Coffee Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Love muffins?  How about the flavor of coffee?  Or chocolate?  Even better how about coffee and chocolate together IN a muffin?  YUM right!? Here is a muffin recipe with all that coffee and chocolate yumminess in one place.

In the original recipe for these muffins two sources of coffee flavorings were used - instant coffee granules and coffee flavored liqueur.  Because I did not have the instant coffee I used freshly brewed Starbucks coffee along with Kaluha (YUM!) and coffee extract (which I decided to add to the recipe in an extra effort to give the muffins a nice coffee flavoring paired with the chocolate chunks).   The coffee flavor in the muffins was good (especially after the muffins sat for day and the flavor was able to really set in) but next time I think I will tweek the recipe further with more coffee flavoring so that the essence of coffee is more pronounced.

Over all this recipe was a hit and I wouldn't be sharing it with all of you Sweetie Pies if I didn't LOVE it myself.  You get my drift right?

Coffee Chocolate Chunk Muffins

(recipe was adapted from a food blog called, Diana's Desserts.  I have been delighted to find her blog!)

Ingredients:

6 Tbsp butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 Tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 2 Tbsp boiling water

1 Tbsp Kahlua (or another kind of coffee liqueur)

1 tsp coffee flavoring (optional - I had this in my pantry and added it into the batter in attempt to give a full flavor of coffee..which basically worked but next time I think I will add about a 1/2 tsp more of this flavoring)

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks ("chips" would be just fine if you don't have "chunks" on hand



Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 6-cup jumbo muffin tin with jumbo cupcake liners.

2. In a large bowl beat together butter and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg, vanilla, dissolved coffee, coffee flavoring and coffee liqueur until well blended.

3. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beating until just combined.  Fold in chocolate chunks.

4. Scoop batter into lined muffin pan cups.  I used an ice cream scoop to do this which worked great!

5. Bake in preheated oven for 22-25 minutes or until centers spring back when lightly pressed.  Just look at these lovely muffins!  Man, do they make me happy!

Serve warm or at room temperature with a nice hot beverage of your choice.  Enjoy!

Happy Coffee Chocolate Chunk Muffins Baking!