Chocolate Cupcakes
The New York Times blog, Bitten, just did a feature on chocolate cupcakes, which made me realize that a recipe for gluten free chocolate cupcakes is conspicuously lacking from this site. Well, I am happy to say that is no longer the case.
In my quest for the perfect gluten free chocolate cupcake, I made these 5 times. Today. Luckily, my boys and their glutenoid friends happily scarfed the "failures." Here, I share with you my success.
¼ cup coconut flour
¼ cup dagoba cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
¼ cup grapeseed oil
½ cup agave nectar
- In a medium bowl, combine coconut flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda
- In a large bowl, blend together eggs, oil and agave
- Blend dry ingredients into wet thoroughly
- Line a cupcake tin with paper liners and scoop a scant 1/4 cup into each
- Bake at 375° for 20-22 minutes
- Cool and cover with vegan "buttercream" chocolate frosting
- Serve
Makes 10 cupcakes
I hope you like these cupcakes as much as my family and I do. If you are looking for gluten-free sprinkles (which the boys eat, I do not), then check out this source.
Posted on June 12, 2009 in desserts by Elana
you might also like: Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
or Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free! Cupcakes
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47 comments
Drooling! That looks delicious!
I just had some of these sprinkles on my ice cream tonight! They are tasty, but they don't look as tasty as your new cupcakes! Yummy!! I love that they are made with coconut flour
Can I tell you how much I wish my kids could eat eggs? I love coconut flour but haven't had luck with it w/o eggs! Those look great.
Try duck eggs. My kids are allergic to chicken eggs but not duck eggs.
This looks really good. I could see myself eating a whole pan. Better make them when company comes over. Love the short ingredient list again. Thank you!
Oh my goodness, I have all the ingredients in the house! I'm afraid that I will eat them all in one sitting though...
I can't believe any recipe was missing from your site, Elana, ;-0 but these look so appealing. Who can resist chocolate cupcakes? and ones so healthy?
Thanks!
Shirley
I just teased a friend of mine who tried to bake bread with coconut flour, saying that it would never work. I think this cupcake proves me wrong. Chocolate seems in the air today- had cookies on my site.
Ok.. just got my batch out of the oven and cooled off enough to eat. I am so happy with them! I'm not going to make frosting this time (too much sweet stuff for me) so I will just think of them as chocolate muffins, and am going to eat some with almond butter. mm mm good!
Perfect timing since I was living vicariously through my friend and the cupcakes I bought her as a gift from a cupcake bakery a couple of days ago.
Elana,
Bless you for all of your lovely recipes. I do hope that someday you will read Gary Taubes book (the section on Agave where research suppoprts agave is very damaging to the liver and is similar to high fructose corn syrup). An inconvenient truth, but the truth nonetheless. I write this with good intentions, as many people follow your recipes.
Best wishes.
Callum.
Callum:
But for some of us agave is really the only sweetener that can be used.
In my household we are gluten, casein, soy, corn free as well as having severe intolerances to roughly 15 other food items. Starches are also quite poorly tolerated. Add to this that cane sugar and related sweeteners cause severe digestive distress in my 7 year old, honey is bad for my eleven year old and most other sweeteners someone in our family has some issues with. Agave and Stevia are the only sweeteners we all can tolerate.
I even use agave when baking for my nephew who has diabetes and has to check his blood sugar 4 times a day and it causes no spikes in his blood sugar like all other non chemical sweeteners do (should it not if it were similar to HFCS)
The research I have read about agave does not convince me as scientifically it can most often easily be disputed, also there are different types of agave which are processed in different ways. As with all sweeteners of course it should be used sparingly.
One must really learn to listen to ones own body to learn what is right for oneself.
I LOVE your coconut flour recipes, I can make coconut flour from dessicated coconut but have had little luck making almond flour that is fine enough. Neither are available here in Iceland and with a currently very weak currency ordering from abroad is ridiclously expensive.
Thank you so much!
Kitty,
Have you considered coconut (palm) sugar? It has the lowest GI of all natural sweetener (and is the most sustainable).
Callum,
I too am concerned about liver damages esp. since I have hypoglycemia and recently learned that sugar/sweeteners are not good for me! I'm pretty much sugar free now but I keep a minimal amount for baked goods (I usually use half the amount of sweetener). Honey and maple syrup are good substitutes to agave syrup.
Damn, I just used up the last of my coconut flour!!!! And even from the Asian supermarket, it's expensive. Oh well, probably better for my waistline, these look super yummy!
Alchemille, yes I have tried it but it makes my migraines worse (as do almost all sweeteners), agave in excess does as well but to a lesser extent. Because of our extreme sensitivities we stick to agave and stevia and try to stick to one treat a week that uses sweeteners other than pure fruit juice or fruits.
Elana, my wife was convinced that eating healthy had to taste bad until I showed her all the recipes on your site. We are going to make the cupcakes next, and I am already sure they are going to be a hit! Love following you on Twitter as well!
George (Twitter - PrimalMan).
OMG! I would LOVE to sink my teeth into a chocolate cupcake right now. Bummer though, I'm not doing eggs or chocolate right now because I am on an elimination diet. You better believe I will try these ASAP:)
I tried these with maple syrup as the sweetner! Super yummy! Thank you for the cupcake recipe I would have been in the dark trying to come up with these on my own.
Dear Elana,
I really enjoy reading your site, there is so much helpful information on it.
In the recipe you call for dark chocolate but in the method you refer to cocoa powder. Could you please clarify for me whether it is chunks of dark chocolate or cocoa powder.
Thank you very much again for your lovely site, it is a "must read" for me.
Hi Elana :)
Thank you so much for this delicious looking recipe! I am going to make these with a white frosting for my sweet little baby boy's very happy first birthday coming up in July :) Both sides of our entire family will be here to celebrate - and I don't think I'll share the "gluten-freeness" of it all, and see their reaction first.
I am 2 years, and counting, gluten free, and we plan on introducing gluten to our son when he is a little older and can tell us if he too has digestion issues/ reactions.
Thank you for all of your information and recipe inspiration - it is invaluable!!!
xo *SherryQ*
Too bad I didn't see this post before I made Rice Pudding for tonight.
Will have to try the cupcakes soon. They sound amazing!
These look fantastic. I'm intrigued by the idea of using coconut flour, I'll bet that makes the texture fantastic!
Where do you find coconut flour? I have looked at my health food stores around here and can't find it. Please let me know. I appreciate all the great recipes!
Elana, the cupcakes look amazing! You are such a rockstar with that coconut flour. That frosting looks perfect, too. I look forward to all of your coconut flour creations!
"I even use agave when baking for my nephew who has diabetes and has to check his blood sugar 4 times a day and it causes no spikes in his blood sugar like all other non chemical sweeteners do (should it not if it were similar to HFCS)"
Agave and fructose in general does not spike blood sugar because it goes through your liver damaging it at the same time, glucose is processed by other cells as well and thus it spikes your blood sugar, but fructose is processed just by the liver. This is just basic biochemistry, not something people should be guessing about if it's true or not.
So, the reason why it doesn't spike blood sugar is the same reason why it is damaging to the liver.
Many diabetics used to use fructose as their main sweetener when I was a child (my grandmother had diabetes) and they ended up with damaged livers.
Almost all sweeteners have damaging effects on the body, but I think from what I have read, that fructose might be the worst sweetener for the body. Of course some people don't have a choice since they can't tolerate other sweeteners.
These cupcakes are something I am going to try as soon as possible, I have loved the other coconut flour cupcake recipe on this site.
Made the cupcakes this afternoon! They are delicious! I doubled the recipe and was able to stretch the batter to make 24 - they came just to the top of the cupcake liner. I forgot to time them though and guessed on when to take them out using the toothpick test. After they had cooled a bit some of them had caved a bit in the middle. So, I will be more careful to time them next time...they still taste delicious.
Made them again - baked them the right time and they turned out beautifully! :) Thanks Elana.
This looks amazing. I've never worked with coconut flour before, and I'm excited to try this out!
I will have to get some coconut flour and try these. Can definitely relate to making the same thing over and over again until it's perfect. :) I am sugar & gluten free - agave is the primary sweetner I use. I've also used dates and frozen, pure juice concentrates. Yes, chocolate is in the air - I made chocolate ice cream today.
I admit I don't always love treats baked with coconut flour. I love the idea of coconut flour, but sometimes not the actual product. However, these were so tasty with a chewy, sweet edge around the cupcake. Of course I piled on Elana's most delicious chocolate "buttercream" frosting, which is out of this gluten-free world. Next time, I might add a drop of all-fruit raspberry jam in the center of each cupcake for a flavor twist. Thanks for always speaking to my chocolate addiction Elana!
If anyone here is from northern Virginia, but would maybe prefer it if someone else did the baking, check out Cupcakes Actually in Fairfax Corner. They have a phenomenal gluten-free chocolate cupcake.
Hi Elana,
I wanted to let you know that I am having a give away on my blog tomorrow that you might be interested in. Hope you can stop by for a chance to win. Anyone else is also welcome:)
Finally made these wonderful delicious chocolate cupcakes. I forgot to print off the icing recipe, so ours were without icing.
They were amazing! The perfect personal sized dessert for my hubby & I on our shared birthday (same day 4 years apart).
Thanks for providing another winner!
http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/HFCSAgave.pdf
Thanks for your comments, I appreciate all of them.
Here are a couple I'd like to highlight:
1) Happy birthday to SherryQ's baby boy and love that you are going to serve this without mentioning they are gluten free until after :-)
2) To Karen and everyone else who is asking where to find unique ingredients that I use on this site --click directly on the ingredient and you will be taken to a place for purchase; or, go to the "purchase" section of my site on the right hand side and there are links for all of the unique ingredients I use here.
3) As Marian mentions, these sink when they are not fully baked, be sure to bake for the entire time --I can vouch for this as it happened to me in some of my earlier test batches that had shorter baking times :-)
4) Love Stacie K's idea to put some raspberry jam in the middle of these, yum!
Thanks Again,
Elana
I made these yesterday with Ener-G egg replacer. It didn't rise as much as the one in the picture so I may fill the cups more next time and they seemed to need less baking time. However these tasted really good and my kids loved them. So did I! This is the first time I've gotten coconut flour to work w/o the eggs.
Made these tonight! YUM! I followed the recipe, only subbing out the agave for honey because that's what I had. I also used a mini muffin pan instead of cupcake liners. Made 24 perfect little chocolate muffins. I'll be making these again!
I made these tonight. They looked great when I took them out of the oven but after a few minutes cooling in the pan they shrunk in. I used Better than eggs instead of eggs in a shell and mixed it up in my kitchen aid mixer.
I am not sure what happened to them!
Would anyone be able to help me with what happened?
Thank you
Risa,
Sounds like an ingredient substitution issue. Elana has an FAQ page which might answer your question about the egg replacer. You could try asking in the forums.
Thank you so much for this recipe. I made these today after having a real craving for something sweet and chocolate but I needed it to be something that wasn't going to be too high in carbs. These were perfect. I posted on my blog pictures of the finished product and the changes I made along with several backlinks to your site. Thanks for posting this.
I literally JUST made these and they are amazing. I don't have enough time to make the frosting tonight so I baked vegan chocolate chips into them which makes the cupcakes even more incredible while warm.
Thank you so much Elana! Gluten free living can be taxing but you make it so easy and delicious for us!!
This cupcakes are absolutely delicious and so easy to make! Thank you for this recipe, Elana! GF cooking is very complicated but your recipes have helped ease me through the transition to GF cooking.
I made these today, and they are moist, light, and delicious! I substituted pumpkin puree for half the volume of oil, and half the volume of agave. Worked wonderfully and easier on the calories. Thanks Elana - you've opened up a whole new world of gf baking for my family.
Hi!
your website is amazing!
I would like to make the cupcakes but using coconut palm sugar instead of the agave nectar.
how much coconut palm sugar should i use?
Thanks
sharon
I took it upon myself to experiment on my own when substituting ingredients for this and other recipes from Elana - it may take a couple tries but that's what baking is all about!
I made these tonight and they were great. I'm taking the ones we haven't eaten into work for morning tea tomorrow ;) The cupcakes were light and fluffy and the icing was brilliant - thanks!
Made these last night (my birthday) and frosted them with strawberry coconut milk whipped cream; the texture of the whipped cream matched the light fluffy texture of the cupcakes really well.
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