Sweet & Savory Southern Bourbon Cupcake

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Soak Cherries in 1/4 cup bourbon.

Sauté shallot, celery in sauté pan with diced duck fat and 1/2 stick of butter. After the shallot and celery are starting to brown, add in the chanterelles & fuji apple. Sauté until slightly tender.

Add in the butter and wait until it is melted before taking it off the flame.

Sauté the diced duck breast for 1–2 minutes, just to take the rawness out of the breast.

In a large bowl, pour Mrs. Cubbison's Traditional Seasoned Stuffing mix and add in all the sautéed ingredients from above, along with the rendered duck fat and 1 cup turkey stock. Stuffing should be moist but not wet.

Take the cherries out of the bourbon and add to the stuffing mixture. Add the diced Asian pear here (raw). Mix all of the ingredients until nice and combined.

In another bowl add eggs, heavy cream, cocoa powder and sage. Pour this mixture into the stuffing mixture. Now the stuffing mixture should be somewhat moist.

Scoop mixture into a large, greased cupcake pan. Bake over a water bath on middle rack of preheated 350°F oven until stuffing mixture sets and internal temperature reaches 165°F, about 20 minutes.

While the stuffing cupcakes are cooking, prepare the sauce.

In a sauce pan, mix 1/2 stick of butter with 1/2 cup dark brown sugar. Once the sugar is melted with the butter add in 1/4 to 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Mix until it starts to form a caramel sauce. Once it has reached the caramel sauce stage, add in 1/2 cup of pure Kentucky bourbon. Once the bourbon is incorporated, add in 1/4 cup of turkey stock. Mix and continue stirring until you have a thickened sauce.

Cool sauce and put into a squirt bottle for distribution.

Take Stuffing cupcakes out of the oven and pop them out of the pan.

On each plate squirt the bourbon sauce into a beautiful circle and then place Stuffing cupcakes on the sauce.

Top each Stuffing cupcake with a little more sauce and then sprinkle crispy Proscuitto on top of the cupcake.