Nutella Cupcakes (VIDEO)

5 from 3 votes

These Nutella cupcakes are a chocolate lover's dream. Deliciously flavored, perfectly moist, and filled with creamy Nutella spread, this chocolate hazelnut cupcakes recipe is an indulgent dessert fit for any occasion.

Prep Time30

Cook Time25

Total Time55

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: Large

Calories: 605kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Chocolate muffins

90 Unsalted butter soft, room temperature
100 g Granulated sugar
1 Egg room temperature
80 g All purpose flour
45 g Cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon Baking powder
65 g Whole milk room temperature
60 g Coffee room temperature
½ teaspoon White vinegar
½ teaspoon Baking soda

Nutella Frosting

250 g Whole milk
50 g Granulated sugar
40 g Egg yolk approx. 2 egg yolk
12 g Corn starch
12 g All purpose flour
25 g Dark chocolate eg. Callebaut 811, semi-sweet good quality chocolate finely chopped
75 g Nutella
75 g Unsalted butter room temperature
8 g Cocoa powder unsweetened, dutch processed

Nutella Filling

80 g Nutella gently melted

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Start with the Nutella frosting

To start with, make the pastry cream by whisking together sugar and egg yolk until slightly fluffy for about 1-2 minutes, then mixing in corn starch and flour until a smooth paste is achieved
Bring milk to simmering in a saucepan on medium heat
Pour the warm milk over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously with a Hand whisk. Then, pour it back into the saucepan and cook until thickens. Concretely it is approximately 1 min after the first boil. It might get lumpy at first, but don't worry just keep whisking and the cream will get smooth and glossy.
Add in chocolate in 3 stages, and mix with a Rubber spatula until completely incorporated. Place the cream into a shallow bowl and cover the entire surface with plastic wrap to avoid skin forming on top. Let it cool to room temperature
Once the pastry cream is set and at room temp, prepare the frosting by whipping room temp butter first for a few minutes, then whip in the cocoa powder and Nutella for 1-2 minutes
Then, start adding in the room temperature pastry cream in 4 stages until the cream reaches a stable yet fluffy texture. Do not over whip the mixture as it can become runny
Chill the cream while preparing the chocolate cupcakes

For the chocolate muffin

Heat oven to 175 C / 347 F
With an Electric hand mixer whip room temperature soft butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy then whip the egg in. Do not overbeat
Sift flour, salt, cocoa powder, and baking powder together, this is the “dry ingredients”, while the room the milk and coffee mixture is your "wet ingredient"
Start adding the dry and wet ingredients into the cupcake batter in the following 4 steps: wet, dry, wet, dry. Fold with a Rubber spatula fold each time. Finish with dry ingredients
Mix vinegar and baking soda together in a small bowl, it will be super bubbly. Immediately fold the mixture into the cupcake batter. This is the secret ingredient to keep the cupcakes soft for days without the taste of vinegar of course!
Spoon or Pipe the mixture into Cupcake pan till approx. ¾. This recipe makes 6 large cupcakes
Bake for 25 min or until a skewer inserted comes out clean then let them cool on Cooling rack before filling and frosting

Assemble

Once the cupcakes are cooled, make a small hole on each of the cupcakes and fill them with Nutella. Worth to heat up the Nutella gently in the microwave so it will be smoother and runnier
Pipe the frosting on top and decorate with hazelnut
Store in refrigerated for 2-3 days

Video

Notes

INGREDIENT NOTES:

Measure your ingredients with a Digital scale for accuracy
All ingredients for the cupcake must be at room temperature to properly emulsify: eggs, milk, etc.
Do not skip the white vinegar+baking soda "secret ingredient" for perfectly moist cupcakes)
For the Nutella frosting, it is key to use good quality unsweetened dark cocoa powder and semi-sweet chocolate so that they don´t overpower the Nutella taste but balances it

TECHNIQUE NOTES:

Make sure you read my Expert tips section above to maximize your success. A short recipe alone is not able to cover all the necessary details, and science behind baking.
While whipping the frosting, pay very close attention to the consistency and stop whipping immediately after it gets fluffy. Overbeating would result in breaking the cream and instead of becoming stiffer, in fact, it will get runnier
Never frost warm cupcakes, make sure they are chilled to room temperature

Nutrition