This is a recipe I came up with for the Marx Foods Dessert Challenge! I had never had Fregola before until now and we were instructed to make a dessert with it. We were also sent bourbon vanilla beans, star anise, and saffron. I wanted to do something out of the ordinary while being something sweet and savory so here it is! Enjoy! Please vote for my recipe HERE.
These turned out to be amazing! I really enjoyed the Fregola texture incorporated into the cupcake. The maple syrup that the fregola was cooked in really worked well I thought. The vanilla and bacon hints tied it all together in this sweet and savory dessert!
Prep Time: 30 min
Bake Time: 20-25 min
Serves: 24 (regular cup cake size)
Ingredients:
Fregola
- 1 C. Dry Fregola
- 1 Vanilla beans
- 2 C. Water
- 1/4 C. Maple syrup
- 20 Saffron threads
Cup Cakes
- 1 C. Unsalted sweet cream butter
- 2 C. Sugar
- 1 Vanilla bean pod, scraped of seeds (use the seeds).
- 4 Eggs
- 3 C. All purpose flour
- 1 TBS Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. Salt
- 1 C. Skim milk
- 24 Cupcake paper liners
- 3/4 lb Bacon, cooked and crispy ( you know how I like it, nitrate free like Applegate Farms).
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 8 oz packages of cream cheese
- 1 Stick of salted butter
- 1 Vanilla bean pod, scraped of beans.
- 2 C. Confectioner’s sugar, sifted.
Instructions:
Fregola:
- Wash fregola under cold water.
- Add fregola to a pot of: 2 cups of water, 1/4 cup maple syrup, 20 saffron threads, and vanilla beans, and pod.
- Boil for 20 min.
- Remove vanilla pod and drain (do not rinse again).
Cup Cakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and continue to cream. Gradually add the vanilla and eggs and mix in well. Sift together the dry ingredients; then mix into the butter mixture alternating with the milk.
- Add prepared Fregola.
- Pour batter into cupcake paper-lined muffin tins filling them 3/4 full. Bake until puffed and firm in the center and light golden brown on top, about 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool.
- Once cool frost the cupcakes with your cream cheese frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla beans, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.
Disclaimer: Marx Foods sent me samples of their products in order to participate in this contest. As always, all opinions expressed are my own.
Ha, bacon garnish. Those just look cool.
Thanks! They taste unbelievably good- sometimes I surprise myself 🙂
I had never heard of fregola and had to look it up. I agree, the bacon garnish looks great.
Fregola is a weird item for a dessert so it was challenging to figure something out… but these turned out great. Everything’s better with bacon 😉
Haha, I’d never heard of Fregola either, or so I thought, but now I look it up it seems familiar… I guess maybe I looked it up during my blog travels previously. Looks like a great cupcake – the frosting especially looks delish. I wonder as well what fregola would be like in a bread?!
It’s basically like giant couscous 🙂 The frosting was my fav part with the real vanilla beans and bacon 🙂 I bet it would be great in bread.
good luck! and I will vote as soon as the link is up 🙂
Thanks Tandy! 🙂 I really appreciate it!
How creative! I never would have come up with either cupcakes or bacon! I bet the fragola were little creamy bursts of flavor…yum.
Thanks! They were bursts of maple-y flavor! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
vanilla, bacon and maple… you can’t go wrong 🙂 intrigued by the cooked fregola folded right into the cupcake batter, very cool!
Thanks! It was a great combo! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
What a creative use of the fregola. I love your flavor combination of maple syrup and bacon. Drooling! So glad to get to know your blog through the Marx Foods contest.
Amy @ uTryIt
Thanks Amy! It was so delicious, I ate wayyy to many of these! It’s nice to meet you as well thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Jen
This is awesome and creative! I voted for you! Good luck!!
Awe thanks! 🙂
Wow! What a brilliant idea! This is like all of my dream comfort foods consolidated into a cupcake. Great job with this recipe and the clever use of fregola sarda.
Thanks! When I was making it I was really hoping it would be as good as it sounded. I served them at a dinner party and they went unbelievably fast. Thanks for stopping by!
You’re right–everything is better with a little bacon (although I think your cupcakes could stand alone and be just fine)! Great recipe and nice to meet you!
Thanks! 🙂
I’ll never turn down any dessert that has bacon in it! You’ve got my vote. 🙂
Mmmm – the fregola must have added a very flavorful note to the cup cakes. Very creative idea!
Thanks! I think cooking them in maple and saffron helped a lot 🙂
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