossom water and honey mascarpone from Homemade Winter by Yvette van Boven. I learned that I do not like orange blossom water, but that I do like scones. They aren't the dry, dense little hockey pucks I thought they were. 

This recipe is even better than the cardamom and orange scones I made. The texture is amazing. The flavor is also very good. If you can't get sorrel, leave it out. Yossy's recipe is a keeper. So much so that I'm going to start craving scones. I like that the scones get all of their flavor from the flour, vegetables, and citrus zest. There are no spices. The scones have a crisp rhubarb flavor that is very refreshing (quite the opposite of the rhubarb cardamom combination I used when I was looking for a warm, comforting cake). I am so glad we came across sorrel today so that I could try this recipe, with my own little twist.

Since this recipe only used 1 oz. of sorrel, we still have quite a bit left. We had the scones for "second breakfast." For lunch, I made blue cheese and sorrel grilled cheese sandwiches from Seattle Times. Both sorrel and blue cheese have strong flavors. I felt like the blue cheese won the battle and I couldn't really taste the sorrel. Nevertheless, it was fun to try. I'm going to have to be creative to figure out how to use the rest!

Supplementary Materials

Review: Homemade Sunflower Seed Butter

I have a fondness for trying interesting things in the kitchen. If I find a recipe that makes me squint my eyes, tilt my head, and say "hmm" out loud,  then I probably have to try it. The most recent such recipe was for chocolate cupcakes with a basil buttercream frosting. Basil buttercream? Hmm. Only with high risk is there is high reward (or so they say). The recipe before that was an oatmeal cookie recipe with old fashioned and steel-cut oats plus hazelnuts and chocolate. Yes, please. But steel cut oats in cookies? Hmm. And the recipe before that was for cookies made with sunflower seed butter and chocolate-covered sunflower seeds from Bakerita. A long time ago, my grandma bought my mom Trader Joe's chocolate-covered sunflower seeds. Much like me, she thought hmm, and decided to purchase them. It's really the only logical solution because otherwise you'd never know if it's a "good" hmm or a "bad" hmm. I'd just seen chocolate covered sunflower seeds at a local market. It was surely meant to be.

So, these cookies used oats (I love oats in cookies), chocolate covered sunflower seeds (which made the cookies adorable. Go to the Bakerita link to look for yourself), and a weird and whacky ingredient I'd never heard of: "Sunbutter." I learned that Sunbutter is sunflower seeds turned into a nut (well, in this case, seed) butter. Was it worth paying over $5 for a jar of Sunbutter to try a hmm recipe? No. Low and behold, I turned to the internet and found a recipe for homemade sunflower seed butter from Tessa Domestic Diva. "Ok", I told myself, "I can do this."

Along with my chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, I picked up a lot of unsalted, not roasted sunflower seeds (and pepitas, hazelnuts, wheat germ, and whatever other fun things I found in the bulk foods section). I pulled out my food processor from storage by myself. This was no easy task. Look how well Dad stuffed all of my worldly possessions into my storage box. Of course the food processor wasn't in the front. But thankfully my Kitchen Aid was, so Kitty/Sir Mix-a-Lot made her/his way into our kitchen months ago.

Sunflower seeds of raw and chocolate varieties? Check! Food processor? Check! Ok, the sunflower seed butter wasn't all that easy. The problem may have been that I followed the manufacturer's instructions to process only 1 cup of nuts for nut butters at a time. I couldn't quite get the movement within the machine that I was hoping for, which prompted me to add oil before I was supposed to add oil. That probably also lead to me adding a heck of a lot more oil than was called for in the recipe. That's an "Abby-oops."I used honey as my sweetener and added it until my sunflower seed butter tasted semi-sweet. I forgot to add any salt. Once it was done though, it was fine. Not as creamy as Skippy, but that's to be expected. While it's the only peanut butter I like, I find it hard to believe that it actually comes from peanuts. Sunflower seed butter creation step? Successful.

The next step was easy. Making cookie dough is usually foolproof if you follow directions. And after plenty of Abby-oopses, I've learned that you can mix the ingredients in pretty much any order and still end up with a cookie. The coolest part of making the cookie dough was that an hour later, the cookie batter on the spatula was lime green. The recipe notes that sunflower seed butter can turn green when oxidized. I was not expecting it to be such a lovely hue. Chemistry! The cookies looked beautiful and tasted delicious. The flavor was distinct from peanut butter cookies, but I can't quite put my finger on the flavor. If you've eaten a bunch of raw sunflower seeds, imagine that, but with butter, sugar, and other delicious things.

Ok, fast forward a week. There was still a half cup of homemade sunflower seed butter in the refrigerator. It was not getting any fresher and I wasn't quite sure how long it would last. I once learned why Salmonella is so problematic in peanut butter and knew that sunflower seed butter shared the key property for optimum Salmonella outbreak (see, being a microbiologist can be useful outside of the lab). How could I use up the rest? I didn't want to make more cookies because of the price of the chocolate-covered sunflower seeds. Though in retrospect, I could have used sunflower seeds (maybe even the roasted & salted variety) plus chocolate chips, but I didn't think of that. Hours of "Googling the web" brought me upon a recipe for The Fit Cookie's Maple Sunbutter Granola. 

Oats, flaxseed, coconut, sunflower seeds, sunflower seed butter, and maple syrup? Sounded too good to be true. In reality, those are the only ingredients I used because I forgot to add the salt and vanilla (and deliberately left out raisins because I don't think they have  place in, well, anything). Oh my! This is good stuff. It even clumped a little bit and started to harden without having to cool forever. I was very impressed with this recipe, which surprised me. Peanut butter granola didn't sound like it would taste good, so why would sunflower seed butter granola taste good? I don't know. Maybe because I'm not used to how sunflower seed butter is supposed to be used (for example, peanut butter is for bananas, toast, PB&Js, peanut sauce, chocolate ice cream, crepes, cookies, and ants on a log). Without expectations, things often taste better. Really, this is a great recipe and I plan on using the last 1/4 cup of sunflower seed butter on a second batch.

SUNFLOWER SEED BUTTER: The Verdict

Worth the effort for unique snacks. Next time, I would probably use my 1 cup food processor and make a smaller batch to make just enough for a recipe. Because it's not perfectly creamy, I don't think I'd like it on toast or crackers, so I wouldn't really want leftovers. Now that I know how easy it is to make, I don't need to buy it. The only perk to buying it would be that the creamiest texture is undoubtedly store-bought. Luckily, when using it in recipes, a grainier texture doesn't matter!