Skinny Cooks Can't Be Trusted By Dave Kessler Hey, it’s cream cheese cupcake time! Cupcakes are wonderful for picnics, patio dining, desserts to go with summer meals and snacks. They’re also a good way to keep from over-indulging, since it’s easy to keep count of how many you want to eat at a time. Cream cheese cupcakes with chocolate chips are quite delicious when warm, or cold from the refrigerator. Cooks enjoy baking and serving these because they don’t require any icing. They’re nice for serving little kids since you won’t have to clean sticky icing off their faces, hands and clothes. You shouldn’t overfill the cupcake cups because the cake will rise and you’ll need room in each cup to contain all the goodness. Generally you should only fill the fluted paper cups about 2/3 full with batter. Then, you add a heaping teaspoon of the filling so you’ll have perfect cupcakes every time. These are fine to bring to social meetings or carry-in occasions. After you bring them the first time you’ll become famous for your cupcakes and will be asked to bring some to every get-together. Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cupcakes Batter 3 cups + 3 tablespoons of flour 2 cups sugar 1/2 cup cocoa 2 cups water 2 teaspoons vanilla 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking soda 2/3 cup vegetable oil 2 tablespoons vinegar Filling 8-ounce package softened cream cheese 1/2 cup sugar 1 egg 1/2 teaspoon salt 6-ounce package chocolate chips For the batter: Mix the flour, sugar and cocoa and mix them together well. Combine the remaining ingredients from the water through the vinegar and mix very well. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Set aside. For the filling: Combine all the filling ingredients except the chocolate chips. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth, then fold in the chocolate chips. Fill your cupcake cups 2/3 full with batter. Add 1 heaping teaspoon of the filling on top of the batter. Bake at 360 degrees for 25-30 minutes. You don’t need to add any icing. Set aside to cool. Serve and enjoy warm, but keep leftovers in the fridge and enjoy them cold, or you can warm them as you desire. You’ll enjoy these often. Readers with questions or comments for Dave Kessler may write to him in care of this publication. |
