Spur of the moment yumminess

I love when spur of the moment decisions turn out better than expected. Such was the case with these chocolate muffins.

I had a craving for something to snack on, and since I had nothing, my only choice was to make something. Surprisingly I didn't really feel like baking anything but hunger gave out over the desire to be lazy. I was really uninspired and even though I have a long list of things I want to make, nothing was jumping out at me. I briefly contemplated a cinnamon and sugar muffin that's been on my list, but wasn't really feeling it. Muffins, however had piqued my interest.

I wandered over to foodgawker (or was it tastespotting?) and typed in 'muffins' in the search box. Right on the first page of results I saw a chocolate muffin from Baking and Books that jumped out at me. I read through the ingredients and I had everything on hand - we had a winner! It seemed simple and easy and exactly what would hit the spot.

I was excited to try out some new cocoa powder I had recently picked up.


Not really sure why it's called 'rouge' as it's not red in the least


What I liked most about this particular recipe was that it didn't have a lot of oil or butter (only 2 tablespoons), which I ended up replacing entirely with applesauce to make them even 'healthier'. I made a few other modifications to the recipe as well. You can find the original recipe here. Below is the recipe how I made it.

Irresistible Chocolate Muffins
adapted from Baking and Books

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/3 cup dark brown sugar (packed)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups low fat buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/3 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and prepare your muffin tin by spraying with nonstick spray.

2. In a medium bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix with a whisk.

3. In a large bowl combine the buttermilk, egg, applesauce and vanilla.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix to combine; add the chocolate chips and pecans and fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes (for regular sized muffin tins or about 13 minutes for mini muffins) or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

These muffins rise beautifully and are incredibly moist for not containing any oil or butter. I was able to get 24 mini sized muffins and 6 regular sized muffins out of one batch of batter. They're perfect for curbing any chocolate craving you might have - the only problem is stopping yourself from eating too many! (I speak from experience here people, trust me.)

Enjoy!