Cookies 'n cream cupcakes, take 1

I’ve had "Oreo cupcakes" written on my to-bake list for quite awhile. I’d been eyeing this recipe on Baking Bites that looked pretty straightforward to veganize, and I finally made them last week. For a couple reasons, though, I made another batch this week, using a different recipe. First of all, I still had most of a package of Hydrox left (hell yeah, Hydrox! How old school am I?) and wanted to prevent myself from snacking on them. Secondly, there was something about the cupcakes in this first batch that wasn’t, well, cupcakey. The batter was super-thick, and they came out dense and almost muffin-like in texture. Don’t get me wrong—they were absolutely delicious, and the Oreo/Hydrox flavor came through brilliantly, giving them a kind of creamy mouthfeel—but I wanted try a more cupcakey recipe. The second batch tasted so different from this one that it deserves its own post (so stay tuned!), but both versions are definitely worth sharing, and making.

1 cup + 2T whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) Earth Balance
1 tsp vanilla
1 Ener-G egg
1/4 cup + 2T soymilk
8 Oreos/Hydrox/Newman O’s

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 10 cups of a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners (or just grease with cooking spray—I found out this recipe doesn’t really require the paper cups). In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and the Earth Balance until light and fluffy.



Beat in the vanilla, then beat in the Ener-G egg. Working in 4 or 5 batches, alternately add the flour mixture and the soymilk to the sugar mixture, keeping the mixer on low speed, until just combined.



Put the Oreos/Hydrox/Newman O’s in a small ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin. (Some of these types of cookies are vegan, some aren’t quite, so seek out the fully vegan ones if it’s important to you.) It’s ok if there are some medium-sized chunks left, but you want most of it to be crumbly.



Stir the crushed cookies into the batter.



Spoon the batter evenly into the muffin tin, filling each about 2/3 full. This batter was so thick that I actually used an ice cream scoop to spoon it in. It was not enough for 12 cupcakes, as I had expected, so I only made 10. If I were to do it again, though, I’d make just 8, because even the 10 were very small. But oh well, it’s not like portion control is a bad thing.



(Does that not look like little scoops of cookies 'n cream ice cream?) Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean besides maybe a few chocolate cookie crumbs.



Let cool in the pan for a few minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.



The muffiny texture of these cupcakes actually serves them well. They’re sweet enough that they don’t really need frosting; a simple glaze (with some finely crushed Oreos mixed in) will do. The filling from the cookies dissolves into the cakes as they bake, but stays very detectable, rendering each bite melt-in-your-mouth creamy. The puzzling consistency of these cupcakes is actually the most enjoyable part, and it puts them in a class all their own.



Yield: 10 cupcakes. Per cupcake: 200 calories, 7g fat (2g sat), 33g carbs, 2g fiber, 3g protein.