today was a cupcake day...

Today went very well. I carried 2 dozen chocolate cupcakes to work with me today and only had ONE of them. I had planned on having just one, too, so everything went as planned. Besides, they were my yummy 3 Point Reduced Fat Chocolate Cupcakes (recipe below). I still can't believe they're only 3 points a piece. I'm glad that they're all gone, though. These things are dangerous to keep around the house, let me tell you. But if you ever get the chance to make them to where you can give them all away, do it! You just HAVE to try this recipe.

Their secret was to reduce the amount of fatty ingredients and replace them with rich tasting low-fat and in some cases fat-free ingredients. Like taking out most of the butter (but still using a little bit of REAL butter) and adding low-fat buttermilk to make up for the dip in flavor you'd get without the real butter. And they also used about 1/3 of the amount of chocolate you'd use in a regular recipe (and when I say chocolate, I mean REAL chocolate) and substituted some fat free dutch cocoa powder. It's simple things like that, that reduced the amount of fat in the recipe but didn't skimp on taste AT ALL.

I have been so against reduced fat recipes since I started this whole diet thing. For me, reduced fat means reduced flavor. But I think I've stumbled across something here. Now I'm going to start looking for recipes that have low-fat substitutes that don't skimp on taste. Like I hate finding a recipe that calls for margarine instead of butter. Yuck! I also hate a recipe that calls for Splenda instead of sugar. Both of those are a flavor killer for me. I'd rather go for the fatty ingredients and just cut back on my portions.

So now the search is on for low-fat recipes that don't skimp on flavor.

The rest of my day went good. I ate what I was supposed to eat and had a very uneventful food day. I didn't go biking this morning. I hate it when I don't go biking for no apparent reason. But this was one of those morning, this morning. And tomorrow I can't go walking (made other family commitments). But I'll be back to biking on Wednesday. Not to worry.

So as I promised, here's the recipe. Enjoy!!

Reduced-Fat Chocolate Cupcakes
Make 2 dozen
(The original recipe was from Cook's Country website, but I've altered it just a bit to my taste)

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup dutch processed dark chocolate cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter , softened but still cool, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp instant coffee granules
1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk

1. Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Place 24 paper liners in cupcake pan.

2. Melt chocolate then combine with chocolate syrup in a small bowl, set aside. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl. Chocolate will be very thick and fudgy.

3. Beat butter in larger bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, about a minute. Add sugar and continue to beat until well incorporated, a minute longer, stopping mixer as necessary to scrape down bowl. Add melted chocolate mixture and beat until mixture looks thick and grainy, about 1 minute. Add eggs, vanilla, and instant coffee. Beat at medium-high until fluffy and pale brown, 2 minutes. With mixer on low, add one-third flour mixture, followed by half of buttermilk. Repeat, ending with flour mixture. Scrape down bowl, increase speed to medium, and beat until creamy and without lumps, about 30 seconds. Give batter final stir.

4. Pour batter into prepared cupcake papers to about half way full. Bake until toothpick inserted into center of cupcakes comes out with a few crumbs attached, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on wire rack 20 minutes then frost with Reduced Fat Chocolate Icing (below).

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Reduced-Fat Chocolate Frosting
Makes 1 cup

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate , chopped
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp instant coffee granules
1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup 2% skim milk

1. Melt butter and chocolate together until smooth. Stir in salt and coffee granules until dissolved, then transfer to medium bowl to cool, 10 minutes.

2. Whisk cocoa and confectioners’ sugar in medium bowl. Using electric mixer at low speed, gradually add cocoa mixture to melted chocolate mixture (mixture will appear grainy). Gradually add milk, beating until milk is completely incorporated. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and creamy, about 1 minute.

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