Almond Hazelnut Cupcakes

Item: A twist on Martha Stewart's Candied-Hazelnut Cupcakes - review


Find recipe here:
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/almond-hazelnut-cupcakes
Almond Hazelnut Cupcakes - with hazelnut filling and chocolate ganache 5/6
My friend and I baked these on the weekend - along with our Pistachio and Raspberry cupcakes filled with raspberry custard (will be my next blog entry). Anyways, before I get off topic - back to the almond hazelnut cupcakes.If you like those Ferrero Rocher chocolates, you will love these! These are Ferrero Rochers in the form of cupcakes. Everyone enjoyed these. They are decadent though and quite filling because of the nature of the ingredients - hazelnuts and chocolate. They do come off as a bit dry because of the hazelnuts, so it really requires something rich like a chocolate ganache.These are more nutty than they are sweet. Actually for me it's almost like a hazelnut muffin. The chocolate ganache we made turned it into a cupcake, but alone it could be a muffin. The texture can come off as a tad dry because of all the nuts - but it's not dry, it just gives the illusion of being dry cause of the ground nuts.
You know it's a good cupcake when the batter is good! We did try the batter and it was so aromatic. Toasting the nuts is one of the most important steps to this recipe. There's no need for any artificial nut flavouring or nut extracts - these are the real deal! An adult cupcake! Without the chocolate, you could easily serve this for breakfast. I would make this again.
Tasty Twist Idea: Since the cupcake is so dense it really requires a rich frosting. Especially since it's not a really sugary cupcake - less than 1 cup of sugar for a batch of cupcakes is not a lot at all. For this reason, we decided to make a hazelnut ganache to fill the insides of these cupcakes. Without the richness of the ganache and chocolate it doesn't really taste like a dessert...and when I'm eating a cupcake I want to feel like I'm eating a dessert. We topped these off with a lot of chocolate ganache (a nice thick layer, as you can tell by the picture) - and the ratio was actually perfect this way.