Camp Cupcake: Chocolate Walnut Cupcakes

I have tried to save some recipes for specific holidays. The trouble is, some of these holidays are packed in very tightly together. So, with apologies to my Jewish friends, I made these for Passover a week early. The recipe is actually called Chocolate-Walnut Cupcakes for Passover, lest you think I arrived at the conclusion on my own.

You see, these cupcakes have no leavening, yet they remained very light and airy due to the whipped egg whites the recipe called for.

Once again, I did not get a picture of the finished product, but I feel like it's okay since it didn't turn out the way it was supposed to. It happens sometimes, even to me. I will now proceed to go through this recipe to point out the things I should have done.

Chocolate-Walnut Cupcakes

6 large eggs, separated

1/4 c. plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 3/4 c. finely ground toasted walnuts. Okay, here was mistake number one. I forgot to toast the walnuts before I ground them. This turned out to be kind of important, as the untoasted walnuts ended up being a little bit moist and sticking together in my food processor, which did not give them the consistency of flour like they were supposed to have. Also, I think toasting walnuts makes the flavor a bit milder.

3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, kosher if desired. Amazingly, in my grocery store here in West Texas, they did not have kosher chocolate. But that wasn't the mistake. Finely chopped or grated. That was my mistake. I chopped the chocolate, but it wasn't necessarily "fine." In fact, when I mixed it in later, it looked more like chocolate chunks. I should have frozen it first, and then put it in the food processor to get it really fine.

1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

1/4 tsp. salt If this is supposed to be kosher, Martha doesn't mention it.

Confectioner's sugar, for dusting.

Preheat oven to 300F. Line muffin cups with papers. Whisk egg yolks and 1/4 c. granulated sugar until pale and thick.

In another bowl, toss together ground walnuts, chocolate, zest, and salt. Sprinkle over yolk mixture. Do not mix in.

Place egg whites in a heatproof bowl (I used my KitchenAid bowl) set over a pan of simmering water, and whisk until eggs are warm to the touch. Remove from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until soft peaks form. Add remaining 3 tablespoons granulated sugar and whisk until stiff and glossy, but not dry, peaks form.

Fold in 1/3 of the egg-white mixture into egg-yolk mixture to lighten. Gently fold in remaining egg whites.

See, the batter is supposed to look like chocolate, not chocolate chip. Fail.

Divide among lined cups. Bake until springy to touch. About 30 minutes. Dust with confectioners' sugar just before serving. If yours turn out funky like mine did, set them down in the common area of a building and run away before anyone knows you brought them. Don't hang around to find out if people liked them. Leave town the next day.