Cinco de yum-o.

Happy day after Cinco de Mayo! I hope everyone had a good time. Last week our office had a themed potluck to celebrate (complete with a piñata that may not have been entirely OSHA-compliant), and I was in a baking mood. A friend sent me this jaw-dropping recipe; I wasn't feeling quite ambitious enough but wanted to stick to the surprise-in-the-center theme, so instead I made chocolate cupcakes filled with Mexican chocolate pudding.

Homemade pudding is a funny thing. You stir and stir on the stovetop, and nothing seems to be happening, and then all of a sudden the pudding is completely thickened and you're frantically taking it off the stove to add the last pat of finishing butter. While I do think the pudding was delicious, the same effect could probably be achieved by getting chocolate pudding and adding a lot of cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

I also opted to make my own dulce de leche for the buttercream frosting, but I literally finished chipping burned dulce de leche off the bottom of my saucepan today. I was able to salvage the top layer, and while it was also tasty, I hear there are very good store-bought versions for less time (and clean-up) effort.

I used the obvious cake recipe for the cupcakes, then made a regular buttercream frosting and added the dulce de leche. If you can't get Mexican chocolate, you can substitute (as I did) half a teaspoon of cinnamon per ounce of dark chocolate, plus a pinch of cayenne pepper if you want.

The result was an awesome cup of gooey goodness. The sweet and spicy are wonderful dimensions on the mellow chocolate.

Instructions:

• Prep: Make all components (cupcakes, pudding, dulce de leche, and buttercream base). Chill pudding and cupcakes for at least four hours before assembling (frosting can be made just beforehand, dulce de leche takes 2-3 hours to reduce fully). Combine dulce de leche with buttercream until fluffy and well-incorporated.
• Assembly: Using a small spoon, scoop out a small hollow in the top of the cupcake for the pudding. Fill a gallon Ziploc bag with pudding and cut off the corner. Pipe enough pudding to fill the hollow, about 1 T. Frost cupcake with dulce de leche buttercream. Dust with cocoa powder and serve.

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Mexican Chocolate Pudding
(fills 24 cupcakes)



1½ T cocoa powder
2½ T cornstarch
¼ c + 1 T sugar
1 pinch salt
¾ c heavy cream
3 egg yolks
1½ c milk
4 ½ oz chocolate, chopped
2 t ground cinnamon
Pinch cayenne pepper
1½ t pure vanilla extract
1 T unsalted butter

Place cocoa powder, cornstarch, sugar, salt, heavy cream, egg yolks, milk, and chocolate in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring, until mixture comes to a boil and begins to thicken, about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and strain mixture through a fine-mesh strainer set over a medium bowl; discard solids. Immediately stir in butter and vanilla until well combined. Place plastic wrap directly on surface of pudding to prevent a skin from forming. Transfer pudding to a refrigerator until chilled, about 4 hours.


Alton Brown's Dulce de Leche

1 qt whole milk
1½ c sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
½ t baking soda

Combine milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds in a large, 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the baking soda and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer. Stir occasionally, but do not re-incorporate the foam that appears on the top of the mixture. Continue to cook for 1 hour. Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour and continue to cook until the mixture is a dark caramel color and has reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month.