Robert recently discovered chocolate, and, like his mother, he loves it. Especially dark chocolate. So this overcast and rainy Saturday morning was spent making chocolate muffins. After scouring possible recipes, I decided that we had most of the ingredients for Alton Brown's Chocolate Muffin #7 recipe so that would be our starting point. Let's just say we barely had enough batter for 12 muffins because Robert and I kept sneaking "quality control" tastes.
Alton Brown's Chocolate Muffins
scant 1 cup whole milk
1 Tbs vinegar
2 Tbs yogurt (like White Mountain's Bulgarian Yogurt)
scant 2 cups of flour
1 cup cocoa powder (I love La Maison du Chocolat Poudre de Cacao because if you're going to cook with chocolate, it needs to be good chocolate.)
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup coconut sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
2 Tbs vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375.
Combine the milk, vinegar and yogurt and set aside for 5-10 minutes. If you happen to have some buttermilk hanging out in the fridge (but seriously, who does?) then you can use 1 cup of buttermilk instead.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl, combine the sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla extract.
Add the milk mixture to the egg mixture once it has had time to sit.
Slowly add the liquids to the solids until combined, but not overly so. Lumps are ok.
Either spray your muffin tin with a non-stick spray or use silicone cups.
Fill each of the cups until full.
Place the muffins in the oven, then raise the temperature to 400.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Take the muffins out, then turn them on their side or place them on a cooling rack. (I love how Alton says, "Skip this step and you'll have gummy bottoms. Do you want gummy bottoms?" No! I don't want gummy bottoms! I will not skip this step!)
I think I should add to this recipe that you'll need a gallon of milk to go along with the muffins as soon as they come out of the oven because you will eat them immediately. And you'll need some milk to wash them down. If you can't eat them right away, store in an airtight container.