Mad Scientist Cupcakes

For R’s birthday this year, I wanted to combine everything he loves: cheesecake, chocolate, and sea salt caramel. I proposed a Friday happy hour at Mia’s, which provided an additional challenge: how to transport via bike and easily serve to the masses in a public place. After many hours of research, I mad scientisted together the perfect birthday dessert.

Note the creative use of shoelaces as no bungee cords could be found

Credit for my inspiration came from the following three locations: Annie’s Eats, Bake or Break Recipes, and Brown Eyed Baker

With these, I created…. Drum roll please!

Fudge Bottomed Cheesecake Cupcakes with a Pecan and Salted Caramel Topping

Yes, this one was a wee bit complicated, and I have to admit, I got distracted just now with starting to write this and burnt my pecans… Grrrr… gonna have to redo that bit. My first attempt at making caramel, using the recipe I found, was an absolute disaster! And silly me. I left that for last and then was rushing around at the last minute to finish things up and not be late. I swear I have made caramel before and not had it be so hard. I am not sure if it was the recipe or the high altitude or both. I had to start over because it was this awful crystallized sugar mass. I found this recipe MUCH more successful and yes, don’t touch it! I kept poking at it with my whisk and ended up with rock candy on my whisk, which even with being nonstick was a horrible pain to remove.

Fasten your seatbelts, kiddos, this one, takes some time. Set aside an afternoon, put on some fun danceable music (My selections were Vampire Weekend and Caravan Palace). It is worth it, though. They were a smashing hit and got rave reviews. I am soooo proud of my new invention!

Yield is 24 cupcake sized cheesecakes (Note: the original recipe said it would make 32. I only had enough crust mixture for 24, but I did have leftover filling.)

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs (or 1 ½ cups if you don’t want to use pecans)

¼ cup ground pecans

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

3 Tbsp. granulated sugar

For Fudge Bottom:

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

¼ cup cream

½ tsp. vanilla extract

For the Cheesecake Filling:

2 lbs of cream cheese, room temperature

1 ½ cups of granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 large eggs, room temperature

For the topping:

24 toasted whole pecans

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp of corn syrup (whoops, just realized I used 1 Tbsp, but it didn’t hurt it)

¼ cup of water

½ cup heavy cream

1 tsp of vanilla

Sea salt

Directions:

For Crust:

Preheat the oven to 325˚ F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. I ground my graham crackers and pecans separately in the food processer then processed them together to combine. In a small bowl, combine the crumb mixture, melted butter and sugar. I started by melting my butter in the microwave in the bowl and then adding the rest. Stir together with a fork until well blended and all the dry ingredients are moistened. Press 1 tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liner. (I used my bottle of vanilla, but a small drinking glass would work to easily and evenly press the crumbs down). Bake until just set, 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.

Not pressed

Pressing the crust

Baked golden brown

Close Up!

For Fudge Bottom:

Put chopped chocolate into a bowl with the cream. Microwave in 30 second increments until the chocolate begins to melt and stir together to combine. Add vanilla and stir. I put about 1 ½ teaspoons of the fudge into the bottom of each cheesecake and used the back of the spoon to spread it out. Let set for about 15 or 20 minutes.

NOTE: You could definitely taste the chocolate, but it wasn’t quite as prominent as I hoped. I might bump up the amount next time, which would require an increase in ingredients.

For Cheesecake Filling:

To make the cheesecake, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy. Blend in the sugar until smooth. Mix in the salt and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. To assemble, put about 3 tablespoons of the cheesecake batter in each liner. Bake until the filling is set, about 22 minutes. Rotate the pans about halfway through baking. They will look puffed when you remove them, but will deflate some as they cool. Set on cooling racks to cool to room temperature. Then, transfer to the refrigerator and let them chill, ideally, for about 4 hours until serving.

Ready for the oven

For Caramel and Pecan Topping:

Stir together sugar, corn syrup, and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Let boil until amber in color, about 3 minutes. PICTURE Don’t touch it! No, seriously, don’t. You will want to stir it and check and make sure it is not sticking. It won’t be. You will just end up with rock candy on your whisk. Remove from heat and whisk in cream. It might seem like it is going to explode, boil over, or lump together. Don’t freak – just keep whisking! After it gets to the consistency you like, whisk in the vanilla. Let cool to room temperature (or for 5 minutes if you are running super late like I was). Put about a tablespoon of caramel on each cheesecake and top with a toasted pecan and a wee sprinkle of sea salt.

What cooking caramel SHOULD look like