(Nearly) Flourless Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

My good friend Sarah has told me lots of great things about Clean Eating magazine, so I thought I would check it out. I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on this for so long! Although the mag is a little more militant about eating “clean” than I am, I loved that all of the recipes use real foods. they have some really creative ideas! I don’t think I would ever follow a recipe 100% but it does have some great ideas. For example these cupcakes, which were featured on the cover of the May/June issue. I was so excited to see a “flourless” style cake that wasn’t loaded with butter and cream!

I’ve been going to a new grocery store lately that has a great International section (Prince Chopper in Westgate for my fellow Albanians) and I’ve had my eye on this jar of cherries in the Polish section for a few weeks. I’ve been dying for an excuse to buy them! Chocolate and Cherry cupcakes seemed like the perfect reason.

I added these to the center of each cupcake- three seemed like a good amount. The flavor combination was perfect! The only downside was that the extra moisture from the cherries made the bottoms of the cupcakes a little mushy. All in all, they were like the perfect flourless cake though. Dense, Rich, and Fudgey. A total winner.

Also, I found that the recipe made more batter than I needed. So I made a tray of mini cupcakes with the rest. Those didn’t get cherries, and were topped with coconut. Delish! No soggy bottoms on  these babies! (But no delicious sour cherry flavor either…) I couldn’t decide which I liked better. They were both amazing! A recipe that will stay on my collection for sure.

If you want the chocolate coconut cupcakes, omit cherries and top each cupcake with a sprinkle of coconut.

(Nearly) Flourless Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

Yield: 18

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Ingredients

• Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup whole white wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup fat free sour cream
• 1/3 cup skim milk
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites
• 1 cup pitted sour cherries
• 2 tsp. skim milk
• 1 oz dark chocolate chips

Instructions

2. Preheat oven to 350.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine cocoa powder, 3/4 cup sugar, flour, and salt. In a medium mixing bowl, combine sour cream, milk, oil, vanilla, and 1 whole egg. Mix wet mixture into dry mixture.
4. Add egg whites to a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer (chilling the bowl helps here). Using an egg beater of mixer, beat the eggs until they begin to get foamy. Add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until they form medium-still peaks. Fold this into your batter.
5. Line cupcake pan with liners, then fill each about half way. Top each cupcake with 3 sour cherries, then top with more batter to fill each cup 3/4 of the way. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.Set aside to cool completely.
6. Microwave chocolate chips on 50% power for 2 minutes or until melted. Combine with milk, stirring well until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Top cupcakes with glaze.