TWD—Chocolate-Break Muffins

It’s no secret that I don’t drink or use coffee.  So when I saw this week’s chosen recipe for Coffee-Break Muffins (page 15 in Baking From My Home to Yours), I knew exactly what I would do to adapt them and it actually worked great. 

Get ready for it, wait, wait—I used chocolate!  Surprise.  not.  If figured I’d use hot cocoa in place of the coffee.  Try it.  Makes a pretty darn good muffin.  I even used some gingerbread cocoa that I have, which only added well to the spice that is already in the recipe.  Along with the cinnamon in the recipe, I also added a little more ground ginger and a few pinches of freshly grated nutmeg.  So in place of the one cup of coffee, I used the gingerbread hot cocoa mix. 

I couldn’t stop there with the chocolate, so I added four ounces of chopped Lindt 70% Excellence dark chocolate.  This recipe made 12 regular muffins and four minis.  

While I thought the muffins were good, I really didn’t think I could eat all of them.  Well, I suppose I COULD, maybe that I shouldn’t eat all of them.  You see, I knew the boys wouldn’t eat them if I said, “Here, have a chocolate gingerbread muffin.”  So I sort of told them a little fib.  First I decided they WOULD eat them if they thought they were cupcakes.  So I called them cupcakes.  But cupcakes need frosting.  So I made a frosting for them. 

I made a chocolate ganache with 4 1/2 ounces of chopped chocolate and 1/3 cup heavy cream.  I pour the  boiling cream over the chocolate and let it sit for a minute, then whisked it together until it was smooth.  I LOVE ganache.  I dipped about half of the “cupcakes” in the ganache, then I thought it would be fun to make frosting with the rest of the ganache.  So I added two tablespoons of butter to the ganache and beat it in the electric mixer for a few minutes, then I added 3/4 cup powdered sugar and let it beat for a few minutes. 

Frosted fake cupcake gingerbread cocoa muffins--

And the boys ate the cupcakes.  These muffins have a nice kind of crisp outside and are moist and flavorful on the inside.  Want the real recipe?  Rhiani at Chocoholic Anonymous chose this week’s Tuesday’s With Dorie recipe.  You can find the recipe on her blog.  Check out the other TWD blogs and their cupcakes muffins. ;)