TWD: Chocolate Chunk Muffins

I've been a bad blogger lately :(

I've been baking goodies once, twice and even thrice a week, but not blogging about any of them (bad, bad, blogger). What can I say: work, life, parties, holidays, watering my drought parched lawn, lots of things have gotten in the way.

But today on this sweltering July 4th afternoon, I made some mid-year resolutions...

1) I will blog on everything I bake,
2) I will stop using my treadmill as laundry line and start exercising again, and
3) I will try to see the good in people and situations. Note to self: stop being so negative.

So here is my first blog in a while, TWD's Chocolate Chunk Muffins. So good, so chocolaty, so moist and delicious. Thanks, Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles, for a great selection.



Next week Cream Scones (yummm, my favorite).

TWD - Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffins

I know these Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffins were not on the Tuesday with Dorie baking schedule, but I was baby-sitting this weekend and I wanted to bake some the kids would enjoy.


But alas, they weren’t the hit I thought they would be. The kids devoured the leftover batter, but they didn’t care for the finished muffin at all. The biggest complaints were not enough chocolate chunks, not sweet enough, and TOO DRY. Way, way too dry.

The first step in the muffin mixing was melting the bittersweet chocolate and butter in a small bowl. Amanda, my niece, said it smelled divine.


Here are all the pieces-parts waiting to be mixed together: the dry, the wet, the melted, and the chunks (chocolate chunks that is).


Here is everything all mixed up. I didn't think it had enough chocolate chunks, so I threw in an extra handful. In hindsight I should have thrown in three handfuls, some oil, and a little extra vanilla.


Into the oven they go, twelve lovely little muffins to be.


Amanda really liked the taste of the batter. She licked the bowl clean.


Just out of the oven, 375° for 18 minutes (2 minutes less than Dorie suggested). They sure do look good.


But looks can be deceiving. They were a big dissapointment in the taste department. In attempt to mask the dryness, I whipped up some ganache and slathered the top in chocolate stripes. It helped a little, but not much.


I felt they just needed something more. If I ever make them again, I'll add more chocolate, more sugar, more vanilla, and maybe some oil (for extra moistness).


Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffins

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks, divided
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375°. Line your muffin pan with paper muffin cups or butter it well.

Melt the butter and 1/2 of the bittersweet chocolate.

In another bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Combine the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla in a bowl.

Pour the buttermilk mixture and the chocolate/melted butter mixture into the bowl with all the dry ingredients. Using a rubber spatula, gently and quickly stir to blend. Stir in the remaining bittersweet chocolate.

Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes or until a thin knife inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Let the pan cool on a rack for 5 minutes then remove the muffins.

TWD - Allspice Crumb Muffins

This week’s assignment at TWD (Tuesday with Dorie) was Allspice Crumb Muffins. Ahhh, nothing beats a fragrant muffin served warm from the oven.


The baking experience started out well enough, I mixed up the batter and streusel topping.


Then filled my muffin cups, and sprinkled the streusel on top.


I thought there was too much topping for the number of muffins, but I piled it all on anyway. Big mistake. This is how they came out of the oven...


I don’t know what I did wrong. Were my pieces of butter too large? The streusel sorta melted off the muffins and spread across the muffin pan. I had to cut the muffins apart and chisel the extra crispy parts of the streusel off the metal pan. I ate all the crumbs though, they were delicious.

So the Allspice Crumb Muffins were not a total success, but not a total failure. They didn’t look very pretty (not like Dorie’s) but the taste was very nice.




Allspice Crumb Muffins
From Dorie Greenspan's Baking From my Home to Yours

Streusel:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground allspice
5 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into bits

Muffins:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
grated zest of 1 lemon (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular sized muffin tin. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Streusel:

1. Combine flour, brown sugar, and allspice in a small bowl and sift them through your fingers to blend.
2. Add the bits of cold butter into the dry ingredients and using your finger work the butter into the dry ingredients until the butter is the size of small peas.
3. Place the prepared crumb in the refrigerator to keep the butter cold.

Muffins:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, allspice and salt.
   Stir in the brown sugar, making certain there are no lumps.
2. In another bold whisk the melted butter, eggs, milk and vanilla extract together until well combined.
3. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and with a rubber spatula, quickly but gently stir to blend. The batter will be lumpy.
4. Stir in the lemon zest.
5. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
6. Sprinkle some streusel over each muffin, then use your fingertips to gently press the crumbs into the batter. Note from me: Try to keep the streusel toward the center of the muffin. Don’t pile the streusel near the edge of the pan.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
8. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes.
9. Carefully remove each muffin from its mold.
   
   

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I bought Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my home to yours with the intention of joining the "Tuesday with Dorie" group but their once a week baking schedule intimidated me. I'm a lax, lazy, allergic to schedules kinda person; so instead I went through the book and bookmarked all the recipes that looked enticing (there were a lot).

The first bookmark was on page 10, Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. Hummm. I'm not a big lemon fan, but the photo of Dorie's muffins looked so good I decide to give them a try.

And you know what?

They were good, really, really good. Excellent in fact. Way to go, Dorie.


Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Glaze
adapted from Dorie Greenspan

Makes 12 Muffins

For the Muffins:
3/4 cup sugar
Grated zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds

For the Icing:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray the cups of a regular size muffin pan.

- Place the the sugar and lemon zest in a bowl and using your fingertips rub the sugar and zest together until the sugar is moist and the scent of lemon fills the air.


- Whisk the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt together, and then add the sugar/zest mixture.

- In a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter.

- Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry and with a rubber spatula blend just until the flour is moistened. Lumps are okay. Don't over mix or the muffins will be tough.

- Divide the batter equally between the 12 muffin cups. I used a large ice cream scoop and the batter divided almost perfectly.


- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Allow the muffins to cool for five minutes before removing from the pan. Cool the muffins completely before icing them.

(Note: I kinda over baked my muffins. My chihuahua, Peanut, came in from outside covered in heaven-knows-what and I had to give her a quick bath. The scrubbing took longer than normal, (she was soooo disgusting) and the muffins spent 21+ minutes in the oven. Ooops. They were still good, but the edges were a little tougher than I like.)


To make the icing, mix the confectioners' sugar with about 1-1/2 tablespoons lemon juice. Add more lemon juice until a drizzle consistency is achieved. Drizzle or spread the icing over the muffins. Enjoy.