Chocolate Chip Muffins with Cinnamon and Nutmeg
Classic chocolate chip muffins, but with a twist – adding cinnamon and nutmeg to bring out a rich dark chocolate flavor.
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About Chocolate Chip Muffins with Cinnamon and Nutmeg
When I was growing up, my mother worked as a bakery manager (and still does). One of the big perks of her job – other than being surrounded by countless delicious desserts all day long – was that sometimes she would bring some of those delicious desserts home with her.
And can you guess what she almost always brought home, without fail?
Chocolate chip muffins.
My mother simply adored them, way beyond the “can’t get enough of them” feeling, to the point I stopped holding out hope that maybe she’d show up with cream horns or strawberry short cake, because as for me?
Try as I might, I couldn’t get on the chocolate chip muffin bandwagon with her. To me they were just okay, which seems blasphemous to me now, but you have to understand:
I was a seriously picky eater back in those days.
I was young, stubborn, and I didn’t know any better.
I took one bite and the poor muffins were instantly found guilty of tasting like dark chocolate, a flavor I couldn’t stand as a teenager, and refused to ever eat them again matter how many times my mother insisted I should give them another shot, that dark chocolate would grow on me eventually. Back then, I had zero patience for any food that fell short of mind-blowingly (a word?) awesome, so I refused to budge.
I still have a strained relationship with dark chocolate to this day, but the older I get the more I seem to get random, odd cravings for it. It’s like my taste buds are a split personality between teenage angst and a burning desire to move to Florida. I suppose when I start drinking grapefruit juice I’ll know I’ve finally grown up.
But, back to the point (and the reason you’re here):
One of these dark chocolate cravings hit me with a vengeance the other day, and when I started planning my course of action, I decided not only would I make chocolate chip muffins in honor of my sweet mother (who gracefully tolerated me acting like a brat whenever she bought these muffins home) but I’d go all out and add some nutmeg and cinnamon to the batter, kicking the dark chocolate ambiance up a notch or twenty.
Go big or go home, right?
The only thing that would have made these muffins better was if my mother was here to enjoy them with me (and for her to feel the victory of watching me finally eat them) but there’s that little problem of the 2200 miles between us.
Hopefully I’ll make better plans next time and have a box ready so I can ship her some. In the mean time, I have an old friend of mine handy to help me finish this batch, because my dark chocolate craving left me just about as quick as it hit me, leaving me “done” with dark chocolate for now and still 14 muffins left to eat.
And in typical fashion, an old friend of mine said these muffins were “okay,” which roughly translates to: “They’re really good, would you please warm up another one in the microwave for me, thanks babe!”
Sigh.
Yes, I’ll be right back.
Chocolate Chip Muffins with Cinnamon and Nutmeg
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, or type of your choice (sweet, bittersweet, milk chocolate, etc)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 large egg
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 tablespoon coarse sugar, optional, for decorating (can also use clear sugar sprinkles)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray, both within the cups and the surface in between. Line muffin cups with liners. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Once combined, mix in chocolate chips. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together melted & cooled butter, vanilla extract, eggs, and buttermilk until egg yolks are broken and blended. Mixture may be lumpy - this is okay.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Use a spatula to stir, scraping along the bottom and pressing down on top. Stop mixing as soon as the dry ingredients have all been moistened. Batter should be very thick (like cookie dough) and a little lumpy.
- Fill each cup in the muffin tin to be completely full, roughly 1/4 to 1/3 cup of muffin mix. If desired, press extra chocolate chips on top of the batter and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
- Bake at 425 F for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees F (I like to open and close the oven door a few times) and bake for another 11-13 minutes or until tops of muffins are puffed and golden brown.
- Let muffins cool for a few minutes before removing them from the muffin tin. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
I do my best to provide nutrition information, but please keep in mind that I'm not a certified nutritionist. Any nutritional information discussed or disclosed in this post should only be seen as my best amateur estimates of the correct values.
