Recipe - Chocolate Breakfast Muffins

I've had my eye on this recipe for a long time now, with no good excuse to actually make it until recently. I didn't change a single thing when following this one. The King Arthur Flour All-Purpose Baking Cookbook is my absolute favorite baking book. The King Arthur catalog is like food porn to me. This book is awesome, I think you should get it if you like to bake anything at all.



As you can probably guess, they aren't very good for you. They do make a great every-so-often treat.

These muffins are rich and tender, high-rising, and deep chocolate, both in color and flavor. Warm from the oven, spread with butter or raspberry jam, they're a totally decadent way to greet the day. We recommend them anytime you feel like treating yourself to something really special. And, by the way, they don't need to be relegated to the breakfast table; frosted with fudgy icing, they double as an awesome cupcake. A final aside–one of the King Arthur taste-tester comments we received was as follows: "This is the best chocolate thing I've ever had to eat in my whole life, and the best thing I've ever eaten here at King Arthur." Fair praise, indeed!

2/3 cup (2 ounces) Dutch-process cocoa
1 3/4 cups (7 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 cups (9 3/8 ounces) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips
2 eggs
1 cup (8 ounces) milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons vinegar
1/2 cup (4 ounces, 1 stick) butter, melted
coarse pearl sugar, for topping (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a standard muffin pan with paper or silicone muffin cups, and grease the cups.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips. Set aside.

In a large measuring cup or medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and vinegar. Add the wet ingredients, along with the melted butter, to the dry ingredients, stirring to blend; there's no need to beat these muffins, just make sure everything is well-combined.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin; the cups will be heaped with batter, and the muffin will bake into a "mushroom" shape. Sprinkle with pearl sugar, if desired.

Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven, and after 5 minutes remove them from the pan, allowing them to cool for about 15 minutes on a rack before peeling off the muffin papers or silicone cups. Yield: 12 muffins.

Nutrition information per serving (1 muffin, 101g): 335 cal, 13.8g fat, 6g protein, 18g complex carbohydrates, 28g sugar, 3g dietary fiber, 69mg cholesterol, 273mg sodium, 265mg potassium, 101RE vitamin A, 3mg iron, 108mg calcium, 117mg potassium, 18mg caffeine.