Did you think I was going to miss the chance to write about jelly beans? There’s just something about them – maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe it’s all those unexpectedly bright colors. Maybe it’s that from brand to brand, they’re different, and there’s no telling what a color will taste like until you’ve had it. I don’t know, but whatever that magic is, jelly beans are my favorite.

Is anyone else out there a black jelly bean loyalist? You either love ‘em or hate ‘em. I brake for black jelly beans. I’ll love them till the end. And that may be sooner rather than later, since my sister and I still fight like pig-tailed, red-kneed seven year olds over the black ones.

A bit about the noble jelly bean. The gummy, chewy insides originated hundreds of years ago, as Turkish Delight, a traditional candy first made in Istanbul. The shell is similar to the one developed for Jordan almonds, in the 17th century. At some point in the early 20th century, someone got their Turkish Delight in your Jordan almonds, and the jelly bean as we know it was hatched.

I thought long and hard about a recipe that could incorporate The Bean. Not much came to mind. Jelly bean cookies? Nuh uh. Jelly bean Rice Krispies didn’t inspire me. Jelly bean pizza? Jelly beans and greens had a nice ring. But no, it seems that jelly beans are best eaten straight out of the bag.

Still, you won’t get through the Easter season without seeing jelly beans perched atop a mountain of cupcake icing. And so it should be. You can always pick them off and save them for later.

Now, before I let you see my cupcake photo, just, well, I’ll never win an award for pastry decoration. I do realize this.

I’m sharing my favorite cupcake recipe, which came from Cook’s Illustrated. For those of you unfamiliar, Cook’s Illustrated is a food think tank. They rigorously test everything – products, food brands, recipes, anything that has a job in the kitchen.

With this cupcake recipe, they made multiple batches of multiple versions of this pastry. They tested the effect of different fats (butter was the favorite), then dairy products for moisture (taste testers almost unanimously chose sour cream over milk, cream, or yogurt). They tried sifting flour and not sifting it, they tried bread flour, cake flour, bleached flour, unbleached. They mixed the wet ingredients before adding them to the dry, then they tried dumping them all in at the same time, then one at a time. I think they even tested whether talking to the cupcakes makes them rise faster (it doesn’t). Pick up the magazine sometime and you’ll see what I mean.

Safe to say then, that I pretty well know that anything I take from CI is going to come out well. Since I’m vegan for the time being, I can’t tell you for sure how this particular batch of cupcakes worked out, but Simon is my test kitchen. He seems to like them.

The icing is a simple concoction. It’s also one of the least likely to cause heart attack that I’ve come across. These cupcakes are rich and require a lighter topping, but if you prefer, there are lots of recipes out there for butter-based icing.

The Recipe

Yellow Cupcakes with Vanilla Icing

Cupcakes
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour, unsifted
1 cup granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
½ cup sour cream
1 large egg, plus 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Icing
4 cups (or more) sifted powdered sugar (sifted, then measured)
3 tablespoons (or more) whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cupcakes: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper or foil liners.

In large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Without pre-mixing first, add the butter, sour cream, eggs and vanilla to the dry ingredients. With hand mixer, beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth and satiny, abot 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of the bowl with spatula and stir by hand until smooth and no flour pickets remain.

Divide batter evenly between 12 muffin tins (though I only got 9 muffins with this mix), then bake until cupcake tops are pale gold and a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. It’s better to underbake than overbake — they’ll firm up when they cool. Let them come to room temperature before frosting.

For the icing: Combine 4 cups powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, and vanilla in medium bowl. Stir until icing is well blended, smooth, and spreadable, adding more milk by teaspoonfuls if too thick or more sugar by tablespoonfuls if too thin.

Cupcake recipe taken from The New Best Recipe, All-New Edition, from the editors of Cook’s Illstrated. (2004)

Tags: jelly bean recipes, sour cream cupcakes

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.