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Chocolate Muffin Recipe

Are all muffins created equal or some are more equal than others? Check out this Chocolate muffin recipe that will be the one that matters!

Muffin is an individually portioned baked product. Although many of us think that muffins don’t need introductions since they are part of our daily life or at least everybody knows what they are, once we leave our sanctuary, called home, muffins aren’t always like we except them to be.

Muffins can be quite different on the two sides of the pond, with English muffins particularly strange if we’ve got used to the sweetened cupcake base. Yet, all muffins can trace back their lineage to the same flat, round, crumpet like things, Brits call muffin, even today.

The origin of the word itself is still hotly debated but sources suggest the Low German word “Muffen” which literally means “Small cakes” is the closest to win the contest.

The American quick bread muffin, which many of us simply know as muffin, got separated from its ancestors during the 19^th century. While the old muffin stuck to the griddle and yeast to leaven the batter, the quick bread muffins took up their residency in the oven with chemical leavening agents such as baking soda or baking powder.

Since the painful parting modern muffin has kept few memories of the old relationship and nowadays it’s almost unimaginable the two shared the same hearth.

Although some like to think of muffins as a viable option for breakfast, sweetened muffins, especially the enormous fat and sugar filled with over 600 calories a piece, are still desserts and as such far from being an optimal choice to start a day.

Luckily, with chocolate muffin, we don’t have such confusion because who would think having chocolate for anything else but for fun. Having a 600-calorie muffin after a 1000 calorie meal may not be the best of ideas either though but luckily, we aren’t forced to live on junk food and buy muffins from shops that are nothing but punishment for our body.

Making our own is always the best, given of course, we’ve mastered some basic cooking skills already. Muffins aren’t the most skill demanding task in the kitchen but still, there are caveats that can lead our efforts to yield unintentional crumpet like flatbread muffins.

Using the right ingredients in the right amount is paramount to create the crumb we like. Skipping on the protein coating fat will create chewy dense muffins while not using milk or baking soda results, not just affect the flavor of the muffin but the color of the end product.

Despite its fearsome reputation, baking with yeast is more forgiving than baking with chemical leavener, such as baking powder or baking soda when it comes to ingredients or rather the order of ingredients.

To get our muffins raising out of the depth of the baking forms, we mostly use baking powder which is a chemical raising agent containing the right amount of acid and base to create co2, once the temperature reaches 140°F / 60°C.

Unfortunately, baking powder can do its thing when we add a bit of acid to our batter such as buttermilk, yogurt, or fruit juices too. Adding them both too soon to the batter will result the cake lifting gas to escape, and our muffin stays flat.

If we are fast enough though, such problems will never haunt our muffins and never have to bury ourselves in the darkest corner of our kitchen to eat the whole tray of it up so no evidence can see the day of light our failure, except of course, if we really want it to.

Ingredients

3 medium / 150g Eggs
½ teaspoon / 3g Salt
½ cup / 100g Butter (melted)
2 tablespoons / 30g Honey or sweetener of choice to taste
1½ teaspoon / 7.5ml Vanilla
½ cup / 50g Cocoa powder
1 cup / 240ml Buttermilk or Whole milk
2½ cups / 300g Flour
1 teaspoon / 5g Baking powder
1 teaspoon / 6g Baking soda
½ cup / 80g Chocolate chips

How to make Chocolate muffin

Whisk eggs until light yellow.
Keep on whisking and incorporate salt, melted butter, honey or sweetener of choice then vanilla, cocoa powder and buttermilk.
Whisk in flour. If we have an electric mixer we can save time by throw everything together and let the machine do the hard work but otherwise follow the steps to easily incorporate all the ingredients.
If buttermilk is used, now it is the time to add the baking powder and baking soda. Whisk them quickly in but throughout, 30-60 seconds should do it. Adding baking powder and baking soda earlier will result a reaction between the acid in buttermilk and the baking powder which ruins the fluffiness of our cake.
Quickly pour the batter into the muffin forms and even faster decorate them with chocolate chips if desired.
Place the chocolate muffins into the middle rack of 350°F / 180°C preheated oven until the inner temperature of the cake reaches 208°F / 98°C. Which should happen in 30 – 40 minutes.