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My 14 year old granddaughter (who is also a Celiac) and I were trying to find something new to bake this weekend. We love our Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes, but we wanted something more. While looking thru the cupboards, we found the peanut butter. Oooh – chocolate and peanut butter! Who wouldn’t like that? But if we mix the peanut butter into the cake batter, the peanut flavor can get lost. How about a peanut butter filling? I used to make a peanut butter cream cheese filling, back when I could still eat dairy. Tofutti makes a dairy-free cream cheese, but of course I didn’t have any on hand. And of course I didn’t want to drive to the store just for tofu cream cheese. However, I did have Tofutti sour cream. We decided we would create a new filling recipe. The cupcake and filling recipe are below. They’re moist, not too sweet – and habit forming! (I cut one of the cupcakes in half to show you how moist they are.)

I’m also in the process of trying new types of gluten-free flours. I’ve used three types of gluten-free flours, in the past, for most of my baking. Mainly because they work. Rice flour, tapioca flour and cornstarch. All three are light flours. I would like to add a little more fiber and density to some of my baked goods. These cupcakes were my test with new flours. After a trip to my local grocery store and looking at the different types of gluten-free flours – and different prices of these flours, I decided I needed to find a less expensive way to get good gluten-free flours at a low cost. I bought myself a small food processor with a flat blade. There are many different brands out there – as long as they have the flat blade, you can grind just about any dried ingredient into a flour.

I had half a bag of lentils (left from a batch of Lentil Sausage Soup) and a bag of pinto beans that I always meant to use in a recipe, but never have. I ground the lentils into flour (this smells great and is a little bit heavier than rice flour.) Lentils are small and grind into flour fairly quickly. Then I ground the pinto beans into flour. These are larger, dried beans and take a bit to grind them into flour. It’s worth the time, tho, because they add more density to your baked goods and both add more protein to your recipes. (In my head, these cupcakes can be considered healthy because they have protein in them – 🙂   I hope you like them – we do. (If you don’t have lentil or pinto bean flour, substitute another gluten-free flour.)

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Sour Cream Filling

1 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cut lentil flour

1/2 cup pinto bean flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 tsp xanthan gum

2/3 C dark cocoa powder

1 C granulated sugar

1-1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 C mayonnaise

3/4 C water

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cupcake papers in cupcake pans (we used the mini-cupcake pans) or grease cupcake pans. In large bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Mix on high until light yellow. Add water and mayonnaise and mix on low until blended. Add baking soda, baking powder and dark cocoa. mix on low until blended. Add rice flour, lentil flour and pinto bean flour. Mix on low until blended, then mix on medium for 1 minutes to incorporate all flours. Add xanthan gum and mix on low 1 minute until batter thickens.

Fill cupcake papers 3/4 full and bake 10 – 12 minutes, or until top springs back when pressed lightly (or when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean). Remove cupcakes from oven and let cool 10 – 15 minutes. With small spoon or sharp knife cut out the center of each cupcake and fill with peanut butter filling. Pipe chocolate frosting around outer edge of cupcake. (We use Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Dark Chocolate)

Peanut Butter Sour Cream Filling

1/2 C Tofutti sour cream

1/2 C creamy peanut butter

1/4 C granulated sugar

1 tsp GF vanilla

Place all ingredient in medium bowl. Stir until completely blended. Refrigerate until needed, then fill cupcake centers.