Chocolate Muffins

Chocolate is a magical thing, don't you think? The rich color makes me feel so warm and the taste just kind of melts into your tastebuds. It really does make everything better.

And muffins are a special treat too. Muffins basically say it is ok to eat cake for breakfast, and who doesn't love eating cake for breakfast. I remember when I was little and someone had a birthday, my sister and I would get to have a huge slice of sugary cake for breakfast until all the cake was gone. Good times. But back to muffins. I have always jealous of how luscious store-bought muffins look. The muffins are baked oh so high, the crumble topping is crunchy and sweet, the chips are evenly distributed, the insides are soft while the tops are dense.  

Due to me jealousy, every once in a while I try my hand at making muffins that rival the store-bought muffins. The trouble is this though: the chocolate never really comes through. I have the same trouble when making chocolate cake. Oh how I love chocolate and oh how sad it I am when I can’t taste the lovely chocolate flavor.

This muffin recipe is definitely the best I have used for chocolate muffins. They are perfect in almost every way. The top of the muffin is everything I can hope for: dense and fudgy. The muffins also bake up nice and tall with a lovely dome shape. While the muffin bottom is soft, springy, and quite delectable, I wish there was just a tad more chocolate flavor. Maybe by adding some mini chocolate chips this muffin recipe has the potential to be one of the best. 

Chocolate Muffins

Slightly adapted from Flax and Twine

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

7 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

5 tbsp. unsalted butter

¾ cup milk

½ cup plain yogurt (I used Oikos)

½ cup (96 g) sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 2/3 (200 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners. Set aside.

In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water melt the chopped chocolate and butter together. Stir until combined. Take the bowl off the simmering water and set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the milk, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla. Whisk until combined. Stir in the cooled chocolate. Mix until combined. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Pour the chocolate mixture over top the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Distribute the chocolate muffin batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. I used a medium cookie scoop, a tbsp. cookie scoop, and a half tbsp. scoop for each muffin cup. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the muffin. Cook the muffins in the pan for 5-10 minutes. These are best enjoyed right out of the oven, but 10 seconds in the microwave with make them good as new.