Brown Butter Chocolate Muffins

Recently I was blessed with the opportunity to learn how to make muffins. I applied what I learned and created my own chocolate muffin recipe. This is the beginning of a muffin journey for SURE. I had so much fun creating and workshopping this recipe. I cannot wait to share more. Not to mention these are absolutely delicious and I’ve been eating them every day since I made them. I cannot wait for you all to dive in and join me on this journey of muffins!

Why measure with your heart?

You may see in my recipes that I do not provide a measurement for vanilla and occasionally for other ingredients. I like to allow you as much creative freedom as possible without destroying the recipe. I trust your instincts. Now obviously don’t go and pour the entire bottle of vanilla in your batter, but it’s not one of those ingredients you have to be super meticulous with. If I don’t measure it why should you?

For a pinch of salt I pour the salt in my hand and use my pointer finger and thumb to pinch, then add it to my bowl.

All of my recipes are written as I do them.

From a young age, my mom used to always get on me for not following recipes to a T, but as I got older I realized that the creative freedom I gave myself fueled my love for baking. In the kitchen I allow my mind to wander and test the limits of each recipe. Sometimes resulting in disaster but more often than not resulting in a delicious outcome.

One Bowl for wet and dry ingredients ???

I know! Crazy right?! In recipes, to minimize the number of dishes I have to do at the end of the night I tend to do everything in one bowl. Recipes usually tell you to mix dry and wet ingredients separately so you don’t accidentally overmix your batter. Feel free to combine the dry ingredients separately if your heart truly desires. Just make sure dry ingredients are fully incorporated before continuing to the next step. If you are nervous about overmixing you can also use a spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the wet; that generally helps me.

Prep Time: 10 mins | Chill time: n/a | Bake time: 20-25 mins | Yield:8 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup flour

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder

• 1 cup chocolate chunks

• 1/2 cup canola oil

• 1/3 cup room temperature browned butter

• 2/3 cups milk

• a pinch of salt

• a splash of vanilla extract

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 egg

• 1/3 cup sour cream

Instructions:

1. Preheat Oven: Preheat your oven to 400° F (205°C)

   1. Brown Butter: In a medium saucepan, melt 1/3 cup of unsalted butter over medium-low heat. Keep stirring until it begins to foam and turns golden brown, emitting a nutty aroma. Be careful not to burn it! The butter can go from browned to burnt very quickly. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

   2. Combine wet ingredients: In a large bowl begin by creaming together your butter, oil, and both sugars on medium speed for 3 mins. Add in your egg, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix well until combined.

   3. Add in your Dry Ingredients: Add your dry ingredients to your bowl and mix just until combined, be careful not to overmix!!!!! FEEL FREE TO SIFT TOGETHER YOUR DRY INGREDIENTS BEFORE INCORPORATING

   4. Add Milk: Slowly pour in your milk. As you pour continue to mix until a smooth batter is formed.

   5. Fold In Chocolate: Using a spatula fold your chocolate into your batter

   6. Add to a greased Muffin Tin: scoop two large scoops of batter into a generously greased muffin tin. I used no liners and added the batter to every other slot to ensure the muffins didn’t bake together.

   7. OPTIONAL GARNISH: Sprinkle with granulated sugar and add additional chocolate chunks on top.

   8. BakeMuffins: Bake your muffins for 5 minutes at 400°F (205°C), then after the 5 mins is up reduce the oven heat to 325°F (165°C) (without removing the muffins from the oven) for the remainder of the baking time. This quick burst of high heat will help the muffins dome. Before taking your muffins out of the oven stick a toothpick in the middle of one to make sure they are completely baked all the way through.

   9. Cool and Enjoy: Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the pan before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

Notes:

If you are confused by any of the steps feel free to reach out and consult my linked video for a visual. This recipe is pretty straightforward and shouldn’t cause you any trouble if everything is measured accurately! The one thing I will say is to make sure the cocoa powder is fully mixed in to prevent a powdery taste in the final product. This is the one instance where I would tell you to mix the dry separately and then combine.