More-carb Mupcakes

This post is for Heidi, so if it's the end of the world, she has more chocolate.

I discovered a recipe for low-carb cupcakes in the Bon Appetite magazine about a year ago now. The recipe is for Sunken Orange-Chocolate Muffins, or something like that. You make them in a muffin tin, and the first time I made them was with a friend, and I kept getting confused and asked for the Cup... no... muffin... no MUPCAKE tin. Thus the Mupcake was born.

These weren't published to be low-carb, but they're flourless and I made them with Splenda as well, and at one point did all the math to discover they now have approximately 8g of carbs per regular-size cupcake. This is lovely, if you compare them to hostess. Plus, they're tasty!

Well, I ran out of Splenda this time, and instead of using orange rind to go with the chocolate, I ground up some Thin Mints that I hid in the back of my freezer last year.

Holy. Freaking. Cow. The batter was so tasty I'm confident that my lunch will not be responsible today.

So without further ado, here's the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 and put liners (or spray butter) in a 12 cupcake/muffin tin.

Step 1. Melt 8 oz chocolate chips with 1 stick of butter and stir it up really well to make a lovely chocolate sauce. Set it aside.

Step 2. In a food processor (I have a Cuisinart for this), pulverize 1c. of a nut of some kind. The original recipe says slivered almonds, but I had chopped walnuts, which taste just as good. This creates a nut flour. Yay! This is also where I threw in three Thin Mint cookies and pulverized them with the nuts. If you choose to add something else instead, like orange rind (2 tsps.) or instant coffee or whatever else goes well with chocolate, now's the time.

Step 3. Separate 4 eggs, in two medium-large size bowls.

Step 4. In the yolks, stir in 3/4 c. of sugar. Then stir in the chocolate and the nut mixture.

Step 5. In the whites, power-mixer in 1/4 c. You're making a merengue, so whip it up until it makes stiff or kinda stiff peaks. I've run out of patience most times and it works fine if the peaks are droopy. I also used REAL sugar for this step today cuz I ran out of Splenda.

Step 6. Fold the merengue into the rest of the stuff by thirds until well blended but not smooshed.

Step 7. Scoop it into your prepared muffin tin and bake for 17 - 22 minutes depending on how cakey you like them.

Step 8. Wait until the timer goes off; take them out of the oven. Try desperately to wait before eating one.

Step 9. Get a cup of tea, and put your favorite version of whip cream on the mupcake.

Step 10. EAT IT.

Notes:
They're called "Sunken" whatever, because when they cool, the tops cave in. This is supposed to happen. I don't know the chemistry for it. With the chocolate-orange version, they recommend filling this dent with orange preserves or something like that. I think mine will just have more whipped cream.

Don't forget to take them out of the tin and put them on a cooling rack. As we all know, no one likes a soggy bottom.