Monday, May 14, 2007

Muffins for the teachers
--Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffins



Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Baking: From My Home to Yours Copyright 2006

¾ stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Melt the butter and half the chopped chocolate together in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water; or do this in a microwave. Remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg and vanilla extract together until well combined. Pour the liquid ingredients and the melted butter and chocolate over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough – a few lumps are better than over mixing the batter. Stir in the remaining chopped chocolate. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. I sprinkled a bit of sugar on top.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.
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I decided to make muffins at the last minute for my son's 'teachers' (he attends a daycare center) and this recipe that I had just seen posted at Cook. Craft. Enjoy. immediately came to mind.

Unfortunately since I gave them away to the teachers, I only tasted a small sample that I baked off in a custard cup. I know I enjoyed it and I can say that these muffins are intensely chocolate but I wish I had been able to sample an entire muffin. Or two. I'm going to have to make these again because I want my share!

Not much else to report this Monday morning. We spent the weekend visiting mothers and grandmothers. I didn't cook a thing.

Blast From The Past: Chicken Enchiladas from September 2005. I don't make this heavy version of chicken enchiladas anymore but I won't lie - I'd eat them up if I could do it without guilt.

Question of the Day: How did you spend Mother's Day?

10 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Those muffins look wonderful! I love their beautiful shape...

Anonymous said...

those muffins look delicious! I guess we'll all have to make them to get an accurate impression of what they taste like!

Mother's day... well... it was spent without mom.

Wanda said...

I've never been interested in chocolate muffins, but seeing yours, I would sure like to try one right now.

Mother's Day... well, that will be my next blog entry when I get myself in gear to post it. I celebrated a day early with #5 kid - he and I went to a labrynth (sp?!....sigh) and really interesting garden, then out to eat. Sunday I went to #2 kid's house for marinated, grilled burgers.

Heather said...

We spent mothers day working in the yard and then buying a new tv.

Brilynn said...

Would you believe it if I said I haven't made these yet? Soon...

Anonymous said...

Let's see....Made pancake breakfast for DH, DD and four grandchildren, variety of sandwiches for lunch, DS came by, received cards, made a banana cake which was promptly devoured by all, and FINALLY got treated to dinner out! Had delicious Mexican seafood. Oh, I forgot. During the day I also made blueberry muffins from a mix, nothing like those delicious looking muffins you made.

Jan

Annie said...

Ooh. They look good!

Took my mom out for seafood and I had Italian. I'm working on the leftovers tonight!

Unknown said...

Great pic. For mother's day I went home!!!!!! I love going home. There's something nice about that. I made raspberry balsamic chicken for lunch with squash, asparagus, leftover panzanella, and strawberry pie. Great weekend.

Anonymous said...

Your muffins look like they came out good! Did you use the bittersweet chocolate? (I used dark chocolate since that's what I had in the house)

As for mother's day, I spent it driving back from California and then relaxing the rest of it.

Anonymous said...

Jan's day sounds so yummy! These muffins sound just like our breakfast this morning: Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Waffles from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. So good!!!!! I've only made them once before because I don't usually have sourdough starter on hand, but maybe I can email them for a substitution or just sub water and flour for that tablespoon of starter. We didn't even put butter or syrup on them, they were so good plain. Highly recommended recipe for anyone with sourdough starter on hand! And to eat like this, we just do everything in moderation...had 3/4 waffle each with fruit, 1/3 cup whole milk and coffee, and popped the rest in the freezer to pop out and thaw. So good!!!