Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Glaze

Okay so one of my best friends got me this amazing cookbook full of cupcakes for my birthday one year! (THANK YOU REBECCA!) I love it! Here is one of my husband's favorite cupcakes. I made them for his CPA party.

Cupcakes:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

6 TBLS (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, at room temp

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk (any fat content)

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar until smoothly blended and lightened in color, about 1 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Mix in the egg. Add the vanilla and beat for 1 minute, or until the batter is smooth. On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing just until the flour is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.

Fill each paper liner with a generous 1/4 cup of batter, to about 1/3 inch below the top of the liner. Bake just until the tops feel firm and are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 22 minutes. There will be a few small cracks on top. Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack.

Carefully place the wire rack on top of the cupcakes in their pan. Protecting your hands with pot holders and holding the pan and rack together, invert them to release the cupcakes onto the wire rack. Turn the cupcakes top side up to cool completely.

Glaze:

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1 TBLS unsalted butter

1 cup chopped milk chocolate or milk chocolate chips

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, heat the cream and butter over low heat until the c ream is hot and the butter has melted. The mixture should form tiny bubbles and measure about 175 degrees on a thermometer; do not let it boil. remove the pan from heat, add the milk chocolate, and let it sit in the hot cream for about 30 seconds to soften. Add the vanilla and whisk the glaze until it is smooth and all the chocolate has melted. (Return the glaze to low heat if necessary to melt the chocolate completely, whisking constantly.) The glaze should be thick enough to hold it's shape when spread over the cupcakes. If it is too liquid to spread, let it sit at room temperature for 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

Using a small spatula, spread 1 TBLS of the glaze over the top of each cupcake.

The cupcakes can be covered and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.