Choco Chip Muffins

Last weekend, I 'd arranged a play-date for my daughter with her 'bes-t-t-t-t-est' friend. It was one of her 'first-formal' & 'long-awaited' play-date ever and to top it, it was with her closest pal from school! With lot of happiness & excitement in her tone, she asked me "Amma, can you make some snacks that my friend & I 'll love to have!". "Sure, you got it dear!", I promised her and started to work on it!

Though there are many 'quick & easy' options like cookies, string cheese, crackers, fruits etc in the market, I wanted to whip up something fun, fancy & tasty at home for my kiddo & her friend. After considering a lot of options, I finalized the snacks menu to be veggie puffs, cupcakes!

So, I started looking for recipes, and one cute cup-cake caught my interest. It was actually a recipe for cutesy, yummy, chocolatey cupcake muffin! As intrigued I was, I fixed my mind on to this recipe. After all, what could bring more happiness to a kid than chocolate?!?! And, the reason for my curiosity - how is muffin different from cupcakes?!?!

Does it have something to do with the frosting?! No! I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that muffins can also come with frosting. Then, what is it that differentiates muffins from a cupcake?! Are you as curious as me?! Read on..!



Well, It's all in the batter & its mixing method! For cake batter, butter & sugar are creamed together until light & fluffy and rest of the dry & wet ingredients are incorporated into it. For muffins, dry & wet ingredients are individually combined and then, briefly mixed together. Cupcakes are light & fluffy whereas muffins are dense & bread-like. Cupcakes are considered to be a dessert, while muffins are served for breakfast!

'A basic formula for muffins is 2 cups flour, 2-4 tablespoons sugar, 2½ teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 egg, ¼ cup oil or shortening or butter and 1 cup milk. When the fat, sugar and egg ratio in a recipe reaches double or more than this, you have reached the cake level' - simply put by dianasdesserts.com.

The muffins that I baked were dense & moist, just as it should be! I could see my daughter 's face beaming with pride when her friend asked for a second cupcake, oopsey.. muffins!

Basic Info
Complexity - Simple
Prep time - 15 mins
Cook time - 20 mins
Serves - 12 muffins

Ingredients
Dry
All-purpose flour - 1 3/4 cups
Cocoa power - 2 tbsp (I used Hershey 's cocoa powder)
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Instant coffee - 1/2 tbsp
White sugar - 1/2 cup
Light brown sugar - 1/4 cup
Semisweet chocolate chips - 3/4 cup + 1/4 cup for sprinkling

Wet
Almond milk - 1 cup (you can replace it with regular milk)
Vegetable oil - 1/3 cup + 2 tsp
Yogurt - 1/4 cup
Pure vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line cupcake/muffin tin with paper muffin cases.

In a large bowl, sieve twice all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda & baking powder until uniformly mixed. To this, add the other dry ingredients and mix well. Mix all the wet ingredients in another bowl.



Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix them gently (use a whisk and go clockwise mixing all the ingredients for about 16 - 18 times - yes, keep a count!). Remember that a lumpy batter makes the best muffins.

Spoon batter to fill 3/4th of the prepared muffin cases and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips on top.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, risen and springy. Let it cool for atleast 15 mins otherwise, the muffin liners won't come off easily.

Surprise your kids & their friends with these super chocolatey & super addictive muffins, just as I did with mine!

Events
Linking this to the event "What's with my cuppa" hosted by Nivedhanams & UK-Rasoi