This past week, I decided to bake cupcakes. I had made muffins a week before, and now I wanted to make use of my extra cupcake tins. Chocolate chip muffins are my favorite (besides lemon poppyseed ones), and so I turned to Joy of Baking for inspiration. On the site, I found two recipes and opted to make both chocolatey muffins. By serving two types of muffins, I could appeal to two different audiences. Simple chocolate chip muffins can do no wrong, but there were also cocoa powder-infused, dark chocolate chip-filled ones for the more adventurous.
For each of the muffin recipes, all you needed (besides the measuring cups and spoons) were two bowls. One for dry ingredients, and one for wet. No mixer is necessary (which is a shame because I had just gotten a new Cuisinart electric mixer, but more on that in another post).
Each recipe made 12 muffins (made in my cupcake pan) and 6 muffin tops. I had extra dough, and instead of waiting another 20 minutes for a few extra muffins, I wanted to save time by using all the dough in one go. Being thinner, the muffin tops need less time in the oven, so I would recommend 16-17 minutes rather than the 20 required for the muffins.
Also, I'm sure there are muffin tins specially made for muffins, but my cupcake tin worked fine.
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| The plant! It's still alive! :) |
Chocolate chip muffins (Adapted from Joyofbaking.com)
Recipe makes 12 muffins (using a cupcake tin) and 6 muffin tops
Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
2/3 cup of sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 + 1/4 cup of mini, semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup (equivalent to 1 stick) of butter (melted and cooled)
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
1 + 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Recipe:
0. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
1. Melt the butter and then allow it to cool.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients--the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
3. Add the chocolate chips.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients--the melted and cooled butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla.
5. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry. With a rubber spatula, mix as you go.
6. Do not overmix. Mix until you no longer see clumps of dry ingredients. Overmixing leads to tough muffins (No, ladies, not a tough studmuffin. That's a different thing. Nabbing one of those is not so easy.)
7. Fill a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Fill each muffin cup with about 2 large tablespoons of batter. It should be filled about 80-90%.
8. Get a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper. Place a 1 tbsp (or more) dollop on the tray. Repeat so there is a 3x2 arrangement of muffin top dough piles.
9. Bake the muffin tops for about 17-18 minutes. Check for completeness by inserting a fork and then removing it (it should come out clean).
10. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for about 5 minutes before removal from pan.
Super chocolate muffins (Adapted from Joyofbaking.com)
Recipe makes 12 muffins (using a cupcake tin) and 6 muffin tops
Ingredients:
1+3/4 cups of flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1+1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1+1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter (melted and cooled)
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
Recipe:
0. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
1. Melt the butter and then allow it to cool.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients--the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add the chocolate chips.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients--the melted and cooled butter, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla.
5. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry. With a rubber spatula, mix as you go.
6. Do not overmix. Mix until you no longer see clumps of dry ingredients. Overmixing leads to tough muffins (Once again, not a tough studmuffin. That's a different thing. Nabbing one of those is not so easy.)
7. Fill a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Fill each muffin cup with about 2 large tablespoons of batter. It should be filled about 70-80%.
8. Get a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper. Place a 1 tbsp (or more) dollop on the tray. Repeat so there is a 3x2 arrangement, giving you a total of 6 muffin top dough piles.
9. Bake the muffin tops for about 17-18 minutes. Check for completeness by inserting a fork and then removing it (it should come out clean).
10. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for about 5 minutes before removal from pan.
