Graham Cracker Base:

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 20 graham crackers)
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped chocolate (more may be used)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin or cupcake pans with liners. (you’ll need 30.)

Mix crumbs, butter, and sugar in a bowl. Add a tablespoon (not packed) to the bottom of 30 each liner. Tamp down.

Add a scant teaspoon of chocolate on top.

Bake for about five minutes until the edges of the crumbs begin to pick up a little color. Chocolate may or may not melt. Remove from oven and set aside. Keep oven on.

Cupcakes:

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks, 6 ounces) unsalted butter* at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups (12 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup (2 1/4 ounces) Dutch-process cocoa
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 cup cool coffee*
• 1/2 cups cool water

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, salt, espresso powder (if using), baking powder, and vanilla till very smooth and creamy, beating for about five minutes.

Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition and stopping to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl after the first two eggs, and again after the fourth. On low-speed, stir in cocoa.

Mix together cool coffee and water. Add flour and coffee mixture alternately: add one-third of the flour to the creamed mixture, then add half the coffee/water mix, another third of the flour, the remaining coffee/water mix, and the remaining flour. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl occasionally throughout this process, beating after each addition only enough to incorporate the ingredients.

Portion into cupcake liners, filling each about 2/3’rds full. (A 1/3 cup scoop is ideal for this, but as each liner is filled, hold the scoop perpendicular to the liners and sweep, leaving a bit behind in the scoop.

Bake in preheated 350°F oven for 20 to 23 minutes until the cupcakes spring back when gently touched in the center. Cool and remove from pan.

*Notes:

• If you use salted butter, reduce the salt in the recipe to 1/4 teaspoon.
• If you’d rather use espresso powder instead of coffee, add two tablespoons to the sugar butter mixture. Use 1 1/2 cups of cool water instead of 1 cup cool coffee & 1/2 cup of cool water.

To assemble:

• 1 recipe of chocolate ganache center for truffles, minus the alcohol, whipped.
• 1 recipe Swiss Meringue
• Hershey’s chocolate bars (You’ll need 3 standard)

Cupcakes will have a very slight dome. Scoop a small portion out of the top of each cupcake, about a good inch across and down to the graham cracker crust and fill with whipped chocolate ganache.

Pipe a generous amount of Swiss Meringue onto each cupcake.

Toast with a torch as desired. Add a “section” of Hershey’s bar to the top of each cupcake. For a prettier cupcake, place into a clean liner.

from the kitchen of http://www.frugalhausfrau.com, cupcakes adapted from King Arthur, graham cracker base & icing from Jennifer Shae, via Martha Stewart, Truffles from “Moi.”