Monday, December 15, 2014

Chocolate Morning Muffins

Chocolate Morning Muffins--very cake-like

2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa
2 cups all purpose flour--unbleached
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup real butter, melted
3/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract--use the real thing
2 teaspoons white or cider vinegar
1 cup white chocolate chips

This recipe is a knock-off of King Arthur Flour's recipe called Chocolate Breakfast Muffins.  I am sure their recipe is delicious, but I did not have all the ingredients in their recipe (i.e. baking soda!) so I did some internet research and made changes in the recipe.  The changes worked, as judged by the fact that the muffins disappeared with alacrity this early morning!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a non-stick muffin tin very well.

Melt  your butter in a glass 2-cup measure for about 20 seconds in the microwave and set aside. In a mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and cocoa mixing well.  Toss in the chocolate chips and stir well.  In a small bowl beat the eggs and milk until well homogenized.   Stir the egg/milk mixture into the dry ingredients then pour in the melted butter and combine well.

Using a portion scoop, deposit the muffin batter into the greased muffin tin and cook for about 20 minutes, or until you think they are done.  Remove pan from the oven and let pan sit on a rack for 5-10 minutes.  Carefully loosen the edges of the muffins with a plastic knife and place the muffins on the rack to cool completely.

Makes about a dozen muffins.

Things I did:  I put the first batch of batter into a "muffin-top" pan, since I really only like the muffin tops.  This was not as successful as one might hope.  I think I should have used non-stick spray instead of butter for greasing the pan, and have left out the chocolate chips. The chips stuck to the pan making removal of the tops very difficult.  When I used the spray in a regular muffin tin, and let them sit for 5-10 minutes before removing from pan, they did not adhere to the pan implacably.

Used the black portion scoop--one-quarter cup/number 16 scoop.