If you're "in need" of chocolate cupcakes and don't want to turn on your "big oven," make them in your air fryer. Yes, making a dozen cupcakes in the air fryer will take longer than if you used the oven, but you won't heat up your kitchen as much. You also won't have a muffin tin to wash. How do the cupcakes taste? The cupcakes are deep, dark, and chocolatey. They also are moist. I like the cupcakes unfrosted--more like a muffin--but you can frost them with your favorite frosting, if you'd like. I've also included a quick (and rich!) chocolate "ganache" below, which makes a great topping for the cupcakes. You will need muffin/cupcake liners for the recipe but no special pans. Enjoy!
Air Fryer Chocolate Cupcakes -- Makes 12
1/2 cup of canola oil
1 egg
3/4 cup of milk
2/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of espresso powder (optional but good)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
In a medium bowl whisk together well the oil, egg, milk, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, espresso powder, and vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder, and baking soda and whisk/stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until combined. Line your air fryer basket with aluminum foil, placing the foil so it goes about half-way up the basket sides. Place cupcake liners (I use foil liners, placing the paper inserts/dividers for the liners on the outside of the liners for more stability) in the foil-lined basket (my air fryer basket will accommodate four liners at a time). Pour/spoon batter into the liners, filling the liners about 1/2-2/3 full. Put the basket in the air fryer, set the temperature to 320 degrees, and air fry the cupcakes for 15-22 minutes or until a pick inserted in a cupcake comes out with no wet batter attached. Remove the cupcakes from the air fryer to cool and repeat the cooking process with the remaining batter. You can eat the cupcakes "as is," dust them with confectioners' sugar, or frost them. If you frost the cupcakes, I recommend using a chocolate "ganache," which is rich and quite good.
Easy Chocolate "Ganache"
1 cup of chocolate chips, semi-sweet or dark chocolate
3/4 cup of heavy cream
1 tablespoon of light corn syrup (for sheen)
Put the chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Heat the cream and corn syrup together in the microwave for a minute to 90 seconds or until steaming. Stir the cream and corn syrup and pour them over the chocolate chips. Let the cream mixture soften the chocolate chips for a minute or so, then stir everything together until you have a smooth mixture. You can pour the ganache over the cupcakes, letting it drizzle/puddle over them, or refrigerate the ganache (for about 15 minutes) until it's a little firmer. Then pour the ganache on the tops of the cupcakes and refrigerate the cupcakes until the ganache firms up a bit.
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