For a dinner with friends this weekend I decided to start tweaking a recipe for a concept I'm hugely fond of, baking with alcohol. Baking wines and champagnes into pastry provides a great depth and oakiness of flavor you don't get from anything else. And just the other day I had a beer bread that was positively delightful.
I first was seriously introduced to this concept this winter in my pastry class when we made a white wine cake. For various reasons, I wasn't hugely impressed with my classes white wine cake, but I've been ruminating on possibilities for this technique ever since.
You can imagine my intrigue, then, when my mother sent me an e-mail for pink champagne cupcakes she saw on the Betty Crocker website. The recipe used a boxed cake mix with just some added champagne and food coloring. Not to sound a snob, but no way was I going to use a preboxed cake mix, so I started doing some research on scratch champagne cupcake recipes I liked.
After combining a couple recipes that I like, the result was a sort of pound cake using champagne as the liquid and whipped egg whites to lighten it up. While I liked the finished product, I think I'm going to try for something a little lighter next time, more spongy, so the texture of the bubbles in the champagne will really come through.
I finished this batch off with some homemade vanilla buttercream and a chocolate speckled strawberry. And then, did the unthinkable,: I didn't take any pictures!
Well, except a quick shot snapped in the car for a friend begging to see them
If you're interested in the recipe, check it out below. I used an almond champagne for these, but I think I'll experiment with a muscato next time!
Cupcakes:
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup champagne
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 egg whites
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners (yields about 22 cupcakes).
Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of champagne combined with vanilla.
In a clean bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until they hold stiff peaks. Fold in about 1/3 of the egg whites to lighten the batter then gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Transfer batter to cupcake liners, filling each about 2/3 of the way full. Bake approximately twenty minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup champagne
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 egg whites
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners (yields about 22 cupcakes).
Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of champagne combined with vanilla.
In a clean bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until they hold stiff peaks. Fold in about 1/3 of the egg whites to lighten the batter then gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Transfer batter to cupcake liners, filling each about 2/3 of the way full. Bake approximately twenty minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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