I’m curious. How do you feel about perfectionists? Are they striving for greatness or suffering from some sort of mental illness? I’ve fought against this urge to be perfect for a very long time. I’ve never come close to achieving my unreasonable expectations for myself. Most days I can be okay with that, but sometimes the personal disappointment is borderline debilitating.
My goal these days has been to strive for balance. I’ve been making talking myself into doing what I want to do instead of what I need to do. This may seem easy, but believe me, the internal debate is harsh. I have strong feelings of guilt when I sit down to watch a TV show or read a book knowing that I should be writing a blog post. I’m probably deeply disturbed. You should stop reading now before I corrupt you.
In the vein of pure indulgence, I’m trying to feed you chocolate for breakfast with Double Chocolate Muffins. You’ll definitely have to turn off the voice in your head that shouts at you to eat more carrots. Just drown it out with the voice that thinks chocolate is one of Earth’s greatest creations.
Double Chocolate Muffins are pretty simple to make. Just a bit of measuring and stirring. No machine required. I use a big ice cream scoop to fill my muffin tins, so it’s not even that messy. And the result is heavenly. Use chocolate chips or chunks, whatever you have on hand, and please please please eat them while they’re still warm for maximum pleasure.
Tell yourself you’re awesome even when you don’t tick off everything on your to do list. Then go eat a Double Chocolate Muffin. Everything is gonna be alright.
- 270 grams (2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 92 grams (3/4 cup) cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 263 grams (1-1/4 cup) sugar
- 113 grams (1 stick) butter, melted and slightly cooled (Just melt your butter first thing. It will be cool enough by the time you get to it)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips or chunks
- Preheat your oven to 375 and grease your muffin pan.
- Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk together sugar, melted butter, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract.
- Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and quickly fold them together with a spatula. Work as quickly and lightly as possible. Try to make sure everything is moistened, but don't worry about getting out all the lumps. You'll end up with tough muffins if you overwork it.
- Fold in chocolate chips.
- Scoop your batter into your muffin pan. The cups will be nearly full.
- Put the pan in the oven and increase the heat to 400. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Turn out your muffins as soon as possible. You can give them a couple minutes to cool off so you don't burn your fingers off. If you leave them in the pan to cool, they may have soggy bottoms and you won't get that lovely muffin crust.
- Serve warm.
Can I use milk instead of buttermilk
If you substitute regular milk instead of buttermilk, it will affect the acidity of the batter, which in turn affects the way the baking powder/soda reacts. You may not get the same type of rise. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can always add a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to a cup of milk and let it sit for 10 minute to make your own.