Weekend Cooking: Cappuccino Chip Muffins

Weekend Cooking is a wonderful weekly meme hosted by Beth Fish.  It is a lot of fun and oftentimes motivational to get back into the kitchen and perform some culinary experiments.  Feel free to join if you would like!

A couple of weeks ago I regaled you with my adventures of Molly the Muffin Lady and I promised you some muffin recipes.  As I said in that post, I typically made three different muffin recipes each week, a double batch of each recipe, and baked mini-muffins as give away treats at my husband's bank or my weekly Bible Study.

Muffin recipes came from all sources: adapted quick bread recipes, a variety of cookbooks, and family favorites shared by friends and relatives.  Today's recipe came from a cookbook that I used a lot at this time in my life, Mostly Muffins by Barbara Albright and Leslie Weiner (copyright 1984).  I have used this book so much over the past two plus decades that it is literally falling apart.  Some of the recipes that I have made numerous times (usually with a little adaptation here or there) include:  Carrot Cake Muffins, Sweet Corn Muffins, and a delicious Cream Cheese Spread that goes well with any muffin, bagel, or toaster concoction.

Today's recipe is for Cappuccino Chip Muffins, although I am sure  you can eliminate the espresso powder and have a delicious Mini-Chocolate Chip Muffin as well.  These muffins are very versatile as you can easily serve them as a decadent breakfast treat, a delicious mid-afternoon tea snack, or even an after-dinner dessert when you just want something "a little sweet" to complete the meal.  I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I usually use a bit more)
• 1 cup scalded milk
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (I think the secret is to use the mini chips!)

Directions:

1. In a rather large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso coffee powder, salt and cinnamon).  Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl blend together the milk, butter, egg, and vanilla.
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients; add milk mixture and stir to just combined.
4. Stir in mini-chocolate chips.
5. Spoon into muffin tins (I used the mini-tins, but any size muffin tins should do fine)
6. Bake in 375 degree oven for approximately 15 - 20 minutes (for regular size muffins; I think I typically baked the mini-muffins about 12 minutes or so).
7. These muffins are great served warm or room temperature.
8. They also freeze well.