Baker's Corner: Dulce De Leche Cupcakes

This post came about rather unexpectedly. The twins and I made these Dulce De Leche Cupcakes for Father's Day last weekend and it was quite the success. I foresee making them a lot more often in the future so I decided to blog the recipe. 

First off, if you haven't heard of this ingredient before, dulce de leche (also known as caramelized milk or milk jam) is a sweet, gooey confection from Latin America. It is prepared by slowly heating milk and sugar over a period of several hours. It is used in cakes, cookies, churros, brownies, flan, waffles, crepes and toast among other sweet foods. 

To be completely honest, dulce de leche is not an ingredient that I use in my kitchen. Until quite recently, it wasn't even readily available in Singapore. I remember seeing it once in a specialty grocery store on Orchard road many years ago. I had grabbed a tin back then and made something with it (don't remember what). In the past few years with online grocery delivery platforms like Amazon and Redmart offering ingredients from various parts of the globe (the more obscure, the steeper the price!), it has become slightly easier to get a hold of. 

A few years ago, I had a burning desire to make banoffee pie, a popular English dessert. Banoffee pie is basically bananas and toffee. This indulgent dessert is a combination of different textures and flavors consisting of a biscuit or graham cracker crust with silky dulce de leche, bananas, and homemade whipped cream. I couldn't get my hands on store-bought dulce de leche so I tried making my own at home by pouring the contents of a can of full-fat condensed milk into an oven-safe dish, covering with foil and baking it in a preheated oven for more than an hour. Although the color did turn darker, the consistency was slight runny as opposed to a thick gooey caramel which is what I wanted. I probably should have left it in the oven longer but at the time, I didn't know any better. I used the homemade dulce de leche to make the banoffee pie but it didn't really work that well and I was sorely disappointed with the final result. 

I got two tins of dulce de leche from the US, late last year. My main agenda was to use it to make banoffee pie because of my previous failed attempt. There were so many occasions to make the pie but it never happened. The dulce de leche tins went to the back of my pantry and lay there forgotten. 

While tidying up my pantry the other day I saw the tins and was relieved to see that the expiry was still two months away. Father's Day was coming up so I thought I should use it to make a dessert. The bananas that I had at home were a bit too ripe for my liking (I ended up turning them into banana bread 😛), I didn't have graham crackers and I didn't have a whole lot of whipping cream in the fridge so I decided to simplify things and make cupcakes with a dulce de leche frosting. Cupcakes are a huge hit in my household so if you are new to my blog, you can checkout several cupcake recipes that I have posted in the past such as carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, raspberry chocolate cupcakes, strawberry cupcakes with strawberry buttercream, tropical mango cupcakes, fudgy chocolate cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes with raspberry coconut buttercream. 

The girls were super excited and they helped me make the cupcakes for their beloved daddy. What I love about dulce de leche is the mellow sweetness and the thick caramel like texture. I cored the vanilla cupcakes and put a little bit in and I used the rest to make the frosting. The vanilla cupcakes were soft and fluffy, the dulce de leche in the middle made for a nice surprise and the frosting was sweet, luscious and caramelly. 

If dulce de leche in a tin is readily available to you then I suggest you try these cupcakes if you haven't already. And hopefully, you can expect a sinful banoffee pie recipe coming your way soon.

Dulce De Leche Cupcakes

Prep time: 20 minutes; Cook time: 20 minutes  

Total time: 40 minutes  

Yield: ~10 cupcakes  

Recipe category: Dessert/American

Recipe level: Easy

Recipe source: Adapted from here

Ingredients:

For the vanilla cupcakes:

1 & 1/2 cups flour

1 & 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

For the filling (optional):

1–2 teaspoons dulce de leche per cupcake

For the dulce de leche buttercream:

140 gram/10 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted to break up lumps

2 tablespoons heavy/whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup dulce de leche

1/4 tsp salt

Method:

For the vanilla cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and place paper liners in muffin tin or grease and flour muffin tins. My tin has only 6 indentations so I had to use it twice. 

2. In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

3. Cream the butter with an electric mixer for 1 minute. Add the brown sugar and mix for 2 more minutes until light and fluffy. 

4. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after the addition of each egg. Add the vanilla extract as well. If the mixture looks lumpy and curdled at this stage, it is normal. 

5. Alternatively add the sifted dry ingredients and whole milk, mixing well after each addition and be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Do not overmix. 

6. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. I recommend using an ice-cream scoop to get a even fill across all the liners. 

7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of a cupcake. Cool for about ten minutes in the muffin tins and then remove to a rack to cool completely.

8. Once cupcakes are cooled, core them (save the tops for cake pops) and fill them with 1-2 tsp of dulce de leche. Set cupcakes aside until you make the buttercream. 

For the dulce de leche buttercream:

1. Sift the powdered sugar and salt together. This step is recommended. 

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a hand held mixer, cream the butter for one minute. 

3. Add the sifted powdered sugar and salt mixture, heavy cream and vanilla extract and beat on medium for 3-4 minutes, until creamy. Slowly beat in the dulce de leche a little bit at a time. If buttercream is too thin, add more powdered sugar, if it is too thick, add more cream or milk until it is the consistency you desire. 

4. To firm buttercream up a bit more before piping, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 20-30 minutes. Pipe the frosting on top using a wide tip (I use my trusty Wilton 1M tip) or just slather the frosting on.

Notes:

• Sifting the flour and the icing sugar will give you better results so I recommend that you do don't skip that step
• Instead of vanilla in the cupcakes, you can add cinnamon powder, ground cloves, ginger powder and nutmeg to give it a different flavour
• You can use cream cheese instead of whipping cream in the frosting
• Instead of adding dulce de leche inside the cupcakes, you can also add frosting instead
• Use the remnants of the cake that you get after you core the cupcakes to make cake pops. Crumble the cake remnants, add some frosting to it and mix well. Shape into tight balls, refrigerate till it firms up and then poke with a wooden skewer and dunk uniformly in melted chocolate (dark or milk). Coat with sprinkles (if desired) and leave to set. Enjoy delicious cake pops.

Cheers,

Megha