Caffeine fix? Check. Great afternoon snack? Check. Mocha Muffins? Check!
These Mocha Muffins are extremely lovable. Are you able to find a great on the go snack that meets all these criteria? I bet you took a while to think, or at least you did fumble for a moment, didn’t you! Well think and look no more, for these muffins are guaranteed to satisfy all three set criteria. For a starter, just look at how delicious they look, and are!
Just like picking a partner, when picking the suitable muffin recipe for oneself, we should consider what qualities we are looking for!
These mocha muffins are soft, moist and slightly airy.
Here’s five more details about these awesome mocha muffins and why you should make them!
1. It is a marriage between coffee and chocolate. You can never go wrong with these two ‘C’s and this recipe bears testimonial to the beauty of their harmonious pairing. Even yours stomach will sing praises for these muffins!
2. If you follow at least most of the recipe, you will also be able to achieve a nicely domed mocha muffin. I feel that’s a very pleasant plus point on the presentation aspect of this muffin! Sure, your muffin might be delicious. But are you able to convince people without good aesthetics?
In here, we strive our best to be both a feast to the stomach, and a feast to the eyes! If you can have both, let’s strive to obtain both!
3. These mocha muffins make a really great snack! You can simply make it during the weekends, and they will be perfect to be kept throughout the whole week. Just pop one on the way to work or during a coffee break! What’s more, they took less than an hour to make from start to finish! You will probably only take one minute to wolf this muffin down however!
4. They are incredibly soft, moist and yet nicely airy. There’s really little resistance when I bite on these muffins, which is a really nice plus point. On really lazy days at times, I find that even biting and chewing my food takes so much effort ( Yes, I must admit this is pretty much a first world problem) ! Well these mocha muffins are those treats that do not require you to chew a lot.
They just disintegrate in your mouth. I always believe that pictures speak a thousand words, so instead of blabbering further and trying to convince you, let this picture that showcases its airy cross section buy you over, with the bonus of chocolate chip chunks spread all over this cross section! Do note that for this cross section photo, I took it randomly without seeking any special camera effects such as better lighting because I do not want to give you something that you can’t achieve, resulting in a waste of ingredients.
5. They are versatile. Well how are these muffins versatile and in what sense, you might ask? You can simply alter the recipe according to your own preference. This alteration will be based on its sweetness, and also how intense coffee flavour to be.
I shall give you a chart here to refer to for a general guideline on how you can alter this recipe for your own preference:
– You can add up to 1/3 cup more of granulated white sugar depending on your preference for how sweet it is.
– You can adjust how intense the coffee flavour to be ranging from 2 teaspoons of instant coffee granules to 2 tablespoons of instant coffee granules.
– You can use milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or semi sweet chocolate chips depending on your preference. You can also add some nuts!
Do note that if you’re adding extra coffee granules, it could get slightly more bitter so you might want to consider adding some extra sugar in addition to it if you do not like it to be too bitter! Play around and experiment with this recipe as you wish and eventually you will be able to find the perfect combination that works for you!
The mocha muffin recipe that I am typing below will result in a pleasant background of nicely bitter muffin sponge, with milk chocolate chips spread throughout. This leaves a nice coffee aftertaste with melty chocolate chips surprising you with each bite. The best way to describe it is that this is as if its a dark mocha muffin recipe. So do add more sugar from the original recipe if you prefer these mocha muffins to be on the sweeter side.
6. Well, for this point, I shall not state anything. Instead, I would like you to think and even share with me, what you like about these beautiful muffins!
My inspiration for these muffins come pretty much from from the mocha cookies that I have baked previously if you have seen that post. If you’re a fan of mocha recipes too, do refer to my link here to see those awesome mocha cookies that I have made as well:
Mocha Cookies Recipe
Overall Difficulty: 1/5
Time Taken: Less than an hour from start to finish
Makes: 12 regular sized muffins
Ingredients Required:
Dry Mixture:
- 1 + 3/4 cup of all purpose flour
- 2 + 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/8 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Coffee Mixture:
- 2/3 cup of milk
- 1/3 cup of cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon of instant coffee granule ( variable, read point 5 above )
Wet Mixture:
- 1/2 cup flavourless oil
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar ( variable, read point 5 above )
- 2 eggs, at room temperature. Mine weighs 55g each including the shell
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
Others:
- 2/3 cup of chocolate chips + some tablespoons for final garnish
You can use either milk, white, dark or semi sweet chocolate chips. You can add nuts or substitute the chocolate chips for nuts as well!
Method:
Coffee Mixture:
1. In a saucepan, combine milk and instant coffee granules, heating at medium low heat and stirring until all instant coffee granules dissolve.
2. Once the coffee granules dissolve, off the heat. Immediately add in the cocoa powder and keep stirring until at least 75% or most of the cocoa powder added has dissolved. Set aside to cool before eventually mixing the batter.
Dry Mixture:
3. In a separate bowl, mix together all five components ( all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon ) of the dry mixture.
Wet Mixture and subsequent assembly:
4. Preheat your oven to 210 degrees C or 410F. Lightly grease your muffin tray or put paper liners.
5. Mix together the two sugars and two eggs, whisking until the sugars are well dissolved. Do break down all observed lumps from the sugar at this stage using the whisk as well.
6. Add in the vanilla essence and the oil, and whisk together again until well incorporated.
7. Add in the coffee mixture and stir until well combined.
8. Add in the dry mixture along with the chocolate chips, mixing only until it is just combined. Do not overmix or the gluten will be over activated and your muffins will be denser and bread-like in texture.
9. Spoon the batter evenly into twelve portions. Add chocolate chips or nuts to the top of each mocha muffin batter portion for a nice garnish.
10. Bake at 210 degrees C for 7 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 180 degrees C at the 7 minute mark, and bake for 11-13 more minutes ( total baking time of 18-20 minutes ), or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
11. Set aside to cool for 30 minutes.
12. Serve and enjoy!
You can store these beautiful mocha muffins for up to 4 days at room temperature in an airtight container. Since these muffins do not use butter, you can also store them in the refrigerator and the muffins will still retain its soft and airy state despite immediately consuming it from the fridge.
Notes:
If you are not using a non-stick muffin tray, I would highly recommend that you use paper liners or these muffins will be difficult to remove.
We bake at a high temperature initially to allow the muffins to expand quickly, achieving the dome shape, and then reducing the temperature so that the muffins will continue to be cooking inside. As such, not only this gives a nice aesthetic factor for these mocha muffins, but it even makes it look like a more generous portion as compared to a denser recipe albeit using more or less the same ingredients!
Enjoy,
– Bakeomaniac, Javier Tan!
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