In this recipe for caramel apple cupcakes, sour cream cupcake batter is filled with chunks of tart apples and walnuts and then topped with streusel and caramel. Instead of an apple pie at your next gathering, make these apple-and-walnut-filled cupcakes as a twist on a traditional dessert offering. Because the streusel and caramel are sweet, it’s best to use tart apples, such as Granny Smith, to balance out the flavors.
Adapted from A Baker’s Field Guide to Cupcakes used by permission of The Harvard Common Press ©
Caramel Apple Cupcakes
Author: Dédé Wilson
Makes: Makes 18 sticky caramel cupcakes
Ingredients
Streusel:
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
Cupcakes:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2⁄3 cup peeled and diced Granny Smith apples
- 2⁄3 cup walnut halves, toasted and chopped
- 18 small, square Kraft caramels
Instructions
- For the Streusel: Combine melted butter, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt in a small bowl. Stir in flour until smooth. Mixture should clump and form “crumbs” when squeezed between fingertips. Set aside.
- For the Cupcakes: Position rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line one 12-cup and one 6-cup cupcake tin with paper liners.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl to aerate and combine; set aside.
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice; beat in vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down after each addition, allowing each egg to be absorbed before continuing. Add the flour mixture in four additions, alternately with the sour cream. Begin and end with the flour mixture, stopping when there are still a few streaks of flour. Fold in chopped apples and nuts until just combined.
- Divide batter evenly in pans. Place a generous amount of streusel on top of each cupcake, using your fingers to compress it into crumbs, and to scatter it evenly. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center shows a few moist crumbs.
- Cool pan on rack for 5 minutes then remove cupcakes to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Melt caramels in top of double boiler or in microwave. Drizzle caramel over tops of cooled cupcakes using a fork or teaspoon. Cupcakes are best served the same day. Store at room temperature in airtight container.
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