Delicate Flame: Urfa Biber Chili Cupcake for Iron Cupcake Earth

When I read on Cupcakes Take the Cake about an Iron Chef-style cupcake competition taking place, my gears immediately started turning. As in Iron Chef, a special ingredient is the uniting theme among competitor's entries and for this first round of Iron Cupcake: Earth hosted by Sandy, the Milwaukee Cupcake Queen, the ingredient was chili pepper, which, you know, I can get down with.



My submission is a Turkish inspired cupcake featuring a favorite new ingredient, urfa biber, a Turkish chili pepper, which is delicious in all things, not just cupcakes. I thought about naming this cupcake after my upstairs neighbor, Baigum, who just this week became a United States citizen, but my friend Anna once told me about the tendency for Turkish dishes to have poetic or even racy names (she has a great story about her young brother declaring that the "tender inside of woman's thigh" the family had just enjoyed to be delicious) and that made me reach for something else. Staying on the G-rated side of the fence, the name of "Delicate Flame" is a perfect fit for these gently warm, musky-fruit tinged cupcakes that linger long with rich, complex flavors and soft heat.



Urfa biber is one of the most unique spices I have ever experienced. The chili, a striking burgundy pepper that grows in the Urfa region of Turkey, is sundried during the day and then wrapped up tight to "sweat" through the night. The result is often described as a "spicy raisin" and while at first blush that might not sound appealing, it points at some of the magic of the urfa's flavor. There is definitely a sense of dried fruit, a highly concentrated sweetness that has a richness and depth to its flavor that fresh fruit lacks, and that's what hits the tongue first, but it is soon met by a full-bodied warmth that is highly persistent and holds flavor instead of just heat.



Urfa biber was definitely my chili for this cupcake so I started building around it. Cardamom seems to be the vanilla of Turkish desserts, so I cracked a few pods and got to work with the mortar and pestle to grind them into a fine powder. If you enjoy cardamom, you can do no better than to grind your own. The flavors are so much more present and bold than if you were to use an already ground powder. I've found that cardamom is one of the most fleeting spices I use, in powdered form it is really only good for a brief period of time.



Once the kitchen was full of the captivating scent of cardamom, I started thinking about Turkish coffee, which is often brewed with that spice. My favorite coffees tend to be from Central America and have notes of cocoa, fruit and spice, which seemed perfect for this project. So, breaking all rules of Turkish coffee making, I started with a very fine ground Guatemalan shade-grown bean and proceeded to make it in a syrup warmer, lacking as I do the traditional ibrik (also, my neighbors were out and their ibriks secured just a floor above my reach). Does anyone else in the world have a syrup warmer? It's a very New England thing to have, so I'll understand if you don't, but it happens to double fairly well for the wide-bottomed, narrow-topped ibrik, having a wide bottom and narrow top. Coffee Geek seemed like the no-brainer destination for a primer on making Turkish coffee at home (I'd only ever consumed the stuff), but when I noticed that their finished cup had no crema, the wonderful foam that forms on top of the syrupy coffee, I was out. Luckily, Ana Sortun came to the rescue in Spice with instructions.



While the cupcakes were baking, I made a cardamom pastry cream and set it to chill, which was really good, but something I'd leave off next time in favor of just enjoying the cake and chocolate. I'd initially planned to leave chocolate out of my cupcake since chocolate and chilies are, as far as I'm concerned, made for each other and I wanted to explore something different, but the flavor profile of this cupcake was already so different for me and I knew dark chocolate would be a perfect companion, so I began work on a dark chocolate ganache to top. Whipping set ganache to get it light and airy is a great way to get the decadent experience of ganache without as much of the density, which can drag things down.



On top of the ganache a rough chop of pistachios provided a beautiful contrast in color, texture and taste with the light nuttiness of the coffee and the seemingly natural pairing of dried fruit flavors. Also, since there is a...I hesitate to say "mildness" because it makes me think of some sad, watery salsa in a jar on the shelf...so let's say, because the urfa biber is delicately fiery, it seemed perfect to sprinkle a bit of the dried pepper right on top of the cupcake so it was the first element to make itself known on the tongue. Of course, I also think its near black, purple-red color is very pretty. Tasters had no idea what it was, but universally enjoyed the unexpected flavors.



Delicate Flame Urfa Biber Cupcakes

makes six 3" cupcakes in Panettone baking cups

for Turkish Coffee:
4 tablespoons very finely ground espresso, preferably Central American
4 teaspoons dark cane sugar
2 cardamom pods, black seeds finely ground
1/4 teaspoon green anise, ground
1/3 cup cold water

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons semolina
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon urfa biber dried chili flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground green anise
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Turkish coffee
1/4 cup cane sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons safflower oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar

To make the coffee:

Pour ground coffee, sugar and spices in the bottom of the pot and pour cold water over top. Do not stir. With a high flame, cook until the sugar melts, about three minutes. When the coffee grounds collapse into the liquid and the liquid rises around it, immediately remove from heat and stir. Return the mixture to the flame and allow the liquid to rise again. Remove from heat just before boil. Allow it to sit for about 1 minute because returning to heat and allowing it to rise a second time, remove and allow to sit once more for a minute and then return to heat and rise a third and final time. Note that each rise will take progressively less time, so watch carefully. Allow coffee to cool.

To make the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk in the ground spices and set aside. In a small mixing bowl, combine the unsweetened soymilk and apple cider vinegar, whisk to combine. The mixture should almost immediately thicken like a thin-yogurt. Stir in the cooled coffee, sugars, salt and oil, whisking well to combine. With a whisk in one hand, pour the wet mixture into the dry, whisking to incorporate as you pour. Divide the batter evenly among six panettone papers and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Top with dark chocolate ganache, chopped pistachios and urfa.

Voting for Iron Cupcake Earth will begin at noon on Sunday, August 31st at No One Puts Cupcake in the Corner and will be open through Thursday, September 4. You can vote for your favorite chili cupcake there and help someone win great prizes from Cakespy, Jessie Steele Aprons, Cupcake Courier and Taste of Home. There are a surprising (and fantastic!) number of vegan entries. Wouldn't it be fun to have one of them win the first Iron Cupcake challenge?! Until voting is up you can check out entries on the Flickr group.