Espresso Chocolate Muffins

Espresso Chocolate Muffins

“Can you make something with espresso?” asked Kate.

Of course I can.

We have a house full of visiting family this week and couldn’t be happier about it. I plan to stuff them full of baked goods as much as they’ll let me, and they get to make requests too. Tonight I whipped together a quick batch of banana yogurt muffins and then dove into the espresso muffins, happy to make something rich and decadent without having to worry about eating too much of it. If they’re good, I thought, there probably won’t be any left when I get home from work tomorrow anyway.

The first task was to sift together flour (I used whole wheat white), cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

sifting dry ingredients

sifted

(I know, it looks pretty messy. Such is the state of my kitchen. And my brain.)

I put that aside and got out another bowl, into which I added the sugar and cracked two eggs.

sugar and eggs

I whisked.

eggs and sugar whisked

Then I poured in the oil. It looked a little…oily.

oily oil

I whisked. Then I added one cup plus two tablespoons of milk.

milk

It started looking less oily and more milky. I put in the vanilla and a tablespoon of espresso powder.

espresso and vanilla

Once I whisked that together, it got a little frothy, like iced coffee.

frothy

I don’t actually drink iced coffee, I prefer mine hot, but this evoked memories of coffee milkshakes and made me thirsty.

I poured in the flour mixture.

adding dry ingredients

The recipe said to whisk them together, but I didn’t think that was a great idea. The last time I tried whisking something with wet & dry ingredients mixed, I warped my whisk! So I used the spatula. The results did not disappoint.

batter

I was supposed to add a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, but Linus & I conferred and decided upon a mixture of dark chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Good choice.

in go the chips

I folded them in, then did my best to divide the batter evenly among twelve full size muffin cups.

batter in cups

Now after that I sprinkled a bunch of chips on top, but I forgot to photograph it. Luckily I had a lot of batter left over, so I made mini muffins with the rest, and those I managed to get a shot of with the chips on top.

chips

chips on mini muffins

I only got about half the tray filled, but having half a tray of mini muffins is a lot better than no mini muffins. When the large ones were done baking — about 20 minutes later — I popped the small ones into the oven.

The big ones looked pretty good.

muffins in pan

Kate seemed happy about how things were going.

Katie

And since I had to wait a while for the muffins to cool, I took some time to photograph my amazing gift from Linus, my very own Adventures In Baking apron. I LOVE IT.

apron

After 15 minutes it was time to take the muffins out of the pan.

muffins!

They looked fantastic. The mini ones weren’t too shabby either.

mini muffins

Linus devoured one, smearing chocolate all over her face. I took pictures but she’d kill me if I posted them. We all tasted them.

Um.

Yeah.

They are kind of good.

They are REALLY good.

They are fluffy light muffins with a heavy chocolate taste and melty chips and a hint of espresso and they are crazy, crazy good.

So eat them up, family! Save me! Devour the muffins!

Tomorrow, we bake with nuts.

ESPRESSO CHOCOLATE MUFFINS RECIPE

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