Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

I’m sharing a recipe from our Panache Bake Shoppe days that was a seasonal favorite among friends, taste-testers and customers. Bonus: it’s perfect for this time of year, for your Thanksgiving table and I’ve made the cupcake recipe into a bread to giveaway at Christmas!

The flavors in this cupcake are so perfectly balanced – a super moist pumpkin spice cake sprinkled with semi-sweet chocolate chips, topped with the perfect cinnamon cream cheese frosting!Photo courtesy Erin Browne

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Ingredients:
3 ½ cups AP flour
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
¼ teaspoon EACH of nutmeg and ginger
½ teaspoon cloves
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 ½ sticks of butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 can (32 oz.) pumpkin
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (Trader Joe’s brand for big ones, minis for minis)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325F.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, baking powder and salt together until well blended; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, beat sugar, butter, buttermilk, pumpkin, eggs and vanilla on low speed until combined. Gradually add flour mixture and beat until just combined.

4. Fold in the chocolate chips. (Batter may be lumpy and seem not well mixed, but it’ll be fine).

5. Scoop batter into cupcake liners, filling about 3/4 full. These do not bake up very much. 2 big level scoops + 2 level mini scoops

Yield: ~84 minis and ~36 big ones
Bake time: Approx 17 min for big ones. 14 for minis.

Frost with: Cinnamon cream cheese, recipe to follow.
Top with: Trader Joe’s Choco Chip

 

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
2oz unsalted butter, softened
8oz cream cheese,softened
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Combine butter and cream cheese in mixer until well blended.

2. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time blending well each time until you reach desired consistency and sweetness.

3. Add vanilla and cinnamon.

4. Store in airtight container in the fridge.

 

A few tips about this recipe:

– It is actually better with canned pumpkin. Fresh pumpkin just did not shine through and it took a lot more pumpkin puree to get the flavor right, trust me, I’ve tried since I’m usually such a stickler for fresh is better.

– If you make the frosting in advance, you will need to set it out to come up to temp and may need to blend it again.

– With any baking, make sure your dairy and eggs are at room temperature.

– We used Plugra, a European butter higher in fat content, for the bakery and it really does make a difference.

– We used local Cruze Farm dairy buttermilk for the bakery as well. Again, it made a difference. If you have a local dairy farm, I recommend checking out their products.

– We used White Lily flour for the bakery. Again, no substitute for it’s light, finer texture.

– We used Nielsen Massey vanilla extract for the bakery. The best.

– Trader Joe’s chocolate chips have a distinct smokey flavor that you can’t find with other chocolate chips. If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s then Ghiradelli or Nestle will work.

– Finally, don’t try to use low fat or reduced fat cream cheese to cut calories. You are making cupcakes afterall, just go for it, plus the texture is NOT, I repeat, NOT the same.

Photo courtesy Erin Browne

P.S. We are not affiliated with any of the brands listed above, we just think they make great products and wanted to share that with you.