Chocolate Muffin Recipe - Connecticut in Style

Chocolate Muffin Recipe. This is the good kind of muffin top.

I’m one of those people that prefers the top of the muffin. It is the first part that I eat, I like the fact that it has a slightly crispy outside and a moist inside. And clearly, I am not the only one that feels this way about muffins. I think that the first place I started seeing just the muffins tops being packaged and sold was at Stew Leonard’s, in Norwalk, Connecticut. I’m pretty sure it was corn muffin and it made perfect sense to pair the corn muffin top with some hot chili. Yum!

Fast forward to yesterday to the kitchen department in a local store and voilà I found a muffin top pan. I think I squealed in delight because the woman in the same aisle gave me “the look.” I get them all the time it is the look that says “Really? You’re that excited about a kitchen gadget.” Yes, yes I am.

I came home and took out one of my favorite dessert cookbooks “Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts” and went immediately to the Devil’s Food Cake recipe (I’ve included below). I assembled all the ingredients and within 45 minutes I had warm chocolate muffin tops. You can add whatever topping you like, I sprinkled them with a little confectioners sugar. Enjoy!

Maida Heatter’s Devil’s Food Cake

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate (3 squares) or powdered
2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 pound sweet butter (1/2 cup)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
3 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup boiling water

Preheat the oven to 375, adjusting rack to the center of the oven. Butter the muffin top pans.
Sift the cake flour, baking soda and salt together and set aside.
If using solid chocolate squares, melt chocolate over a double boiler until melted, you can also melt in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each time you heat it.
Sift together flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
In a large bowl of electric mixer, cream the butter. Add vanilla and sugar and beat for a minute or two.
Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down the side of the bowl to keep the mixture blended. Continue to beat for one to two minutes after the last egg has been added.
Beat in the chocolate. On the lowest speed, add half the dry ingredients, then the buttermilk, then the other half of the dry ingredients scraping the bowl as necessary beating only until smooth after each addition. Gradually add the boiling water.
Divide equally among the muffin top pan, I found that a one heaping scoop of batter was the right amount.
Bake for about 25 minutes until the top of the muffin tops spring back. Serve warm or cool on a rack and add your favorite icing.

Cream the butter