There's 3 different recipes to create this whole thing so GET EXCITED! Don't be intimidated by that. It has a lot of steps but these are really quite easy to make and to put all the DELICIOUS elements together :)
Yellow Cupcakes:
Ingredients
12 paper liners
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces
3/4 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 c milk, at room temperature
1. Preheat oven to 350, place liners in cupcake pan.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl, set aside.
3. In a large bowl, on medium speed, beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing completely after each one. Add the flour mixture in 4 additions, alternating with the milk. Begin and end with the flour.
4. Divide batter into liners, and bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center shows a few moist crumbs.
5. Cool pan on rack for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes to cooling rack.
Pastry Cream:
Ingredients
1 1/2 c milk
1 vanilla bean
4 large egg yolks
1/3 c sugar
3 tbl all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1. Place milk in a medium size nonreactive (whatever the heck this is, I have no idea. I just used a regular pot) pot. Split vanilla bean down center and scrape all the seeds into the milk. Add the vanilla bean to the milk as well. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat, but keep warm. Let bean steep for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a large bowl until creamy. Whisk in flour and salt until smooth.
3. Remove the vanilla bean from the milk. Reheat milk until it just comes to a simmer. Pour about one quarter of the warm milk over the egg yolk mixture, whisking gently. Add remaining milk and whisk to combine. Immediately pour mixture back into the pot and cook over low-medium heat. Whisk continuously until thickened, about 8 minutes, but do not let it boil. The pastry cream should be thick enough to mound when dropped from a spoon.
4. Allow pastry cream to cool; stir frequently to release heat. When almost at room temperature, scrap into airtight container and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until thoroughly chilled. This can be made up to 3 days ahead. (word to the wise: when you put this in the fridge, put it in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap, with the wrap actually pushed against the whole top of it. This will keep it from developing a weird film on top)
Ok now let me tell you what I did for this. I don't have access to vanilla beans in Tyler. As wonderful as Tyler, Tx is, I have yet to find a place that sells that kind of stuff. So I used 1 tsp of vanilla instead. Instead of letting it sit for 15 minutes (I had no bean to steep...), after the milk and vanilla came to a boil, I let it simmer until I had the egg mixture done. Since it was still so heated up when I added it all together, it didn't take 8 minutes to reach the correct consistency, it took about 1 minute. These are just notes to keep in mind in case you ever do this :)
Ganache (the easiest, most finger-lickin part):
Ingredients
2/3 c heavy cream
10 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (if you just use chips then that eliminates the chopping part!)
1. Place cream in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Remove from the heat and immediately add chocolate into cream. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes. The heat of the cream should melt the chocolate. Gently stir the ganache until smooth. If the chocolate is not melting, place over very low heat, stirring often, until melted.
3. The ganache is ready! :) Lick the spoon/spatula/whatever...
Now to put all this wonderful goodness together!!!!
1. Place pastry cream in a bag fitted with a tip that's about 1/4 in. at the opening. Insert into the center of each cupcake, like so:
Squeeze to fill. As soon as the top of the cupcake begins to expand and crack, ease up - the cupcake has taken as much filling as it can. If any oozes out, wipe it away before glazing.
This is what they'll look like!
Reheat ganache if necessary to bring it to a fluid state. Use a small offset spatula to apply about 1 tbl to the top of each cupcake. Bon appetit!!
I know it seems like a lot, but seriously this tastes like an eclair in cupcake form. So good! Enjoy :)