June 28th - part 4, Triple Vanilla Brown Butter Cupcakes

You know when you have an idea, and you think it's going to be fabulous....and then it's not. Well, that's these. Brown butter cupcakes with a cream cheese caramel frosting and topped with more caramel....how could that be bad? Well, not bad but not great. My daughter gave it a 2 out of 5. I was just upset that both of my cupcakes today were not fantastic.

Upside - the frosting is good. I will make it again, the caramel sauce is phenomenal, I will make it often. The cupcakes....well, I will try and tweak them to make them work out better for my tastes.

Triple Vanilla Brown Butter Cupcakes

from Field of Cakes

(adapted from "The Sweet Life" by Kate Zuckerman)

3 Vanilla Beans

2 tsp. vanilla extract
24 Tbsp. (12 ounces) unsalted butter

1 1/3 Cups vanilla sugar (you could use plain sugar I use vanilla)

2 whole eggs (room temp)

4 egg yolks (room temp)

2 1/2 Cups + 2 Tbsp. flour
3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cup whole milk (room temp)
Directions:
2-24 hours ahead of time brown the butter with the vanilla bean.

1. Run a paring knife down the center of the vanilla beans. Split them open and scrape out the seeds into a sauce pan. Add the butter and the scraped vanilla bean and turn the heat to medium-high. Cook the butter with the vanilla beans and seeds until the butter caramelizes and emits a rich nutty vanilla aroma. Remove the vanilla beans, dry, and save for another use. Refrigerate the brown butter until it solidifies, 1-2 hours.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and position the rack in the center of the oven.

3.Place the chilled brown butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat on medium high speed for 1 minute.

4. Add the sugar and beat on medium high speed. Toward the beginning of the creaming process the mixture will look dry and seem as though it will never come together. Continue creaming, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl, until the mixture becomes fluffy and almost beige in color, 8-12 minutes.

5. Add the whole eggs and yolks one at a time, continue to beat until they are fully incorporated and the batter looks smooth and glossy, 1-2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract.

6. In a dry bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.

7. With the mixer set on slow speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter in 3 parts, alternating with the milk. Once you have added the 3rd portion, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and briefly beat the batter on medium speed until just incorporated, 20 seconds

8. Portion batter into muffin tins (only 2/3 full please) bake for about 30 minutes

These smelled so wonderful, I don't even understand why I didn't love them. They just didn't have as much taste as I was expecting, I guess.

For the caramel and frosting I tried these recipes from Chockylit. I made her salted caramel, but I let the sugar get too amber, and ended up with a more bitter caramel - so I instead I used the caramel filling from the other post - which is what I should've just used to begin with, but this recipe is good, just be careful to stop when your a light amber.

Salted Caramel
4 tablespoons water

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt, kosher or sea (I used Fleur de Sel)

1. Combine the water, sugar, and the corn syrup in a deep saucepan and cook over medium heat.

2. Stir together with a wooden spoon until the sugar is incorporated.

3. Cover the saucepan and let it cook over medium heat for 3 minutes.

4. After 3 minutes, remove the lid, increase the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil.

5. Do not stir from this point on, but it is important to carefully shake the pan so that one area of the caramel doesn’t burn.

6. Continue to cook until the caramel turns an even amber color then remove from the heat and let stand for about 30 seconds.

7. *** This is the dangerous part *** Pour the heavy cream into the mixture. Wear oven mitts, stand away from the pan, and be careful. The mixture will bubble up significantly.

8. Stir the mixture, again being careful. Add the butter, lemon juice, and salt. Stir until combined.

9. Measure 1 cup into a Pyrex measuring cup. Stirring occasionally, allow to cool until thick like molasses and warm to the touch, about 20 minutes.

Salted Caramel Frosting
2 sticks butte8 ounces or 1 package of Philly cream chees

5 to 6 cups powdered sugar

1 cup salted caramel (I only used 1/2 cup and the rest to drizzle on top of frosting)

1. Bring butter to room temperature by letting it sit out for 1 or 2 hours.

2. Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy.

3. Sift 3 cups of powdered sugar into the butter/cream cheese mixture and beat to combine.

4. Add 1 cup of the salted caramel and beat to combine.

5. Sift 2-3 cups of powder sugar, in 1 cup increments and beating between each, until you arrive at the thickness and sweetness you desire. I used 6 cups. The frosting wasn’t super thick, but it was starting to get pretty sweet.