I’ve become a little obsessed with food blogs, and mostly baking blogs since I started my 60 day intense workout regime. In order to have the proper fuel for my body to get through those workouts, I need to eat clean. Which means no processed food, no refined sugar or white flour; basically no junk. So I look and drool all over the baking recipes and incredible photographs of the food I’m not eating.
I’ve been following @bustybaker on Twitter for a little while now, (mostly because her avatar looked delicious) and when I checked out her awesome blog, I had to find the source of the avatar…Mint Filled Brownie Cupcakes.
This was one recipe I had to make; so I adapted it to fit within my daily calorie allowance, and the sweet tooth that’s not going away. I can trick it with some fat free, no sugar added 60 calorie Chocolate Jell-O pudding, but that only goes so far.
I have these great mini silicone cupcake cups which make bite-size cupcakes. I figured I could freeze most of the mini cupcakes, and keep some for some bite-size sweetness.
I also remembered that the last time I made mini cupcakes using a regular cupcake recipe, I ran out of mini cupcakes, made 12 regular cupcakes, and a mini loaf pan. That would just be bad news on my “eat clean” routine.
So, I cheated. 
I picked up a Dr. Oetker’s Shaker cupcakes; which only make 6 regular size cupcakes, so I wouldn’t have a boat-load of batter. The nutritional information was actually better than regular boxed cake-mix, and better than a homemade cupcake batter with butter, sugar and all the good stuff.
Plus, these are fun to make. Add milk to the container and shake-shake-shake your booty around the kitchen and in 2 minutes, you’ve got rich, velvety chocolate batter.
I poured a small amount of batter in each cup, then added one tiny Jr. Mint. The Busty Baker’s recipe uses York Peppermint Patties, but of course, they wouldn’t fit in the mini cupcake cups.
And besides, "Who's gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It's chocolate, it's peppermint -- it's delicious!" (sorry, I couldn’t resist the famous Kramer quote).
I added more batter on top, and set them into the oven to bake. It took about 18 minutes to bake under a watchful eye.
They looked simply perfect! I couldn’t wait to taste and see how the Jr. Mint held up in the middle.
I wasn’t sure if it would hold it’s shape like the peppermint patty did.
You can see where the Jr. Mint melted in the middle; it’s a little more glossy than the cupcake. The peppermint didn’t keep it’s shape, but it melted and oozed throughout the entire cupcake and it was delicious!
It’s the perfect little bite-size chocolate-mint treat. I made 24 mini-cupcakes, and a quick guesstimate at the calorie count, considering the cupcake batter and the Jr. Mint, this is a mere 40-calorie treat. The cupcake batter has zero trans fat and is probiotic.
While certainly not a health food, it’s a portion controlled way to satisfy my sweet tooth, without derailing my eating plan.
Happy Wednesday!
Ciao for now,
4 comments:
Ooh, even if they're low calorie, they look awesome! I'm not sure if we have the Dr. Oetker's Shaker stuff around here, but I'll have to look. I love Junior Mints!:) Thanks for sharing!
These look delectable! And Junoir Mints were always one of my faves!
yum! adding jr mints is genius :)
I love it! I love the Junior Mints idea! And I think it's great that you still allow for your sweet tooth even though you're eating clean and healthy. I really need to take some lessons!
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