Rocky Road done Right

Last year my sister's friends bought her a cupcake book for her birthday.  Cupcakes have always been a fav in the Green household.  We will take trips into the city for some Magnolia's or Crumbs on a regular basis.  People know we are cupcake guru's and well that could be the reason we have acquired so many cupcake books throughout the years.  This one was titled Cupcakes Galore and had some very interesting recipes upon first glance:

Well lacrosse season had ended, I know super short season (It ended May 11th FYI), and we had an end of season dinner to wrap it all up.  Of course I wanted to bake something yumms and while I have many go to favorites like Muddy Buddies or S'mores bars, I realized that I haven't made cupcakes in a super long time--hence the Cupcake book shpeele (or however that is spelled...)

I settled on chocolate because well who doesn't swoon over chocolate (besides me--but I am an odd one so that doesn't count)  After a bit of sitting on the kitchen floor debating between recipes, rocky road stole my attention and the mixer came out.  Now it wasn't until all of the ingredients were out that I realized the recipe didn't call for sugar.  Cupcakes WITHOUT sugar seemed like an oxymoron but I decided to roll with it.

Ingredients: Flour, Baking powder, salt, cocoa powder, milk, chocolate, egg, oil, vanilla, chocolate chips (white and semi-sweet, walnuts, marshmallows and toffee bits (optional)

To begin combine the flour

the baking powder

some table salt

And cocoa powder (unsweetened) even though I may try sweetened next time because there is no sugar in the recipe...

Anyways mix all that and set aside.

Now just to prep the rest, measure out 1/4 cup of oil.  Reason for the picture--I had very little oil left in the Costco sized bottle and while there was another bottle down in the pantry it came out exactly to 1/4! Little things like this make me happy.

In a separate small bowl, combine the chocolate chips

with the shmellows

And crushed walnuts

Use your fingers (make sure there clean) or a spoon and toss to combine.

Grab some milk chocolate and place in a cute microwaveable container

(recipe calls for dark chocolate but I needed SOOOME sweetness, and I didn't have any dark chocolate...)

Microwave for 1 minute to melt

NOW it is time for the mixer!

Pour the melty chocolate into the bowl

Then add in the vanilla and egg.  Mix until combined.

Now its time to alternate between the wet (milk) and dry (flour and such)

Starting with the dry:

add in 1/3 of the dry mixture

Then 1/2 of the milk

....

Dry

Milk

Dry

whoops.

It will be a stiff mixture--not liquidy

Stir in the chocolate chips, nuts and marshmallow mixture from earlier

Then drop into greased muffy tins

In a small mixing bowl combine:

Walnuts...

Marshmallows

Semi-sweet chocolate chips

White chocolate chips

Toffee Heath Bar bits

Use as much or as little of each.  Feel free to nix the nuts and add a lot of chocolate or visa versa--I went light on the nuts because I wasn't sure of people opinion of walnuts but extra marshmallows would've been perfect.

Sprinkle on top of each cuppycake

Put into a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes

Smells yumm. Tastes...

Look at the texture! Very very very good. 

Verdict: Even without sugar, these were a delicious cupcake! I mean it could've been sweeter but instead of sugar maybe sweetened cocoa powder would do the trick.  Or more shmellows, boy I love marshmallows!

With love and cupcakes,
CookTeen

Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 ounces milk chocolate
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1/2 cup mini marshmallows plus 1/2 cup for topping
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips plus 1/4 cup for topping
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts plus 1/2 cup for topping
1/2 cup white chocolate chips for topping
1/4 toffee bits for topping (Heath bar)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa together, mix thoroughly, and set aside.
2. Melt chocolate in a microwave or double broiler (do not cook).  Remove from heat as soon as chocolate is just melted.  Using either an electric mixer or a wooden spoon, beat in oil, egg, and vanilla.  Alternately add flour mixture and milk, beating well after each addition.  When the batter is smooth and thoroughly blended, fold in 1/2 cup of each: mini-marshmallows, chocolate chips, and walnuts
3. Spoon batter into cupcake papers, filling just over 1/2 full.  Mix remaining walnuts, mini-marshmallows, chocolate chips and toffee bits (Heath Bar) together and sprinkle over batter.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until topping is cooked.  If the topping starts to burn before the cupcakes are cooked, cover lightly with a piece of aluminum foil.  Remove from oven and cool.