peanut butter chocolate cupcakes

cupcake ingredients:

2 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
5 generous tablespoons peanut butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
half a bag of dark or semisweet chocolate chips
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icing ingredients:

1 stick butter
about 2/3 cup dutch process cocoa
about 1/3 cup milk
about 3 cups powdered sugar

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preheat the oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit. put your cupcake liners in your cupcake pan.

sift the flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl.

cream butter, sugar and peanut butter in an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy (what’s in the bowl, that is — not you). reduce mixing speed to low and add eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping the bowl with a spatula.

gradually add the dry ingredients and the milk, mixing until batter is smooth, then add the chocolate chips in and mix it a little more (so that will make your batter a little lumpy).

fill the cupcake papers 2/3 full or so. (my batter was sturdy enough that it was almost dough-like. i don’t know if that’s supposed to happen, but everything turned out well anyway.)

bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cupcakes are springy to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean when you stick it in for testing purposes. note: don’t do this ’til the last few minutes because opening the oven door made the middles of mine fall somewhat.

remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

while they’re cooling, make the frosting. melt the butter in a saucepan over lowish heat, then whisk in the cocoa when the butter’s melted. add the milk and whisk all that stuff together (if the milk is cold it might make the butter seize up a bit again, but keep calm and keep whisking. you and it will be all right). pour in the powdered sugar and whisk until smooth. how much powdered sugar you use depends on whether you want a thicker, substantial frosting, or more of a glaze/icing. i prefer the latter, personally. it’s quite rich and  sets up pretty nicely, though, so it’s not as if you’re skimping on frosting by making it more glaze-like.

when the cupcakes are cool enough not to totally melt the frosting off, frost them according to your taste.

consume gleefully. for best results, take a glass of milk alongside.

adapted from cupcakes, cupcakes and more cupcakes! by lilach german, and from the hershey’s cocoa box.