Ina's Chocolate Cupcakes

I had an itch to bake the other day and I wanted to try something new. I searched my cookbooks and landed on a recipe in my Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook for Chocolate Cupcakes. The recipe sounded wonderful and I was sure that I would fall in love with them. Ina's recipe in the cookbook comes with a recipe for "Kathleen's Peanut Butter Icing." Which I thought was another good sign since Kathleen is my full name and I love peanut butter icing :-) I decided to skip the icing though, since my husband and daughter aren't fans of peanut butter icing.

Unfortunately, we were less than impressed. The cupcakes came out dry and with very little chocolate flavor. I'm not sure if it's because i didn't have buttermilk and substituted with a combination of skim milk and vinegar. Or it could be that I used Hershey's cocoa powder when Ina called for "good" cocoa powder. I'm not sure if Ina would consider the Hershey's brand "good." ;-) Anyway, they weren't bad. I mean, they were chocolate cupcakes after all! But I probably won't be making them again :-(

Chocolate Cupcakes (source: Barefoot Contessa at Home)
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temp
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 extra large eggs, at room temp
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, shaken, at room temp
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temp
2 tbsp brewed coffee
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup good cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and two sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Lower the speed to medium, add the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. On low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the mixer bowl, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until blended. Fold the batter with a rubber spatula to be sure it is completely blended.
Divide the batter among the cupcake pans (one rounded standard ice cream scoop per cup is the right amount). Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Ina says this recipe make 14-15 cupcakes but i got 19 cupcakes using about 1/4 cup of batter for each cup.