Chocolate peanut butter pretzel cupcakes

How To Make Chocolate peanut butter pretzel cupcakes:

You’ll need 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder, and 3/4 teaspoon of salt, then we’ll stir together all of the dry ingredients.

Once that’s combined it’s time to start adding in our wet ingredients, which starts with 3/4 cup of buttermilk, you want to use buttermilk, or you can use regular milk or non-dairy milk by making it into a buttermilk substitute.

Pour that in along with 3/4 cup of hot water, 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, 2 large eggs, and about 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Then grab a hand mixer and mix this all together until just combined, and of course, make sure you stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl so everything gets mixed in.

Then you’ll want to preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and line a muffin tin with little paper cups.

Then you’ll want to fill each cup about 2/3 of the way full. This recipe makes between 18 and 24 cupcakes, so you can either use two pans or just cook them in batches. 

Next, we’re gonna bake these in the 325-degree oven for 20 to 22 minutes. Once they’re done baking, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

While those are cooling we can make our peanut butter filling and whipped chocolate ganache.

For the ganache, you’ll need 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and put those into the bottom of a mixing bowl.

Then you’ll pour 1 cup of heavy cream over the top of it.

You want that cream to be hot, so you can simmer it on the stove or heat it in the microwave.

Let it sit for just 2 to 3 minutes. The hot cream will start to melt the chocolate chips.

Then you’ll want to grab a rubber spatula and stir this until the cream and the chocolate have combined, and all of those chocolate chips are melted.

Once this mixture is nice and smooth you need to let it sit on the counter until it reaches room temperature, which will be about one hour.

Luckily I already have one that’s been sitting. Then grab your hand mixer and you’re gonna beat this until it’s light and fluffy.

Which takes several minutes. It should end up like a really thick whipped cream.

Then you’ll want to transfer this all to a piping bag for frosting.

The last step is our peanut butter filling, which is super simple with just 3 ingredients starting with 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter, 1/4 cup of melted butter, and 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, and we’ll whip this all together.

We’re gonna transfer all of this to a piping bag that’s fit with a large open tip.

The design doesn’t matter so much because we’re not going to see it, but you do need a wide opening to squeeze this into the cupcakes.

You want to insert the tip into the cupcake and give it a gentle squeeze, and squeeze out just a little bit of that peanut butter filling, then pipe on some of that whipped chocolate ganache to cover that center hole.

Then I like to give it a salty finish by breaking up a pretzel and sprinkling that on top.

And then you have yourself one of the most delicious cupcakes of all time.

With that peanut butter in the middle, you are going to love it.