MOCHACCINO MUFFINS, p. 68
I tend to love all things coffee- and mocha-flavored, so trying these was a no-brainer. I made a couple of tweaks, based on what I had on hand, both of which worked well. I didn’t have enough milk, I subbed the equivalent amount of powdered buttermilk and water, and to offset the increase in acidity I altered the proportions of baking powder and soda to 2.25 tsp and .5 tsp, respectively. And since I happened to have a bag of Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips lingering in the pantry, I used those instead of mini chips or finely chopped chocolate; I used twice as much by volume as she calls for for the min8 chips, and that proportion seemed just right. I also added a dash of vanilla. My oven is fast and tends to perform better with convection, so these were baked in 15 minutes for me, and in fact seemed right on the cusp of baked/over-baked.
I thought these had a good balance between the chocolate and coffee flavors, with neither overtaking the other. The texture when freshly baked was quite light and soft, but became denser overnight. I appreciate that this is definitely more muffin than cake, not heavily sweetened. I put a couple of them in the freezer, and most of the rest were immediately dispatched to family and friends. Everyone got back to me quickly with appreciative comments. I have one more for tomorrow, and I will warm it in the toaster oven to refresh it a bit before I eat it.
