Chocolate Espresso Muffins

Could breakfast get any better? You get your caffeine fix and your chocolate fix all at the same time! Score. After eating my fare share of these, they could also realistically be cupcakes also. These actually share a close resemblance to Hostess Cupcakes. I may remake these and attempt to fill them with that luscious cream filling that everyone remembers from our childhood. Is it bad we will be eating a muffin that resembles a Hostess cupcake for breakfast.. maybe? Oh well.

I really enjoy coffee flavored foods and drinks so I knew these muffins would be for me. Next time I will add double the amount of espresso for more of a coffee flavor. If you don't like coffee at all simply omit the espresso all together. I made these muffins in both regular size muffin tins and mini muffin tins. Toby popped the mini muffins in one bite each and may have eaten five in two minutes. I really likes the mini muffins also. It was a nice snack and didn't have a boat load of calories in them!I made a double batch and that made 2, 12 count muffin tins and about 12 mini muffins.

Cook's Tip: When spooning the batter into muffin tin use a ice cream scoop. You will get a more even amount of batter in each tin and they will have the same cooking time. I was very excited as to how uniform they came out.

Chocolate Espresso Muffins

Ingredients

    2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
    1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) cocoa powder
    2 teaspoons baking powder
    1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
    2 large eggs
    1/3 cup vegetable oil
    1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
    1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
    1 tablespoon espresso powder
    1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, divided


Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 375°F. Spray standard muffin tin with non-stick pan spray. Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into medium bowl; set aside. In large bowl, whisk sugar with eggs until light, about 30 seconds. Whisk in oil, milk, vanilla, and espresso until combined.

 2.Whisk dry mixture into wet mixture until just combined. Stir in 1 cup chips.

 3 .Evenly divide batter between muffin cups and sprinkle with remaining chips. Bake until set, 17 to 19 minutes. Let muffins cool in pan 15 minutes, then remove muffins from tin and place on wire rack to cool.