Boozy Brown Butter Cupcakes

1. First you’ll need to brown the butter and allow it to cool. To brown the butter, place sticks of butter in a deep saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently, until melted and starting to foam. Watch for brown specks to start to form on bottom of pan and the melted butter has darkened slightly and has a nutty aroma. Remove from heat, transfer butter to a bowl and cool to room temperature. This all takes about 35 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F and prepare two 12-count cupcake pans with paper or foil liners.

3. In a small bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.

4. Combine the milk and sour cream in a cup and mix well. Set aside.

5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the eggs and sugar together on medium speed until thickened and lighter in color. Add in the cooled brown butter, bourbon and vanilla and mix well.

6. Alternate adding the flour mixture and milk/sour cream mixture into the stand mixer bowl, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix over low speed until just combined. Don’t over mix.

7. Fill cupcake liners ¾ of the way full. Bake for 16-18 minutes, depending on oven temp (mine runs hot so they’re done at 16 minutes). Check for doneness by lightly pressing the top of one and see if it bounces back. Cool 5 minutes in pan

8. Pour the cinnamon chips in a bowl. Dip the tops of each cupcake in the chips, pressing lightly. Then let them cool completely on a wire cooling rack.

9. Once cooled, frost with the pumpkin buttercream (recipe in my recipe box). These are best eaten at room temperature. These will keep up to a week, stored in the refrigerator. Let them sit out at room temperature for 30 minutes before eating. They are even better the second day! Enjoy!

Adapted from Whisk Kid and Anne Burrell.