I hope I’m not the only one who’s still struggling to get back into a regular schedule. Monday proved to be a slow and trying day. Must have been the rain 🙂 To make things better, I whipped up a batch of hot cocoa chocolate chip muffins for G–Man to make it seem less blah. This was an easy recipe from start to finish and tasted even better than I imagined!
I looked around for some inspiration and decided to just go with a few ideas. Very simply, mix the dry ingredients, chocolate chips included. Set that aside. Grease and flour muffin pan or use cupcake papers. As for the hot cocoa mix…you can use any flavor you like, I just grabbed three packages of no–sugar added hot cocoa mix. That gave me roughly 1/2 cup of powder.
Filled up the muffin tin about 2/3 full and actually had to prep an extra pan to make a total of 18 muffins. They baked up beautifully! You’ll know they’re done when you lightly touch their tops and they spring back.
For the extra six I baked up I pushed a few marshmallows into the tops before baking and drizzled a homemade chocolate glaze over everything for some added goodness 🙂 G–Man was of course in love with them. It was a combination of his two favorite things: chocolate and marshmallows! Of course he thought it was hot chocolatey enough. But the marshmallows made all the difference 😉
Recipe adapted from Starbucks Hot Cocoa Chocolate Chip Muffins
Hot Cocoa Chocolate Chip Muffins
1/2 cup hot cocoa mix (about three packets of your favorite, stronger the chocolate the better)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter, melted (1 stick)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
marshmallows (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour muffin pan or use cupcake papers.
Combine dry ingredients, including chocolate chips. Set aside.
In a small bowl mix together milk, eggs, vanilla, and melted butter. Pour into dry ingredients and stir till just combined. Fill muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes. Muffins will spring back when touched.
Variation: Press marshmallows into the tops of each unbaked muffin (3–4). Bake normal and drizzle with chocolate glaze.
Chocolate Glaze
1/4 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or milk)
2 Tblsp butter, melted
1 Tblsp milk
In microwave, melt chocolate chips and butter. Stir to combine, add milk to thin out just enough to drizzle. For an easy drizzle method, pour melted chocolate into one corner of a quart size bag. Squeeze out air and snip a tiny bit off the opposite corner. Give the bag a twist and proceed to drizzle back and forth over muffins.
Use any chocolate chips or flavored chips you prefer, stir in marshmallows instead, or add a mini peanut butter cup inside the muffins for a different flavor and surprise! Hope you enjoy 🙂
Night Owl Kitchen 